66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



Moreover, "in all cases of sickness, the doctor abstains from all 

 food imtU he is done treating the patient for the day. This usually 

 means imtil about noon, but in serious cases the doctor sometimes 

 fasts until nearly sundown. He must not eat in the house of the 

 patient but may eat in the yard outside." (Mooney, Notes.) There 

 is a marked tendency nowadays to abolish this custom stipulating 

 that the treating medicine man should also observe the taboos. 



Fasting is a restriction that is rather frequently imposed upon the 

 patients, but we should have no misgivings. The proof that no sanitary 

 consideration is to blame is obvious; the patient conscientiously fasts 

 untU sunset, or in some cases until noon, when he is allowed to gorge 

 himself with food as if he were the most robust and healthy individual 

 on earth. 



With regard to the second group of taboos, tbose referring to the 

 care of the patient and to his behavior, the most important one is the 

 segregation of the patient. There is nothing to be added to the 

 excellent account given of this custom by Mooney, SFC, pages 330- 

 332. It is still alive and thrivmg. It more than once happened to 

 me when I went to call on a sick member of the tribe that I was only 

 admitted after having sustained a rigorous cross-examination as to 

 the "conditio physiologica uxoris meae," etc. (See p. 35.) 



In some cases (documentary evidence of all this will be found in the 

 formulas themselves) there are various injunctions to be observed 

 such as the following: 



If the disease is caused by birds, all feathers are to be removed from 

 the cabin. (Feathers and quills are usually kept in the house to 

 feather the arrows.) 



Nor should the children made ill by the birds be taken outside, lest 

 the shadow of a bird, flying overhead, might fall on it and aggravate 

 the ailment. 



In diseases associated with the buffalo no spoon or comb made of 

 buffalo horn, nor a hide of that animal, was to be touched. This 

 taboo has been gleaned from a very old prescription, the age of which 

 is shown by its contents; the buffalo has been extinct in the Cherokee 

 country so long that the present Cherokee do not even remember 

 what the animal looks like. 



The numerous injunctions and restrictions to be observed by a 

 pregnant woman have been listed together. (See p. 120.) 



In some diseases, especially in those of the urinary passages, sexual 

 intercourse is prohibited. It is possible that a long time ago the 

 medicine man himself had to observe injunctions of contioence as long 

 as he had a patient of this kind under treatment, but I have not been 

 able to gather definite information on this score. 



Attention should be drawn, finally, to the fact that the taboo may 

 depend on the number of simples used, as in Formula No. 55, or again, 



