158 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



and the paraphernalia that are necessary, is prefixed to the formula 

 as a caption. 



Medicinal prescriptions may have a caption, but, as is easy to 

 understand, usually are not followed by any directions, since they 

 themselves contain the data which are found in the directions 

 appended to the formula. 



As will appear from the section describing the structure of the 

 formulas, these very often are made up of four paragraphs, which, 

 save for a couple of words, are textually identical. It does not seem 

 to have struck many of the medicine men that they could save them- 

 selves a good deal of trouble by merely writing down one paragraph 

 completely, and only the variants in the three following paragraphs. 

 As a rule the four paragraphs are written out completely, this some- 

 times resulting in slightly varying spellings which may often be 

 quite interesting from the point of view of the phonetician. Only 

 when writing down certain songs in which the same expression is 

 repeated over and over again, the copyist gives proof of a more 

 practical turn of mind and only copies each expression once, entrusting 

 the sequence and the repetitions to his memory. 



I have already mentioned the curious practice of "camouflaging" 

 the contents of certain of the "bad" formulas, mostly love or man- 

 killing incantations, by captions that have nothing whatever to do 

 with their actual purpose. (See p. 154.) This is done to deceive any 

 outsiders or uninitiated persons, who, by accident, might get posses- 

 sion of the book or the papers. But considering the jealous care 

 with which medicine men keep their writings hidden and secluded, 

 there is really no great cause for apprehension on this score. 



I finally might stress once more the importance of the "directions" 

 of the formulas and of the prescriptions. Just as clear and explicit 

 directions appended to them result in a value of 100 per cent, a for- 

 mula without the necessary directions is almost valueless. If a 

 medicine man acquires a new formula, and the directions to it are 

 missing, it means that he will have to hunt for a fellow practitioner 

 who can give him the necessary information as to its use, the simples 

 needed, etc. This has not only the great disadvantage that he has 

 to show his new formula to competitors and rivals, but also that ho 

 will have to pay as much and perhaps more for the "exegesis" as 

 he had to lay out for the acquisition of the formula itself. The 

 formula may be a gem, but the directions indicate its carat. 



Although some of the directions show ample evidence of their 

 antiquity, yet they are not bound to tradition and formalism so 

 rigidly as are the formulas. The latter may have been handed down, 

 as far as we are able to gather, for centuries without an iota having 

 been altered in them; the directions, however, have been subjected 

 to such changes, alterations, and emendations as have been rendered 



