Infants slow in learning to speak have their tongues scratched with the claw of a gûlʻkwâgĭ, the living insect being held in the hand during the operation, in order that they may soon learn to speak distinctly and be eloquent, wise, and shrewd of speech as they grow older, and of such quick intelligence as to remember without effort anything once heard.
The same desirable result may be accomplished with a grown person, but with much more difficulty, as in that case it is necessary to scratch the inside of the throat for four successive mornings, the insect being pushed down with the fingers and again withdrawn, while the regular tabus must be strictly observed for the same period, or the operation will be without effect.
In some cases the insect is put into a small bowl of water overnight, and if still alive in the morning it is taken out and the water given to the patient to drink, after which the gûlʻkwâgĭ is set at liberty.
Bees are kept by many of the Cherokee, in addition to the wild bees which are hunted in the woods.
Although they are said to have come originally from the whites, the Cherokee have no tradition of a time when they did not know them; there seems, however, to be no folklore connected with them.
The cow-ant ( Myrmica ?), a large, red, stinging ant, is called properly dasûñ′tălĭ atatsûñ′skĭ , “stinging ant,” but, on account of its hard body-case, is frequently called nûñ′yunu′wĭ , “stone-dress,” after a celebrated mythic monster.
Strange as it may seem, there appears to be no folklore connected with either the firefly or the glowworm, while the spider, so prominent in other tribal mythologies, appears in but a single Cherokee myth, where it brings back the fire from across the water.
In the formulas it is frequently invoked to entangle in its threads the soul of a victim whom the conjurer desires to bring under his evil spells.
From a fancied resemblance in appearance the name for spider, kă′năne′skĭ , is applied also to a watch or clock.
A small yellowish moth which flies about the fire at night is called tûñ′tăwû , a name implying that it goes into and out of the fire, and when at last it flits too near and falls into the blaze the Cherokee say, “Tûñ′tăwû is going to bed.” On account of its affinity for the fire it is invoked by the doctor in all “fire diseases,” including sore eyes and frostbite.
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The passage describes a worldview where insects, ants, spiders, and moths possess inherent spiritual agency, are invoked in rituals, or are associated with mythic monsters and souls.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage explicitly links the physical resemblance of a spider to a watch/clock and uses the moth's behavior near fire as a basis for healing fire-related ailments, reflecting a 'like cures like' or structural correspondence.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The text illustrates the principle of hidden affinities where a moth's affinity for fire allows it to be invoked to cure 'fire diseases' like sore eyes and frostbite.
The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.
The passage notes that for the speech-enhancing operation on adults to be effective, 'regular tabus must be strictly observed,' indicating a requirement for ritual purity or behavioral restriction.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The text mentions that the spider is 'invoked' in formulas to entangle souls and the moth is 'invoked' by doctors, suggesting the use of spoken formulas with magical efficacy.