SwANTON] INDIAN'S OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 793 



is a distinction between the Knowers or Diagnosticians and the 

 Fasters or Doctors proper, and something has been said about the 

 training of the latter and their insignia. In 1912 there was a 

 famous Knower called Yahola living at a station named after him a 

 few miles out of Muskogee, Oklahoma. His abode (pi. 107, fig. 1) 

 was surrounded by bare spots connected in intricate patterns which 

 he is said to have made to represent the several Creek Square 

 Grounds. Formerly, these practitioners ran around the patient shak- 

 ing a rattle, invoking various supernatural beings and making use 

 of objects of symbolic significance. This was largely to ascertain the 

 nature of the disease after which the doctor would give directions 

 to steam the patient, or to give him a medicine consisting of an in- 

 fusion of roots, bark, or other substances, usually drawn from the 

 vegetable kingdom. Plate 107, figure 2, shows the frame of a sweat 

 house at the Chiaha Seminole Square Ground. This type, however, 

 may have been due to influences from the west. There might be 

 one or many ingredients used. After they had been assembled, the 

 doctor usually blew into the compound through a cane tube and 

 chanted certain formulae needed to give efficacy to the whole. While 

 he was doing this, he generally faced the east but the direction might 

 vary, depending on the prescription, and sometimes he faced all 

 four cardinal points in succession, commonly ending, however, with 

 the east. The head of the sick man was ordinarily laid to the east, 

 and bark, roots, and other materials were taken from the east side of 

 a tree or other object. Blood-letting and sucking, either with the 

 mouth or by means of a cow horn, was a common method of treat- 

 ment. Bandages and splints were employed and the sick were 

 carried about on litters, as Le Moyne states was the Timucua cus- 

 tom. When a warrior had been wounded, he was placed in a hut 

 by himself, his diet was carefully regulated, and in particular he 

 was guarded from all contact with women. Swan states that, when 

 a doctor was unsuccessful, he often attributed his failures to the 

 cats and dogs about the house which were then killed promptly or 

 sent out of the neighborhood. Not infrequently a doctor who lost 

 his patient was him. self killed. Doctors sometimes engaged in super- 

 natural combats with each other. It was claimed by some that a 

 doctor's power consisted in certain creatures who constituted his 

 strength so long as he could control them, but when he lost his power 

 over them he died and they ran away from him in the forms of animals 

 of various kinds like lizards and snakes. According to the Alabama 

 and Koasati, it was the presence of lizards which caused a man to 

 possess the powers of a wizard. Before entering upon official duties 

 medicine men, at least sometimes, had to undergo certain special fasts 

 and ceremonies. As in the case of the Cherokee, most sicknesses 



