Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY tBuix. 99
This is the Medicine for Their Sides
Ha-ha-yi! Sharply!
FREE TRANSLATION
All night it has been in it (?) (4 times).
Ha-ha-yi! Sharply!
(a) Now, then! Ha, now thou hast come to listen, thou (who) art
staying in the Sun Land, Red Man, thou powerful mzard! The red
switches have become bundled in thy hands, roughly thou hast come
and picked them up. Quickly hast thou come and put the important
thing on its feet. Relief has been caused.
Ha-ha-yi! Sharply!
All night it has been in it (?)
Ha-ha-yi! Sharply!
Now, then! It is merely si;"sa that has put the important thing
under him; it is merely f'nzalf'.i.
(b) Now, then! Ha, now you two in your turn have come to listen,
you Two Little Red Men, you are staying in the Sun Land, you
powerful mzards. Quicldy you have arisen, facing this way. The
red smtches have become bundled in your hands, roughly you have
come and picked them up. The important thing has gotten up forthwith,
you have come to do it for him ; his paths \nll stretch out toward
the Night Land, never again he will look back; you have come and
done it for him. You have taken him to the Night Land, and have
put him there to stay, after you had forced him to let go liis hold.
Relief will be caused constantly.
H a-ha-yi !
Sharply
!
Relief by rubbing (?).
Ha-ha-yi! Sharply!
•
Now, then! Ha, it is merely su*sa that has put the important thing
under him; it is merely e'DZali'.i.
(c) Now, then! Ha, now, you two in your turn have come to listen,
you two Little Blue Men, you are staying in the Cold Land. The
blue switches have become bundled in your hands {etc., as in (b)).
Sharply!
EXPLANATION
This is for treating a pain in the side. The medicine man from
whom it was obtained could assign no particular cause for the sickness
but another practitioner declared that it was due to tc*sko*'ya or
insects which might have been put into the sick man's body by a
hostile conjurer. In accordance with this theory the second medicine
man called upon the birds to come and eat the [insects].
Neither of them could explain the words su'sa or eDZalri, the names
given to the disease spirit [see p. 232, nor could any of the medicine