oIbrecIts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 117 



It is held that imsimultaneous detumescence can not produce 

 offspring. 



There is no clear conception as to the origin of the soul of the 

 child. The majority of the informants say that they do not know, 

 "they have never thought of it." The keenest of the medicine men, 

 W., thought that it came along, with what went to form the body of 

 the child, and was therefore secreted by both the individuals 

 concerned in the act. 



A woman knows she has conceived by the stopping of her cata- 

 menial flow. 



Abortus — Contraceptives 



Abortus is totally unknown; even my best informant (a man of 

 56, prominent medicine man, holding a leading position in the tribal 

 organization, twice married, high school graduate), had never heard 

 of it, and I had a good deal of difficulty in making him understand 

 what I meant. He was horrified at the idea, and I am afraid his 

 esteem for the white people and the ways of some of them was not 

 improved, when he finally grasped the idea. 



It does not seem to have dawned on them that the foetus can be 

 tampered with at aU, and to do so, W. thought, would be outright 

 murder. As he put it: "You might as well cut a 5-year-old child's 

 head off." 



Of contraceptive measures, they do not seem to be quite so ignorant. 

 They know one: t'l'ltyu^sti {Cicuta maculata L. ; spotted cowbane; 

 musquash root; beaver's poison), the roots of which are chewed and 

 swallowed for four days consecutively by the woman who wants to 

 put an end to her conceptive abilities. It is alleged that if a woman 

 uses this she will become sterile forever. 



From a point of view of morals, it is considered nothing less than 

 a crime, and none of my informants knew a case where it had been 

 used. One, W. again, said that he never knew it to be used, but 

 that he imagines that it might be used by a woman who can not keep 

 her children alive, or when it is considered that "partus" would 

 endanger her life. But even then, he said, they would not do it, 

 "for a woman will just as lief take the risk of dying with her baby, 

 rather than to live without a child." 



There is a vague hint by some of the informants at the possibility 

 of promiscuous women using this drug, especially if they are married, 

 so that there can be no material proof of their misbehavior. But 

 substantial evidence to prove this impression could not be given. 



When we consider their total ignorance of abortive measures 

 and the scant and vague knowledge of contraceptives, I am inclined 

 to think that the Cherokee hold the only means known to them from 

 the white settlers. It is said that, at an early period of its growth. 



