286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



This is the Medicine When They Have the Itching 



FREE TRANSLATION 



They must drink Virginia snakeroot; it is also to be used to blow 

 them wdth. 



Yellow Fire (4 times). Sharply! 

 Fire! (4 times). 



Yellow Rabbit (4 times). Sharply! 

 Rabbit! (4 times). 



EXPLANATION 



[This song is to treat the same ailment as described in the notes 

 following prescription No. 4, p. 173. 



In this case the disease is beheved to be caused by the patient 

 having urinated on the ashes. This doubtless explains why the fire 

 is addressed under its formuHstic name of o-ya' but it has not been 

 possible to learn why the Rabbit was called upon. Both to the fire 

 and to the rabbit a yellow color is ascribed, to correspond with the 

 color of the urine.] 



The medicine used is the root of D'naste'Hstf'Ga, Aristolochia ser- 

 pentaria L., Virginia snakeroot, which is chewed by the medicine 

 man and blown by him into the urethra by means of a grass stalk 

 or a small tube of cane, according to the sex of the patient. A portion 

 of the snakeroot is also steeped in water and the infusion drunk by 

 the patient, who is forbidden to eat potatoes or beans while under 

 treatment. As this disease has its theoretic origin in the Fire, the 

 reason for this taboo is probably the same as that given in No. 45. 



The bark of tsfyu', Liriodendron tulipifera L., tulip tree, poplar, 

 whitewood, is sometimes used as a substitute for the snakeroot. 



In making the ceremonial application, the medicine man sings the 

 first line of the song, addressed to the yeUow Fire, and then blows the 

 medicine four times into the urethra. He then repeats the line in 

 the same manner, after which he calls four times upon the Fire in a 

 quick, sharp tone of voice, and blows his breath four times into the 

 urethra as the medicine was blown into it before. The same alternate 

 blowing of the medicine and of the breath is repeated with the second 

 part of the song addressed to the Yellow Rabbit. The ceremony thus 

 consists of four stages, as is usually the case in the medical formulas, 

 viz.: 



1. Song to the Fire; medicine blown four times. 



2. Song to the Fire; breath blown four times. 



3. Song to the Rabbit; medicine blown four times. 



4. Song to the Rabbit; breath blown four times. 



[During my stay with the Cherokee the practice of blowing the 

 medicine into the urethra of the patient was no longer known. 



