Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

IIG BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. M
over, that his praotical turn of mind and liis active teniporanicnt
have also something to do with this; thus it would be explained why,
altlH)U}i:li i)ra('ti('infj; very lilthi hinisoll", he is the only medicine man
who is still able and willing to make such "surgical" instruments as
are still in use—comb scratchers, sucking horns, etc.
Je. (pi. 12, a), widow, 72, and (). (pi. 12, 6), Del.'s mother. Climbing
Bear's widow, 73, the two medicine women during my stay, do not
call for any discussion here. Their position was devoid of any impor-
tance, and their role was almost limited to that of midwives, O. is
far more universally loved than Je. is,which feeling I nuist heartily
commend and sympathetically indorse.
BIRTH
Sexual Life
Since the manuscript, to which this discussion is an introduction,
does not contain any formulas dealing with love matters, such as
conjuraticMi to gain the alVec-tion of a woman, to destroy in a particular
wojnan the promiscuous tendencies she has shown, incantations to
take vengeance on a woman who has scoffed at sympathies proffered,
to sow discord between a couple of lovers, etc., it has not been considered
necessary to go into such minute details on this score as has
been done with matters pertaining to purely medical lore, which
constitutes the bulk of the nuiterial offered in this manuscript.
Two nu)re numuscripts, on which some work has already been done,
and of which the publication is contemplated, will afford a far better
opportunity to treat at length such topics as sense of shame, puberty,
se.xual life, adultery, sexmd pathology, etc.
Conception
It would seem that Cherokee ideas on this subject had been con-
siderably induenced by the views of their white neighbors. This
need not, however, be the case. There are less civilized peoples
whose conceptions about disease and medicine are not any more
reasonable than those of the Cherokee, and whose explanation of the
process of conception is even more rational (cf. Kleiweg de Zwaan,
pp. 158-150).
Male and female alike "produce the matter which becomes mixed
and goes to form the child in (the womb of) the mother. In some
cases this nuitter is mixed right away, in which case they will have
a baby soon; in other cases it may take several months, or even a
couple of years."
"She is pregnant" is rendered Gane-'ldo", also 'ta'lu'li' (lit. "she
carries it"?).