oi°R^cHTs] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 83 



based on mythological reasons; as, for instance, when rabbit's meat is 

 prohibited because rabbits are believed to be responsible for the disease. 



Nor is the injunction of fasting of a nature that could be called 

 hygienic; whereas the patient may stubbornly fast, and refuse to take 

 even a particle of food all day long, immediately after sunset he will 

 eat voraciously and gorge himself with quantities of food that might 

 very well ruin the stomach of a perfectly healthy mdividual. 



As for the so-called seclusion of patients, this is a taboo of the same 

 tragico-comical nature: A visitor coming from the outside v/ill be 

 curtly refused admittance to the patient's bedside, or will only be 

 allowed to enter after a most scrutinizing interrogation as to the 

 condition of his wife, etc.; women when pregnant, or "under restric- 

 tions" for other reasons (see p. 34) are rigorously excluded. But the 

 peace and the quietness around the patient that might thus be 

 obtained, and that might be of benefit to him, are of no moment at all; 

 inside the children may be carrying on as if bedlam were let loose, and 

 I have witnessed cases of grown-up sons who would practice on a 

 guitar in a most distracting and irritating manner for hours at a 

 stretch within three yards of their very sick father. 



Nor is the Cherokee way of purging by vomiting as efficacious a 

 practice as we would at first be inclined to believe. Vomiting is 

 resorted to far too frequently, and in eight cases out of ten without 

 any plausible reason, and therefore without any beneficial result. 

 In many cases patients take no food all day, yet force themselves to 

 this painful procedure of vomiting several times before sunset, 

 quite an alarming state of exhaustion often being the result. 



This should be no cause of surprise to us, since we know that 

 vomiting is practiced not so much to eliminate unwholesome or 

 indigestible foodstuffs, but merely to "throw off our spoiled saliva" 

 (see p. 15), or for similar reasons. 



To come to a conclusion: If we marvel at it that ever a Cherokee 

 patient recovers, we feel that we have to give the credit to his strong 

 constitution, to the invigorating mountain air, and to the simple 

 food he takes — lacking all spices and stimulants — much more than 

 to the medicine man and his simples. 



THE MEDICINE MAN 



Having devoted the previous chapter to a fairly comprehensive 

 survey of aboriginal beliefs concerning disease and its treatment, we 

 will now give our attention to a most commanding figure in Cherokee 

 life; a figure not only dominating the community in cases of disease 

 and death but exercising its influence in almost all aspects of every- 

 day life — the medicine man. (PI. 8, a.) 



Medicine men do not have special names, nor are they grouped in 

 any society. Although they are sometimes referred to as ana^'ngwi'ski, 



