In addition to their herb treatment the Cherokees frequently resort
to sweat baths, bleeding, rubbing, and cold baths in the running
stream, to say nothing of the beads and other conjuring paraphernalia
generally used in connection with the ceremony. The sweat bath was in
common use among almost all the tribes north of Mexico excepting the
central and eastern Eskimo, and was considered the great cure-all in
sickness and invigorant in health. Among many tribes it appears to
have been regarded as a ceremonial observance, but the Cherokees seem
to have looked upon it simply as a medical application, while the
ceremonial part was confined to the use of the plunge bath. The person
wishing to make trial of the virtues of the sweat bath entered the
â´sĭ, a small earth-covered log house only high enough to allow
of sitting down. After divesting himself of his clothing, some large
bowlders, previously heated in a fire, were placed near him, and over
them was poured a decoction of the beaten roots of the wild parsnip.
The door was closed so that no air could enter from the outside, and
the patient sat in the sweltering steam until he was in a profuse
perspiration and nearly choked by the pungent fumes of the decoction.
In accordance with general Indian practice it may be that he plunged
into the river before resuming his clothing; but in modern times
this part of the operation is omitted and the patient is drenched
with cold water instead. Since the âsĭ has gone out of general use
the sweating takes place in the ordinary dwelling, the steam being
confined under a blanket wrapped around the patient. During the
prevalence of the smallpox epidemic among the Cherokees at the close
of the late war the sweat bath was universally called into requisition
to stay the progress of the disease, and as the result about three
hundred of the band died, while many of the survivors will carry
the marks of the visitation to the grave. The sweat bath, with the
accompanying cold water application, being regarded as the great
panacea, seems to have been resorted to by the Indians in all parts of
the country whenever visited by smallpox--originally introduced by the
whites--and in consequence of this mistaken treatment they have died,
in the language of an old writer, “like rotten sheep” and at times
whole tribes have been almost swept away. Many of the Cherokees tried
to ward off the disease by eating the flesh of the buzzard, which
they believe to enjoy entire immunity from sickness, owing to its foul
smell, which keeps the disease spirits at a distance.
Bleeding is resorted to in a number of cases, especially in rheumatism
and in preparing for the ball play. There are two methods of
performing the operation, bleeding proper and scratching, the latter
being preparatory to rubbing on the medicine, which is thus brought
into more direct contact with the blood. The bleeding is performed
with a small cupping horn, to which suction is applied in the ordinary
manner, after scarification with a flint or piece of broken glass. In
the blood thus drawn out the shaman claims sometimes to find a minute
pebble, a sharpened stick or something of the kind, which he asserts
to be the cause of the trouble and to have been conveyed into the
body of the patient through the evil spells of an enemy. He frequently
pretends to suck out such an object by the application of the lips
alone, without any scarification whatever. Scratching is a painful
process and is performed with a brier, a flint arrowhead, a
rattlesnake’s tooth, or even with a piece of glass, according to the
nature of the ailment, while in preparing the young men for the ball
play the shaman uses an instrument somewhat resembling a comb, having
seven teeth made from the sharpened splinters of the leg bone of
a turkey. The scratching is usually done according to a particular
pattern, the regular method for the ball play being to draw the
scratcher four times down the upper part of each arm, thus making
twenty-eight scratches each about 6 inches in length, repeating the
operation on each arm below the elbow and on each leg above and below
the knee. Finally, the instrument is drawn across the breast from the
two shoulders so as to form a cross; another curving stroke is made
to connect the two upper ends of the cross, and the same pattern is
repeated on the back, so that the body is thus gashed in nearly three
hundred places. Although very painful for a while, as may well
be supposed, the scratches do not penetrate deep enough to result
seriously, excepting in some cases where erysipelas sets in. While
the blood is still flowing freely the medicine, which in this case
is intended to toughen, the muscles of the player, is rubbed into the
wounds after which the sufferer plunges into the stream and washes
off the blood. In order that the blood may flow the longer without
clotting it is frequently scraped off with a small switch as it flows.
In rheumatism and other local diseases the scratching is confined to
the part affected. The instrument used is selected in accordance with
the mythologic theory, excepting in the case of the piece of glass,
which is merely a modern makeshift for the flint arrowhead.
Rubbing, used commonly for pains and swellings of the abdomen, is a
very simple operation performed with the tip of the finger or the palm
of the hand, and can not be dignified with the name of massage. In
one of the Gahuni formulas for treating snake bites (page 351) the
operator is told to rub in a direction contrary to that in which the
snake coils itself, because “this is just the same as uncoiling it.”
Blowing upon the part affected, as well as upon the head, hands,
and other parts of the body, is also an important feature of the
ceremonial performance. In one of the formulas it is specified that
the doctor must blow first upon the right hand of the patient, then
upon the left foot, then upon the left hand, and finally upon the
right foot, thus making an imaginary cross.
Bathing in the running stream, or “going to water,” as it is called,
is one of their most frequent medico-religious ceremonies, and is
performed on a great variety of occasions, such as at each new
moon, before eating the new food at the green corn dance, before the
medicine dance and other ceremonial dances before and after the ball
play, in connection with the prayers for long life, to counteract the
effects of bad dreams or the evil spells of an enemy, and as a part of
the regular treatment in various diseases. The details of the ceremony
are very elaborate and vary according to the purpose for which it is
performed, but in all cases both shaman and client are fasting from
the previous evening, the ceremony being generally performed just at
daybreak. The bather usually dips completely under the water four or
seven times, but in some cases it is sufficient to pour the water from
the hand upon the head and breast. In the ball play the ball sticks
are dipped into the water at the same time. While the bather is in the
water the shaman is going through with his part of the performance
on the bank and draws omens from the motion of the beads between his
thumb and finger, or of the fishes in the water. Although the old
customs are fast dying out this ceremony is never neglected at the
ball play, and is also strictly observed by many families on occasion
of eating the new corn, at each new moon, and on other special
occasions, even when it is necessary to break the ice in the stream
for the purpose, and to the neglect of this rite the older people
attribute many of the evils which have come upon the tribe in later
days. The latter part of autumn is deemed the most suitable season of
the year for this ceremony, as the leaves which then cover the surface
of the stream are supposed to impart their medicinal virtues to the
water.