Taking the Dispensatory as the standard, and assuming that this list
is a fair epitome of what the Cherokees know concerning the medical
properties of plants, we find that five plants, or 25 per cent of
the whole number, are correctly used; twelve, or 60 per cent, are
presumably either worthless or incorrectly used, and three plants, or
15 per cent, are so used that it is difficult to say whether they are
of any benefit or not. Granting that two of these three produce good
results as used by the Indians, we should have 35 per cent, or about
one-third of the whole, as the proportion actually possessing medical
virtues, while the remaining two-thirds are inert, if not positively
injurious. It is not probable that a larger number of examples would
change the proportion to any appreciable extent. A number of herbs
used in connection with these principal plants may probably be set
down as worthless, inasmuch as they are not named in the Dispensatory.
The results here arrived at will doubtless be a surprise to those
persons who hold that an Indian must necessarily be a good doctor,
and that the medicine man or conjurer, with his theories of ghosts,
witches, and revengeful animals, knows more about the properties
of plants and the cure of disease than does the trained botanist
or physician who has devoted a lifetime of study to the patient
investigation of his specialty, with all the accumulated information
contained in the works of his predecessors to build upon, and with
all the light thrown upon his pathway by the discoveries of modern
science. It is absurd to suppose that the savage, a child in
intellect, has reached a higher development in any branch of science
than has been attained by the civilized man, the product of long ages
of intellectual growth. It would be as unreasonable to suppose that
the Indian could be entirely ignorant of the medicinal properties
of plants, living as he did in the open air in close communion with
nature; but neither in accuracy nor extent can his knowledge be
compared for a moment with that of the trained student working upon
scientific principles.
Cherokee medicine is an empiric development of the fetich idea. For
a disease caused by the rabbit the antidote must be a plant called
“rabbit’s food,” “rabbit’s ear,” or “rabbit’s tail;” for snake dreams
the plant used is “snake’s tooth;” for worms a plant resembling a worm
in appearance, and for inflamed eyes a flower having the appearance
and name of “deer’s eye.” A yellow root must be good when the patient
vomits yellow bile, and a black one when dark circles come about his
eyes, and in each case the disease and the plant alike are named from
the color. A decoction of burs must be a cure for forgetfulness, for
there is nothing else that will stick like a bur; and a decoction of
the wiry roots of the “devil’s shoestrings” must be an efficacious
wash to toughen the ballplayer’s muscles, for they are almost strong
enough to stop the plowshare in the furrow. It must be evident that
under such a system the failures must far outnumber the cures, yet it
is not so long since half our own medical practice was based upon the
same idea of correspondences, for the mediæval physicians taught that
_similia similibus curantur_, and have we not all heard that “the hair
of the dog will cure the bite?”
Their ignorance of the true medical principles involved is shown by
the regulations prescribed for the patient. With the exception of the
fasting, no sanitary precautions are taken to aid in the recovery of
the sick man or to contribute to his comfort. Even the fasting is as
much religious as sanative, for in most cases where it is prescribed
the doctor also must abstain from food until sunset, just as in the
Catholic church both priest and communicants remain fasting from
midnight until after the celebration of the divine mysteries. As the
Indian cuisine is extremely limited, no delicate or appetizing dishes
are prepared for the patient, who partakes of the same heavy, sodden
cornmeal dumplings and bean bread which form his principal food in
health. In most cases certain kinds of food are prohibited, such as
squirrel meat, fish, turkey, etc.; but the reason is not that such
food is considered deleterious to health, as we understand it, but
because of some fanciful connection with the disease spirit. Thus if
squirrels have caused the illness the patient must not eat squirrel
meat. If the disease be rheumatism, he must not eat the leg of any
animal, because the limbs are generally the seat of this malady. Lye,
salt, and hot food are always forbidden when there is any prohibition
at all; but here again, in nine cases out of ten, the regulation,
instead of being beneficial, serves only to add to his discomfort.
Lye enters into almost all the food preparations of the Cherokees, the
alkaline potash taking the place of salt, which is seldom used among
them, having been introduced by the whites. Their bean and chestnut
bread, cornmeal dumplings, hominy, and gruel are all boiled in a pot,
all contain lye, and are all, excepting the last, served up hot from
the fire. When cold their bread is about as hard and tasteless as a
lump of yesterday’s dough, and to condemn a sick man to a diet of such
dyspeptic food, eaten cold without even a pinch of salt to give it a
relish, would seem to be sufficient to kill him without any further
aid from the doctor. The salt or lye so strictly prohibited is really
a tonic and appetizer, and in many diseases acts with curative effect.
So much for the health regimen.
In serious cases the patient is secluded and no strangers are allowed
to enter the house. On first thought this would appear to be a genuine
sanitary precaution for the purpose of securing rest and quiet to the
sick man. Such, however, is not the case. The necessity for quiet has
probably never occurred to the Cherokee doctor, and this regulation is
intended simply to prevent any direct or indirect contact with a woman
in a pregnant or menstrual condition. Among all primitive nations,
including the ancient Hebrews, we find an elaborate code of rules
in regard to the conduct and treatment of women on arriving at the
age of puberty, during pregnancy and the menstrual periods, and at
childbirth. Among the Cherokees the presence of a woman under any of
these conditions, or even the presence of any one who has come from
a house where such a woman resides, is considered to neutralize all
the effects of the doctor’s treatment. For this reason all women,
excepting those of the household, are excluded. A man is forbidden to
enter, because he may have had intercourse with a tabued woman, or may
have come in contact with her in some other way; and children also
are shut out, because they may have come from a cabin where dwells a
woman subject to exclusion. What is supposed to be the effect of the
presence of a menstrual woman in the family of the patient is not
clear; but judging from analogous customs in other tribes and from
rules still enforced among the Cherokees, notwithstanding their long
contact with the whites, it seems probable that in former times the
patient was removed to a smaller house or temporary bark lodge built
for his accommodation whenever the tabu as to women was prescribed
by the doctor. Some of the old men assert that in former times sick
persons were removed to the public townhouse, where they remained
under the care of the doctors until they either recovered or died.
A curious instance of this prohibition is given in the second
Didûⁿlĕ´skĭ (rheumatism) formula from the Gahuni manuscript (see
page 350), where the patient is required to abstain from touching a
squirrel, a dog, a cat, a mountain trout, or a woman, and must also
have a chair appropriated to his use alone during the four days that
he is under treatment.
In cases of the children’s disease known as Gûⁿwani´gista´ĭ (see
formulas) it is forbidden to carry the child outdoors, but this is not
to procure rest for the little one, or to guard against exposure to
cold air, but because the birds send this disease, and should a bird
chance to be flying by overhead at the moment the napping of its wings
would _fan the disease back_ into the body of the patient.