MOONEY.] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT.

The friends, after learning several songs from the bears, started back to their homes. After proceeding a short distance, they turned around to take one last look, but saw only a number of bears disappearing into the depths of the forest. The songs they learned are still sung by hunters today to attract bears.

When Swimmer had finished the story, he was asked if he knew these songs. He replied that he did, but when he was requested to sing one, he made an excuse and remained silent. After some further efforts, the interpreter said it would be useless to press the matter then, as there were several other Indians present. He suggested that tomorrow we should have Swimmer alone with us and could then make another attempt.

The next day, Swimmer was told that if he persisted in his refusal, it would be necessary to employ someone else, as it was unfair of him to provide incomplete information when he was being paid to tell everything he knew. He replied that he was willing to tell anything regarding stories and customs, but that these songs were a part of his secret knowledge. He explained that they commanded a high price from hunters, who sometimes paid as much as $5 In the late 1880s, $5 was a significant sum, equivalent to roughly $150–$200 today. for a single song, "because you cannot kill any bears or deer unless you sing them."

He was told that the only object in asking about the songs was to record and preserve them, so that when he and the remaining half-dozen old men of the tribe were dead, the world might know how much the Cherokees had understood. This appeal to his professional pride proved effective. When he was told that many similar songs had been sent to Washington Referring to the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnology. by medicine men of other tribes, he promptly declared that he knew as much as any of them. He said he would provide all the information in his possession so that others could judge for themselves who knew the most. The only conditions he made were that these secret matters should be heard by no one else but the interpreter and should not be discussed when other Indians were present.

As soon as the other shamans original: "shamans"; Cherokee ritual specialists or medicine men, known as didanvwiisgi. learned what was happening, they tried various ways to persuade him to stop talking. Failing in that, they tried to damage his reputation by hinting that he was dishonest or inaccurate. Among other objections they raised was one which, while perhaps hard for a white man to understand, was perfectly clear to an Indian: that once he had told everything, this information would be taken to Washington and locked up, thereby depriving the Cherokee people of that knowledge forever. This objection was one of the most difficult to overcome, as there was no simple argument to oppose it.

These reports worried Swimmer, who was extremely sensitive about his reputation, and he became uneasy under the insinuations of his rivals. Finally, upon coming to work one day, he produced a book from under his ragged coat as he entered the house and said proudly: “Look at that, and now see if I don’t know something.” It