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oLflKEcaTj THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 231
The medicine man facing the patient and holding tlie cup in his
hand begins by singing the first verse, after which he takes a draught
of the Uquid and blows it four times upon the head and the breast of
the sick man. The same operation is repeated with each of the other
three verses. Finally he recites [the ''parlando " part of] the formula,
after which he blows his breath four times on the top of the head
[the crown], the back of the neck, and the face of the patient. The
ceremony is repeated four times if necessary. [If the attack is con-
sidered so serious that inmied:ate action is necessary, no time is lost
in procuring ginseng or Avild tobacco, and the medicine man merely
blows water on the stricken man.]
The formula contains a number of expressions which the medicine
man himself from whom it was obtained [Ay.] could not explain, as
he in turn had obtained it from his grandfather. In fact, he was
completely in the dark as to the meaning of the formula, and when
pressed for an explanation became suUen and asserted that he recited
the formula as it had been handed down to liim, and that it was not
for him to question its autliority. The same difficulty was experienced
in connection with fonnulas obtained from other medicine men,
and goes to show the antiquity of the formulas, while it also proves
how much of the sacred knowledge has been lost. As Ay. was born
about 1830, his grandfather was probably a boy when Adair v/rote
bis account of the Cherokee and the other southern tribes in 1775.
The words e'DO''Do and e'Du-'tsi show that the formula was originally
written by a Cherokee speaking the Western Dialect, the correspond-
ing forms in the Middle Dialect being a'GtD0''D9 and a'ctDi^-'tsi. [I
noticed during my 1926-27 stay, however, that among the Central
Dialect speaking Cherokee these two Western Dialect forms are quite
frequently used.]
[As to the persons or spirits meant by "my father" and "my
(maternal) uncle" no information coidd be obtained, neither by Mr.
Mooney nor by me. As is known, it is common for American
Indians to call a powerful protecting spirit by some name denoting
relationship, and this is also frequently done by the Cherokee: they
wiU address the moon as "grandfather," and will proclaim them-
selves the children of the "Old White One," i. e., the Fire, or of
the "Long Human Being," i. e., the stream, the river, the flowing
water. No doubt the meaning of these expression^ has to be looked
for in that direction.]
The expression "a'ntskii'ya ant'lo!i'," "The men have just gone
by," occurs also in a song to cure headache. (No. 2, p. 170.) Who
the men referred to are, the medicine men can not tell. Ay. was of
the opinion that they were the Thunder Boys, commonly spoken of
as the Two Little Men, or the Little People, i. e., the spirits inhabiting
the cliffS; the mountain caverns^ etc. The latter explanation is more