118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99, 



the plant resembles parsley (cf. Larousse Medical (Paris, 1922), 226), 

 and parsley {Petroselinum sativum Hoffm.) has been and still is 

 popular in several European countries as an abortive (cf. v. Hov. 

 Kr. I 170; Lemery 417; Dodoens 1176). It is still used in official 

 medicine as an emmenagogue (U. S. Dispensatory, p. 1393). 



During Pregnancy 



As soon as a woman feels she is with child she informs her husband 

 and her friends of it. Soon the whole settlement knows about 

 her condition, and she becomes subjected to the multifarious taboos 

 and injunctions relating to her condition. The most important of 

 the latter is that she be " taken to the water" every new moon. 



The ceremony of going to the river to pray, to be prayed for, and 

 to bathe, is the outstanding one of Cherokee ritual. It is now fast 

 disappearing, and only the staimch and conservative old-timers cling 

 to it as to one of the last vestiges of aboriginal religion. 



As stated elsewhere (see p. 150), there are sereral occasions on which 

 the Cherokee should perform this ceremony ; as a whole, the ceremony 

 is pretty much the same in every case; whether it be merely the 

 monthly rite at the new moon, or whether it be to work against an 

 enemy, or to conjure a disease away, or to "examine with the beads," 

 the individual on whose behalf the ceremony is performed goes to 

 the bank of the river, accompanied by the priest, who recites some 

 prayer, conjuration, or incantation, at the end of which some water is 

 dipped out with the hollow of the hand, and the crown of the head, 

 the bosom ("where our soul is"), and often the face is washed. 



The particular ceremony of taking pregnant women to the water is 

 renewed at every new moon, a few months prior to the expected 

 delivery. According to information, listed in notes of Mooney, it 

 should be started after the third month of pregnancy; 01. and Del. 

 told me that it was only observed during the last three months 

 preceding delivery, whereas W. maintained the ceremony took place 

 every new moon, starting when the pregnant woman felt for the 

 first time the motion of the child within her, which is said by the 

 Cherokee to happen usually about the fifth month after conception. 



The pregnant woman goes down to the river, accompanied by the 

 priest. Two white beads (white being the color emblematic of hfe), 

 or sometimes two red beads (red being the color symbolizing success), 

 and a white thread, 50 to 60 centimeters long, are put down on the 

 ground on a yard of white calico. All this is to be supplied by the 

 client, and is afterwards taken away by the priest as his fee. 



The couple is usually accompanied by an attendant, as a rule the 

 husband, the mother, or some other relative of the woman, who 

 throughout the proceedings acts as assistant, spreading out the cloth, 



