794 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLCKSY [Bull. 137 



were supposed to come from animals, real or mythical, and a story 

 collected by Dr. Speck represents each animal as creating a disease 

 and specifying the remedy for it. While the practices of the sev- 

 eral medicine men were genetically similar, there were numerous 

 specific differences, and some specialized on certain kinds of dis- 

 ease or certain types of remedy. Among the various diseases may be 

 enumerated diseases from the deer, bear, bison, rabbit, raccoon, 

 squirrel, dog, wolf, rat or mouse, lion (?), wildcat, panther, mole, 

 opossum, beaver, otter, muskrat, eagle, buzzard, "many-snakes," 

 "gatherers-in-the-waters," snake, turtle, terrapin, alligator, perch, 

 "periwinkle," slug, millipede, ant, "mastodon" (?), various mythic 

 creatures, rainbow, thunder, sun, fire, diseases caused by women, 

 etc. (Swanton, 1928, pp. 614^670; Speck, 1907 b, pp. 121-133; 1909, 

 pp. 132-137). 



There appears to have been little difference between Creek medical 

 practice in general and the practice of the Chickasaw, but the Pish- 

 ofa ceremony was either peculiar to the latter or particularly prom- 

 inent among them. This was undertaken for the express purpose 

 of restoring some sick person to health, and it was under the 

 charge of a doctor who prescribed the details. It may be described as 

 a collective drive upon the imagination of the patient, and no doubt 

 was highly beneficial in certain cases.''^ The Chickasaw doctors as 

 priests have been treated elsewhere, and their procedure in restoring 

 wounded warriors has also been covered in discussing Creek practice. 

 Adair extols the efficacy of their treatment of snake bite, and men- 

 tions among their remedies button snakeroot, a yellow-flowered water 

 lily, and ginseng, to which the black drink might be added. Among 

 diseases recognized by the Chickasaw may be enumerated diseases 

 caused by the snake, dog, deer, red snake, little people, wolf, bear, 

 skunk, big hog, red squirrel, squirrel, heat, beaver, otter, mole, eagle, 

 owl, ground rattlesnake, blue snake, burning ghost, screech owl, to 

 which we may add the disease mentioned by Adair as "the cattle 

 distemper" (Swanton, 1928 c, pp. 263-272). 



Our earliest mention of medical practice among the Choctaw 

 speaks mainly of the custom of cupping: 



When there is a sick person among them they have the doctor come to the 

 place where he is, who, after having conjured or demanded of their Spirit if the 

 sick person will get well, bleeds him with a piece of flint Eight or ten incisions 

 are made in the skin in the space of the size of a crown {^cu), as when one 

 cups, over which they place one end of a pierced horn and suck it until the 

 horn is full of blood. As these jugglers sometimes wish to hide their ignorance 

 they say that someone has thrown a spell over them (the patients) and then 

 they adroitly put some bison wool or a little piece of wood into the bottom 

 of the horn, and after having sucked the sick man and poured out the blood 



« Cf. W. B. Parker quoted in Foreman, 1934, pp. 142-143. 



