16 BXJREAIJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



This is usually ascribed to the activities of a human enemy and 

 refers to a psychopathological state rather than to any other disorders. 

 The victim is utterly despondent and dejected and seems to be the 

 victim of a severe case of chronic melancholy. 



Another explanation that is offered in some cases, and one which 

 is more apt to cause surprise, as it is not common to the Indians of 

 the eastern United States, is that the illness is caused by the action of 

 a human being who has ravished the soul of the patient. The fact 

 that one's soul has been buried does not result in instant death : one 

 may live without it for six or eight months, or even for a year. But 

 if the party working on behalf of the victim is not successful in 

 ultimately removing the ban, death is inevitable. The symptoms 

 ascribed to an illness of this order do not differ materially from those 

 belonging to "having one's saliva spoiled" or to the illness caused 

 by some one "having his mind different toward us." This makes it 

 the easier for a medicine man who does not succeed in. curing a patient 

 to make a new diagnosis, and to change his treatment from one, 

 the object of which was to dislodge the spoiled saliva, to a new one 

 aiming at removing the ban from the buried soul of the patient. 



The way in which the mediciue man finds out what is actually 

 the cause of a given disease will be discussed under the caption of 

 Diagnosis (p. 39). Sometimes, however, a diagnosis, however ac- 

 curate, will fail to disclose the actual cause of the ailment. A favorite 

 explanation in such a case is to ascribe the evil to the fact that the 

 patient "has dreamed of different things." It is implicitly under- 

 stood that this means "different, or all sorts of bad things." Since 

 in this case the causes are complex, it is considered that the treat- 

 ment must be the same, and a medicine is prescribed consisting of a 

 decoction of as many as 24 different plants. 



Nobody ever becomes ill without a cause. And with very few 

 exceptions every individual is responsible and blamable for the dis- 

 eases he contracts. 



A distinction is made between dangerous and less serious diseases, 

 but even the latter have to be adequately cared for and attended to ; 

 for disease senders and causers, whether human or nonhuman, have 

 a predilection for sending disease to a person when he is already in a 

 weakened condition; they know that then they stand a far better 

 chance to be successful and attain their ends. 



General Semeiology 



Although very little value is attached to what might be called a 

 scientific symptomatology by the Cherokee, a few remarks about the 

 subject are not out of place here. 



As will soon appear from a glance at the titles of the formulas, the 

 different ailments themselves are usually called by names that refer 



