oiflKECHTa] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 53 



Although Cherokee possesses words to express siieh concepts as 

 "herbs (in general) " or that refer to certain definite families of plants 

 ("families" to betaken here from the Cherokee point of view, as 

 "those that grow in the mountains," "those that arc ever green," 

 " those that grow near the river," etc.), these are but rarely heard, and 

 as a rule the specific names of the plant are used. 



Although some of the simples used are undeniably of officinal value, 

 this would seem in the majority of cases to be a mere matter of acci- 

 dent, rather than evidence of conscious experiment or even of fortunate 

 experience. The rule underlying the choice of a certain plant as an 

 antidote against a given ailment is of a mythological and an occult 

 rather than of a natural nature. 



The chemical properties of the herbs, roots, barks, etc., used niay in 

 some cases happen to be appropriate to the result to be obtained, but 

 that this is merely a matter of coincidence and chance is proved by 

 many practices, a few of which are: 



The outer appearance of the plants is of tremendous value in deter- 

 mining their efficacy against certain given diseases, as, "a thimble- 

 berry shrub growing high up (in the cavity) of a hollow (tree) " is used 

 against "painful remembrance of the dead" (see p. 233), because the 

 medicine man said, "when we tear away the roots, deeply buried and 

 stubbornly clinging to the tree, we will, when we drink a decoction 

 of the roots, also be able to pull the remembrance out of our mind that 

 makes us sick." 



Plants that have a pungent smell are great favorites in inany ail- 

 ments. The Cherokee have no explanation to offer. The same fact, 

 observed times without number elsewhere, has usually been explained, 

 "the pungent smell puts the disease demon to rout." 



Trees and plants, the sap and. the juice of which are of a mucilaginous 

 nature, as that of Da-'"wodzf'la {Ulmusjulva Michx., "slippery elm") 

 are used in cases where something is to be ejected out of the body, as 

 in childbirth — "the inside is to be made slippery." 



Plants that show certain peculiar characteristics, identical to those 

 shown by the disease, are used as antidote: the "milky discharge" 

 common to certain maladies of the urinary system is thought to be 

 efficaciousl}'" combated by administering plants that contain a milky 

 juice; as if, by showing to the ailment that there is plenty of the milky, 

 juicy matter at hand, there is hope of convincing it of the futility of 

 staying. 



Or the contrary may be the case: Plants and fruits that contain 

 great quantities of juice must by no means be used by the patient when 

 he is suffering from a complaint, one of the symptoms of which is the 

 presence of a lot of "juicy matter," as in blisters, boils, etc. 



Mooney in his notes has left us a typical illustration of this mode of 

 reasoning; against rheumatism ' 'the plants used in the preparation are 



