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148 p. 47 150

             Means of removing or keeping off sickness &c.

to the Cherokees suppose diseases generally are occasioned directly by God, or inadvertently by some other spiritual being, either good or bad. The practice of medicine becomes intimately connected with the office of priests or conjurers. Consequently we find that administering medecine, either to cure, or prevent diseases, is always connected with charms, incantations &c. or with sacrifices, prayers, various acts of devotion. The charms sung, or whispered by the doctor in case of common diseases I will omit to repeat. They are all directed to different objects or creatures, or supposed spiritual beings under the names of creatures with which they were acquainted. But in case of snake bite, the doctor seats the patient on a log if in the wilderness, - puts a certain root in his mouth, - prepares his other remedy, and then walks round him singing a prayer to the following effect, "Now I begin. Thou white man above hast promised to hear. Thou hast made this snakes teeth, which have bitten this man. Let them be vain in this case, and let him get well. What thou hast done (made) and the remedy I administer agree. Therefore let the man speedily recover. The same prayer was then addressed to the white man in the North, - to the white man in the west, - to the white man in the south, and to the white man in the east. Thus being repeated five times. But "white man, in the above prayer is probably only another name for priest, as the official dress of the Indian priests was white. The term white therefore evidently related to the dress, and not to the complexion of the skin.

 Suppose a person feared he should die young and yet wished to live to old age, he applied to the priest for aid. The priest, then taking a string of beads in his  hands, put them to the ground. He then raised them high, but slowly, praying (as for himself when going to sleep) that the Lord would take this man's spirit to the first - second - third - fourth - fifth - sixth & seventh heaven; and then, letting his hand fall he prayed that the mans spirit might be let down to the sixth, - fifth - fourth - third - second - first heaven to  him, that thus he might live long on the earth. Then, in  case the man was to live long, the priest said to him, "Your life is good." and ordered him to go to a stream and dip himself all over, seven times.     But in case the priest could not for the present assure him of long life, he ordered him to get something for sacrifice.  Accordingly, if the man would not kill a deer readily, he brought a bird, but if he brought a bird, it must be killed in such a manner as to be left whole in all its parts. If a leg, or wing, or any part was broken, or wanting, it would not answer, or if