BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT PLATE 26

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A black and white facsimile of a handwritten manuscript page in the Cherokee syllabary, enclosed in a thin rectangular border. The script is fluid and slightly slanted to the right, consisting of twenty lines of text. A small annotation "I - J" appears in the top right corner. An interlinear addition "ᏍᎩ" is written above the beginning of the seventeenth line.

The following is a translation of the Cherokee manuscript page shown in the image, which contains a medical formula for treating Dalâni Ûnnagei, known as "Black Jaundice."

Pathway to come out. [I - J]
Little one, indeed you have come.
To stay here, indeed you have come.
Indeed, he has been staying.
The Black Jaundice has been created to reside there. original: "Dalâni Ûnnagei" — a term for a severe form of jaundice, literally meaning "Black Yellow."
The Black Jaundice has come to reside there.
He has listened well. He has come to reside there.
They shall be very happy.
No other thing shall interfere, truly.
The Black Jaundice has come to reside there, truly.
He is from above, his son has truly arrived.
Think of the little one. It shall be. You have come.
If it be the Black Jaundice, it has gone far away.
His son, the Black Jaundice, it shall truly be.
He is from above, his son has arrived. It shall be.
The horse, the son of the Black Jaundice, has come.
Sgi original: "ᏍᎩ" — an archaic Cherokee particle often used as an introductory or emphasizing word in sacred formulas. The son of the Black Jaundice shall be where he resides.
It shall be. It shall be. It shall be. The Black Jaundice has gone far away.
His son. He has come. Where the Black Jaundice resides, he has come.
It shall be. It shall be. It shall be. It shall be.

SACRED FORMULAS OF THE CHEROKEES.

The manuscript was a small daybook of about 240 pages, originally acquired 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: "sh..." — the text cuts off, likely referring to shamans or medicine men.