SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY

VOLUME 2, Number 3

Muskogean Charm Songs

Among the Oklahoma Cherokees

Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and Anna Gritts Kilpatrick

SMITHSONIAN PRESS

Washington: 1967

A Publication of the
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

United States National Museum

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U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1967

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

THE MUSKOGEAN ENCLAVES

THE SONGS

1. To “remake” a Comb

2. To cure flatulence

3. For divining the outcome of a love affair

4. To make a woman lovesick

5. To prevent fever from eating green corn

6. To “remake” tobacco for use in attracting a woman

7. For hunting

8. For hunting deer

9. For hunting deer (incomplete)

10. For stopping bleeding

LITERATURE CITED

Illustrations

TEXT FIGURES

  1. Song to “remake” a comb

  2. Song to cure flatulence

  3. Song for divining the outcome of a love affair

  4. Song to make a woman lovesick

  5. Alternate beginning to Song 4

  6. Song to prevent fever from eating green corn

  7. Song to “remake” tobacco for use in attracting a woman

  8. Song for hunting

  9. Song for hunting deer (part 1)

10. Song for hunting deer (part 2)

11. Song for hunting deer (incomplete)

The authors wish to acknowledge that certain aspects of the research necessary to the preparation of this paper were made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

MUSKOGEAN CHARM SONGS AMONG THE

OKLAHOMA CHEROKEES

By Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and Anna Gritts Kilpatrick

Introduction

Manuscript works on medicine and magic among the Oklahoma Cherokees sometimes contain idi:gawé:sdi (to be said, them, by one) or the texts of charm songs that, although written or partially written in the Sequoyah syllabary, are not in the Cherokee language. Cherokee din(a)da:hnvwi:sg(i) (those who cure them = medicine men), who as a rule know no Indian language other than their own, are aware that such writings, in some instances handed down to them through several generations, are in either Creek or Natchez. But only rarely does one encounter a medicine man who thinks that he knows the meaning of a specific word here or there. More commonly he will not know even the general drift of what is written, and is not quite sure which particular grouping of syllables constitutes a word. But he does know that his saying or song is powerful—‘alive,’ as he expresses it—and there the matter rests.

Since some of the phonemes of Muskogean languages are not found in Cherokee, a certain amount of ingenuity had to be exerted in representing them in the Sequoyah syllabary. The Sequoyan symbol for gwa, for example, may have been chosen to stand for pa. We have seen examples wherein new symbols had been created, or standard symbols reversed or inverted. We have also seen examples in which recourse to the English alphabet had been made in order to compensate for specific deficiencies in the Sequoyah syllabary.

In addition to these Muskogean materials in the possession of din(a)da:hnvwi:sg(i), there is a corpus of charms, chiefly pertaining to hunting, that was once, and perhaps to a certain extent still is, employed by the laity. As pointed out in Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick (1967) for some reason as yet undetermined the aboriginal Cherokee hunting charms were largely supplanted by those of Muskogean origin.

As one might expect, Muskogean medicomagic is most commonly encountered in the southern part of the territory of the Oklahoma Cherokees, a region containing several clearly defined and long-established Muskogean enclaves.

The Muskogean Enclaves

There exists a tradition to the effect that during the period of the Removal from the Southeast, a boatload of Creeks, traveling up the Arkansas River, did not continue on to the territory assigned to them, but instead debarked in the vicinity of Webbers Falls (Muskogee County). Fearful of the possibility of high water in the lowlands along the river, they decided to settle a few miles farther north, up in the hill country. Very probably they divided, one segment going northwest and uniting with their Muskogean relatives, the band of Natchez that had removed with the Cherokee and had settled between what is now Braggs (Muskogee County) and the Illinois River (Sequoyah County). The other segment went northeast, on the opposite side of the Illinois River, and eventually established its residence in the valley of Vian Creek (Sequoyah County).

These Muskogeans were accepted as Cherokees, both by the Cherokees themselves and the United States Government, and at the dissolution of tribal government were enrolled and allotted as Cherokees. They took an active part in Cherokee political and cultural affairs, and were especially prominent in the nativistic Redbird Smith Movement (ca. 1896–1918) (Thomas, 1961).

The viable ceremonial centers of the Muskogean enclaves these days are the Creek Baptist Churches which, from west to east, are: (1) Sand Springs, a couple of miles or so south of Braggs on the tableland that constitutes the top of a very considerable upland between the valley of the Illinois River to the east and the valley of the Arkansas River to the west; (2) Cedar Springs, lying in a cove in the easternmost outthrust of the hills into the valley of the Illinois River, between Gore and the lower end of Tenkiller Lake (both in Sequoyah County);¹ (3) Vian Creek (usually referred to by the Whites as Eveningshade), in the valley of Vian Creek, north of Vian; and (4) Beaver, atop a mountain south of the Adair County community of Bunch.²

¹ In a sense, Sand Springs and Cedar Springs are but two aspects of the same social unity, that of Natcheetown [Natcheztown], the former locus of the Cherokee Natchez. One gets the Impression, however, that the Muskogean blood at Sand Springs is largely Creek; that at Cedar Springs a mixture of Creek and Natchez.

² The descendants of a single individual, Creek Beaver, appear to constitute the nucleus of this community. This patriarch died about 1920 at the reputed age of 117.

Unlike most of the Cherokee Baptist Churches, these Creek churches are not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The Creeks have their own convention. In the Creek fashion, each of these churches has camp houses adjacent to it.

Services are ordinarily conducted in the Creek language, and there are significant differences between them and those conducted in the Cherokee Baptist Churches—especially in the area of hymnody (the hymnology both of the Creek and the Cherokee stands in need of investigation). Depending upon the linguistic attainments of the pastor and the composition of the congregation upon a given occasion, however, a service may be conducted in Creek and Cherokee, or perhaps in Creek, Cherokee, and English. Certainly three of these churches, and possibly all four of them, have Cherokee communicants who, through intermarriage or as a result of having been reared in a Muskogean community, speak Creek as a first language. In one of these churches (Beaver), Muskogeans appear to be in the minority. Upon every occasion that we have visited it, Cherokees and Whites (most of the latter married to Indian husbands and wives) outnumbered Creeks. Its present (1964) pastor, a grandnephew of John R. Swanton’s (1929) Natchez informant, Watt Sam, is thoroughly competent in Creek, Cherokee, and English, and he usually preaches in all three languages.

Not all of these Cherokee-Muskogeans are Christians, of course, but most of them appear to be. To our certain knowledge, however, a great deal of mixed Creek, Natchez, and Cherokee medicine and magic is practiced by the Christians as well as by the non-Christians.

The Songs

In December of 1963 we obtained from a Cherokee shaman living in eastern Cherokee County a stationery tablet, 5×8 inches in size. Upon the rectos of the 9 sheets of paper remaining in it he had written in blue ink with a ballpoint pen 10 song texts in Sequoyah syllabary. Although he had spent his entire life in a Cherokee community, he had some degree of Muskogean blood, probably Natchez, and he was of the opinion that the song texts, orally handed down in his family, were in both Creek and Natchez. Each text was captioned in Cherokee and provided with a few additional explanatory words written in pencil in rather poor English.

At the time of the acquisition of the manuscript it was not possible to obtain the tunes to the texts. Upon July 20, 1964, however, the opportunity arose for transcribing the music, and each song was set down with as close conformity as circumstances would permit to the tempo and pitch at which it was sung. Upon the same occasion additional data relative to the purpose and to the traditional attendant ritualism of each song were supplied.

The reconstitution of these charm songs gave rise to fascinating problems relative to tribal origins. To our knowledge, no thorough investigation of Natchez or Cherokee music has ever been made, and the study by Speck (1911) of Creek music deals primarily with material of a nature quite different from the songs under discussion here (none of which was in Speck, incidentally).³ Any one of these songs could have had a Creek, Natchez, or even Cherokee origin; the possibility of a song having originally been Cherokee, of its having been borrowed by Muskogeans and garbled to a degree that would make it unrecognizable, and then having been reacquired by the Cherokee, could not be ruled out. A composite tune or a macaronic text were other possibilities.

³ A comparison of these songs with those of Densmore (1956) was equally unproductive.

Our primary purpose has been to call attention to the existence of these songs, not to establish for them definitive tribal origins—a task that could be successfully accomplished only by a competent Muskogeanist. We felt, however, that a certain amount of preliminary screening might well be in the interests of eventual positive identification.

Had such been possible, the logical approach to tentative identification would have been to bring these songs before the inspection of a traditionalist from both the Creek and Natchez Tribes. But the Natchez have been extinct for more than a generation, and the only avenue open to us in establishing a strong possibility of the Natchez derivation of a given song was by means of determining that it was neither Creek nor Cherokee.

The Cherokee medicine men from whom these songs were obtained categorically assigned to them a Muskogean lineage. We reasoned that a Creek traditionalist living in the cultural milieu of one of the Muskogean enclaves would be more likely to have a greater familiarity with these materials than would an individual living in Creek territory; a few days subsequent to having transcribed the songs, therefore, we brought them before the inspection of a Creek medicine man living in the Sand Springs area, an individual who understood thoroughly what was required of him.

1. TO “REMAKE” A COMB

CHEROKEE CAPTION: Ahl(i)dhuwo:sdi (to comb, one)/godhlvhi:so?di (to remake,⁴ one)/ghanogí:sdi (to sing, one). “Song to ‘remake’ a comb.”

⁴ To infuse with magical powers.

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: how to Be a Beautiful [·] man Eather [either] woman [·] notche [na:tsi=Natchez] indian Song.

COMMENTARY: This is an example of a type of charm called an ado:du:hiso?dí:yi (to rebeautify oneself). As stated in Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick (1967), charms of this nature constitute a subspecies of a larger class of magical sayings and songs known as ado:dhlvhi:so?dí:yi. Both are numerous among the Cherokee; both are for the purpose of attracting the opposite sex.

As is the case in most examples of Cherokee erotic magic, this charm is primarily for the use of a man, although it is held to be equally effective if employed by a woman. It can be used at any time and place. One faces east, the Cherokee sacred direction, and sings it four times. After each time the song is sung, the singer blows his breath upon the comb and then sharply expectorates upon it.

While our Creek informant was able to make two words—sapiya (they go, [ritual.])/mahi (surely)—out of what is written as one word in the Sequoyah syllabary, the remainder of the text was unintelligible to him. He was unfamiliar with the tune. It was his opinion that the resemblance here to Creek may be entirely accidental.⁵

⁵ The Cherokee shaman stated that a hunter heard this song being sung, and upon investigating the origin of the singing discovered that it emanated from a purple flower of the yu:gwil(a) (Venus’ flytrap) plant. This is essentially the same story quoted by Swanton (1928, p. 600) from the Tuggle Collection. It is indeed strange that the Creek medicine man did not associate sa-bi-ya in the above song with the vegetable or mineral talisman of the Creeks which in Swanton’s orthography is rendered sabia (ibid., pp. 498–501). To a Cherokee, a vegetable talisman and yu:gwil(a) are almost synonymous.

2. TO CURE FLATULENCE

CHEROKEE CAPTION: Unisgwo:hli (their stomachs)/une[hi]sda:neh:i ⁶ (hurting, they). “For stomachache.”

⁶ The syllable hi had been omitted.

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: Creek. Song.

COMMENTARY: While the Creek informant was not familiar with this song, it was his opinion that the tune was Creek. From the text he was able with considerable ease to reconstruct the following words: simanihe˙cka (made attractive with ornament)/mu˙muses (to that extent)/ka˙ki (sitting there, they)/sihu˙ki (standing there, they)/sa˙nyama˙si (it has just become gentle). His exegesis was to the effect that the curer is fully cognizant of the agencies that caused the malady; beings that, gaily bedecked as if upon some festive occasion, sit about and stand about in the body of the patient. He overpowers them and alleviates the patient’s pain. Many Cherokee curing conjurations terminate in a stereotype that is somewhat analogous to the Creek assurance of the restoration of calm: utsi:hnawa/(relief) nigvdí:sge:sdí (then I will be saying) (Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick, 1964 a).

The ritual that accompanies this song appears to be basically Cherokee, not Creek. The patient reclines with his head toward the east. The doctor warms his hands over coals (preferably from lightning-struck wood). He then applies warm ashes from the fireplace or stove to the patient’s abdomen, and standing to the patient’s right, kneads the ashes with a counterclockwise circling motion as he sings the song. This procedure is followed the regulation four times.

3. FOR DIVINING THE OUTCOME OF A LOVE AFFAIR

CHEROKEE CAPTION: Age:hyv (woman)/ama (water)/uhy:dla (cold)/agh(a)dho?di (to examine, one)/agh(a)dhv:do?di (to do it with, one). “For examining with cold water concerning a woman.”

COMMENTARY: The text of this song would appear to be Creek. Our Creek informant identified it as: cihi˙wa (your wife)/cu˙laci (little, old)/wakhu˙gatski (you [2] were lying)/sum˙huki˙yali (we [2] will be gone). He felt that no-hi-ya-ni is a mere vocalization, and not a word.

A part of the above tune bears some slight motival resemblance to a Stomp Dance song with a Cherokee text obtained from a nonagenarian in the Beaver community in the summer of 1961 (Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick, 1964 b, pp. 155–157, 194). Both tunes are probably Muskogean.

The purpose of the above song is to ascertain if a love suit is destined to prosper. The medicine man and his client, the lover, go at daybreak to the brink of running water (“new water” or “cold water” are Cherokee synonyms for it) that they can face and at the same time face east. The shaman puts down a silver dollar at the edge of the water, steps back from it about 8 feet, and sings the song four times. After each delivery of it he blows his breath toward the coin. He then inspects the dollar. If the coin has turned over, the client will gain the affections of the woman of his choice; if the coin is found to be remaining just as it was placed, the ceremony is repeated the next morning. If after the completion of a series of ceremonies upon four successive mornings no turning over of the coin has been observed, the client’s suit is deemed to be hopeless.

There are two motifs in this ceremony that are quite foreign to Cherokee magic: divination to learn the outcome of a love affair and prognostication by means of a coin turning over. We have yet to encounter in Cherokee erotic magic any recognition of the role of chance. Love magic is universally held to be essentially infallible. If a specific measure should prove to be inadequate, then the use of a more powerful one is indicated. Large numbers of them, of varying degrees of potency, are available. The possibility of acquiring magic of a power superior to that of any rival always exists; failure is never predestined. Silver coins are used in Cherokee divining, but not in this manner—they are suspended upon a thong, or string.

4. TO MAKE A WOMAN LOVESICK

CHEROKEE CAPTION: Age:hyv (woman)/digehlayó:hisdo?dí (to make them suffer with, one). “To make a woman suffer.”

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: make a woman Blues—.

COMMENTARY: The text of this song as written in the manuscript differs significantly enough from the text as sung as to warrant a statement of it as written: Tsa-no-tsi [7 times]/u-la-yes/tsa-no-tsi [3 times]/a-layes/tsa-no-tsi [2 times]/a-ya-yes/tsa-no-tsi

One observes that in singing, u-la-yes was amended to hu-la-yes; that a-la-yes (probably an erroneous spelling of a-ya-yes) was omitted, and that the pattern of repetition of the tsa-no-tsi was altered. It is obvious that when the Cherokee shaman wrote down the text, his recollection of the song was not clear, but that in singing it, he was able to match correctly the text with the tune. The initially sung word, tsa-no-tsi-hi, contains the interpolated syllable hi, doubtlessly meaningless, that the singer remembered having heard his father (perhaps idiosyncratically) employ. The singer was of the opinion that one was at liberty to make a choice between singing the word as written or thusly:

The singer’s father had stated that the song was Natchez, and that the word tsa-no-tsi was a term (ritualistic ?) for a honeybee, the word a-ya-yes a synonym for the Cherokee uhí:so?dhí (a supernaturally induced melancholia). The singer was of the opinion that these words were those that a woman who had fallen victim to love magic would sing in expression of her emotional state, although he did not care to speculate upon the possible significance of the honeybee.

Although he was not familiar with the song, our Creek informant was of the opinion that the text made acceptable Creek, and that the drift of its meaning was in conformity with Creek magical concepts. He made of it this: canu˙ci (I drowse [ritual.])/hu˙łayis ([even] if standing, I)/a˙yayis ([even] if going, I). He stated that the verb of which “I drowse” is a form, is used in Creek magic in a context very similar to that in which the Cherokee employ uhí:so?dhí.

In Cherokee magic the above song was formerly used to accompany the application of awo:di (paint) to the body. Most commonly this was done in preparation for a dance (there is a North Carolina Cherokee ritual of the same genre in Mooney, 1891, pp. 379–380). While singing the song, the singer dipped a cardinal feather in paint which itself had to be prepared ritualistically and applied it as follows: to the forehead; to the tip of the nose; to the chin; to the right cheek; to the left cheek; diagonally downward across the chest, from right to left; diagonally downward across the chest, from left to right. One will observe that the applications totaled seven—the supremely sacrosanct Cherokee number. The song was sung and the ritual performed a total of four times.

Inasmuch as there is no lacuna in either the song or the ritual for a statement of the name and clan affiliation of a particular desired woman, one assumes that the purpose of this magic was to create in its user an attractiveness to women in general.

5. TO PREVENT FEVER FROM EATING GREEN CORN

CHEROKEE CAPTION: Udi:hlehv:sgi (fever)/nv:wo:dhi (medicine)/ama (water)/godhlvhi:so?di (to remake, one)/ghanogí:sdi (to sing, one)/se:lu (corn)/i?tsé:i (new)/unenu:da (cornsilk)/asu:ye:di (to mix, one)/i?tsé:i (new)/ama (water)/ama:yi (water-place)/aye:hli (middle)/ge:sv (being, it)/wigá?luhi:sdí (there to go, one)/nahná:hno: (there, and)/godhlvhi:so?di (to remake, one). “To ‘remake’ fever medicine water. One sings. One mixes new cornsilk with fresh water in the middle of the stream, and there it is ‘remade.’”

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: Natche [Natchez] Song—fever med; [medicine] fixed cold water and drink Before you Eat the Rosnear [roasting ear] corn; in Earley in Spring time. that Keep away from fever; [.]

COMMENTARY: The ritual accompanying this song is this: The medicine man cuts off the sharp ends of a number of newly ripe roasting ears and puts them, together with a quantity of cornsilk from the young corn, into a container the size of a gallon or more. At dawn he wades out into the middle of a stream, faces east, and permits water to flow into the container until it and the cob ends and cornsilk almost fill the vessel. With a section of newly cut cornstalk, 18 inches or so long, he stirs the contents of the container with a counterclockwise motion as he stands in the middle of the stream. As he stirs, he sings the song four times. The liquid from the container is subsequently drunk, used to wash the hands or face, or employed as bath water, by an individual or a family group.

This ritual does not appear to be an aspect of the Creek busk (cf. Swanton, 1928, pp. 546–614), but whether it be vestigial of the Cherokee Preliminary Green Corn Feast (cf. Gilbert, 1943, p. 327) or of a Natchez festival, we are not prepared to say. The song, however, is Creek, and the Creek informant of the writers with no difficulty identified it as a corruption of the first part of a quadrifid song used in treating a febrile patient. In its entirety, the text of this Creek song makes reference to four wild ducks, each of a species different from the others, scratching in the snow and throwing up into the air behind them snow sprays. The fragment above refers to but one species of duck, the English name for which the informant did not know: fucu˙ski (a species of wild duck)/hidu˙ti (snow)/ła˙kku (big)/a˙ka˙si (he is scratching)/futapi˙ci (it forms a spray).

One notes that the resources of the Sequoyah syllabary were somewhat strained in writing down this song: fo (fu), for example, was represented by the symbol for ho; bi (pi) by the symbol for wi.

6. TO “REMAKE” TOBACCO FOR USE IN ATTRACTING A WOMAN

CHEROKEE CAPTION: Age:hyv (woman)/gan(i)sane:sdo?di (to draw one with, one)/tso:la (tobacco)/godhlvhi:so?di (to remake, one)/asu:ye:di (to mix one)/udhelv:l(a)dvn:hi (grapevine). “To attract a woman with. One mixes grapevine with tobacco.”

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: Creek. Song. How to make a pretty girl want you; Song.

COMMENTARY: The use of “remade” tobacco in Cherokee erotic magic is popularly held to be a bit sinister; the addition of grapevine or cedarberries to the tobacco is a definite deepening of the hue of the magic. The substitution of tso:lagay:li (tobacco, ancient=Nicotiana rustica) for ordinary commercial tobacco is quite reprehensible inasmuch as the life of the woman upon whom it is used is endangered.

The song and its attendant ritual would more than likely be known by a medicine man or a dida:hnesé:sgi (putter-in and drawer-out of them=a sorcerer, witch), who would use them to prepare tobacco for a client, but magic known to a layman can be used by a layman.

The customary ritual is this: While stating the name and clan of the woman toward whom magic is to be directed, the conjurer cuts off a section of wild grapevine, about one-half of an inch in length, out of which a tendril has grown and wrapped itself about the segment of vine that is cut off. He goes to the brink of running water at sunrise, faces east, and states the name and clan of his client (or of himself, if he be the lover) as he shreds the vine and its tendril and mixes the fragments of them with a handful of cut plug tobacco. He holds the mixture between the palms of both hands, extends his arms and hands (thumbs upward) on a direct line with the upper rim of the newly risen sun, and then slowly lowers his arms and hands until they have traversed the space occupied in the sky by the disk of the sun. The tobacco is then placed in the palm of the left hand and, as the magician sings the above song four times, he rolls the tobacco and its additive in a counterclockwise motion with the four extended fingers of the right hand. After each statement of the song he blows his breath upon the mixture and then bestows upon it a small sharp expectoration.

If the tobacco is being “remade” for a client, and the client is present upon the occasion of its preparation, the client himself states the name and clan of the woman he desires, and it is the client who blows and expectorates upon the mixture. The magical tobacco is generally used in one of two fashions: If circumstances permit, its smoke is blown directly upon the target individual, for a total of four times if possible; if this is impracticable, the smoke is blown toward where the victim of the moment is, or is likely to be—at dawn, midmorning, midafternoon, and dusk, for 4 days.

The text of the song created no little uncertainty in the mind of our Creek informant. With rather slight conviction he hypothesized that the following words might be incorporated in it: ca˙ti (red)/ a˙hi˙cati (she is looking continually)/ma˙yahu (she is signalling [ritual.])/ma˙yamahu (she is signalling more and more [ritual.])/a˙k?maya˙cati (down there she is signalling [ritual.])/hat˙ki (white).

While on the surface this reading is quite plausible, the reservations of the Creek shaman—whether they stemmed from word forms or repetition patterns of word’s, or from some subtle clash with what he knew to be the true ethos of Creek magic—may have been well grounded. The text originally may have been a Cherokee one that was borrowed by the Creeks or the Natchez perhaps as long as a century ago, thoroughly corrupted, and then returned to the Cherokee, who had long forgotten it.

It may have run something like this: Tsa:n(a)da:leg(i) (they just pulled themselves out)/a:di:h(a) (he says)/a:tsa?di (fish)/ama:yi (water-place) ho:? (ho!)/tsalo:?di[a] (he pushes you off a high place)/a:di:h(a) (he says)/a:tsa?di (fish)/ama:yi (water-place)/ho:? (ho!).

“They just pulled themselves out,” he says, “the fish [the quarry=women] in the stream. Ho! He pushes you [a rival?] off a high place, he says. The fish m the stream! Ho!”

In offering this as a possible reading, we nurture fully as many doubts as did the Creek medicine man while advancing his hypothesis. This song, of exceptional musical worth, may be Natchez.

7. FOR HUNTING

CHEROKEE CAPTION: A:h(a)wi⁷ (deer)/dohyoh:i (if seeking them, one)/gano:hil:dv (hunt)/ghanogí:sdi (to sing, one)/o:lu:ha (silt)/ama:yi (water-place)/hawí:ni (deep)/tsinu:sdó:i (which present [hab.])/adanv:lí:ye:dí (to apply to oneself, one). “Song if one is looking for deer when hunting. One applies to oneself silt from the bottom of a stream.”

⁷ This is a dialectal pronunciation that is reflected in the Sequoyan spelling. One notes that in the caption to No. 8 the conventional a?hwi is employed.

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: wild Turkey Hunting Song, [in Cherokee: gv:na, turkey].

COMMENTARY: The contradiction between the Cherokee caption, which states that this is a song for hunting deer, and the English explanation, which identifies the charm as turkey-hunting magic, is illusory. In actuality, it is serviceable in hunting any kind of game. The hunter who employs it first decides upon what game he wants, then as he hunts he very softly sings the song four times. If he flushes any game other than that which he is resolved to kill, squirrels excepted, he must ignore it, or he will not be able to bag that which he set out to get.

The application of silt to the body (face, chest ?) of the hunter almost certainly serves some purpose other that of mere disguise. One suspects that silt is applied for chiefly magical reasons, and that there is, or perhaps once was, a ceremony used in obtaining and applying the silt. While the magical powers of running water and of objects floating in running water are fundamental motifs in Cherokee medicomagic, we are unaware of the use of silt having been previously reported and have never before encountered it either in the published literature or in manuscript sources. One suspects it is Muskogean, probably Natchez, not Cherokeean.

The Cherokee shaman was of the opinion that the words of the song were Natchez, and that the thought, if not the exact wording, “I am asking you to come to me” was embedded somewhere in the text. The Creek medicine man, on the other hand, inclined toward the view that the text was corrupted Creek, and while some of it remained obscure to him, he was able to discover in it these words: i˙cu (deer)/na (body, his)/ihuswa (penis, his)/ha˙ca˙kima˙ta (they were intoxicated).

8. FOR HUNTING DEER

CHEROKEE CAPTION: [in reference to part 1] Adi:sgo?i (he says [hab.])/a?hwi (deer)/galagi:na (buck)/[in reference to part 2] Ada:hnese:sgo?i (he conjures [hab.])/adudale:sdo?di (to free oneself with, one)/hi?a?gwu (this, just)/igawé:sdi (to be said it, by one)/geso:i (being, it [hab.])/aganohile:g:i (if hunting, one). [in reference to part 1] “What the buck says.” [in reference to part 2] “To free oneself when he conjures, this is to say when hunting.”

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: Creek Song [·] Hunting Song—

[Spoken]: Wayuhe?

COMMENTARY: The Cherokee shaman stated that the first part of this song is what a buck sings in his attempt to conjure the hunter, and that the second part is what the hunter sings (four times, as he walks) in order to overcome the magic of the deer. A buck, the medicine man said, has a channel from his root foot up to his right ear, and through it he is able to pick up the sound of a hunter as far as 4 miles away. The medicine man did not know the purpose of the spoken Wayuhe?.

Although he did not have the song in his repertoire, our Creek informant conceded that it was Creek, and was able to form from the text these words: ta˙yi (I am great) ta˙yayi (I am very great)/ca˙cila (you touch me)/yickati˙siku (never)/yi˙cka, (do you?).

9. FOR HUNTING DEER (Incomplete)

CHEROKEE CAPTION: A?hwi (deer)/ané:hya:dhahí (wild, they)/dighel(a)yó:hisdo?dí (to catch up with them, with, one)/yiganó:hilé:na (when one goes hunting)/inagé:i (woods). “To catch up with wild deer with when one goes hunting in the woods.”

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: Creek Song [.] Deer Hunter Song.

COMMENTARY: The Cherokee medicine man wrote down the complete text of this song, a charm that presumably one employs in the same manner as No. 8, but he could not remember all of the tune.

The complete written text is: Sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma-di/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma-di/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma/wa-li-go-tsi/i-ha-tsi/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma-di/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma-di/sa-tsa/wa-na/ha-gi-no-ma.

One observes that this is slightly at variance with the text as sung.

With little conviction the Creek shaman offered as a possible, but highly improbable, reading: aca˙winayi˙ cska (are you smelling me ?). He was of the opinion that the text was almost certainly Natchez.

10. FOR STOPPING BLEEDING (Text only)

CHEROKEE CAPTION. ______________.

ENGLISH EXPLANATION: Notche [Natchez]. Song; Bad Cut Bleeding Stop with this Song.

COMMENTARY: The Cherokee shaman could not remember any of the tune of this song. Inasmuch as we therefore could not be certain as to the proper grouping of the syllables, the text was not brought to the attention of the Creek informant.

The text is: Hi-ga-gi-la-go-da-di/hi-o-gi-ha-[di ?]-gi-da-di/na-hi-yu [8 times]/hi-ya-ha-la-sgo-da-di/hi-ni-da-ha-di-gi-da-di/na-hi-yu [8 times]/hi-o-gi-ha-di-gi-da-di/hi-ni-da-ha-di-ga-da-di/na-hi-yu [2 times].

Literature Cited

DENSMORE, FRANCES

1956. Seminole music. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 161.

GILBERT, WILLIAM H., JR.

1943. The Eastern Cherokees. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 133, Anthrop. Pap. No. 23, pp. 169–414.

KILPATRICK, JACK FREDERICK, AND KILPATRICK, ANNA GRITTS

1964a. Cherokee burn conjurations. Jour. Grad. Res. Ctr., South. Meth. Univ., vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 17–21.

1964b. Friends of thunder. Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees. Dallas, Tex.

1967. Run toward the nightland. Dallas, Tex.

MOONEY, JAMES

1891. Sacred formulas of the Cherokees. 7th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1885–86, pp. 302–397.

SPECK, FRANK G.

1911. Ceremonial songs of the Creek and Yuchi Indians. Univ. Penn. Mus. Anthrop. Publ., vol. 1, pp. 157–245.

SWANTON, JOHN R.

1928. Religious beliefs and medical practices of the Creek Indians. 42d Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1924–25, pp. 473–672.

1929. Myths and tales of the southeastern Indians. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 88.

THOMAS, ROBERT K.

1961. The Redbird Smith movement. In “Symposium on Cherokee and Iroquois culture,” ed. by William N. Fenton and John Gulick. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 180, pp. 159–166.