SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES.

The manuscript was a small daybook of about 240 pages, originally obtained from a white man, and was about half-filled with writing in Cherokee characters These characters refer to the Cherokee syllabary, a writing system invented by Sequoyah in the 1820s where each symbol represents a syllable.. A brief examination revealed that it contained exactly the materials that had been so difficult to obtain. It included prayers, songs, and medical prescriptions for curing all kinds of diseases—for chills, rheumatism, frostbite, wounds, bad dreams, and witchcraft. There were love charms to win a woman’s affection or to make her hate a despised rival; fishing and hunting charms—including the songs without which no one could ever hope to kill any game; prayers to make the corn grow, to frighten away storms, and to drive off witches; and prayers for a long life, for safety among strangers, for gaining influence in tribal councils, and for success in stickball original: "the ball play." This refers to the traditional Cherokee game, known as the "little brother of war," which is similar to modern lacrosse.. There were prayers to the Long Man A Cherokee personification of the river., the Ancient White A personification of fire., the Great Whirlwind, the Yellow Rattlesnake, and to a hundred other deities of the Cherokee pantheon. It was, in fact, an Indigenous ritual book and pharmacopoeia original: "pharmacopœia" — a book containing a list of medicinal drugs and their uses..

After I recovered somewhat from the astonishment caused by this discovery, I asked whether other shamans original: "shamans" — religious or spiritual leaders who act as intermediaries between the natural and spiritual worlds. had such books. "Yes," said Swimmer, "we all have them." This provided a clear lead to follow. An agreement was made where Swimmer would be given another blank book to copy the formulas into, after which I purchased the original. It is now kept in the library of the Bureau of Ethnology. The rest of my time before returning was spent trying to understand the book’s contents.

THE GATIGWANASTI MANUSCRIPT.

Further inquiries brought up the names of several other people who might possess similar papers. Before leaving, I visited one of them: a young man named Wilnoti. His father, Gatigwanasti, had been a prominent shaman during his lifetime and was considered a man of great intelligence. Wilnoti, who identified as a Christian, said that his father had owned such papers. After the chief explained the situation, Wilnoti agreed to show them to me. He produced a box containing various papers, New Testaments, and hymnbooks, all written in the Cherokee syllabary. Among them was his father's most prized possession: a manuscript book containing 122 pages of foolscap size original: "foolscap" — a traditional size of paper, roughly 8.5 by 13.5 inches., completely filled with formulas similar to those in Swimmer's book. There were also many loose sheets, totaling nearly 200 pages of sacred formulas.

When I offered to buy the papers, he replied that he wanted to keep them so he could learn and practice the traditions himself—showing how superficial his conversion to Christianity was, at least in his case. I argued that in a few years, changing social conditions would make such knowledge worthless to the younger generation, and that even if he kept the papers, he would need someone else to explain them to him. However, he refused again, saying they might