228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



Death," which is another way of saying that it has its origin in malarial 

 exhalations in the vicinity of the house. This explains the expression 

 so often repeated: "It has been decided underneath." The same 

 word (Ganfth) is now used for both a bedstead and a board floor, but 

 in former times the Cherokee cabins had no floor but the ground, and 

 the "bed" was a raised platform running around next to the wall on 

 the inside. As the Indians never dreamed of keeping the premises 

 clean it was the universal custom among the eastern tribes to occupy 

 a house im til the accumulated filth rendered the site unhealthy, when 

 the site was abandoned and the inmates removed to a new location. 



The formida consists of four paragraphs differing but shghtly 

 except as regards the color and location of the spirit invoked. Each 

 one is named in the regular order, east, north, west, and south, with 

 the corresponding color, red, blue, black, and white. Each one is 

 also said to be surrounded as he goes about by a number of subor- 

 dinate and auxiliary spirits, probably the "Little People" so often 

 invoked, the countless spirits that dwell in the air, the forests, the 

 cliffs, and the water. The great Measure Wonn (wa'i'li e'Gwb'^), 

 figuratively used in the fonnulas to denote the south is said to be a 

 mountain on the border of South Carolina, perhaps the same known 

 as Csesar's Head. It is quite possible, however, that the mythic 

 wa*t'li had no real existence, and that the modern Cherokee have 

 simply Confused the name with that of Walhalla, a town in upper 

 South Carolina. 



The medicine consists of a warm infusion of the roots of several 

 varieties of fern; [iGo''"li is a name given to any variety of fern; without 

 any more definite description it is not possible to identify it; it may 

 be one of the folio v^dng species: tGo°'*h uwo''sktH' ustf'ca, Osmunda 

 cinnamomea L., cinnamon fern; tGo°'*h i;wo''sktli' ngyo'ci €'!i, Cystop- 

 teris fragilis (L.) Bernh., bladder fern; iGo'^'^h vje^laa'^' , Dennstaedtia 

 'punctilohula (Michx.) Moore, hay-scented fern (also iGa°''li Dawt's^ 

 kaGf'.i) ; k'o'Gaskg'^DaGe, Adiantum pedatum L., maidenliair fern ; yo^'na 

 i;Dze*'sto', Polystichum acrostichoides (Michx.) Schott., Christmas fern]. 



The medicine man holding a cup containing part of the decoction 

 in his hand, stands on the east side of the patient, who faces him. 

 The medicine man then recites the first paragraph, addressing the 

 Red Man, after which he takes a draught of the liquid and blows it 

 four times upon the head and the breast of the patient. Then moving 

 around successively to the north, west, and south of the patient, he 

 recites in order the remaining three paragraphs, blov/ing the medicine 

 on the patient after each one as described. The ceremony is repeated 

 four times before noon, and for four days, if necessary. 



[For the reason why the ferns are used, see page 54.] 



