Yû! O Red Woman, you have caused it. You have put the intruder under
him. Ha! now you have come from the Sun Land. You have brought the
small red seats, with your feet resting upon them. Ha! now they have
swiftly moved away from you. Relief is accomplished. Let it not be for
one night alone. Let the relief come at once.
(Prescription)--(_corner note at top_.) If treating a man one must say
_Red Woman_, and if treating a woman one must say _Red Man_.
This is just all of the prayer. Repeat it four times while laying on
the hands. After saying it over once, with the hands on (the body
of the patient), take off the hands and blow once, and at the fourth
repetition blow four times. And this is the medicine. Egû´ⁿlĭ
(a species of fern). Yâ´-na-Utsĕ´sta (“bear’s bed,” the
Aspidium acrostichoides or Christmas fern), _two_ varieties of the
soft-(leaved) Egû´ⁿlĭ (one, the small variety, is the Cinnamon
fern, Osmunda cinnamonea), and what is called Kâ´ga Asgû´ⁿtagĕ
(“crow’s shin,” the Adiantum pedatum or Maidenhair fern) and what is
called Da´yĭ-Uwâ´yĭ (“beaver’s paw”--not identified). Boil the
roots of the six varieties together and apply the hands warm with the
medicine upon them. Doctor in the evening. Doctor four consecutive
nights. (The pay) is cloth and moccasins; or, if one does not have
them, just a little dressed deerskin and some cloth.
And this is the tabu for seven nights. One must not touch a squirrel,
a dog, a cat, the mountain trout, or women. If one is treating a
married man they (_sic_) must not touch his wife for four nights. And
he must sit on a seat by himself for four nights, and must not sit on
the other seats for four nights.
_Explanation._
The treatment and medicine in this formula are nearly the same as in
that just given, which is also for rheumatism, both being written
by Gahuni. The prayer differs in several respects from any other
obtained, but as the doctor has been dead for years it is impossible
to give a full explanation of all the points. This is probably the
only formula in the collection in which the spirit invoked is the “Red
Woman,” but, as explained in the corner note at the top, this is only
the form used instead of “Red Man,” when the patient is a man. The Red
Man, who is considered perhaps the most powerful god in the Cherokee
pantheon, is in some way connected with the thunder, and is invoked
in a large number of formulas. The change in the formula, according
to the sex of the patient, brings to mind a belief in Irish folk
medicine, that in applying certain remedies the doctor and patient
must be of opposite sexes. The Red Man lives in the east, in
accordance with the regular mythologic color theory, as already
explained. The seats also are red, and the form of the verb indicates
that the Red Woman is either standing upon them (plural) or sitting
with her feet resting upon the rounds. These seats or chairs are
frequently mentioned in the formulas, and always correspond in color
with the spirit invoked. It is not clear why the Red Woman is held
responsible for the disease, which is generally attributed to the
revengeful efforts of the game, as already explained. In agreement
with the regular form, the disease is said to be put under (not into)
the patient. The assertion that the chairs “have swiftly moved away”
would seem from analogy to mean that the disease has been placed upon
the seats and thus borne away. The verb implies that the seats move
by their own volition. Immediately afterward it is declared that
relief is accomplished. The expression “usû´hita nutanû´na” occurs
frequently in these formulas, and may mean either “let it not be for
one night alone,” or “let it not stay a single night,” according to
the context.
The directions specify not only the medicine and the treatment, but
also the doctor’s fee. From the form of the verb the tabu, except as
regards the seat to be used by the sick person, seems to apply to
both doctor and patient. It is not evident why the mountain trout
is prohibited, but the dog, squirrel, and cat are tabued, as already
explained, from the fact that these animals frequently assume
positions resembling the cramped attitude common to persons afflicted
by rheumatism. The cat is considered especially uncanny, as coming
from the whites. Seven, as well as four, is a sacred number with the
tribe, being also the number of their gentes. It will be noted that
time is counted by nights instead of by days.