Myth 126a

PLANT LORE The Cherokee have always been an agricultural people, and their old country is a region of luxuriant flora, with tall trees and tangled undergrowth on the slopes and ridges, and myriad bright-tinted blossoms and sweet wild fruits along the running streams. The vegetable kingdom consequently holds a far more important place in the mythology and ceremonial of the tribe than it does among the Indians of the treeless plains and arid sage deserts of the West, most of the beliefs and customs in this connection centering around the practice of medicine, as expounded by the priests and doctors in every settlement. In general it is held that the plant world is friendly to the human species, and constantly at the willing service of the doctors to counteract the jealous hostility of the animals. The sacred formulas contain many curious instructions for the gathering and preparation of the medicinal roots and barks, which are selected chiefly in accordance with the theory of correspondences. The Indians are close observers, and some of their plant names are peculiarly apt. Thus the mistletoe, which never grows alone, but is found always with its roots fixed in the bark of some supporting tree or shrub from which it draws its sustenance, is called by a name which signifies “it is married” ( uda′ʻlĭ ). The violet is still called by a plural name, dinda′skwate′skĭ , “they pull each other’s heads off,” showing that the Cherokee children have discovered a game not unknown among our own. The bear-grass ( Eryngium ), with its long, slender leaves like diminutive blades of corn, is called sălikwâ′yĭ , “greensnake,” and the larger grass known as Job’s tears, on account of its glossy, rounded grains, which the Indian children use for necklaces, is called sel-utsĭ′ , “the mother of corn.” The black-eyed Susan ( Rudbeckia ) of our children is the “deer-eye” ( aʻwĭ′-aktă′ ) of the Cherokee, and our lady-slipper ( Cypripedium ) is their “partridge moccasin” ( gŭgwĕ′-ulasu′la ). The May-apple ( Podophyllum ), with its umbrella-shaped top, is called u′niskwetu′ʻgĭ , meaning “it wears a hat,” while the white puffball fungus is năkwĭsĭ′-usdi′ , “the little star,” and the common rock lichen bears the musical, if rather unpoetic, name of utsăle′ta , “pot scrapings.” Some plants are named from their real or supposed place in the animal economy, as the wild rose, tsist-uni′gistĭ , “the rabbits eat it”—referring to the seed berries—and the shield fern ( Aspidium ), yân-utse′stû , “the bear lies on it.” Others, again, are named from their domestic or ceremonial uses, as the fleabane ( Erigeron canadense ), called atsil′-sûñʻtĭ , “fire maker,” because its dried stalk was anciently employed in producing fire by friction, and the bugle weed ( Lycopus virginicus ), known as aniwani′skĭ , “talkers,” because the chewed root, given to children to swallow, or rubbed upon their lips, is supposed to endow them with the gift of eloquence. Some few, in addition to the ordinary term in use among the common people, have a sacred or symbolic name, used only by the priests and doctors in the prayer formulas.