oIbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 77 



ing this operation. It will keep your teeth sound as long as you live. 

 The Tuscarora know exactly the same toothache-preventive practice. 



In order not to be afflicted with boils this is the remarkable and 

 unappetizing advice given: Swallow the body of a living daddy-long- 

 legs (na-'kwsuli'), after first having pulled its legs off. 



The awe-inspiring collection of Cherokee sacred and medicinal 

 formulas contain quite a few that are to be recited to avert evil and 

 disease; most of them are prayers of the kind which are called in 

 German "Segen"; some of them are boheved to insure a safe journey 

 if recited before setting out; others are claimed to make the recitant 

 invulnerable in war or strife, as one in Ms. Ill; others again are held to 

 keep the feet from being frost bitten (cf. Formula No. 60, p. 258), when 

 walking on the snow, etc. 



In none of these cases is anj?^ material object used, however, and they 

 are therefore not further discussed here. 



Change From Within — Influence From Without 



In the course of this chapter attention has been called to a couple of 

 instances where the use of "surgical" instruments can actually be 

 caught in the process of an evolution. (See p. 69.) 



Also, in the paragraph sketching a fev/ of the leading Cherokee 

 medicine men, there will be occasion to point out a change in practice 

 resulting from a modification in conception and outlook. 



There are some more instances where Cherokee conceptions and 

 ideas mth regard to disease can be shown to have undergone, or to be 

 in the act of undergoing, some important changes. 



In this respect it has been fortunate indeed that such a keen 

 observer as James Mooney repeatedly visited the tribe, his first visit 

 dating as far back as 1887. At that time it was still possible to obtain 

 information on a great many questions on which no light could now 

 be shed by any of the present medicine men. MoreoA'-er, at that time 

 the explanation and exegesis of the older informants was free of 

 skepticism and sophistication. 



Much of what Mr. Mooney collected could now no longer be ob- 

 tained, and this in itself partly illustrates the process of change which 

 the Cherokee, as every other of the Aro.erican Indian tribes, is under- 

 going. Having Mooney's statements as to what conditions were like 

 in the eighties, and comparing them withthe state of things in 1926-27, 

 it is possible to see in what respects ideas have changed, in how far 

 opinions have altered. 



Forty-five years seem a short span of time for fundamental changes 

 to occur in the belief and the ritual of a community living so secluded a 

 life as do the Cherokee in their mountains, but it should be borne in 

 mind that they have been exposed to white influence for many gener- 

 ationS; and that even more than a hundred years ago there existed, 



