582 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _ [nru. ayn. 24 
and kept up from the ground by their spreading tops. To make themselves more 
supple, they whip themselves with the tough stalks of the wa’takf, or star-grass, 
or with switches made from the bark of a hickory sapling which has grown up 
from under a log that has fallen across it, the bark being taken from the bend 
thus produced in the sapling. After the first scratching the player renders him- 
self an object of terror to his opponents by eating a portion of a rattlesnake 
which has been killed and cooked by the shaman. He rubs himself with an eel 
skin to make himself slippery like the eel, and rubs each limb down once with 
the fore and hind leg of a turtle, because the legs of that animal are remarkably 
stout. He applies to the shaman to conjure a dangerous opponent, so that he 
may be unable to see the ball in its flight, or may dislocate a wrist or break a 
leg. Sometimes the shaman draws upon the ground an armless figure of his 
rival, with a hole where his heart should be. Into this hole he drops two black 
beads, covers them with earth and stamps upon them, and thus the dreaded rival 
is doomed, unless (and this is always the saving clause) his own shaman has 
taken precautions against such a result, or the one in whose behalf the charm 
is made has rendered the incantation unavailing by a violation of some one of 
the interminable rules of the gaktfinta. 
The players, having dressed, are now ready to go to water for the last time, 
for which purpose the shaman selects a bend of the river where he can look 
toward the east while facing upstream. This ceremony of going to water is the 
most sacred and impressive in the whole Cherokee ritual, and must always be 
performed fasting, and in most cases also is preceded by an all-night vigil. It is 
used in connection with prayers to obtain a long life, to destroy an enemy, to 
win the love of a woman, to secure success in the hunt and the ball play, and for 
recovery from a dangerous illness, but is performed only as a final resort or 
when the occasion is one of special importance. The general ceremonial and 
the principal formulas are nearly the same in all cases. I have collected a 
number of the formulas used on these various occasions, but it is impossible 
within the limits of this paper to give more than a general idea of their nature. 
The men stand side by side looking down upon the water, with their ball 
sticks clasped upon their breasts, while the shaman stands just behind them, 
and an assistant kneeling at his side spreads out upon the ground the cloth upon 
which are placed the sacred beads. These beads are of two colors, red and 
black, each kind resting upon a cloth of the same color, and corresponding in 
number to the number of players. The red beads represent the players for 
whom the shaman performs the ceremony, while the black beads stand for their 
opponents, red being symbolic of power and triumph, while black is emblematic 
of death and misfortune. All being ready, the assistant hands to the shaman 
a red bead, which he takes between the thumb and finger of his right hand; 
and then a black bead, which he takes in the same manner in his left hand. 
Then, holding his hands outstretched, with his eyes intently fixed upon the 
beads, the shaman prays on behalf of his client to Yiwi Gfnahi’ ta, the Long 
Man, the sacred name for the river: “O, Long Man, I come to the edge of 
your body. You are mighty and most powerful. You bear up great logs and 
toss them about where the foam is white. Nothing can resist you. Grant me 
such strength in the contest that my enemy may be of no weight in my hands— 
that I may be able to toss him into the air or dash him to the earth.” Ina 
similar strain he prays to the Red Bat in the Sun Land to make him expert in 
dodging; to the Red Deer to make him fleet of foot; to the great Red Hawk 
to render him keen of sight; and to the Red Rattlesnake to render him terrible 
to all who oppose him. 
Then, in the same low tone and broken accents in which all the formulas 
are recited, the shaman declares that his client (mentioning his name and clan) 
