68 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



"I asked the doctor if he would come to the river with me; we 

 took a dipper ^^ which we filled with water, and when we got back to 

 the house, we sprinkled some of it on the boy's face; I then went back 

 to the river and poured the rest of the contents of the dipper away 

 exactly where we dipped the water from. When I came back, I 

 asked Doctor Mink if he would examine with the beads again to see 

 if the boy could be cured: I prepared cloth and the beads ^'^ and I 

 went with ISlink to the edge of the river. He examined with the 

 beads, but found there was no hope. I put down some more cloth 

 and beads, but again the doctor found there was no help. I then 

 suggested to change the boy 's name. Charlie could die, but we would 

 give him a new name; we would call hhn Alick.^^ Mink then again 

 examined with the beads, and he found that Alick was going to get 

 better. They tried a fourth time, and again there was hope. I 

 then got Mink to examine to see if he would be able to cure him; but 

 he found he couldn't. Then he examined for another medicine man, 

 and then for another, and another, and finally he found that Og.^® 

 could cure him. We then sent for Og. to cure him. In the sick boy's 

 house nobody was allowed to sleep that night.*° Doctor Mink kept 

 busy about the fire, working against the witches. 



"Og. came down every morning and every night; he did the curing, 

 and Doctor Mink did the examining with the beads. Four days 

 afterwards I went down to the river once more with Doctor Mink, 

 and we found that in seven days Alick would be about, hunting. 

 And so it was." 



Surgery 



As compared with the rest of their medical practice, surgery is 

 but scantily represented in Cherokee curing methods. However, 

 what little there is, is of sufficient interest and importance to be en- 

 titled to a short synthetic description. 



As the first in importance the different methods of scarification de- 

 serve to be mentioned. Scarification is still practiced extensively, 

 and I may add intensively, not merely by the medicine men but also 

 by the uninitiated. The ball pla3''ers are still subjected to it, as has 

 been minutely described by Mooney.*' The "scratching" of the 

 ball players is usually practiced by means of the k^anu^'oa instru- 



36 Cf. p. 58. 



3^ W. here plays the role of medicine man's assistant as his mother did in the 

 previous ceremony (cf. p. 62). 



38 I. e., Alexander. 



39 Cf. p. 112; pi. 9, a. 

 « Cf. p. 31. 



« "The Cherokee Ball Play," Amer. Anthrop., Ill (1890), pp. 105 seq.; cf. 

 also Culin, "Games of the North American Indians," Twenty-fourth Ann. Rept. 

 Bur. Amer. Ethn., 1907, pp. 575-587. 



