In the mythology of most Indian tribes, as well as of primitive peoples generally, disease is caused by animal…
- Date of account
- Material collected chiefly 1887-1890; published 1900
- Source
- Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology
- Reference
- Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology · selected passage 122
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English with Cherokee names and material translated from oral testimony
- Translation
- Collected and edited by James Mooney
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
In the mythology of most Indian tribes, as well as of primitive peoples generally, disease is caused by animal spirits, ghosts, or witchcraft, and the doctor's efforts are directed chiefly to driving out the malevolent spirit
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyIn the mythology of most Indian tribes, as well as of primitive peoples generally, disease is caused by animal spirits, ghosts, or witchcraft, and the doctor's efforts are directed chiefly to driving out the malevolent spirit. In Creek belief, according to the Tuggle manuscript, "all disease is caused by the winds, which are born in the air and then descend to the earth." It is doubtful, however, if this statement is intended to apply to more than a few classes of disease, and another myth in the same collection recites that "once upon a time the beasts, birds, and reptiles held a council to devise means to destroy the enemy, man." For an extended discussion of the Indian medical theory, see the author's paper mentioned above.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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