Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
Paraphernalia Used in the Treatment
The list of paraphernalia used by the Cherokee medicine man is
not extensive; it may be conveniently classed under three headings:
(1) Objects used in divinatory ceremonies. These will be amply
described when the formulas relating to divination are published.
(2) The instruments used in surgical or pseudosurgical operations;
a description of these will be found under the caption of surgery
(p. 68)._
(3) Finally there are the objects used in treating disease. These
include blowing tube, gourd dipper, terrapin shell, persimmon
stamper, beads, rattle.
The blowing tube (pi. 7, h) is a portion of the stem of a'maDi"to.'ti'
v't'ano°\ Eufatorium purpureum L., joe-pye-w^eed, trumpet weed.
Usually it is about 20-25 centimeters long, with an outside diameter
of about 15 millimeters and an inside diameter of 10-12 millimeters.
It is used to blow or spray the medicine, w'hich the medicine man
has previously sipped from a dipper, over the patient's temples, the
crown of his head, his breast, or whatever part of his body is "under
treatment."
Only in one case did I find a much longer blowing tube of the same
provenance used. It measures 50-60 centmieters and is the means
by wiiich a decoction has to be sprayed on the body of a parturient
woman; the medicine man, w^hile doing this, for propriety's sake
stands 3 or 4 yards behind the semireclined woman (see p. 125) and
blows the medicine in a jet over her head. This procedure makes it
hnperative that the blowing reed be of the length described so as to
be the better able to direct the jet of medicine.
There is a faint indication that until about 40 years ago occasionally
a grass stalk was used to blow a decoction of plants into the urethra,
but nothing more definite could be learned about the procedure,
w^hich is now completely discontinued and almost forgotten, even
by the oldest of the medicine men.
Although gourd dippers are still used to some extent in the Cherokee
household they tend to disappear and to be replaced by more modern
utensils introduced by the whites, metal spoons, ladles, etc.
For use in medicine, however, it is always implicitly understood
and often explicitly stated that the dipper used to administer the
medicine must be the good old aboriginal gourd dipper Ga'^lune*'-
Gwo°; so much so that this object is gradually becoming, from a common
kitchen utensil which it still was one or two generations ago, a
true component of the medicine man's paraphernalia.
This tendency of less civilized connnunities to cling not only to
their archaic practices but also to retain certain material objects
associated with them, is very frequent and common, and parallels of
it could be cited by the dozen. To give a couple of instances only: