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MAGIC FORMULAS OF THE HUPA INDIANS¹

ByP.E.GODDARDn/an/an/an/a

More powerful than any herb were the words recited over it before its use. These words are not prayers but accounts of a former cure. The repeating of the words has power to cure again. It is not necessary for the unclean person to go to the ends of the world that he may become pure. It is sufficient that the priest tell how one went. The spirit of the person follows the words of the priest which he does not even comprehend. Equally powerful are evil wishes. To curse a man was a serious offence, because the words themselves had power to harm. . . .

These formulas may be thought to exert their power in one or all of three ways. The spirit of the reciter may be viewed as undergoing the journey and hardships undergone by the originator of the medicine and in a vicarious manner meriting favor; the good-will of the originator of the medicine may be aroused by the recital of his deeds; or the very words themselves may be thought to have the power of self-fulfillment. . . .

FORMULA OF MEDICINE FOR CHILDBIRTH

He came to the middle of the world where two maidens were living. He smoked himself all day. When the sun went down they came out to look at him. The next day they were pregnant. Their brothers went into the sweathouse after him. They were going to cut the girls open and then kill him. "Wait," said Yīmantūwiñyai, "I will make medicine. Give me a cup." "Make the medicine right here," they said. Right there in the house he made it of ashes. Then he hung up the straps of the carrying baskets. He put some of the medicine in the mouth of one of them and rubbed some of it across her abdomen. When he turned around he heard a baby cry. When he had done the same to the other he turned again and heard another baby cry. "This way it will be with those who know my medicine." . . .

FORMULA OF MEDICINE FOR GOING IN DANGEROUS PLACES WITH A CANOE

Snipe lived across to the south. His canoe was very narrow. It was so shallow it did not come above his ankle. "I am going in it," he thought. "How is it going to be?" he thought. He took the paddles out of the house and went down to the river. He got into his canoe and then he got out again. He turned the canoe around. He placed it with the stern toward the land. "Indians are going to come into existence," he thought. "They will think about me with this." He held it with the stern toward the land, headed this way across the river and down stream. "There must not be many," he thought, "who will say of me, ’That one I hear did this way.’" Then he went into the canoe, beat on the stern with the paddle, and sang. When he started across, his canoe grew up higher, and floated with him over the world. The boat did not mind the water. It floated with him over this body of water which lies around the world. He sang a song as he went along. It floated back with him across to the south. "It will do that way with the man who knows my medicine," he thought. "Even if he goes into a bad place, if he thinks about me, this way the water will not trouble his boat." . . .

FORMULA OF MEDICINE FOR GOING AMONG RATTLESNAKES

While at Tcexoltcwediñ Yīmantūwiñyai felt dissatisfied with something. "How will the people live?" he thought. He started out and walked up along the Klamath. When the sun went down, rattlesnakes which had wings flew about. He looked about as he went along and thought, "What kind of medicine shall I make?" He saw a bush of Philadephus standing there. He broke off a shoot, made rings around it, and used it for a cane. "When I come to Lōknasaûndiñ, that lies ahead of me," he thought, "I will whip the air with it." When he came out into the prairie at Lōknasaûndiñ he whipped about himself with the cane. He found nothing there. He had killed them all immediately. "This is the way it will happen," he thought, "if any one takes my cane along. He will go through dangerous places if he carries my cane, and he will not see rattlesnakes."

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