186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 196 



Conjurors were doctors who, besides curing deseases, were thought 

 to have power to counteract the evil doings of Witches, and even to 

 destroy the witches themselves, without ever going near, or, seeing 

 them, 



Jf a person was suddenly taken with a new or uncommon dcsease, a 

 Conjuror was immediately summoned by the friends of the aiflicted 

 one. He first examined the patient, looking intently at him, and 

 asking questions about him. 



He then made tea of some kind of roots, giving the sick one to drink, 

 and bathing his face and limbs with it. He then had recourse to 

 incantations, blowing his breath on the patient, making manipulations 

 over his body and all the time muttering or speaking in a low tone as 

 if conversing with some one.[*^] 



In cases of severe pain, the Conjuror procured bark from a particular 

 kind of tree, and burned it to coals, then after warming his hands over 

 the fire, would press them tightly to the pain, then rub them briskly 

 over the fire, after performing this operation several times, quite 

 often the patient recovered. ["*] 



If this treatment proved unsuccessful then some one suspected of 

 being a witch was accused as the cause of the trouble. 



Various methods, at different tunes, were resorted to, to find out 

 and punish the offender, one way was, to make a picture representing 

 the a(5cused and shoot it. if the person died soon after, that fact was 

 proof conclusive of his guilt. [''] 



Many medichial plants and roots were known and used by the people 

 in common deseases. The bark of the Birch Tree was considered a 

 specific for Cancer and malignant ulcers. [^"] A leaden-colored, oval- 

 shaped stone, thought, to bo solidified lightning, as it was dug from near 

 the roots of a lightning-struck tree, was a cure for Rheumatism. P'] 



I think the (Jherokoos wore not more superstitious than some 

 Civilized Nations. 



A few birds and some wild animals were said to be messengers of 

 evil tidings. ['^-] 



There is a Legend of a large serpent, called the "Ground snake," 

 being the color of the ground was said to betoken death to the one who 



I' Wahnonauhl undoiibtodly saw a dida:hnvwi:sg{i) ('ono who euros thorn') nt work, but in this account 

 sho confused spocino curing procedures with general. Tho bathing of the face and limbs, for exiuiiple, 

 suBKCSts treatment for apoplexy. 



"» This troiitmont would bo appropriate to a number of unrelated medical situations. Tlio "bark from a 

 particular kind of tree" would bo liRhtnlng-struck hickory or red oak bark. 



» This is not ono of the standard tochnlques em ployed by a dida:h7wivi:sg(.i) In "working against" someone 

 who is molostlnp his patient. 



» Hickory bark and post oak bark are used nowadays. Perhaps they are substitutes necessitated by a 

 lack of correspondence of tho flora of tho old Chorokoo locus and tho now. 



>' I have seen these stones (star-shaiicd, not oval) ainong the Ea-stern Chorokeo, but not In Oklahoma. 



M Some, such as squirrels (good luck), have apparently not been reported. (Cf. Gilbert, 1943, pp. 367-369.) 



