270 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [BYH. ANN. 44 
doors toward the east, had he used the like solemn invocations there, his face 
would have consequently looked the same way, contrary to the usage of the 
heathens. After his song, he stepped in. I saluted him, saying, “Are you come 
my beloved old friend?” He replied, Arahre-O, “I am come in the name of 
Oea.” I told him I was glad to see, that in this mad age, he still retained the 
old Chikkasah virtues. He said, that as he came with a glad heart to see 
me his old friend, he imagined he could not do me a more kind service than 
to secure my house from the power of the evil spirits of the north, south, and 
west—and from witches and wizards who go about in dark nights in the shape 
of bears, hogs, and wolves, to spoil people. “The very month before,” added 
he, “we killed an old witch for having used destructive charms.” Because a 
child was suddenly taken il and died, on the physician’s false evidence, the 
father went to the poor helpless old woman who was sitting innocent and un- 
suspecting, and sunk his tomohawk into her head without the least fear of being 
ealled to an account. They call witches and wizards, Ishtabe, and Hoolabe, 
“man-killers,” and “spoilers of things sacred.” My prophetic friend desired 
me to think myself secure from those dangerous enemies of darkness, for (said 
he) Tarooa Ishtohoollo-Antarooare, “i have sung the song of the great holy 
one.”’* The Indians are so tenacious of concealing their religious mysteries, 
that I never before observed such an invocation on the like occasion—adjuring 
evil spirits, witches, ete. by the awful name of the deity.* 
This exorcism probably gives a clue to one of the reasons why the 
doors of the winter houses opened eastward. 
The following material on this subject is a translation of some in- 
formation originally written down in Chickasaw by a native infor- 
mant, Zeno McCurtain: 
The procedures of the conjurer and the wizard were slightly different, but 
the ignorant did not know in what this difference consisted. The conjuror had 
to employ his arts in horse races, in shooting at corn stalks, and in the game of 
akabatle, between men and women. This was not an easy thing for him, 
because when a game was to be played he had to begin his preparations several 
days ahead. He had to fast for a certain number of days and drink medi- 
cine made out of particular herbs, nor was he allowed to sleep during a con- 
siderable period. When his side won, he was always well paid, but if it lost 
he received nothing and if he was suspected of helping the opponents he would 
be killed. Whenever the people played, their conjurer—for each house group 
generally employed the same one all of the time—had to work faithfully for 
them. After the game was over he usually felt sick or indisposed for several 
days on account of the sleep he had lost and the medicines he had taken. 
The players also had to take some of this medicine, which was supposed to 
clear out their systems and make them feel light and fit. 
There was another kind of wizard whose methods were somewhat different. 
He had magic power to injure or kill persons at a distance, but he could do 
nothing else and so was not a true wizard. Yet he was called by the same 
name. (One of the functions of a doctor was to suck the witch arrow from 
a patient.) These wizards sometimes killed children. It is claimed that a 
well-educated Choctaw at Antlers, a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Chureh named Solomon Hotema, killed two children by witchcraft and was 
#JTshto, big; Abi, to kill; holo, what is sacred; abi, to kill. 
43 Taloa, song; ishto, big; holo, sacred; ontaloali, or intaloali, I have sung to them. 
44 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., pp, 176-177. 
