MdoNEY] PLANT LORE 4'21 



only l)y the priests ;in<l doctors in the praj'or forimiias. Tims jriii- 

 seng, or "sang," as it is more often called l\y the white inoiintaineers, 

 is known to the laity as flUaJl-guiy . "the mountain climber," hut is 

 addressed in the formulas as YriTnH [Tsdi', "Little Man," while .sv7m 

 (corn)is invoked under the' name of Agmoe'l-a, "The Old "Woman." One 

 or two plant names have their origin in myths, as, for instance, that of 

 Prosarte.s htnm/imisiu which beai's the curious name of irdldx'-unal'Kfi, 

 " frogs light with it," from a story that in the long ago — hUahi'yu- two 

 quarrelsome frogs once fought a duel, using its stalks as lances. In 

 the locative form this was the name of a former Clierokee S(>ttlenu'nt 

 in Georgia, called })v the whites Fighting-town, from a misapprehen- 

 sion of the meaning of the word. Of the white clover, the Clierokee 

 say that "it follows the white man." 



The division of trees into evergreen and deciduous is accounted for 

 bv a myth, related elsewhere, according to which the loss of their 

 leaves in winter time is a punishment visited upon the latter for their 

 failure to endure an ordeal to the end. With the Cherokee, as w ith 

 nearly all other tribes east and west, the cedar is held sacred above 

 other trees. The reasons for this reverence are easily found in its 

 ever-living gi'een, its balsamic fragrance, and the beautiful color of its 

 fine-grained wood, unwarpingaiid practically undecaying. The small 

 green twigs are thrown upon the tire as incense in certain ceremonies, 

 particularly to counteract the effect of asgina dreams, as it is ))elieved 

 that the anisgi'na or malevolent ghosts can not endure the smell; ))ut 

 the wood itself is considered too sacred to be used as fuel. In the war 

 dance, the scalp trophies, stretched on small hoops, were hung upon a 

 cedar sapling trimmed and decorat(^d for the occasion. According to 

 a myth the red color comes originally from the l)lood of a wicked 

 magician, whose severed head was hung at the top of a tali cedar. 

 The story is noM* almost forgotten, but it was prol)al)ly nearly iden- 

 tical with one still existing among the Yuchi. former neighbors of the 

 Cherokee. According to the Yuchi mytii. a malevolent magician dis- 

 tur])ed the daily course of the sun until at last two brave warriors 

 sought him out and killed him in his cave. They cut off' his head and 

 brought it home with them to show to the people, but it continued 

 still alive. To make it die they were advised to tie it in the tojjuiost 

 branches of a tree. This they did, trying one tree aftei- aiiotiier. I)ut 

 each morning the head was found at the foot of the tree and still alive. 

 At last they tied it in a cedar, and there the head remained until it was 

 dead, while the blood slowly trickling down along tiie trunk ga\e tlu! 

 wood its red color, and henceforth the cedar was a "medicine" tree.' 



The linn or basswood ( T/V/r/) is believed never to be struck l)y light- 

 ning, and the hunter caught in one of the frequent thunderstorms of 



' Gntschet, Some Mythic Stories of the Yuchi Indians, in American Anthropologist, vi, p. 281, July, 



1893. 



