oirBKCHTs] I'HE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 215 



})lowing is also from the breast downward along the abdomen. 

 The whole operation should be repeated four times at each treat- 

 ment, but as the formula as here given consists of but three parts, it 

 seems probable [that a fourth paragraph has been lost in the course 

 of time]. 



While uiider treatment the patient only drinks soup or the decoc- 

 tion, but no water, which for some reason unexplained is believed to 

 bring the worms to life again, when they are said to be more trouble- 

 some than at first. Eggs are tabooed for the same reason, and all 

 greasy food is prohibited. 



The formula opens with a short address to the Fire, "The Old 

 White One," in which the medicine man declares that the patient's 

 body, spoken of under the figurative term of "clay," is filled with 

 pain, and pregnant with yo"sywa' a word which the medicine men 

 can not now explain [but which is very probably connected with 

 do^'su, "weak"]. 



The word for worms u'ntozf'ya (sgl. uDZf'ya) is also applied to the 

 common earthworm, which renders peculiarly appropriate the use of 

 the figurative term "clay" to designate the body.*^ 



After having addressed the Fire, while warming his hands the 

 medicine man goes on to invoke vaiious long-billed swamp birds, 

 which feed upon worms, telling each in turn to put his bill into the 

 muddy ooze and pull out the intruder, which "is just what you eat." 

 In this case the mythic color of the birds is white, which is not to be 

 understood as their actual color. 



[Og. told Mr. Mooney that he used a similar formula but a slightly 

 different prescription to cure this ailment; in addition to Indian pink 

 he used ym'skwuDo"' tsi;nstt*'Ga (small buckeye). This does not grow 

 on the Cherokee Reservation, but somewhere in Tennessee, and only 

 one old medicine man, u*sa'wi(?), who lived about 15 years ago, knew 

 where to find it, and was sent for it whenever it was needed. No 

 informant was able to identify the plant during my stay in 1926-27.] 



33 



*t'a' Ganani;"'GO'tstD'}-'!i vne'^sta-'neH yt'ki a'na'nc/wo't'i' | 



this it appears about, H they have pain, if it is to cure anyone with 



App. 



SGe'* I V-no"''Gw5''' *a t'yrja'ni'Ga' tst-ya' wo''ttG€'°' 



Now, then! hal now thou hast come to listen Otter brown 



i;"9DZ0-'-yt"-DZ0°' DltS'i'tlt'o'tSti I SO'GWO'" D€-'nutsGo'tlanfGa' I 

 cold, Loc, direction thou art staying one thou and I have become one 



** E'lyWt'tstosiiM may be a contraction of: e'la (=clay) uwe'tstosoJi (it has been 

 made painful), as Mr. Mooney interprets it. During my stay no medicine man 

 was able to give any information on this expression, nor did anyone remember 

 whether the body was ever referred to by this metaphor. None of the myths 

 throw any light on the question. I am inclined to believe that the e'l- prefix is 

 not an abbreviation of eda, clay, but a contamination of oyedo", body. 



