Tells about Going into the Water

HI´A AMA´YI A´TAWASTI´YI KAN´HEHÛ

Sge! Ha-nâ´gwa usinuli´yu hatû´ngani´ga Hige´'yagu´ga, tsûwatsi´la gi´gage tsiye´la skina´dû'lani´ga. 0 0 digwadâ´ita. Sa'ka´ni tûgwadûne´lûhi. Atsanû´ngi gi´gage skwâsû´hisa'tani´ga. + + kûlsta´lagi + sa'ka´ni nu´tatanû´nta. Ditu´nûnnâ´gi dagwû´laskû´n-gwû deganu´y'tasi´ga. Galâ´nûntse´ta-gwû dagwadûne´lidise´sti. Sge!

Translation
This Tells About Going Into The Water

Listen! O, now instantly, you have drawn near to hearken, O Age´'yagu´ga. You have come to put your red spittle upon my body. My name is (Gatigwanasti.) The blue had affected me. You have come and clothed me with a red dress. She is of the (Deer) clan. She has become blue. You have directed her paths straight to where I have my feet, and I shall feel exultant. Listen!

Explanation

This formula, from Gatigwanasti's book, is also of the Yûnwe´hi class, and is repeated by the lover when about to bathe in the stream preparatory to painting himself for the dance. The services of a shaman are not required, neither is any special ceremony observed. The technical word used in the heading, a´tawasti´yi, signifies plunging or going entirely into a liquid. The expression used for the ordinary "going to water," where the water is simply dipped up with the hand, is amâ´yi dita'ti´yi, "taking them to water."

The prayer is addressed to Age´'yaguga, a formulistic name for the moon, which is supposed to exert a great influence in love affairs, because the dances, which give such opportunities for love making, always take place at night. The shamans can not explain the meaning of the term, which plainly contains the word age´'ya, "woman," and may refer to the moon's supposed influence over women. In Cherokee mythology the moon is a man. The ordinary name is nû´ndâ, or more fully, nû´ndâ sûnnâye´hi, "the sun living in the night," while the sun itself is designated as nû´ndâ ige´hi, "the sun living in the day."
By the red spittle of Age´'yagu´ga and the red dress with which the lover is clothed are meant the red paint which he puts upon himself. This in former days was procured from a deep red clay known as ela-wâ´ti, or "reddish brown clay." The word red as used in the formula is emblematic of success in attaining his object, besides being the actual color of the paint. Red, in connection with dress or ornamentation, has always been a favorite color with Indians throughout America, and there is some evidence that among the Cherokees it was regarded also as having a mysterious protective power. In all these formulas the lover renders the woman blue or disconsolate and uneasy in mind as a preliminary to fixing her thoughts upon himself. (See next formula.)

(YÛ´nWE´HI UGÛ´nWA'LI II.)

Yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi.
Galû´nlati, datsila´i-Yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi.
Nûndâgû´nyi gatla´ahi-Yû´nwehi.

Ge'yagu´ga Gi´gage, tsûwatsi´la gi´gage tsiye´la skina´dû'lani´ga-
Yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi.
Hia-'nû´ atawe´ladi´yi kanâ´hehû galûnlti´tla.

Translation
Song For Painting

Yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi.
I am come from above-Yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi.
I am come down from the Sun Land-Yû´nwehi.
O Red Age'yagu´ga, you have come and put your red spittle upon my body-Yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi, yû´nwehi.
And this above is to recite while one is painting himself.

Explanation

This formula, from Gatigwanasti, immediately follows the one last given, in the manuscript book, and evidently comes immediately after it also in practical use. The expressions used have been already explained. The one using the formula first bathes in the running stream, reciting at the same time the previous formula "Amâ´yi A´tawasti´yi." He then repairs to some convenient spot with his paint, beads, and other paraphernalia and proceeds to adorn himself for the dance, which usually begins about an hour after dark, but is not fairly under way until nearly midnight. The refrain, yû´nwehi, is probably sung while mixing the paint, and the other portion is recited while applying the pigment, or vice versa. Although these formula are still in use, the painting is now obsolete, beyond an occasional daubing of the face, without any plan or pattern, on the occasion of a dance or ball play.

Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee

Sacred Formulas Of The Cherokees, By James Mooney, 1885-1886