A Spell To Destroy Life

A Spell To Destroy Life


Listen!

Now I have come to step over your soul,
I know your clan,
I know your name,
I have stolen your spit and buried it under earth

I bury your soul under earth
I cover you over with black-rock
I cover you over with black cloth
I cover you over with black slabs

You disappear forever;
your path leads to the
Black Coffin
in the hills of the Darkening Land.

So let it be for you;
the clay of the hills covers you,
the black clay of the Darkening Land.

Your soul fades away,
it becomes blue (the color of despair;
when darkness comes
your spirit shrivels and dwindles
to disappear forever.

Listen!


Cherokee incantation,
transcribed in 1887 from words of
the renowed medicine man, Swimmer (A'yunini)