Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
to adorn himself. On raising the lid, the boy finds the box full of
snakes, but, undeterred, plunges his hand to the very bottom, and
draws out a huge rattlesnake, which he winds about his neck for a
necklace. He then takes out two copperheads, which he twists
about his wrists as bracelets. Thus dec^ked out, he takes his brother
along, and goes against a celebrated gambler, who had previously
insulted him, but who is now conquered by the Two Thunder Boys,
and impaled at the bottom of the great lake in the west. In tliis myth
we have another instance of the universal primitive idea of a connec-
tion between the serpent and Thunder [Lightning]. The scene is
laid at The Suck, in Tennessee River, a few miles below Chattanooga.
[As previously stated, dreaming of snakes results in the patient's
saliva becoming "spoiled "] ; this must then be dislodged by an emetic.
The medicine in this case consists of a decoction of Gana^'aa y*'t'ono°\
Scirpus validusYalA, great bulrush; Gana*'Ga ustt^'ca, Juncus ejjusus
L., common or soft rush; ultso'sta y't'ano", Coronilla varia L.
ultso'sto i;stt*'Ga, Vicia caroliniana Walt., vetch, to which is added
the inner bark of u^Iq-'^dq, Rhus (Toxicodendron) radicans Linn.,
poison oak, poison ivy, which grows on the east side of a poplar tree.
The decoction is boiled and drunk on four successive days, the
medicine man or his assistant boiling it for but a short time the first
day, adding more water and boiling it for a longer time the second
day, and so on, until the fourth day, when it is boiled down to a
thick sirup. While under treatment, the patient observes a taboo
of salt and of hot food.
u'^nang-'wo'tT |
21
Jt'a' nQ'Vo't'i' u"'n9k'f\vaG(/.i [
this to cure with whenever they have
forgotten (their voice)
t'a'\ya'
|
Gyle''-tsi;nstf'Ga
|
k*a'n9si"ta
|
they to cure with cherry acorns, they are small flowering
dog-wood
| s5°]j:t'a' um"yo"'sti' | Df'hGali'ski e-'Gwo^
apple they are bitter willow big ( it has been
boiled
vndt"t'asti')'^«
they must
drinlc it)
(a-V,ano'°!i
This (is) to Cure (Them) with Whenever They Have Lost
Their Voice
FREE TRANSLATION
These (barks) are to cure (them) with: Cherry, small acorns,
flowering dogwood, bitter apples, big willow. They have to be boiled,
(and) they must drink it.
" Interpolation by J. M., apparently based on information given by a*yS'°*ini'
himself.
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