144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



books and stationery all around, and the host's way of receiving his 

 visitor (not answering his knocking, not looking up as he comes in, 

 not even to shake hands, etc.), all this is strongly reminiscent of the 

 reception accorded "Injuns" at some of the agency offices. This 

 experience, it should be noted, was dreamed nearly 40 years ago. 



I might finally state that the social status of this life is not modified 

 in the next, chiefs remaining chiefs; medicine men, medicine men; etc. 



Using such expressions as "this life" and "next life" is not quite 

 doing justice to Cherokee conceptions; they look upon life and after- 

 life as different lives in space, rather than as successive lives in time. 

 They do not, as a Christian would put it, live a mortal life, and an 

 eternal life after that, but they move from their settlement in the 

 Great Smokies to the "place out west." They speak of the people 

 out west as they would of a neighboring tribe, as the Creeks, or even 

 as they would of a Cherokee settlement some "overnights" away. 



Suicide 



Suicides, although not unknown, are very rare. The motives of 

 the few cases that have come to my attention are the general human 

 ones — to be suffering from an illness which is reputed incurable and 

 love troubles seeming to be the two main causes. 



A suicide always causes a tremendous commotion; but no special 

 beliefs are connected with it, nor with the ghost of the victim. The 

 burial takes place as usual. 



Even old informants could not remember more than three cases of 

 suicide; all the cases were men. Two shot themselves and one stran- 

 gled himself with a rope. 



Tragical Deaths 



Another kind of death which arouses local interest and comment, 

 and which is handed down to posterity along with the traditional 

 lore and the sacred myths, is that resulting from accident, especially 

 if it is accompanied by some uncanny details. 



THE FORMULAS 



Name 



There are two ways in which both laity and specialists refer to the 

 sacred and medicinal formulas and the knowledge they contain. 



If one medicine man wants to broach the subject to one of his 

 compeers, with a view of discussing their mutual knowledge, he says: 

 Go'u'sti 'i'kt*a'9''.i, i. e., "^^^lat do you know?"; and of a medicine ' 

 man who is reputed well versed in this lore, the lay community says : 

 a]k;tVfyu', i. e., "he knows a great deal." 



