OlbbIchts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 113 



be called by any other name than that of prestidigitation. Yet I 

 remain firmly convinced that ho was in unquestionably good faith in 

 this regard. 



One of the more sinister persons in the profession is Jo. (70 years 

 old, widower). He is looked upon by all the others not only as an 

 outsider but as an impostor. This opinion I am rather inclined to 

 believe as doing justice to the facts, the more so as I have never been 

 able to induce him to work with me, in spite of his reputed greedy 

 love of money. He is a member of the Cherokee Council and a 

 preacher for one of the two Churches that makeefi'orts to evangelize the 

 people. It is quite a proposition to try to analyze Jo.'s personality, 

 as it is very intricate. Since he is a preacher, which to him is para- 

 mount to being a full-fledged member of the intelligentsia of the white 

 people, he considers it just as necessary to belong to the leading 

 personalities of his own people; for this reason he becomes a medicine 

 man, or rather pretends to be one. Since, now, being a preacher 

 gives him the right and the authority to expound and explain the 

 hidden and secret meanings of Holy Writ to his congregation, he 

 thinks he also has the privilege of altering Cherokee traditional and 

 medical lore to suit his opinion; that is where he comes in open conflict 

 with the conservatives in general, and most of all with the ensign 

 bearers of conservatism, the medicine men. 



To give an instance : Whereas tradition teaches that the future can 

 only be divulged by definitely specified means (beads, ''brown 

 stone," etc.), and by an elaborate ritual, Jo. pretends that he can 

 prophecy without any such paraphernalia; that he simply sees the 

 future happenings and events; that he has a revelation, as we would 

 say. 



Such a statement, to the mind of those of the medicine men that are 

 sincere, is nothing short of blasphemy, and to those that are not quite 

 so honest, it is even more odious, because when you take away from 

 such a ceremony as divination all the mysterious uncanny, awe- 

 inspiring proceedings, such as twisting the beads, intently watching 

 the dangling brown stone, praying to the Ancient Fire prior to drop- 

 ping the sacred tobacco over it — if all this is done away with, what 

 remains to impress the clients? 



Yet the influence which Jo. has as a preacher and as a councillor 

 makes it possible for him to be a heretic and not be ostracized, and 

 to be a blasphemer and not to starve. 



Knowing as he does the disdain he is held in by the other medicine 

 men, Jo. plays tit for tat, never letting an occasion pass to "make 

 them mad." The primordial quality of a Cherokee medicine man, 

 devotion to his patients, whether from a true moral incentive or from 

 mere love of the fee, is absolutely foreign to Jo., and as I know him, 

 I am honestly convinced that on the rare occasion a patient ascribes 



