Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

Olbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 119
arranging the beads and the thread. It is as a rule also the assistant
who, at the end of the ceremony, makes a bundle of the paraphernalia
and hands it to the priest.
The party standing on the bank of the river, facing the water, the
priest recites the prayer (see Texts, Form. No. 18, p. 193), meanwhile
holding a red (or white) and a black bead between thumb and index
of his right and left hands (see p. 132). The lively movements of the
right-hand bead spell success, those of the left-hand bead spell disap-
pointment. At the end of the ceremony he strings the beads on the
thread, deposes them on the calico, which is then wrapped up by the
assistant and given to the priest to take home with him.
This ceremony, though it is understood to be gone through for the
benefit of mother and child, often has as its more immediate object
an aim of rather a divinatory nature, e. g., whether the child will
live or will be stillborn, or again, what will be its sex, etc. The
client has the right to stipulate the aim of the divination. Every
time at the end of the ceremony the priest tells the woman what are
the results and the prospects.
The priest takes the cloth and the two beads home with him, and
at the next new moon has to bring the latter back with him. At
the second ceremony the patron has to supply two more beads,
which are finally strung on the same white thread along with the
others, and also another yard of white cloth, which again the priest
takes home as his fee.
These purely religious ceremonies are only a part of what we might
term the prenatal care and treatment with the Cherokee. Even as
long before delivery as this, simples are taken to induce an easy par-
turition.
Each time, before setting out for this river ceremony, the woman,
before she leaves home, drinks a decoction of bark of Da''"waclzf'la
(Ulmus julva, Michx., red, or slippery elm); stems of "wale-'lu
i;*^nadzfloGi-'sti (Impatiens biflora Walt., spotted touch-me-not); roots
of Ga^nQGWa^k'ski nico^'J^*' ttse'U {Veronica officinalis L., common
speedwell); cones of nS.tsi,' {Pinus pungens Lamb., Table Moimtain
pine).
The first is used because of the mucilaginous nature of its bark:
"It will make the inside of the woman slippery," so that the child
will have no difficulty in putting in an appearance.
The second plant is alleged to frighten the child, and to entice it
"to jmup down" briskly.
The two last plants named are chosen because they are niGo'*flQ*'
ttse'!i, i. e., "evergreens," and it is expected of them that they will
convey their properties of longevity and unimpaired health to the
infant.