Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

6 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull.
some cases considerably influenced the free translations, so that, in
the second part of this paper, viz, the texts, all responsibility for the
phonetic texts, and the interlinear and free translations rests with the
editor.
As for the explanatory notes and comments which Mooney had
written for every formula, these could not possibly be improved upon.
In some cases, however, I was able to collect items of information
that cast an additional light on the subject; sometimes I was able to
actually catch a belief or a practice in the process of change and evolution
; or again, I got the individual point of view of different medicine
men. All this was carefully noted and is added to Mr. Mooney's
explanations, inclosed in brackets.
I have furthermore collected all the botanical specimens of which
mention is made in the manuscript. For the identification of these I
am obliged to Mr. Paul C. Standley of the United States National
Muse\nn.
Finally I wrote an introduction which gives as extensive a survey
of Cherokee beliefs and practices with regard to disease and medicine
as is necessary to fully understand the formulas and prescriptions of
the Ay. manuscript. Although eveiy foniiula contains a few elements
that inherently belong to it, and may not be met with in any
of the otliers, yet there is in all of the formulas an underlying complex
of ideas that is basically the same. Whereas those elements that
specifically belong to a given formula are better explained in a short
note commenting on them, and affixed to that particular formula, it
has been thought advisable, in order to avoid constant repetitions,
and also in order to present a more synthetic picture of the whole, to
give a broadly sketched and general outline of the subjects treated:
Disease, its nature and its causes; the means by which disease is
diagnosed and cured; the materia medica and the curing methods; of
the person who is constantly associated with all of this, the medicine
man. Short chapters on birth and death have been added, as well
as a general introduction to the formulas.
Lengthy as these introductory notes may seem, yet they have been
strictly limited to the subject matter contained in the Ay. manuscript.
I have modified my first intention, which was to append in copious
notes any parallels with whicli I am acquainted. However, the time
for a comparative work of wide scope on primitive medicine has not
yet come, our special knowledge being far too inadequate to justify
generalizations. I have therefore considered that it would be better
to give as exliaustive a survey as possible of Cherokee medical lore
and custom; a collection of monographs of this kind will be the mate-
rial from which once a comparative study of the medicine and of the
science of "primitive" peoples, will be compiled. The only parallels I
have drawn attention to are such as may shed light on questions of