BWAHTOW] EARLY HISTORY OF THK CREEK INDIANS 385 
At the time of her monthly period and for sometime after her con- 
finement a woman did not cat fish or venison. It was also considered 
wrong for her to anoint herself with bear grease or eat fish for a number 
of moons after having given birth. Both at that time and at the 
menstrual period she must not make a new fire or approach one. 
A gambler rubbed his hands with certain herbs in order that he 
might be fortunate in play. A runner is also said to have taken an 
herb to make him win, and this seems to have been in the form of a 
drink. 1 
The only reference to a future state of existence is in the account 
of De Gourgues's expedition, and it has been given already. 2 
Regarding priests or shamans there is information both from 
Laudonniere and Le Moyne. The former says: 
They have their priests, to whom they give great credit, because they are great 
magicians, great soothsayers, and callers upon devils. These priests serve them 
instead of physicians and surgeons; they carry always about with them a bag full 
of herbs and drugs, to cure the sick who, for the most part, are sick of the pox. 3 
Le Moyne thus describes the ceremony gone through by an aged 
shaman in order to forecast the fortunes of chief Utina's expedition 
against the Potano: 
The sorcerer . . . made ready a place in the middle of the army, and, seeing 
the shield which D'Ottigny's page was carrying, asked to take it. On receiving it, 
he laid it on the ground, and drew around it a circle, upon which he inscribed various 
characters and signs. Then he knelt down on the shield, and sat on his heels, so 
that no part of him touched the earth, and began to recite some unknown words in a 
low tone, and to make various gestures, as if engaged in a vehement discourse. This 
lasted for a quarter of an hour, when he began to assume an appearance so frightful 
that he was hardly like a human being; for he twisted his limbs so that the bones 
could be heard to snap out of place, and did many other unnatural things. After 
going through with all this he came back all at once to his ordinary condition, but in 
a very fatigued state, and with an air as if astonished; and then, stepping out of his 
circle, he saluted the chief, and told him the number of the enemy, and where they 
were intending to meet him. 4 
We may add that according to both Laudonniere and Le Moyne 
the event verified the prediction. 
Le Moyne thus describes how the sick were cared for: 
Their way of curing diseases is as follows: They put up a bench or platform of suffi- 
cient length and breadth for the patient . . . and lay the sick person 
upon it with his face up or down, according to the nature of his complaint; and, 
cutting into the skin of the forehead with a sharp shell, they suck out blood with 
their mouths, and spit it into an earthen vessel or a gourd bottle. Women who are 
1 Paroja, Confessionarioen Lengua Castellana y Timuquana, pp. 123-133; Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, xvi, 
pp. 635-638; xvn, pp. 500-501; xvm, pp. 489-401. 
2 See p. 374. 
3 Laudonniere, La Floride, p. 8; French, Hist. Colls. La., 1869, pp. 171-172. 
«Le Moyne, Narrative, pp. 5-6 (ill.). 
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