Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
The knowledge of Og., also W/s half-brother, came from the same
sources.
Del. is indebted for his "scientific information" to his father,
again the much reputed Climbing Bear, and to his mother, O.
T. is Del.'s brother-in-law, and lives with him; he has been trained
by tst'skwa, his father.
If we bear in mind that both W.'s wife and Del.'s mother are midwives,
that his half-sister, Jo. is a medicine woman, and another
half-brother a medicine man in another settlement; furthermore, that
Og.'s wdfe has taken up his succession, we are bound to be struck by
the endemic nature of the profession with certain families.
The group of individuals named above makes up roughly more
than half of the medicine men of the settlement of which a special
study was made, and the remaining number could be genealogically
connected in the same way, comprising such individuals as Gad.,
Wil., J., Ts,, and a couple more.
Skepticism
Staunch conservatives and traditionalists to the core as the medicine
men are, they should not be thought of as a homogeneous body
of fellows without any individuality, with nicely agreeing and tally-
ing opinions on matters pertaining to religion and science.
Elsewhere will be found a few cases where medicine men have not
feared to introduce innovations in the explanation of the cause of
diseases, or in its treatment, that from a Cherokee point of view may
be called truly daring.
I here want to draw attention to a couple of cases of an even more
startling nature, to what might be called symptoms of skepticism
and rationalism on the part of the members of the guild.
Gad., whose writings were secured by Mooney, and which are now
deposited in the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnology, on
two occasions gives vent to a tinge of doubt. Once he writes at the
end of a prescription following a formula to attract the affection of
a woman:
tsa'ndtsGe-°' e'ti tsa"'ne!€''"i a'se"' Gfli' yuDo'^iyu-Gwo"^
they said, App. long time they lived, App. it must it seems it (is) true, Lim.
edt'stt-Gwo"^' Ge'so"'
possible, Lim. it is
I. e., "They said this a long time ago when the (old people) lived;
possibly it is true, so at least it seems." And another time in similar
circumstances
:
a'se'' Ge'li' yuDo"tyi;-GWO°' yt'Gi
it must it seems it (is) trae, Lim. maybo
I. e., "Possibly this may be true."