Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

oIbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 147
many words is unknown to him. This scanty supply of sacred and
medicinal formulas nearly always includes the song to cure the
results of accidents (mostly cuts and gashes caused by ax or knife)
(see p. 85); also some prayer for protection, either to be recited or
sung, is usually common property; and two or three of the easier
kind of medicinal conjurations may complete the lot.
There are, however, indications that until recently (15 to 20 years
ago) formulas were sold to a layman by a medicine man, if the former
were wilhng to pay the price for it. This trade was carried on es-
pecially in the domains of hunting and love conjuration, a good formula
of any of these kinds commanding $3 to $5. (See p. 105.)
It is easy to understand why this practice is now on the verge of
extinction: There is no gamfe now in the Cherokee country, the kill-
ing of which would be worth such an exorbitant sum,''* and as for the
love formulas, the younger generation, which must always have sup-
plied the main customers for tliis line, are fast losing faith in these
practices and are relying on more material means to attract the
attention and to obtain the favor of the opposite sex.
There is no objection on the part of the medicine men to selling
also the more ordinary disease-curing formulas and prescriptions to
the uninitiated, but there is hardly any demand for these, nor does
there seem to have been in the past. A plausible reason for the
popularity of the two kinds mentioned before seems to my mind to
be that an individual wanted to buy love or hunting formulas mainly
so as to be able to go through the necessary ritual and ceremonies
without the aid of a medicine man; by acting alone he could keep his
intentions and his plans in the domain of hunting and love a secret
to eventual competitors.
There are some formulas, however, which a medicine man will not
communicate to an uninitiated member of the tribe at any price.
Even to the initiated this kind is only handed on with the utmost
discrimination. (See p. 100.) These are the incantations listed
below as Nos. 10-14 (pp. 148, 153).
I might add, finally, that ostensibly there seems to be some reluc-
tance on the part of the medicine men to propagate any formulas at
all. They pretend that the more the knowledge of a formula, of
whatever kind it may be, is diffused, the less powerful it becomes
and therefore they should be handed on to "the man in the street"
with due care and moderation. This is, however, purely a theoreti-
cal, and as a rule a rather hypocritical contention; and m the prac-
tice every medicine man thinks that the occult power of the formulas
" Deer and bear are extinct on the reservation, and rabbit, squirrel, and ground
hog are about all there is left on the once so richly purveyed hunting grounds of
the Cherokee.