62 BXJKEAU OF AMERICAisr ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



Massage plays a considerable part in Cherokee curing methods and 

 is frequently mentioned. Although they use it in some cases where 

 it is unquestionably of a nature to bring relief, as in painful menstrua- 

 tion, spraining, etc., it is resorted to m many other cases — as a rule as 

 soon as there is evidence of any kind of swelling, whether of the stom- 

 ach or of the knee — where it lacks the least degree of efficacy. The 

 underlying principle is invariably that the swelling is the material 

 evidence of an immaterial agent (the "important thing," the disease) 

 and that this can be eliminated, expelled, ejected out of the affected 

 part of the body by pressing and rubbing. 



Previous to starting the massaging, the medicine man always warms 

 his hands near some live coals taken by his assistant — who is usually 

 a member of the patient's household^ — from the hearth, and that are 

 put down near the medicine man on a shovel, on the lid of a pot, a flat 

 pan, or some other such receptacle. The medicine man warms his 

 hands while he recites the first part of the formula, and then rubs the 

 affected part, eventually under the clothes of the sufi'erer. The 

 massage is done by the whole right hand, the palm efl'ecting most of 

 the pressure, and a circle of 6-7 centimeters from the center being 

 described. Starting from the right, he moves upward, conies down 

 to the loft, continuing the motion for a fev/ minutes, from 2 to 3 or 

 6 to 7 times, as he sees lit. 



He then warms his hands again, reciting meanwhile the second part 

 of the formula, and the whole treatment is continued until the (usually) 

 four parts of the formula have been recited and followed by the rubbing. 



Mooney, SFC, p. 335, has drawn attention to the rubbing for 

 treating snake bites. In this case the "operator is told to rub in a 

 direction contrary to that in whicli the snake coils itself, because 'this 

 is just the same as uncoiling it'." 



A practice that was still faintly remembered when Mooney visited 

 the tribe is the massage by means of a stamper made of the wood of 

 persimmon. (See p. 59.) 



I have been surprised to find that the Cherokee all but ignore the 

 elsewhere so popular and common method of transferring disease to 

 other creatures — to fellow human beings, dead or alive, to anmials, to 

 trees even, and to rocks, rivers, etc. 



Of the two only mstances of this kind which I found — and I am 

 pretty sure that no other varieties exist — one has very probably been 

 borrowed from the whites, if not in its actual form, at least in certain 

 of its aspects. I am referring to the following practice on which only 

 one informant (W.) could give me full particulars: A howling dog fore- 

 bodes illness or death; the only way to avoid its prophecy being ful- 

 filled is to command it to die itself, instead of the person, or the 

 member of the household who is the object of its evil warning. (See 

 p. 37.) 



