Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
Death," which is another way of saying that it has its origin in malarial
exhalations in the vicinity of the house. This explains the expression
so often repeated: "It has been decided underneath." The same
word (Ganfth) is now used for both a bedstead and a board floor, but
in former times the Cherokee cabins had no floor but the ground, and
the "bed" was a raised platform running around next to the wall on
the inside. As the Indians never dreamed of keeping the premises
clean it was the universal custom among the eastern tribes to occupy
a house im til the accumulated filth rendered the site unhealthy, when
the site was abandoned and the inmates removed to a new location.
The formida consists of four paragraphs differing but shghtly
except as regards the color and location of the spirit invoked. Each
one is named in the regular order, east, north, west, and south, with
the corresponding color, red, blue, black, and white. Each one is
also said to be surrounded as he goes about by a number of subor-
dinate and auxiliary spirits, probably the "Little People" so often
invoked, the countless spirits that dwell in the air, the forests, the
cliffs, and the water. The great Measure Wonn (wa'i'li e'Gwb'^),
figuratively used in the fonnulas to denote the south is said to be a
mountain on the border of South Carolina, perhaps the same known
as Csesar's Head. It is quite possible, however, that the mythic
wa*t'li had no real existence, and that the modern Cherokee have
simply Confused the name with that of Walhalla, a town in upper
South Carolina.
The medicine consists of a warm infusion of the roots of several
varieties of fern; [iGo''"li is a name given to any variety of fern; without
any more definite description it is not possible to identify it; it may
be one of the foliov^dng species: tGo°'*h uwo''sktH' ustf'ca, Osmunda
cinnamomea L., cinnamon fern; tGo°'*h i;wo''sktli' ngyo'ci €'!i, Cystop-
teris fragilis (L.) Bernh., bladder fern; iGo'^'^h vje^laa'^' , Dennstaedtia
'punctilohula (Michx.) Moore, hay-scented fern (also iGa°''li Dawt's^
kaGf'.i) ; k'o'Gaskg'^DaGe, Adiantum pedatum L., maidenliair fern ; yo^'na
i;Dze*'sto', Polystichum acrostichoides (Michx.) Schott., Christmas fern].
The medicine man holding a cup containing part of the decoction
in his hand, stands on the east side of the patient, who faces him.
The medicine man then recites the first paragraph, addressing the
Red Man, after which he takes a draught of the liquid and blows it
four times upon the head and the breast of the patient. Then moving
around successively to the north, west, and south of the patient, he
recites in order the remaining three paragraphs, blov/ing the medicine
on the patient after each one as described. The ceremony is repeated
four times before noon, and for four days, if necessary.
[For the reason why the ferns are used, see page 54.]