Kû! Listen! In Alahi´yĭ you repose, O Terrible Woman, O you have
drawn near to hearken. There in Elahiyĭ you are at rest, O White
Woman. No one is ever lonely when with you. You are most beautiful.
Instantly and at once you have rendered me a white man. No one is ever
lonely when with me. Now you have made the path white for me. It shall
never be dreary. Now you have put me into it. It shall never become
blue. You have brought down to me from above the white road. There in
mid-earth (mid-surface) you have placed me. I shall stand erect upon
the earth. No one is ever lonely when with me. I am very handsome. You
have put me into the white house. I shall be in it as it moves about
and no one with me shall ever be lonely. Verily, I shall never become
blue. Instantly you have caused it to be so with me.
And now there in Elahiyĭ you have rendered the woman blue. Now you
have made the path blue for her. Let her be completely veiled in
loneliness. Put her into the blue road. And now bring her down. Place
her standing upon the earth. Where her feet are now and wherever she
may go, let loneliness leave its mark upon her. Let her be marked out
for loneliness where she stands.
Ha! I belong to the (Wolf) ( + + ) clan, that one alone which was
allotted into for you. No one is ever lonely with me. I am handsome.
Let her put her soul the very center of my soul, never to turn away.
Grant that in the midst of men she shall never think of them. I belong
to the one clan alone which was allotted for you when the seven clans
were established.
Where (other) men live it is lonely. They are very loathsome. The
common polecat has made them so like himself that they are fit
only for his company. They have became mere refuse. They are very
loathsome. The common opossum has made them so like himself that they
are fit only to be with him. They are very loathsome. Even the crow
has made them so like himself that they are fit only for his company.
They are very loathsome. The miserable rain-crow has made them so like
himself that they are fit only to be with him.
The seven clans all alike make one feel very lonely in their company.
They are not even good looking. They go about clothed with mere
refuse. They even go about covered with dung. But I--I was ordained
to be a white man. I stand with my face toward the Sun Land. No one
is ever lonely with me. I am very handsome. I shall certainly never
become blue. I am covered by the everlasting white house wherever I
go. No one is ever lonely with me. Your soul has come into the very
center of my soul, never to turn away. I--(Gatigwanasti,) (0 0)--I
take your soul. Sgĕ!
_Explanation._
This unique formula is from one of the loose manuscript sheets
of Gatigwanasti, now dead, and belongs to the class known
as Yûⁿwĕ´hĭ or love charms (literally, concerning “living
humanity”), including all those referring in any way to the marital
or sexual relation. No explanation accompanies the formula, which must
therefore be interpreted from analogy. It appears to be recited by
the lover himself--not by a hired shaman--perhaps while painting and
adorning himself for the dance. (_See next two formulas._)
The formula contains several obscure expressions which require further
investigation. Elahiyĭ or Alahiyĭ, for it is written both ways in
the manuscript, does not occur in any other formula met with thus
far, and could not be explained by any of the shamans to whom it was
submitted. The nominative form may be Elahĭ, perhaps from _ela_, “the
earth,” and it may be connected with Wa´hĭlĭ, the formulistic name
for the south. The spirit invoked is the White Woman, white being the
color denoting the south.
Uhisa´‛tĭ, rendered here “lonely,” is a very expressive word to a
Cherokee and is of constant recurrence in the love formulas. It refers
to that intangible something characteristic of certain persons which
inevitably chills and depresses the spirits of all who may be
so unfortunate as to come within its influence. Agisa´‛tĭ
nige´sûⁿna, “I never render any one lonely,” is an intensified
equivalent for, “I am the best company in the world,” and to tell a
girl that a rival lover is uhisa´‛tĭ is to hold out to her the sum
of all dreary prospects should she cast in her lot with him.
The speaker, who evidently has an exalted opinion of himself, invokes
the aid of the White Woman, who is most beautiful and is never
uhisa´‛tĭ. She at once responds by making him a white--that is,
a happy--man, and placing him in the white road of happiness, which
shall never become blue with grief or despondency. She then places him
standing in the middle of the earth, that he may be seen and admired
by the whole world, especially by the female portion. She finally puts
him into the white house, where happiness abides forever. The verb
implies that the house shelters him like a cloak and goes about with
him wherever he may go.
There is something comical in the extreme self-complacency with which
he asserts that he is very handsome and will never become blue and no
one with him is ever lonely. As before stated, white signifies peace
and happiness, while blue is the emblem of sorrow and disappointment.
Having thus rendered himself attractive to womankind, he turns his
attention to the girl whom he particularly desires to win. He begins
by filling her soul with a sense of desolation and loneliness. In the
beautiful language of the formula, her path becomes blue and she is
veiled in loneliness. He then asserts, and reiterates, that he is of
the one only clan which was allotted for her when the seven clans were
established.
He next pays his respects to his rivals and advances some very
forcible arguments to show that she could never be happy with any of
them. He says that they are all “lonesome” and utterly loathsome--the
word implies that they are mutually loathsome--and that they are
the veriest trash and refuse. He compares them to so many polecats,
opossums, and crows, and finally likens them to the rain-crow (cuckoo;
_Coccygus_), which is regarded with disfavor on account of its
disagreeable note. He grows more bitter in his denunciations as he
proceeds and finally disposes of the matter by saying that all the
seven clans alike are uhisa´‛tĭ and are covered with filth. Then
follows another glowing panegyric of himself, closing with the
beautiful expression, “your soul has come into the very center of
mine, never to turn away,” which reminds one forcibly of the sentiment
in the German love song, “Du liegst mir im Herzen.” The final
expression, “I take your soul,” implies that the formula has now
accomplished its purpose in fixing her thoughts upon himself.
When successful, a ceremony of this kind has the effect of rendering
the victim so “blue” or lovesick that her life is in danger until
another formula is repeated to make her soul “white” or happy again.
Where the name of the individual or clan is mentioned in these
formulas the blank is indicated in the manuscript by crosses + + or
ciphers 0 0 or by the word iyu´stĭ, “like.”