304 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buu,. 99 



EXPLANATION 



This formula [edited and discussed by Mr, Mooney in his article 

 on Cherokee River Cult, p. 9] is for going to water to avert the 

 consequences of bad dreams, such as of falling from a cliff, drowning 

 in the river, or being crushed under a log. Such dreams are generally 

 regarded as the result of hostile conjurations of some secret enemy, 

 and it is held that the calamity thus shadowed forth will actually 

 befall (the victim) unless some ceremony be performed to avert it. 



The medicine man mentions the name and clan of his client and 

 endeavors to send the evil fortune from him, to "where [there is a 

 crowd of] people," i. e., to some distant settlement. 



The medicine man and his client go down to the water at daybreak 

 and stand at the edge of the stream as already described. The 

 medicine man then recites the formula, after which his client, stripped 

 with the exception of his shirt, wades out into the water and ducks 

 under seven times. At the seventh plunge he tears the shirt from 

 his body while still under water and lets it float down the stream. It 

 is afterwards secured and taken by the medicine man as his fee if it 

 is worth the trouble. If of no value the client gives other cloth 

 instead. After this preliminary ceremony the client remains standing 

 in the water while the medicine man, on the bank, takes out his beads 

 and proceeds to banish the impending calamity. 



He first asks [his chent] to what [settlement] he wishes to send the 

 evil foreshadowed in the prophetic dream, for it is held that such 

 dreams must be fulfilled, and that all the medicine man can do is to 

 divert their accomphshment from the intended victim. The client 

 names some distant settlement as the place where he wishes the blow 

 to fall and the medicine man at once begins the ceremony to send 

 the tso-'sta to that point. Should the medicine man find himself 

 unable to send it so far his chent names some nearer settlement, and a 

 second attempt is made, and so on, until a resting place is found for 

 the calamity, even if it be necessary to send it to another clan or 

 family within the settlement of the client himself. These successive 

 trials are made by "worldng [with] the beads": [The medicine man 

 holds a black bead representing the evil between thumb and fore- 

 finger of one hand, and a red or white bead, representing the client, 

 between thumb and index finger of the other hand. Should the 

 black bead prove the more lively and vivacious in its movements, 

 the client's bead remaining motionless, or moving only very slowly, 

 the chances for banishing the evil to the settlement in question are 

 very scanty, and another settlement has to be named and the opera- 

 tion has to be started over again.] 



After each successive trial the client stoops down and laves his 

 face [sometimes also the crown of his head and his breast with water 



