Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
all ferns . . . The
doctor explained that the fronds of the young fern
are coiled up, but unroll and straighten out as the plant grows; ergo,
a decoction of ferns will give to the rheumatic patient the power to
straighten out the contracted muscles of his limb."
Not only is there great importance attached to this symbolism of
the outwa,rd appearance, also due regard is to be paid to the sacred
numbers; in scores of cases the medicine is only efl'ective if four or
seven of the plants (usually of the same "family") are used, and thus
it often happens that the actual ofTicinal value of one plant is abso-
lutely neutralized, to say the least, by three or five others.
Another consideration that is not of a nature to stimulate our faith
in the efficacy of Cherokee materia medica is the tremendous importance
laid on the use of certain plants that arc not held to have any
inherent curative properties but that are considered to possess remarkable
power in virtue of a mysterious way of behavior—an uncommon
way of growing, a quaint inclination of their branches, grotesque
parasitical excrescences, or that show any other evidence of so-called
freaks of nature, as the roots of an "inverted raspberry branch,"
i. e., the branch of a raspberry shrub that has come back to the soil
and taken roots again (pi. 6, a) is often used in cases where the Cherokee
consider the roots of the "parent plant" as being destitute of
any curative properties. Or it w.ill be specified that the roots used
must be those of a plant that has only one stalk, even if the plant
named has usually several stalks. Or again, it will be prescribed that
the bark has to be stripped from a "crippled" tree, i. e., a tree that
has been broken by some accident while it was still young, but that
has nevertheless continued its growth in its "crippled" condition.
The curious, the unusual, that which is rare and difficult to find,
have always and everywhere played a considerable role in the materia
medica of all times and of all peoples, and we here find ourselves con-
fronted with these same considerations.
The same trend of thought is no doubt also responsible for the
remarkable properties ascribed to lightning-struck wood, especially
of a tree that has continued to live after the accident, although this
belief may have to be explained partly by an additional element, the
respect for thunder and its "emissary," lightning. (Cf. Mooney,
Myths, p. 422.) Also the mysterious power ascribed to the root that
looks like an insect, "that has (a stalk) growing from its mouth" (see
p. 30) is no doubt to be explained by this belief in the uncanny
properties of the unusual.
Finally, such prescriptions as are made with regard to the time of
coUecting a plant (during a storm), or the mode of selecting a par-
ticular part of it (the bark on the "sunny side" of trees (pi. 6, b) the
roots running out to the east, etc.), prove again to what an extent the
materia medica of the tribe is influenced by mythological conceptions.