SWANTON] DOCTORING AND MEDICINES 265 
root, such as the Seneeka, or fern snakeroot, or the wild horehound, wild 
plantain, St. Andrew’s cross, and a variety of other herbs and roots, which are 
plenty and well known to those who range the American woods and are exposed 
to such dangers, and will effect a thorough and speedy cure if timely applied. 
When an Indian perceives he is struck by a snake he immediately chews some 
of the root, and, having swallowed a sufficient quantity of it, he applies some to 
the wound, which he repeats as occasion requires and in proportion to the 
poison the snake has infused into the wound. For a short space of time there 
is a terrible conflict through all the body by the jarring qualities of the burning 
poison and the strong antidote, but the poison is soon repelled through the same 
channels it entered, and the patient is cured.” 
Elsewhere he says that the button-snakeroot was used asa remedy *° 
and upon one occasion he “saw the Chikkasah Archi-magus chew 
some snakeroot, blow it on his hands, and then take up a rattlesnake 
without damage,” though it is not clear whether this medicine was 
identical with one of the remedies used in cases of actual bites or had 
purely magical efficacy. 
He speaks of an aquatic plant, probably a species of yellow-flowered 
water lily (Vymphaea), the seeds of which were used as food, and 
adds: “It is... reckoned a speedy cure for burning maladies, 
either outward or inward—for the former, by an outward application 
of the leaf, and for the latter by a decoction of it drank plentifully.” °° 
Ginseng, mentioned by him as employed on religious occasions," 
was also a valued remedy. He speaks of the old year’s fire as “a 
most dangerous polution,” *? and the north wind as “ very evil and 
accursed,” ** though it does not appear in the case of the latter 
whether it was because it brought cold weather or some sort of disease. 
The black drink (//ex vomitoria) is often mentioned by Adair, but 
it is difficult to tell to what extent he is referring to Chickasaw usages 
and to what extent to those of the Creeks.** 
Adair gives us also an account of the origin and naming of a new 
disease. He says: 
In 1767 the Indians were struck with a disease which they were unacquainted 
with before. It began with sharp pains in the head at the lower part of each of 
the ears, and swelled the face and throat in a very extraordinary manner, and also 
the testicles. It continued about a fortnight, and in the like space of time went 
off gradually, without any dangerous consequence or use of outward or inward 
remedies; they called it Wahka Abeeka, “the cattle’s distemper” or sickness. 
Some of their young men had by stealth killed and eaten a few of the cattle 
which the traders had brought up, and they imagined they had thus polluted 
themselves and were smitten in that strange manner, by having their heads, 
necks, ete., magnified like the same parts of a sick bull. They first concluded 
either to kill all the cattle or send them immediately off their land, to prevent 
the like mischief or greater ills from befalling the beloved people—for their 
* Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., pp. 235-236. =Tbid., p. 22, 
* Ibid., p. 1038. % Tbid. 
© Ibid., p. 410. *4Tbid., p. 361. 
"= Ibid., p. 362. 
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