Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

296 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
Now, then! It has become clayey Yellow. It is the YeUow, it
seems.
Now, then! Black Buzzard, quickly thou hast come to listen;
yonder in the Nio:ht Land thou art staying. Thou never failest
in anything. It is merely the Yellow that has put the important
thing under him. (But) that is the very thing thou usually eatest.
Where thou hast passed, only the traces of trampling wiU remain.
Toward the direction of the Night Land thou hast driven it, in the
Night Land thou hast scattered it. A mere likeness of it will remain
where thou hast passed, (and) not for one night (only, but forever).
Relief has been caused. Sharply!
Now, then! The important thing is the brown Yellow.
Now, then! Brown Eagle, thou art staying on high. Nothing
ever escapes thy (sight). It is the Yellow that has put the important
thing under him. Only the traces of trampling will remain; thou
hast come to bury it into thy stomachs, (and) not for one night
(only, but forever). Kelief has been caused. Sharply!
EXPLANATION
In this, as in most other formulas for this disease, the whole treatment
consists of the application of the warm hands of the medicine
man. The ceremony, however, is pecidiar. The medicine man
recites the part referring to the raven while rubbing his hands to-
gether over the fire, bringing them around in a circular sweep in
imitation of tlie raven's manner wlien hovering over its prey. Then
imitating the raven's cry, he utters a rapid k'a* k'a* k'a* k'a* and
brings his hands down upon the abdomen of the patient. He goes
through the same motions while repeating tlie paragraph addressing
the buzzard, but ends with a prolonged su:+ su:+ to imitate the
swishing noise made by the wing of the buzzard in its ordinary flight,
followed, as he brings his hands down, by a rapid gwo° gwo° gw5°
to imitate the sound on rising. In tlie same way, while addressing
the eagle, he imitates its movements and its cry. The ceremony
is repeated four times before noon ; there is no taboo.
This formula consists of three paragraphs only, rather an imusual
number in Cherokee ritual; it is probable that in the course of repeated
copying it has lost a fourth paragraph. This has happened to more
than one formula.