Olbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 207 



powerful wizard, what (is there) thou ever failest in? The important 

 thing, which he ^* has put under him, is the very thing thou eatest. 

 Only a likeness of it will be left, when thou will have passed. (And) 

 not for a night (only, but forever). Relief indeed has been caused. 

 This is to scratch them. A brier should be used with it. And to 

 cure (them) with common everlasting (mth the) yellow flowers, (and) 

 little vetch are to be rubbed on them. "All day" has been said, but 

 as long as noon (is) merely (meant). Fasting is the only restriction. 



EXPLANATION 



This formula is used for scratching with a brier, preparatory to 

 rubbing on the medicine, in cases of local pains and muscular cramps 

 and twitching. The patient is said also to dream of game and 

 hunting. 



Ailments of this class are ascribed to the influence of revengeful 

 deer ghosts, possibly because the deer, lilce the horse and the cow, 

 has a habit of nervously twitching the muscles while standing. The 

 hunter always took care to ward off the evil results, by asking pardon 

 of the slain deer according to a set formula, after having Idlled it. 

 [These formulas are now no longer known. There are even many 

 medicine men who have never heard about them. It is easy to 

 understand that this kind of formula would soon fall into desuetude 

 and oblivion with the extinction of the deer. (Cf. further Mooney, 

 Myths, pp. 263-264.)] 



The raven is invoked because it is accustomed to feed upon the 

 offal left by the hunter after cutting up the game. [For the same 

 reason the raven is mentioned in some of the hunting formulas, 

 "because," as an inforaiant told me, "he is as anxious to point out 

 the deer to us as we are to shoot it, because he knows that he will 

 get the guts (of the shot animal)."] 



The formula is recited by the medicine men after each round of 

 scratching while standing over the patient, and holding the cup 

 containing the medicine in his uplifted hand. Having finished the 

 formula, he brings the cup slowly down with a spiral circuit, after 

 the manner a raven descends, imitating at the same time the raven's 

 cry, k'a* k'a' k'a* k*a*, until he puts the cup to the lips of the patient, 

 who then takes a drink of the medicine. 



The scratching is done with a stout piece of brier, ni;*'Gutlo"', 

 Smilax glauca Walt., saw brier, having thorns about the size of 

 large rose thorns. The medicine which is rubbed into the scratches 

 consists of a warm infusion of k'o*'sDi;"'D8, Gnajphalium, obtusifoUum L., 

 common everlasting; uitso"'"sti u'str'aa, Vicia carolinianaW sdt., vetch. 



3< The disease spirit. 

 7548°— 32 15 



