Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

158 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
and the paraphernalia that are necessary, is prefixed to the formula
as a caption.
Medicinal prescriptions may have a caption, but, as is easy to
understand, usually are not followed by any directions, since they
themselves contain the data which are found in the directions
appended to the formula.
As will appear from the section describing the structure of the
formulas, these very often are made up of four paragraphs, which,
save for a couple of words, are textually identical. It does not seem
to have struck many of the medicine men that they could save themselves
a good deal of trouble by merely writing down one paragraph
completely, and only the variants in the three following paragraphs.
As a rule the four paragraphs are written out completely, this sometimes
resulting in slightly varying spellings which may often be
quite interesting from the point of view of the phonetician. Only
when writing down certain songs in which the same expression is
repeated over and over again, the copyist gives proof of a more
practical turn of mind and only copies each expression once, entrusting
the sequence and the repetitions to his memory.
I have already mentioned the curious practice of "camouflaging"
the contents of certain of the "bad" formulas, mostly love or mankilling
incantations, by captions that have nothing whatever to do
with their actual purpose. (See p. 154.) This is done to deceive any
outsiders or uninitiated persons, who, by accident, might get posses-
sion of the book or the papers. But considering the jealous care
with which medicine men keep their writings hidden and secluded,
there is really no great cause for apprehension on this score.
I finally might stress once more the importance of the "directions"
of the formulas and of the prescriptions. Just as clear and explicit
directions appended to them result in a value of 100 per cent, a formula
without the necessary directions is almost valueless. If a
medicine man acquires a new formula, and the directions to it are
missing, it means that he will have to hunt for a fellow practitioner
who can give him the necessary information as to its use, the simples
needed, etc. This has not only the great disadvantage that he has
to show his new formula to competitors and rivals, but also that ho
will have to pay as much and perhaps more for the "exegesis" as
he had to lay out for the acquisition of the formula itself. The
formula may be a gem, but the directions indicate its carat.
Although some of the directions show ample evidence of their
antiquity, yet they are not bound to tradition and formalism so
rigidly as are the formulas. The latter may have been handed down,
as far as we are able to gather, for centuries without an iota having
been altered in them; the directions, however, have been subjected
to such changes, alterations, and emendations as have been rendered