OLBRECHTs] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 101 



Although the o*'si has passed out of existence generations ago, 

 even now the instruction is only imparted during the night. The 

 medicine man and the candidate talk until morning, and then go 

 to the river and bathe ritually, sprinkling vi^ater on their face, on the 

 crown of their head, and on their breast, "where their soul is." This 

 is done many nights in succession, whether the novice be staying 

 with the medicine man or whether he walks in eveiy night until he 

 knows all his master is able or willing to tell Mm. 



Before the instruction proper is started, however, the applicant 

 has to drink a decoction to enable him to remember all he learns. 

 With this end in view, he may take one or all of the following medi- 

 cines : 



A small cluster of leaves, rubbish, and refuse, such as is found 

 occasionally floating on the surface of the water, must be fished out 

 and examined. If it has any small insect, usually a spider, in it, it 

 is cooked, insect and all, and the decoction is drunl<:, fasting, for four 

 or seven consecutive days; immediately after having drank it, the 

 candidate must go to the river and vomit. 



Another much-extolled and highly esteemed medicine to obtain 

 a never-failing memoiy is to drink the water found in the leaf of a 

 pitcher plant: yu'Gwi'^la (Sarracenia purpurea L., sidesaddle flower, 

 pitcher plant, huntsman's cup). 



These leaves, as is known, have the peculiar habit of keeping 

 imprisoned anything that has fallen into them (the Cherokee say 

 "anything that flies over them"), insects, spiders, small leaves, etc., 

 and it is easy to see the principle of sympathy, according to which 

 this plant is used in order to "keep the knowledge acquired imprisoned 

 in the mind." 



This plant is also called tcsko'-y'k'ana-'t'i "the successful (or 

 never-failing) insect hunter," or wa'e-'-'^la, possibly a dialectical vari- 

 ant of yv'GWL^la,. 



The different kinds of i;ni'stJy°.t'sti, all the varieties of "bur 

 plants," are also used, separately or jointly, in a decoction and drunk 

 by the candidate. As the burs stick and cling to anything that comes 

 in contact with them, they will also be of material assistance in keep- 

 ing the acquired knowledge sticking in the mind. 



The candidate has, moreover, to be more carefid than ever not to 

 eat any food prepared by a menstrual woman. (See p. 34.) A 

 breach of tliis taboo is dangerous enough in everyday life and for an 

 average individual; but for a medicine man, and even more so for a 

 candidate medicine man who is in the act of acquiring his knowledge, 

 it would mean a real calamity; not only would he forget all he knows, 

 but he would be spoiled outright. 



In order to avert these disasters he must, therefore, whenever he 

 stands in any danger of coming into contact with a woman in this 



