Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

orTfi'^rHJ THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 151
OlbkechtsJ
CONJURATIONS
For Curing
Di''Da'nQ-'wo"t'5\ti' uGQ-'wutir
to treat people with for the purpose of
This kind of formulas is the most common. Of the 96 contained
in this (the Ay.) manuscript, only five (Nos. 18, 43, 83, 92, and 93)
are not medicinal formulas.
Although the proportion of these curing formulas is usually quite
preponderant in the manuscripts, it is almost impossible that the Ay.
manuscript should not have contained more formulas for such purposes
as love attraction, hunting and fishing, man killing, etc. How-
ever that may be, none were included in Mooney's transliteration of
the manuscript on which this edition is based. (See p. 2.)
To this class may also be reckoned to belong those few foraiulas
that are used to take the medicine, after it has been boiled, outside of
the house: Gany'Go*wt'stt*yi' n9"'wo't*i'
This is a welcome opportunity to say a word about the medicinal pre-
scriptions. These are not formulas, but are nevertheless called by the
same name as this class : G3'we*'li Df^Da'n9*'wo*t'o.Hi^ uG9*Vutli',i. e.,
"papers to cure them (indefinite) with."
They contain advice and prescriptions as to the simples that are
to be used to cure a given disease, and are almost identical, both as
to contents and structure, with the De'"'G0'st'stSG9"'.i, i. e., "the direc-
tions" (lit.: "where they (the contents) have been gathered")
appended to most of the formulas. (See p. 158.)
It is quite possible, not to say probable, that these prescriptions
were originally the directions that went with the formulas, and that
through error, neglect (or through rationalism?) of copyists, only the
latter part of the formula, i. e., the directions, the prescription was
copied.
For Using Tobacco
tso-'lo° Go'^'.'t'oti' i;G9-'wutli'
tobacco it use with for the purpose of
This name refers to the ceremony rather than to the formula used,
as was the case with No. 2 (p. 150).
"Old tobacco" may be used with different formulas and with dif-
ferent ends in view: For curing certain diseases, for divinatory pur-
poses, when "watching against witches," in certain incantation
ceremonies.
When expressed in this way, it should always be understood as
referring to one of the three ceremonies last mentioned.
-Although there are three ceremonial ways of "using tobacco," viz,
chewing it, burning it on a fire of charcoal, and smoking it in a pipe
(see p. 75), only the second method is meant, when the action is
referred to as by the title given above.