Hayĭ! Yû! Listen! Now instantly we have lifted up the red war club.
Quickly his soul shall be without motion. There under the earth, where
the black war clubs shall be moving about like ball sticks in the
game, there his soul shall be, never to reappear. We cause it to be
so. He shall never go and lift up the war club. We cause it to be so.
There under the earth the black war club (and) the black fog have come
together as one for their covering. It shall never move about (i.e.,
the black fog shall never be lifted from them). We cause it to be so.
Instantly shall their souls be moving about there in the seventh
heaven. Their souls shall never break in two. So shall it be. Quickly
we have moved them (their souls) on high for them, where they shall
be going about in peace. You (?) have shielded yourselves (?) with the
red war club. Their souls shall never be knocked about. Cause it to
be so. There on high their souls shall be going about. Let them shield
themselves with the white war whoop. Instantly (grant that) they shall
never become blue. Yû!
_Explanation._
This formula, obtained from A‛wani´ta, may be repeated by the doctor
for as many as eight men at once when about to go to war. It is
recited for four consecutive nights, immediately before setting out.
There is no tabu enjoined and no beads are used, but the warriors “go
to water” in the regular way, that is, they stand at the edge of the
stream, facing the east and looking down upon the water, while the
shaman, standing behind them, repeats the formula. On the fourth night
the shaman gives to each man a small charmed root which has the power
to confer invulnerability. On the eve of battle the warrior after
bathing in the running stream chews a portion of this and spits the
juice upon his body in order that the bullets of the enemy may pass
him by or slide off from his skin like drops of water. Almost every
man of the three hundred East Cherokees who served in the rebellion
had this or a similar ceremony performed before setting out--many of
them also consulting the oracular ulûⁿsû´tĭ stone at the same
time--and it is but fair to state that not more than two or three of
the entire number were wounded in actual battle.
In the formula the shaman identifies himself with the warriors,
asserting that “_we_” have lifted up the red war club, red being the
color symbolic of success and having no reference to blood, as might
be supposed from the connection. In the first paragraph he invokes
curses upon the enemy, the future tense verb _It shall be_, etc.,
having throughout the force of _let it be_. He puts the souls of
the doomed enemy in the lower regions, where the black war clubs are
constantly waving about, and envelops them in a black fog, which shall
never be lifted and out of which they shall never reappear. From
the expression in the second paragraph, “their souls shall never be
knocked about,” the reference to the black war clubs moving about like
ball sticks in the game would seem to imply that they are continually
buffeting the doomed souls under the earth. The spirit land of the
Cherokees is in the west, but in these formulas of malediction or
blessing the soul of the doomed man is generally consigned to the
underground region, while that of the victor is raised by antithesis
to the seventh heaven.
Having disposed of the enemy, the shaman in the second paragraph turns
his attention to his friends and at once raises their souls to the
seventh heaven, where they shall go about in peace, shielded by
(literally, “covered with”) the red war club of success, and never to
be knocked about by the blows of the enemy. “Breaking the soul in two”
is equivalent to snapping the thread of life, the soul being regarded
as an intangible something having length, like a rod or a string. This
formula, like others written down by the same shaman, contains several
evident inconsistencies both as to grammar and mythology, due to the
fact that A‛wanita is extremely careless with regard to details and
that this particular formula has probably not been used for the last
quarter of a century. The warriors are also made to shield themselves
with the white war whoop, which should undoubtedly be the red war
whoop, consistent with the red war club, white being the color
emblematic of peace, which is evidently an incongruity. The war whoop
is believed to have a positive magic power for the protection of the
warrior, as well as for terrifying the foe.
The mythologic significance of the different colors is well shown in
this formula. Red, symbolic of success, is the color of the war club
with which the warrior is to strike the enemy and also of the other
one with which he is to shield or “cover” himself. There is no doubt
that the war whoop also should be represented as red. In conjuring
with the beads for long life, for recovery from sickness, or for
success in love, the ball play, or any other undertaking, the red
beads represent the party for whose benefit the magic spell is
wrought, and he is figuratively clothed in red and made to stand upon
a red cloth or placed upon a red seat. The red spirits invoked always
live in the east and everything pertaining to them is of the same
color.
Black is always typical of death, and in this formula the soul of the
enemy is continually beaten about by black war clubs and enveloped in
a black fog. In conjuring to destroy an enemy the shaman uses
black beads and invokes the black spirits--which always live in the
west--bidding them tear out the man’s soul, carry it to the west,
and put it into the black coffin deep in the black mud, with a black
serpent coiled above it.
Blue is emblematic of failure, disappointment, or unsatisfied desire.
“They shall never become blue” means that they shall never fail in
anything they undertake. In love charms the lover figuratively covers
himself with red and prays that his rival shall become entirely blue
and walk in a blue path. The formulistic expression, “He is entirely
blue,” closely approximates in meaning the common English phrase, “He
feels blue.” The blue spirits live in the north.
White--which occurs in this formula only by an evident error--denotes
peace and happiness. In ceremonial addresses, as at the green corn
dance and ball play, the people figuratively partake of white food
and after the dance or the game return along the white trail to their
white houses. In love charms the man, in order to induce the woman to
cast her lot with his, boasts “I am a white man,” implying that all is
happiness where he is. White beads have the same meaning in the bead
conjuring and white was the color of the stone pipe anciently used
in ratifying peace treaties. The white spirits live in the south
(Wa´hală).
Two other colors, brown and yellow, are also mentioned in the
formulas. Wâtige´ĭ, “brown,” is the term used to include brown,
bay, dun, and similar colors, especially as applied to animals. It
seldom occurs in the formulas and its mythologic significance is as
yet undetermined. Yellow is of more frequent occurrence and is typical
of trouble and all manner of vexation, the yellow spirits being
generally invoked when the shaman wishes to bring down calamities upon
the head of his victim, without actually destroying him. So far as
present knowledge goes, neither brown nor yellow can be assigned to
any particular point of the compass.
Usĭnuli´yu, rendered “instantly,” is the intensive form of
usĭnu´lĭ “quickly,” both of which words recur constantly in the
formulas, in some entering into almost every sentence. This frequently
gives the translation an awkward appearance. Thus the final sentence
above, which means literally “they shall never become blue instantly,”
signifies “Grant that they shall never become blue”, i.e., shall never
fail in their purpose, _and grant our petition instantly_.