Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

98 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
Mooney or by myself, wliich could in any way substantiate or throw
any light on the interesting but vague details given by Adair (p, 240),
Haywood (p. 266), MacGowan (p. 139), or Domenech (Vol. II, p. 392).
It mast therefore remain an open question whether the Cherokee
medicine men were ever organized in a professional body in the past.
However that may have been, at present there is no such institution,
and every medicine man attends to his OAvn pursuits.
Occasionally two medicine men may work in collaboration, one
taking care of the treatment and the cm-ing, the other devoting himself
to the divination proceedings. Or again, they may call on each
other's knowledge in some cases where an individual medicine man's
professional accomplishments may fall short, but there is nothing
organized or laid down in this respect.
Only rarely are two medicine men employed simultaneously for the
actual curing, and if this should be the case a second one is never
engaged without the first one knomng and approving of it.
It happens, however, that if a practitioner has worked on a case
without obtaining any results, he is dropped altogether, and another
medicine man is called in to see what he can do in the matter. The
one thus ousted does not resent this in the least and does not consider
tliis act an insult to his knowledge; on the contrary, he will often
himself take the initiative, and if he fails to restore liis patient to
health in a reasonable time, will tell the sick man's relatives that evidently
he is not the one who is to effect the cure and will examine with
the beads, to find out which member of the profession will be successful
in the matter. (See p. 68.)
If a medicine man becomes ill himself he only calls in the aid of a
colleague if cu'cumstances should make this course imperative, e. g.,
if he is too weak to go and gather himself the simples needed, or if the
treatment calls for certain manipulations which he could not very well
perform on his own person, such as sucldng with the horn, blowing
medicine on the crown of the head, etc.
Whenever he is taken iU with an aye''hGo"'Gi disease (see p. 33) he
invariably calls in the aid of a professional friend, and this stands to
reason; for since a rival medicine man or an enemy has managed
to get the better of him, this proves that the victim's power is too
weak to grapple with his opponent's, and therefore the alliance of a
powerful colleague is necessary to come out of the contest victorious.
There are medicine men who are always willing to cooperate with
others when invited to do so; always willing to oblige -wTLth information
and advice as to diagnosis, simples to be used, and the locality where
these can be found, etc., and who even ^vill volunteer the loan of a
particular formula that has proved particularly efficient in the cure of
a given ailment.