152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



Fob Examining with the Beads 

 aDe-'lo° Di'kt'o.ti' 



bead(s) to look with them 



These are the formulas that are used when conjuring with the red 

 (or white) and black beads; this manipulation is very frequent in 

 Cherokee magic and medicine. 



It is nothing else but a kind of divination by which such hidden 

 things are alleged to be discovered, as whether a sick man will live 

 or die, whether we will be successfid against an enemy, whether we 

 will be successful in love, etc. 



These formulas are unknown to the laity. No. 83 of the Ay. 

 manuscript belongs to this class. 



Just as the tobacco (cf. above), the beads may be used ''both 

 ways," as the Cherokee put it; i. e., they can be used to bring about 

 beneficial or deleterious results, according to whether they are used 

 along with a conjuration or with an incantation. But the medicine 

 men always distinguish clearly between the two uses to which this 

 manipulation may be put; the essence of the act does not depend on 

 the paraphernalia used, but on the kind of formula which is recited. 



Against Witches 



s9'no*'yi e'HQ'li Gana*'y'to.ti' uGQ-'wutli' 



at night he wallis about to guard with for the purpose of 



This land of conjuration is recited to ward off the evil influence or 

 the envious machinations of witches. 



As described (p. 30), witches are especially active around the 

 dwelling of the sick and the dying. (For a full description of the 

 activities of the witches and of the ways of thwarting these, see 

 pp. 29-33.) 



Agricultural 



Se-lu' 

 corn 



The whole of the Cherokee collection of formulas is very poor IQ 

 specimens of this description. This can be explained in two ways. 



The fine climate and the good soil of the southern Alleghanies 

 have made agriculture for the Cherokee a far easier proposition than 

 it is, e. g., for the tribes of the Southwest. They are not so scantily 

 provided with rain as the desert people are, and therefore formulas 

 to cause rain or to make the corn grow may never have been used 

 to any considerable extent. 



The present scarcity of these formulas might also be explained in 

 this way, that the Cherokee are now far less dependent on the native 

 crops than they were a couple of centuries ago, when they did not 

 have the advantages of the easy niean^ of communication, and when 

 they did not have traders and farmers living in their midst, or only 



