n^ZII'frlr^] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 91 



OlbkecutsJ 



A poor attempt in this direction is being made by the more progres- 

 sive of the medicine men, whom I found cultivating the following 

 medicinal plants: 



tso-'laGay9-'"h, Nicotiana rustica L., wild tobacco. 



a-''skwane-'D5", Veratrum viride Ait., American white helle})ore; 

 Indian poke. 



tso-'ltyi;"sti Gf'GaGe'"' a-\lzfl5°'ski, Lobelia cardinalis L., cardinal 

 flower. 



Dunu*'na, Glycine apios L. 



a't'tse'H, Alnus rugosa (Du Koi) Spreng., smooth alder. 



Gana-'ca tsu-'nt'ano"', Scirpus validus Vahl, great bulrush. 



It is equally rare to find medicine men collecting and drying roots or 

 other parts of simples for use in sudden emergencies. Only three 

 items so treated have come to my attention: Powder (snufi") of the 

 dried leaves of tso-'laGay9-'"li, Nicotiana rustica L,, wild tobacco, and 

 the root of o-'naliGa'^li, Panax trifolium L., dwarf ginseng, and finally 

 the roots needed for prenatal and puerperal care, and that can not be 

 located in wintertime. 



Social Status 



Even if we no longer find any traces of the individual medicine man 

 or of a body of them exercising any such politic influence as has been 

 ascribed to the a nikuta"ni (see p. 97), there is no doubt but that the 

 position of the medicine man must at one time have been one of 

 considerable importance in the tribe. 



Such hints as Adair's statement (p. 240) that Priber, forming the 

 Cherokee "into a nominal republican government, crowned their old 

 Archimagus emperor," seem to indicate that the political influence 

 of the medicine men, or at any rate of the chief medicine man, was 

 very considerable at that time. 



In many of the tales relating to the war exploits of the Cherokee 

 against the neighboring tribes it is often explicitly stated that a 

 medicine man accompanies the party, and the success of the expedition 

 often depends more on his skill in divination and conjuring than on the 

 prowess and cunning of the warriors. This also must undoubtedly 

 have resulted in strengthening their position socially, as his orders 

 were of greater import than those of the actual leader of the party. 



Even now, when two settlements are training for the ball game, a 

 contest which with the Cherokee is as much of a social as of a sportive 

 nature, the medicine man is exercising his influence and his per- 

 sonality in such a way that the whole affair takes the aspect of a 

 contest between the occult power of the two medicine men conjuring 

 for the teams rather than that of a match between two rival teams of 

 players. 



It is he, the medicine man, not the chief of the settlement, who 

 addresses the team before they leave home to meet their opponents. 



