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26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
explaining the "Origin of Disease," collected by Mooney (Myths,
pp. 250-252). Mooney has also described the role of such animal
spirits as Little Deer, White Bear, etc., so thoroughly that it is super-
fluous to duplicate those descriptions here.
For further details regarding the animal spirits the reader is referred
to the "List of Spirits," pages 44-50.
For a discussion of the animal ghosts, as distinct from animal
spirits, see pages 26-28.
Ghosts
To the spirits and animal spirits as discussed in the preceding
paragraphs should be added "ghosts," i. e., according to the Cherokee
views, the immaterial, spiritual, immortal part of human beings and
animals that have lived the life and died the death of commonplace
creatures.
The motives that entice human ghosts, a"'msGt"'na (sgl. asGf'na)
and animal ghosts 'o°*ta'li (sing, and pi.) to visit mankind with disease
and death are quite different and will be treated separately.
Human ghosts (a'ntSGf'na).—When people who have died go to
tsu'sGtno'!i " (the place) where the (human) ghosts (are) " (see p. 142),
the place out West where they stay, they feel lonesome and homesick
and want the company of their friends and relatives. They therefore
make them sick and suffering, so that they may die and come and
join them in the Ghost Land.
It was emphatically stated to me by informants that there is not
a shadow of mahgnity or jealousy about this activity of the ghosts of
the departed ; they act out of pure love, devotion, affection, and all
other commendable motives. Yet the living are not quite bent on
this mode the ghosts indulge in of showing their affection, and they
leave no means untried to escape from the ghosts' influence. I have
been able to observe real poignant cases, where filial affection forced
a person's attention again and again on the memory of a dearly
beloved parent, so much so that he would brood and pine away and
languish, but at the same time he felt that he must at all costs make
efforts to forget and to make merry, as thinldng and dreaming about
the departed ones is the very first symptom of a disease sent by the
a^ntSG(.''na.
Animal ghosts ('5°'ta'li).—With the diminishing curve the impor-
tance of hunting has made with the Cherokee, they are not now ascribing
so much power to the animal ghosts as they once did. The
references to them have to be gleaned chiefly from the formulas, as
there is now no Cherokee medicine man living who can give any
satisfactory information on the subject. Mooney had already to
cope with the same difficulty, and translated '5°'ta'li as "after-ghost,"
or "secondary ghost," basing his conclusion on the following facts: