oIbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIFl^ 27 



"Most diseases are ascribed to the influence of ghosts, iisnally the 

 revengeful ghosts of slain animals. But there are two classes of these 

 ghosts, the 'amsgi'na' (singular 'asgi'na') and the '""tali" (the 6"- 

 bcing an almost inaudible grunt), and it was only after long inquiry 

 that it was possible to learn the distinction between them. It is held 

 by the shaman that an animal killed by the hunter or otherwise is 

 again revived in the same form, and enters upon a now lease of life, 

 to be again killed, or to die naturally, as the case may be. This may 

 recur an indefinite munber of times, probably four or seven, the 

 shamans questioned not being able to state. At the final death, the 

 animal ceases to exist in the body, and its ghost goes to join its com- 

 rades in Usiihi'yi, the night land. One doctor (Ay<l°'ini) stated that 

 the deer had seven lives or successive animations, each in the same 

 deer shape, after which came annihilation. He was unable to say 

 whether other animals were reanimated in the same way, but such 

 seems to be the belief from the evidence afforded by the formulas. 

 An example of this reincarnation occurs in the story of the 'Bear 

 Man'.*^ The belief differs from the ordinary doctrine of metempsy- 

 chosis in that the animal is reincarnated in its original form, instead 

 of becoming an animal of another kind. 



"'Asgi'na' is the name applied to the ghost of the original animal 

 (or person) after the first death, while the '""tali" is the ghost of the 

 successive reincarnations, or as the doctor explained, 'the ghost of an 

 animal that has been killed more than once,' the '""tali" being the 

 more dreaded of the two. 



"The old religion of the Cherokees is now so beclouded and cor- 

 rupted by the influence of missionary ideas that it is extremely dif- 

 ficult to get an intelligent statement of such points, but it seems pos- 

 sible that the original belief assigned to every animal a definite life 

 period, which could not be curtailed by violent means. When an 

 animal lived out this allotted period it died and its body decayed, 

 while its spirit became an 'asgi'na' and went to join the other ghosts 

 in the night land. If killed before the expiration of the allotted time, 

 the death was only temporary, the body took shape again from the 

 blood drops (see the story of the "Bear Man") and was reanimated 

 by the spirit, now called '""tali'.' This new existence continued, 

 unless again interrupted and again renewed, until the end of the pre- 

 destined period, when the body was finally dissolved and the Uberated 

 spirit took up its journey to the night land, there to remain with its 

 kindred shades." (Mooney, Notes.) 



Moreover, Mooney based his conclusions on a belief of his according 

 to which '5"'ta'li was etymologically related with t'a^li' "two" (his 

 transcription being, respectively, "°tali' and tali'). 



" See Mooney, Myths, pp. 327-329. 



