Of all the Cherokee wizards or witches the most dreaded is the Raven
Mocker (Kâ'lanû Ahyeli'ski), the one that robs the dying man of
life. They are of either sex and there is no sure way to know one,
though they usually look withered and old, because they have added
so many lives to their own.
At night, when some one is sick or dying in the settlement, the Raven
Mocker goes to the place to take the life. He flies through the air in
fiery shape, with arms outstretched like wings, and sparks trailing
behind, and a rushing sound like the noise of a strong wind. Every
little while as he flies he makes a cry like the cry of a raven when
it "dives" in the air--not like the common raven cry--and those who
hear are afraid, because they know that some man's life will soon go
out. When the Raven Mocker comes to the house he finds others of his
kind waiting there, and unless there is a doctor on guard who knows
how to drive them away they go inside, all invisible, and frighten
and torment the sick man until they kill him. Sometimes to do this
they even lift him from the bed and throw him on the floor, but his
friends who are with him think he is only struggling for breath.
After the witches kill him they take out his heart and eat it, and so
add to their own lives as many days or years as they have taken from
his. No one in the room can see them, and there is no scar where they
take out the heart, but yet there is no heart left in the body. Only
one who has the right medicine can recognize a Raven Mocker, and
if such a man stays in the room with the sick person these witches
are afraid to come in, and retreat as soon as they see him, because
when one of them is recognized in his right shape he must die within
seven days. There was once a man named Gûñskali'ski, who had this
medicine and used to hunt for Raven Mockers, and killed several. When
the friends of a dying person know that there is no more hope they
always try to have one of these medicine men stay in the house and
watch the body until it is buried, because after burial the witches
do not steal the heart.
The other witches are jealous of the Raven Mockers and afraid to come
into the same house with one. Once a man who had the witch medicine
was watching by a sick man and saw these other witches outside trying
to get in. All at once they heard a Raven Mocker cry overhead and the
others scattered "like a flock of pigeons when the hawk swoops." When
at last a Raven Mocker dies these other witches sometimes take revenge
by digging up the body and abusing it.
The following is told on the reservation as an actual happening:
A young man had been out on a hunting trip and was on his way
home when night came on while he was still a long distance from the
settlement. He knew of a house not far off the trail where an old man
and his wife lived, so he turned in that direction to look for a place
to sleep until morning. When he got to the house there was nobody in
it. He looked into the âsi and found no one there either. He thought
maybe they had gone after water, and so stretched himself out in the
farther corner to sleep. Very soon he heard a raven cry outside, and
in a little while afterwards the old man came into the âsi and sat down
by the fire without noticing the young man, who kept still in the dark
corner. Soon there was another raven cry outside, and the old man said
to himself, "Now my wife is coming," and sure enough in a little while
the old woman came in and sat down by her husband. Then the young man
knew they were Raven Mockers and he was frightened and kept very quiet.
Said the old man to his wife, "Well, what luck did you have?" "None,"
said the old woman, "there were too many doctors watching. What luck
did you have?" "I got what I went for," said the old man, "there is
no reason to fail, but you never have luck. Take this and cook it and
let's have something to eat." She fixed the fire and then the young
man smelled meat roasting and thought it smelled sweeter than any
meat he had ever tasted. He peeped out from one eye, and it looked
like a man's heart roasting on a stick.
Suddenly the old woman said to her husband, "Who is over in the
corner?" "Nobody," said the old man. "Yes, there is," said the old
woman, "I hear him snoring," and she stirred the fire until it blazed
and lighted up the whole place, and there was the young man lying
in the corner. He kept quiet and pretended to be asleep. The old
man made a noise at the fire to wake him, but still he pretended to
sleep. Then the old man came over and shook him, and he sat up and
rubbed his eyes as if he had been asleep all the time.
Now it was near daylight and the old woman was out in the other
house getting breakfast ready, but the hunter could hear her crying
to herself. "Why is your wife crying?" he asked the old man. "Oh,
she has lost some of her friends lately and feels lonesome," said
her husband; but the young man knew that she was crying because he
had heard them talking.
When they came out to breakfast the old man put a bowl of corn mush
before him and said, "This is all we have--we have had no meat for
a long time." After breakfast the young man started on again, but
when he had gone a little way the old man ran after him with a fine
piece of beadwork and gave it to him, saying, "Take this, and don't
tell anybody what you heard last night, because my wife and I are
always quarreling that way." The young man took the piece, but when
he came to the first creek he threw it into the water and then went
on to the settlement. There he told the whole story, and a party of
warriors started back with him to kill the Raven Mockers. When they
reached the place it was seven days after the first night. They found
the old man and his wife lying dead in the house, so they set fire
to it and burned it and the witches together.