Cherokee Witchcraft: How the medicine men dealt with a Raven Mocker

Part 4

The Raven Mocker witch
could shape-shift into a raven

The most feared Cherokee witch, the one they called “Raven Mocker”,  was not completely invincible.  The skilled medicine man knew the signs of the Raven Mocker and its malicious intents.  He knew that the Raven Mocker preferred the nights and that he preferred preying on the sick and the weak.  So, when a loved one was sick, these special medicine men (or women) were sought out and asked to sit with their loved one through the night.

 
There were numerous methods that were known to enable the detection of the witch.  The Raven Mocker, according to accounts recorded by James Mooney, “… flies through the air in fiery shape, with arms outstretched like wings, and sparks trailing behind … Every little while as he flies he makes a cry like the cry of a raven”.  [refer to the previous article from Native American Antiquity:  Cherokee Witches: Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï]

Ayunini (Swimmer)
Famous Cherokee Medicine Man

Another method, quoting from “The Swimmer Manuscript” by James Mooney, revised and edited by Frans Olbrects (Swimmer was a famous Cherokee medicine man that was Mooney’s principle informant on the history, mythology, … medicine and botany of the Cherokee), “This work consists in smoothing a small heap of ashes, about 20-25 centimeters in diameter, aside from the hearth, and occasionally dropping a tiny pinch of finely crushed tso’ lagayo-nli (“old tobacco,” Nicotiana rustica L) on it; the center of the hot ashes are thought of as representing the patient’s cabin; any particle of the tobacco dust catching fire, to the right or to the left of the center, indicates the position from where the witch is approaching.  If the dust alights on the center of the ashes it is a sign that the witch is right overhead, and should the tobacco, as it drops on the center, take fire with a crack or a burst, it shows that the witch has already entered the room.  In this case the burst will cause the death of the witch within four days, if she is one of the kind that has fasted for four days to attain her occult power; within seven days if she is one of the kind that ‘has got the utmost’”

It was also believed that by drinking a special mixture, sometimes called the “witch’s tea”, the

consumer could “see” the witch in his natural form and, thereby, cause the witch’s death.  According to Alan Kilpatrick, in his book “The Night Has a Naked Soul”, “… the four ingredients of this exotic brew (which were crushed and steeped in water) were algae collected from rocks in a mountain stream, phosphorescent wood extracted from a putrified stump, and two species of insect plants (Cordyceps) that contain the hallucinatory properties of ergot and lysergic acid diethylamide.”

Witches, whether a Raven Mocker or just a common witch, were blamed for a person’s sickness.  When interrogating a patient, the medicine man would usually ask if the patient knew “who put the thing [curse] under them” that disrupted their healthy condition.  The medicine man didn’t treat the sickness as we think of it today, they worked to remove that which was interrupting their health by restoring harmony and balance.  So, a treatment would not only include medicine but required the appropriate prayers or conjures to address the complete health of the patient.  A person’s physical health was linked with his mental health and both had to be addressed to be well.  It bothers me that our doctors today have not learned this and rarely address both when treating their patients.  It is too easy to just prescribe a drug and hope it drives out the sickness. 

Raven Mockers may still exist.  Please refer to the comments on last week’s blog.

 

-- Courtney Miller

Link to Part 1 of the Cherokee Witchcraft series
 

 

Click here to view a video of my upcoming novel featuring the Raven Mocker

Cherokee Witchcraft: Nûñ'yunu'wï

Part 1: Nûñ'yunu'wï



Merlin

Voodoo Devil

Mankind seems to have an inherent fascination with witchcraft.   From Merlin in King Arthur’s court to Voo Doo in the Carribean it is celebrated in some cultures and, as with the Salem Witches, denounced by others.  The Cherokee had their share of witches.  Sometimes the difference between a witch and a medicine man was a very fine line.  But the distinction was important because the medicine man was revered, but the witch was reviled. 





Swimmer, Cherokee Medicine Man

Although James Adair made mention of Cherokee witchcraft in 1775, it wasn’t until 1891 that any serious research was published.   James Mooney’s monumental works, “Myths of the Cherokee”, “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees”  were the culmination of 36 years of research living among the Cherokee while working for the Bureau of American Ethnology.  These works are still the most comprehensive and authoritative publications on the subject.  His notes were later the subject of the book "The Swimmer Manuscript".



In the 1960’s, the subject was comprehensively studied by two distinguished scholars, Dr. Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and his wife, Mrs. Anna Gritts Kilpatrick, both Cherokee.  They interviewed hundreds of Cherokee and collected texts and notes written in native script (Sequoyah syllabary).  They translated these texts and published numerous books and monographs.  Later, their son, Alan Kilpatrick, studied their work and collection and wrote a very enlightening book, “The Night Has a Naked Soul”,  that looks at traditional Cherokee religious practices from a Cherokee anthropologist’s point of view.

Kokopelli with his magic cane
used sometimes as a flute
other times as a planting stick

In this Native American Antiquity series, I want to pull from these sources and take a look at what the characteristics of a Cherokee witch were.  Let’s start with Nûñ'yunu'wï, which translates as “Stone Clad”.   Quoting from Mooney, “This is what the old men told me when I was boy.

“Once when all the people of the settlement were out in the mountains on a great hunt one man who had gone on ahead climbed to the top of a high ridge and found a large river on the other side. While he was looking across he saw an old man walking about on the opposite ridge, with a cane that seemed to be made of some bright, shining rock. The hunter watched and saw that every little while the old man would point his cane in a certain direction, then draw it back and smell the end of it. At last he pointed it in the direction of the hunting camp on the other side of the mountain, and this time when he drew back the staff he sniffed it several times as if it smelled very good, and then started along the ridge straight for the camp. He moved very slowly, with the help of the cane, until he reached the end of the ridge, when he threw the cane out into the air and it became a bridge of shining rock stretching across the river. After he had crossed over upon the bridge it became a cane again, and the old man picked it up and started over the mountain toward the camp.



Mayan ballplayer
with stone "donut" around his body



“The hunter was frightened, and felt sure that it meant mischief, so he hurried on down the mountain and took the shortest trail back to the camp to get there before the old man. When he got there and told his story the medicine-man said the old man was a wicked cannibal monster called Nûñ'yunu'wï, "Dressed in Stone," who lived in that part of the country, and was always going about the mountains looking for some hunter to kill and eat. It was very hard to escape from him, because his stick guided him like a dog, and it was nearly as hard to kill him, because his whole body was covered with a skin of solid rock. If he came he would kill and eat them all, and there was only one way to save themselves …”

I love this story because I think it is an excellent example of the creative story-telling of the Cherokee.  Next week, we will find out what one thing could stop Nûñ'yunu'wï and then discuss the characteristics this amazing witch may share with other witches and what the implications may be.

 

 

-- Courtney Miller

Sacred Fire and Things

Swimmer, Cherokee Medicine Man

Cherokee Sacred Fire, as told by
Swimmer to James Mooney, 1887-1890.

"The mound was then built up with earth, which the women brought in baskets, and as they piled it above the stones, the bodies of their great men, and the sacred things, they left an open place at the fire in the center and let down a hollow cedar trunk, with the bark on, which fitted around the fire and protected it from the earth. This cedar log was cut long enough to reach nearly to the surface inside the townhouse when everything was done. The earth was piled up around it, and the whole mound was finished off smoothly, and then the townhouse was built upon it. One man, called the Firekeeper, stayed always in the townhouse to feed and tend the fire. When there was to be a dance or a council, he pushed long stalks of atsil sun ti (fleabane), "the fire maker" down through the opening in the cedar log to the fire at the bottom. He left the ends of the stalks sticking out and piled lichens and punk around, after which he prayed, and as he prayed, the fire climbed up along the talks until it caught the punk. Then he put on wood, and by the time the dancers were ready there was a large fire blazing in the townhouse. After the dance he covered the hole over again with ashes, but the fire was always smoldering below. Just before the Green corn dance, in the old times, every fire in the settlement was extinguished and all the people came and got new fire from the townhouse. This was called atsi’la galunkw it’yu "the honored or sacred fire." Sometimes when the fire in a house went out, the woman came to the Firekeeper, who made a new fire by rubbing an ihya’ga stalk against the under side of a hard dry fungus that grows along locust trees.

"Some say this everlasting fire was only in the larger mounds at Nikwasi, Kitu’hwa, and a few other towns, and that when the new fire was thus drawn up for the Green Corn dance it was distributed from them to the other settlements. The fire burns yet at the bottom of these great mounds, and when the Cherokee soldiers were camped near Kitu’hwa during the Civil War, they saw smoke still rising from the mound."

In ancient times, individual sacred fires in the villages were extinguished and restarted from the
sacred fire from the Townhouse.  This was done in conjunction with the Green Corn Ceremony honoring "Selu", the Corn Mother.  No corn was eaten before the ceremony.  Before the ceremony, each clan would supply seven mature ears of corn.  The chief and seven councilors began fasting seven days prior to the ceremony.  On the seventh day, fires were extinguished and rekindled from the sacred fire.  Kernels from the corn from the clans were sacrificed with a deer's tongue.  A feast was prepared in the Townhouse from the clan corn the chief and councilors and villagers feasted.  For the next six days, the chief and councilors could only eat corn harvested the previous year.  For the great dance, a pit was dug in the center of the sacred circle and a wood struck by lightning was lit to start the great fire.  Dancers would perform rounds of sacred dances and the men performed the War Dance and other dances symbolizing the planting and harvesting of the corn.  Finally, all villagers joined in on a "Running Dance" around the fire.  Minor infractions of the religious and clan law, as well as debts were typically forgiven during green corn between parties as a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings.

Video of Cherokee Corn Dance