USE OF MUSIC BY AMERICAN INDIANS — DENSMORE 441 



(Sequoyah) in 1821. Some of these manuscripts are known to be at 

 least thirty years old, and many are probably older." Eleven of the 

 formulas are for the treatment of the sick, and the use of songs is men- 

 tioned in connection with the treatment of snake bite, "the great chill" 

 (intermittent fever), and an ailment which "from the vague descrip- 

 tion of symptoms . . . appears to be an aggravated form of bilious- 

 ness." The formula for the treatment of chill "begins with a song of 

 four verses, in which the doctor invokes in succession the spirits of the 

 air, of the mountain, of the forest, and of the water." In a serious 

 case the doctor follows the song with a prayer to the whirlwind 

 "which is considered to dwell among the trees on the mountain side, 

 where the trembling of the leaves gives the first intimation of its pres- 

 ence." The doctor directs the whirlwind "to scatter the disease as 

 it scatters the leaves of the forest, so that it shall utterly disappear." 

 Mooney found that "like most primitive people the Cherokees be- 

 lieve that disease and death are not natural, but are due to the evil in- 

 fluence of animal spirits, ghosts or witches." He quotes Haywood, 5 

 who stated that "in ancient times the Cherokees had no conception of 

 anyone dying a natural death," and presents a Cherokee myth concern- 

 ing the origin of both disease and medicine. According to this myth, 

 the animals and all living creatures were happy together until man 

 came and began killing them for food and clothing. They then held a 

 council for their safety and protection. The decision was that each 

 group of animals should inflict a disease upon man. The deer resolved 

 to inflict rheumatism upon every hunter who killed one of their num- 

 ber without asking pardon for the offense. They sent notice of this 

 resolution to the nearest settlement of Indians and told them how to 

 avoid giving offense when necessity forced them to kill one of the deer 

 tribe. The plants were friendly to man and determined to defeat the 

 evil design of the animals. "Each tree, shrub, and herb, down even 

 to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a remedy for some one 

 of the diseases . . . When the doctor is in doubt what treatment to 

 apply for the relief of a patient, the spirit of the plant suggests to 

 him the proper remedy." 



To such beliefs the student finds parallels in recent times in widely 

 separated tribes and in customs that the Indians follow without giv- 

 ing any reason for their observance. The Papago in southern Arizona 

 told the writer of their belief that every disease is caused by an animal 

 or spirit which imparts the secret of its cure to a favored doctor. A 

 song is taught to him as an essential part of the treatment. Among the 

 Algonkins it is still customary for a doctor to put tobacco in the 

 ground when he digs a medicinal herb and to "talk a little," asking 

 the herb to help the sick person. In the old days a hunter apologized 



• Haywood, John, Natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, pp. 267-268, 1823. 



