SWANTON] INDIAN TETBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 351 



Indians of this tribe. The mounds erected over chiefs are said to 

 have been -t or 5 feet high. 



Medicines were owned by certain individuals reputed to be skillful 

 in the cure of this, that, or the other ailment — l)eing native special- 

 ists, in other words. These might be men or women, and it is said 

 to have been customary for them to keep their methods of treatment 

 a profound secret until they were ready to die or give up practice, when 

 tlie}^ confided them to whoever was to succeed them. Thus Benjannn 

 Paul's grandmother was a snake doctor, and claimed to cure snake 

 bites of all kinds. She had communicated to Benjamin Paul her 

 manner of treating rattlesnake bites, but he did not feel at liberty to 

 reveal it. All knowledge of her other remedies had died with her. 

 She also had a reputation m cases of blindness, and was reputed to 

 have cured patients given up by white physicians. 



The " Indian turnip " was considered a specific for consumption, 

 a root called putha' )u' was used for dyspepsia, and the Jiacnx. re- 

 ferred to below, was smoked for the same disease. The slippery elm 

 Avas also nsed as a medicine. In cases of consumption the gizzard of 

 a bird called I/H'n.rnn was mashed fine and rubbed upon the affected 

 part. Witches knew how to extract poisons from various plants, and 

 the leaves of a certain tree, known as the " poison tree,'' are said to 

 have been put into bayons to poison people. A common method of 

 treatment, apart from these special remedies, was by means of the 

 sweat bath. Sweat houses were made without floors and with a 

 cavity in the ground 5 or feet long. Hot stones were put into this, 

 water poured upon them, and moss laid over all. Above the patient 

 was seated covered with a Ijlanket. In this way they say that pneu- 

 monia and tyi)hoid fever were quickly cured. Nor was shamanistic 

 treatment wanting; but in place of the active, aggressive perform- 

 ances usual with shamans in other parts of North America, the Chiti- 

 macha representatives of the profession merely drank a tea made 

 from a powerful herb and learned in the state of uncojisciousness 

 which followed what was the trouble with the patient and how it 

 could be cured. Three herbs are mentioned as having been used by 

 them. One, the wai'fi, which was both smoked and drunk, seems 

 to have been the Ilew casi^iiie or ' black drink ' of the Creeks. The 

 second was called nai'k\i and was used as a drink. The third, 

 lid'cux^ was smoked and was confused by Gatschet with tobacco, net^ 

 which was never used for this purpose. 



Duties connected with the supernatural Avere performed by a class 

 of priests or shamans called I'dtciruc in the language of the com- 

 mon people, but hc'lxX-atxJLon by the noljility. There Avas at least 

 one in every village, each of Avhom was accompanied by an appren- 

 tice Avh(^ took his place when he died. A very famous hekx-atxl'dn 

 lived at Graine a Yolee cove, but after his death the institution was 



