II. Witchcraft, or
III. Offended dead persons.
Disease and death are set down to the influences of spirits in the Australian-Tasmanian district, where demons are held to have the power of creeping into men’s bodies, to eat up their livers, and sometimes to work the wicked will of a sorcerer by inflicting6 blows with a club on the back of the victim’s neck.16 The Mantira, a low race of the Malay Peninsula, believe in the theory of disease-spirits in its extreme form; their spirits cause all sorts of ailments8. The “Hantu Kalumbahan” causes small-pox; the “Hantu Kamang” brings on inflammation and swelling10 of the hands and feet; the blood which flows from wounds is due to the “Hantu-pari,” which fastens on the wound and sucks. So many diseases, so many Hantus. If a new malady11 were to appear amongst the tribes, a new Hantu would be named as its cause.17 When small-pox breaks out amongst these people, they place thorns and brush in the paths to keep the demons away. The Khonds of Orissa try to defend themselves against the goddess of small-pox, Jugah Pensu, in the same way. Among the Dayaks of Borneo, to have been ill is to have been smitten13 by a spirit; invisible spirits inflict7 invisible wounds with invisible spears, or they enter bodies and make them mad. Disease-spirits in the Indian Archipelago are conciliated by presents13 and dances. In Polynesia, every sickness is set down to deities14 which have been offended, or which have been urged to afflict15 the sufferer by their enemies.18 In New Zealand disease is supposed to be due to a baby, or undeveloped spirit, which is gnawing16 the patient’s body. Those who endeavour to charm it away persuade it to get upon a flax-stalk and go home. Each part of the body is the particular region of the spirit whose office it is to afflict it.19
The Prairie Indians treat all diseases in the same way, as they must all have been caused by one evil spirit.20
Among the Betschvaria disease may be averted18 if a painted stone or a crossbar smeared19 with medicine be set up near the entrance of the residence or approach to a town.21
Amongst the Bodo and Dhimal peoples, when the exorcist is called to a sick man he sets thirteen loaves round him, to represent the gods, one of whom he must have offended; then he prays to the deity20, holding a pendulum21 by a string. The offended god is supposed to cause the pendulum to swing towards his loaf.22
The New Zealanders had a separate demon for each part of the body to cause disease. Tonga caused headache and sickness; Moko-Tiki was responsible for chest pains, and so on.23
The Karens of Burmah and the Zulus both say, “The rainbow is disease. If it rests on a man, something will happen to him.”24 “The rainbow has come to drink wells.” They say, “Look out; some one or other will come violently by an evil death.”
The Tasmanians lay their sick round a corpse22 on the funeral pile, that the dead may come in the night and take out the devils that cause the diseases.25
The Zulus believe that spirits, when angry, seize a living man’s body and inflict disease and death, and when kindly23 disposed give health and cattle. In Madagascar, Mr. Tylor tells us, the spirits of the Vazimbas, the aborigines of the island, inflict diseases, and the Malagasy accounts for all sorts of mysterious complaints by the supposition that he has given offence to some Vazimba. The Gold Coast negroes believe that ghosts plague the living and cause sickness. The Dayaks of Borneo think that the souls of men enter the trunks of trees, and the Hindus hold that plants are sometimes the homes of the spirits of the departed. The Santals of Bengal believe that the spirits of the good14 enter into fruit-bearing trees.26 It is but another step to the belief that beneficent medicinal plants are tenanted by good spirits, and poisonous plants by evil spirits. The Malays have a special demon for each kind of disease; one for small-pox, another for swellings, and so on.27
The Dayaks of Borneo acknowledge a supreme24 God, although, as we have said, they attribute all kinds of diseases and calamities25 to the malignity26 of evil spirits. Their system of medicine consists in the application of appropriate charms or the offering of conciliatory sacrifices.28 Yet they are an intelligent and highly capable race, and their steel instruments far surpass European wares27 in strength and fineness of edge.29
The Javanese, nominally28 Mahometans, are really believers in the primitive29 animism of their ancestry30. They worship numberless spirits; all their villages have patron saints, to whom is attributed all that happens to the inhabitants, good or bad. Mentik causes the rice disease; Sawan produces convulsions in children; Dengen causes gout and rheumatism31.30
The religion of Siam is a corrupted32 Buddhism33; spirits and demons (nats or phees) are worshipped and propitiated34. Some of these malignant35 beings cause children to sicken and die. Talismans36 are worked into the ornamentation of the houses to avert17 their evil influence.31
The Rev37. J.?L. Wilson32 says: “Demoniacal possessions are common, and the feats38 performed by those who are supposed to be under such influence are certainly not unlike those described in the New Testament39. Frantic40 gestures, convulsions, foaming41 at the mouth, feats of supernatural strength, furious ravings, bodily lacerations, grinding of teeth, and other things of a similar character, may be witnessed in most of the cases.”
In Finnish mythology42, which introduces us to ideas of extreme antiquity43, we find the disease-demon theory in all its force.
The Tietajat, “the learned,” and the Noijat, or sorcerers, claimed the power to cure diseases by expelling the demons which caused them, by incantations assisted by drugs; these magicians were the only physicians of the nation. The Tietajat and the Noijat, however, were not magicians of the same class: the former practised “white magic,” or “sacred science”; the latter practised “black magic,” or sorcery. Evil spirits, poisons, and malice44 were the chief aids to practice in the latter; while Tietajat, by means of learning and the assistance of benevolent45 supernatural beings, devote themselves to the welfare of the people. The three highest deities of Finnish mythology, Ukko, W?in?15m?inen, and Ilmarinen, corresponded to three superior gods of the Accadian magic collection, Ana, Hea, and Mut-ge. W?in?m?inen was the great spirit of life, the master of favourable46 spells, conqueror47 of evil, and sovereign possessor of science. The sweat which dropped from his body was a balm for all diseases. It was he alone who could conquer all the demons. Every disease was itself a demon. The invasion of the disorder48 was an actual possession. Finnish magic was chiefly medical, being used to cure diseases and wounds.33 The Finns believed diseases to be the daughters of Louhiatar, the demon of diseases. Pleurisy, gout, colic, consumption, leprosy, and the plague were all distinct personages. By the help of conjurations, these might be buried or cooked in a brazen49 vessel50. When the priest made his diagnosis51 he had to be in a state of divine ecstasy52, and then by incantation, assisted by drugs, he proceeded to exorcise the demon. The Finnish incantations belonged to the same family as those of the Accadians. Professor Lenormant translates from the great Epopee of the Kalevala one of the incantations:—
“O malady, disappear into the heavens; pain, rise up to the clouds; inflamed54 vapour, fly into the air, in order that the wind may take thee away, that the tempest may chase thee to distant regions, where neither sun nor moon give their light, where the warm wind does not inflame55 the flesh.
“O pain, mount upon the winged steed of stone, and fly to the mountains covered with iron. For he is too robust56 to be devoured57 by disease, to be consumed by pains.
“Go, O diseases, to where the virgin58 of pains has her hearth59, where the daughter of W?in?m?inen cooks pains,—go to the hill of pains.
Another incantation against the plague was discovered by Ganander, and is given by Lenormant:—
“I will give thee a horse, with which to escape, whose shoes shall not slide on ice;” and so on.
The Jewish ceremony expelled the scapegoat65 to the desert; the Accadian banished66 the disease-demons to the desert of sand; the Finnish magician sent his disease-demons to Lapland.
The goddess Suonetar was the healer and renewer of flesh:—
“She is beautiful, the goddess of veins67, Suonetar, the beneficent goddess! She knits the veins wonderfully with her beautiful spindle, her metal distaff, her iron wheel.
16
“Come to me, I invoke68 thy help; come to me, I call thee. Bring in thy bosom69 a bundle of flesh, a ball of veins to tie the extremity70 of the veins.”34
“All diseases are attributed by the Thibetans to the four elements, who are propitiated accordingly in cases of severe illness. The winds are invoked71 in cases of affections of the breathing; fire in fevers and inflammations; water in dropsy, and diseases whereby the fluids are affected72; and the god of earth when solid organs are diseased, as in liver complaints, rheumatism, etc. Propitiatory73 offerings are made to the deities of these elements, but never sacrifices.”35
Hooker tells of a case of apoplexy which was treated by a Lama, who perched a saddle on a stone, and burning incense74 before it, scattered75 rice to the winds, invoking76 the various mountain peaks in the neighbourhood.
In Hottentot mythology Gaunab is a malevolent77 ghost, who kills people who die what we call a “natural” death. Unburied men change into this sort of vampire78.36
The demoniacal theory of at least one class of disease is found in the Bible, although the New Testament in one passage distinguishes between lunatics and demoniacs. In Matthew iv. 24 we read that they brought to Jesus “those which were possessed79 with devils, and those which were lunatick.” Epilepsy is evidently the disease described in Mark ix. 17-26, though the symptoms are attributed to possession by a dumb spirit.
II. Witchcraft as a Cause of Disease.
Sorcerers and magicians not only use evil words and cast evil glances at the persons whom they wish to afflict, but they endeavour to obtain possession of some article which has belonged to the individual, or something connected more closely with his personality, as parings of the nails or a few of his hairs, and through these he professes80 to be able to operate more effectually on the object of his malice. It is to this use of portions of the body that ignorant persons, even at the present day, insist that nail-parings, hair-cuttings, and the like, shall be at once destroyed by fire. Such superstitions82 are found at work all over the world. Mr. Black tells us37 that the servants of the chiefs of the17 South Sea Islanders carefully collect and bury their masters’ spittle in places where sorcerers are not likely to find it. He says also it is believed in the West of Scotland that if a bird used any of the hair of a person’s head in building his nest, the individual would be subject to headaches and become bald. Of course the bird is held to be the embodiment of an evil spirit or witch. Images of persons to be bewitched are sometimes made in wood or wax, in which has been inserted some of the hair of the victim of the enchantment83; the image is then buried, and before long some malady attacks the part of the bewitched person corresponding to that in which the hair has been placed in his effigy84. Disease-making is a profession in the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides; the sorcerers collect the skins and shells of the fruits eaten by any one who is to be punished, they are then slowly burned, and the victims sicken. Disease-demons are driven away from patients in Alaska by the beating of drums. The size of the drum and the force of the beating are directly proportioned to the gravity of the disease. A headache can be dispelled85 by the gentle tapping of a toy drum; concussion86 of the brain would require that the big drum should be thumped87 till it broke; if that failed to expel the evil spirit, there would be nothing left but to strangle the patient.
The wild natives of Australia are exceedingly superstitious88. Sorcery enters into every relation of life, and their great fear is lest they should be injured by the mysterious influence called boyl-ya. The sorcerers have power to enter the bodies of men and slowly consume them; the victim feels the pain as the boyl-ya enters him, and it does not leave him till it is extracted by another sorcerer. While he is sleeping, he may be attacked and bewitched by having pointed89 at him a leg-bone of a kangaroo, or the sorcerer may steal away his kidney-fat, where the savage3 believes that his power resides, or he may secretly slay90 his victim by a blow on the back of his neck. The magician may dispose of his victim by procuring91 a lock of his hair and roasting it with fat; as it is consumed, so does his victim pine away and die.
Wingo is a superstition81 which some Australian tribes have, that with a rope of fibre they can partially92 choke a man, by putting it round his neck at night while he is asleep, without waking him; his enemy then removes his caul-fat from under his short rib12, leaving no mark or wound. When the victim awakes he feels no pain or weakness, but sooner or later he feels something break in his inside like a string. He then goes home and dies at once.38
Dr. Watson thus describes the typical medicine-men:—
18
“The Tla-guill-augh, or man of supernatural gifts, is supposed to be capable of throwing his good or bad medicine, without regard to distance, on whom he will, and to kill or cure by magic at his pleasure. These medicine-men are generally beyond the meridian93 of life; grave, sedate94, and shy, with a certain air of cunning, but possessing some skill in the use of herbs and roots, and in the management of injuries and external diseases. The people at large stand in great awe95 of them, and consult them on every affair of importance.”39
Dr. O.?L. M?ller, Medical Director-General of the Danish army, describes a certain wise woman near L?gst?r, who used in her prescriptions96 for the sick people who consulted her a charm of willow97 twigs98 tied together amongst other mystic things, and whose therapeutics were of a bloodthirsty character, as she would advise her patients to strike the first person they met after returning home, until they drew blood, for that person would be the cause of the disease.40
The fact that ghosts and demons are everywhere believed to cause diseases, and that sorcery is practised more or less by most of the races of man in connection with the causation or cure of disease, has been used as a factor in the argument for the origin of primitive man from a single pair in accordance with the orthodox belief. Dr. Pickering, the ethnologist, says: “Superstitions also appear to be subject to the same laws of progression with communicated knowledge, and the belief in ghosts, evil spirits, and sorcery, current among the ruder East Indian tribes, in Madagascar, and in a great part of Africa, seems to indicate that such ideas may have elsewhere preceded a regular form of mythology.”41
There has long been practised in the West Indies a species of witchcraft called Obeah or Obi, supposed to have been introduced from Africa, and which is in reality an ingenious system of poisoning. Mr. Bowrey, Government chemist in Jamaica, connects Obeah-poisoning with a plant which grows abundantly in Jamaica and other West Indian islands, called the “savannah flower,” or “yellow-flowered nightshade” (Urechites suberecta).42
Mr. Bowrey concludes that there is some truth in the stories told of the poisoning by Obeah-men, and that minute doses, frequently administered, might cause death without suspicion being aroused. The British Medical Journal, June 18th, 1892, has the following interesting notes on Obeah (p. 1296):—
19
“It is difficult to obtain detailed99 information regarding Obeah practices. They rest largely on the credence100 given to superstitious practices and vulgar quackery101 by the uneducated in every country, but there seems little doubt that among them secret poisoning is included. Benjamin Moseley (Medical Tracts102, London, 1800) states that Obi had its origin, like many customs among the Africans, from the ancient Egyptians, Ob meaning a demon or magic. Villiers-Stuart (Jamaica Revisited, 1891) says that Obeah in the West African dialects signifies serpent, and that the Obeah-men in Jamaica carry (but in greatest secrecy103, for fear of the penal104 laws) a stick on which is carved a serpent, the emblem105 being a relic106 of the serpent worship once universal among mankind, and also that they sacrifice cocks at their religious rites107. Moseley gives the following account: ‘Obi, for the purposes of bewitching people or consuming them by lingering illness, is made of grave-dirt, hair, teeth of sharks and other animals, blood, feathers,’ and so on. Mixtures of these are placed in various ways near the person to be bewitched. ‘The victims to this nefarious108 art in the West Indies among the negroes are numerous. No humanity of the master nor skill in medicine can relieve the poor negro labouring under the influence of Obi. He will surely die, and of a disease that answers no description in nosology. This, when I first went to the colonies, perplexed109 me. Laws have been made in the West Indies to punish the Obian practice with death, but they have been impotent and nugatory110. Laws constructed in the West Indies can never suppress the effect of ideas, the origin of which is in the centre of Africa.’ ‘A negro Obi-man will administer a baleful dose from poisonous herbs, and calculate its mortal effects to an hour, day, week, month, or year.’ The missionaries111 Waddell (Twenty-nine Years in the West Indies and Central Africa, 1863) and Blyth (Reminiscences of Missionary112 Life, 1851) confirm this account. They are all agreed that similar practices prevail in West and Central Africa, and that Jamaican Obeah-men use poisons. Mr. Bowrey informs me that he has examined many Obeah charms, and confirms Moseley’s account of them. He thinks, however, that among the negroes the knowledge of poisons has been rapidly dying out, ‘doctor’s medicine’ and the much-advertised patent medicines having largely replaced the drugs of the native practitioners113. The belief in Obeah is still, however, almost universal among the black population. According to Sir Spencer St. John (Hayti, or the Black Republic, second edition, London, 1889) secret poisoning is a lucrative114 occupation in the neighbouring island of Hayti, certain of the people having an intimate knowledge of indigenous115 poisonous plants and being expert poisoners.”20
III. Offence to the Dead as a Cause of Disease.
How comes it that all the races of man of which we have any accurate information have some belief or other in spirits good or bad, and of some other life than the actual one which they live in their waking hours? The theologian answers it in his own way, the anthropologist116 in his, and perhaps a simpler one. With the religious aspect of the question we are not here concerned, we have merely to consider the scientific points involved. When the most ignorant savage of the lowest type falls asleep, he is as sure to dream as his more favoured civilized117 brother. To his companions he appears as though he were dead, he is motionless and apparently118 unconscious. He awakes and is himself again. What has his spirit or thinking part been doing while his body slept? The man has seen various things and places, has even conversed120 with friend or foe121 in his slumbers122, has engaged in fights, has taken a journey, has had adventures, and yet his body has not stirred. Naturally enough the explanation most satisfactory is, that his soul has temporarily left his body, and has met other souls in a similar condition. He has seen and conversed with his dead friends or relatives, has been comforted by their presence or alarmed at the visitation. Here, then, we have the anthropologist’s “theory of souls where life, mind, breath, shadow, reflexion, dream, vision, come together and account for one another in some such vague, confused way as satisfies the untaught reasoner.”43
But the savage goes further than this: he has seen his horse, his dog, his canoe, and his spear in his dream, they too must have souls; and thus he invests with a spiritual essence every material object by which he is surrounded. And so we find funeral sacrifices and ceremonies all over the world which testify to this universal belief of primitive man. The ornaments123 and weapons which are found with the bones of chiefs, the warrior’s horses slain124 at his burial place, the food and drink and piece of money left with the dead, are intelligible125 on this theory, and on no other. The savage’s idea of a demon or evil spirit is usually that of a soul of a malevolent dead man. The man was his enemy during life, he remains126 his enemy after death; or he owed some acknowledgment and reward to a spirit who had helped him, he has neglected to pay his debt, and he has offended the spirit in consequence. In cases of fainting, delirium127 from fever, hysteria, epilepsy, or insanity128, the savage sees the partial absence of the patient’s soul from his body, or the work of a tormenting129 demon. Demoniacal possession and the ceremonies of exorcism are theories readily explainable by facts with which the an21thropologist is familiar. “The sick Australian will believe that the angry ghost of a dead man has got into him, and is gnawing his liver; in a Patagonian skin hut the wizards may be seen dancing, shouting, and drumming, to drive out the evil demon from a man down with fever.”44
When Prof. Bartram, the anthropologist, was in Burma, his servant was seized with an apopleptic fit. The man’s wife, of course, attributed the misfortune to an angry demon, so she set out for him little heaps of rice, and was heard praying, “Oh, ride him not! Ah, let him go! Grip him not so hard! Thou shalt have rice! Ah, how good that tastes!”
The exorcist may so delude130 himself that he may believe that he has power to make the demon converse119 with him. There may be a falsetto voice like that of the mediums of modern civilization issuing from the patient’s mouth, and the exorcist’s questions and commands may be answered, and the evil spirit may consent to leave the sufferer in peace. In nervous or mental disorders131, in cases of defective132 power of assimilating food, such a process may exert a soothing133 and highly beneficial influence on the patient who is actively134 co-operating by his faith in his own cure, and so the error both as to the cause of the malady and its treatment is perpetuated135.
Primitive folk think that life is indestructible; what is called death is but a change of condition to them; even mites136 and mosquitos are immortal137.45
The Tasmanian, when he suffers from a gnawing disease, believes that he has unwittingly pronounced the name of a dead man, who, thus summoned, has crept into his body, and is consuming his liver. The sick Zulu believes that some dead ancestor he sees in a dream has caused his ailment9, wanting to be propitiated with the sacrifice of an ox. The Samoan thinks that the ancestral souls can get into the heads and stomachs of living men, and cause their illness and death. These are examples of human ghosts having become demons.46
In the Samoan group people thought that if a man died bearing ill-will towards any one, he would be likely to return to trouble him, and cause sickness and death, taking up his abode138 in the sufferer’s head, chest, or stomach. If he died suddenly, they said he had been eaten by the spirit that took him. In the Georgian and Society Islands evil demons cause convulsions and hysterics, or twist the bowels139 till the sufferers die writhing140 in agony. Madmen are thought to be entered22 by a god, so they are treated with great respect; idiots are considered to be divinely inspired.47 Many other races believe in the inspiration of mentally feeble or insane persons. Amongst the Dacotas spirits of animals, trees, stones, or deceased persons are believed to enter the patient and cause his disease. The medicine-man recites charms over him, and making a symbolic141 representation of the intruding142 spirit in bark, shoots it ceremonially; he sucks over the seat of the pain to draw the spirit out, and fires guns at it as it escapes.
This is just what happened in the West Indies in the time of Columbus. Friar Roman Paul tells of a native sorcerer who pretended to pull the disease from the legs of his patients, blowing it away, and telling it to begone to the mountain or the sea. He would then pretend to extract by sucking some stone or bit of flesh, which he declared had been put into the patient to cause the disease by a deity in punishment for some religious neglect.48 The Patagonians believed that sickness was caused by spirits entering the patient’s body; they considered that an evil demon held possession of the sick man’s body, and their doctors always carried a drum which they struck at the bedside to frighten away the demons which caused the disorder.49 The Zulus and Basutos in Africa teach that ghosts of dead persons are the causes of all diseases. Congo tribes believe also that the souls of the dead cause disease and death amongst men.
The art of medicine in these lands therefore is, for the most part, merely an affair of propitiating143 some offended and disease-causing spirit. In several parts of Africa mentally deranged144 persons are worshipped. Madness and idiocy145 are explained by the phrase, “he has fiends.” The Bodo and Dhimal people of North-east India ascribe all diseases to a deity who torments the patient, and who must be appeased147 by the sacrifice of a hog148. With these people naturally the doctor is a sort of priest. As Mr. Tylor says, “Where the world-wide doctrine149 of disease-demons has held sway, men’s minds, full of spells and ceremonies, have scarce had room for thought of drugs and regimen.”50
A forest tribe of the Malay Peninsula, called the Original People, are said to have no religion, no idea of any Supreme Being, and no priests; yet their Puyung, who is a sort of general adviser150 to the tribe, instructs them in sorcery and the doctrine of ghosts and evil spirits. In sickness they use the roots and leaves of trees as medicines. Amongst23 the Tarawan group of the Coral Islands, Pickering says: “Divination or sorcery was also known, and the natives paid worship to the manes or spirits of their departed ancestors.”51 Probably on careful investigation151 we should find that in these cases the doctrine of ghosts and the worship of spirits has some connection with the causation of disease.
The Malagasy profess53 a religion which is chiefly fetishism. They believe in the life of the spirit, which they call “the essential part of me,” apart from the body; and they believe that this spirit exists when the body dies. Such “ghosts” they consider can do harm in various ways, especially by causing diseases; consequently they endeavour, as the chief means of cure, to appease146 the offended ghost. Witchcraft and belief in charms naturally flourish amongst these people.52
Mr. A.?W. Howitt says that the K?rnai of Gippsland, Australia, believe that a man’s spirit (Yambo) can leave the body during sleep, and hold converse with other disembodied spirits. Another tribe, the Woi-wor?ng, call this spirit Mūr?p, and they suppose it leaves the body in a similar manner, the exact moment of its departure being indicated by the “snoring” of the sleeper152. As a theory of the soul, Mr. Howitt says: “It may be said of the aborigines I am now concerned with, and probably of all others, that their dreams are to them as much realities in one sense, as are the actual events of their waking life. It may be said that in this respect they fail to distinguish between the subjective153 and objective impressions of the brain, and regard both as real events.”53
They believe that these ghosts live upon plants, that they can revisit their old haunts at will, and communicate with the wizards or medicine-men on being summoned by them. A celebrated154 wizard amongst the Woi-wor?ng caught the spirit of a dying man, and brought it back under his ’possum rug, and restored it to the still breathing body just in time to save his life. The ghosts can kill game with spiritually poisoned spears. Even the tomahawk has a spirit, and this belief explains many burial customs. One of the Woi-wor?ng people told Mr. Howitt that they buried the weapon with the dead man, “so that he might have it handy.” Other tribes bury with the corpse the amulets156 and charms used by the deceased during life, in case they may be required in the spirit-world. The Woi-wor?ng believe that their wizards could send their deadly magical yark, or rock crystal, against a person they desired to kill, in the form of a small whirlwind. They believe that their wizards “go up” at night to the sky, and obtain such information as24 they require in their profession. They can also bring away the magical apparatus157 by which some one of another tribe might be injuring the health of a member of his own tribe. It is highly probable that in these Australian beliefs we have the counterparts of those which were everywhere held by primitive man. Good spirits are very little worshipped by savages; they are already well disposed, and need no invocation; it is the bad ones who must be propitiated by an infinite variety of rites and sacrifices. “Thus,” as Professor Keane says, “has demonology everywhere preceded theology.”54
Mr. Edward Palmer, in Notes on Some Australian Tribes, says that the Gulf158 tribes believe in spirits which live inside the bark of trees, and which come out at night to hold intercourse159 with the doctors, or “mediums.” These spirits work evil at times. The Kombinegherry tribe are much afraid of an evil-working spirit called Tharragarry, but they are protected by a good spirit, Coomboorah. The Mycoolon people believe in an invisible spear which enters the body, leaving no outward sign of its entry. The victim does not even know that he is hurt; he goes on hunting, and returns home as usual; in the night he becomes ill, delirious160, or mad, and dies in the morning. Thimmool is a pointed leg-bone of a man, which, being held over a blackfellow when asleep, causes sickness or death. The Marro is the pinion-bone of a hawk155, in which hair of an enemy has been fixed161 with wax. To work a charm on him a fire circle is made round it. With this charm they can make their enemy sick, or, by prolonging their magic, kill him. When they think they have done harm enough, they place the Marro in water, which removes the charm.55
Mr. H.?H. Johnstone says that the tribes on the Lower Congo bury with any one of consequence bales of cloth, plates, beads162, knives, and other things required to set the deceased up in the spirit-life on which he has entered. The plates are broken, the beads are crushed, and the knives bent163, so as to kill them, that they too may “die,” and go to the spirit-land with their owner.56
This is a valuable confirmation164 of the doctrine of animism.
As Mr. Herbert Spencer says:57 “It is absurd to suppose that uncivilized man possesses at the outset the idea of ‘natural explanation.’” At a great price has civilized man purchased the power of giving a natural explanation to the phenomena165 by which he is surrounded. As societies grow, as the arts flourish, as painfully, little by little, his25 experiences accumulate, so does man learn to correct his earlier impressions, and to construct the foundations of science. It is the natural, or it would not be the universal, process for primitive man to explain phenomena by the simplest methods, and these always lead him to his superstitions. It is the only process open to him. The activity which he sees all around him is controlled by the spirits of the dead, and by spirits more or less like those which animate166 his fellow-men.
Clement167 of Alexandria says that all superstition arises from the inveterate168 habit of mankind to make gods like themselves. The deities have like passions with their worshippers, “and some say that plagues, and hailstorms, and tempests, and the like, are wont169 to take place, not alone in consequence of material disturbance170, but also through the anger of demons and bad angels. These can only be appeased by sacrifice and incantations. Yet some of them are easily satisfied, for when animals failed, it sufficed for the magi at Cleone to bleed their own fingers.”58
“The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians offering sacrifice previous to the pestilence171, effected a delay of the plague for ten years.”
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1
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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inflicting
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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8
ailments
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| 疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
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ailment
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| n.疾病，小病 | |
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10
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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11
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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12
rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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13
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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14
deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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15
afflict
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| vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨 | |
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16
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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17
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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19
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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21
pendulum
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| n.摆，钟摆 | |
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22
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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23
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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24
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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25
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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26
malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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27
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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28
nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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29
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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30
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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31
rheumatism
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| n.风湿病 | |
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32
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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33
Buddhism
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| n.佛教（教义） | |
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34
propitiated
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| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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36
talismans
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| n.护身符( talisman的名词复数 )；驱邪物；有不可思议的力量之物；法宝 | |
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37
rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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38
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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39
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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40
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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41
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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42
mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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43
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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44
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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45
benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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46
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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47
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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48
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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49
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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50
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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51
diagnosis
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| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
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52
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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53
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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54
inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
inflame
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| v.使燃烧；使极度激动；使发炎 | |
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56
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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57
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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58
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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59
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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60
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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61
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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62
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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63
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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64
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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65
scapegoat
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| n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊 | |
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66
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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68
invoke
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| v.求助于(神、法律)；恳求，乞求 | |
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69
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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70
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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71
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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72
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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73
propitiatory
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| adj.劝解的；抚慰的；谋求好感的；哄人息怒的 | |
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74
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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75
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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76
invoking
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| v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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77
malevolent
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| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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78
vampire
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| n.吸血鬼 | |
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79
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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80
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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81
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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82
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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83
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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84
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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85
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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87
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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88
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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89
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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90
slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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91
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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92
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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93
meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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94
sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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95
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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96
prescriptions
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| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
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97
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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98
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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99
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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100
credence
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| n.信用，祭器台，供桌，凭证 | |
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101
quackery
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| n.庸医的医术，骗子的行为 | |
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102
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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103
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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104
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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105
emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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106
relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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107
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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108
nefarious
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| adj.恶毒的，极坏的 | |
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109
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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110
nugatory
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| adj.琐碎的，无价值的 | |
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111
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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112
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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113
practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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114
lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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115
indigenous
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| adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的 | |
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116
anthropologist
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| n.人类学家，人类学者 | |
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117
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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118
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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119
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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120
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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121
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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122
slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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123
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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124
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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125
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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126
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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127
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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128
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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129
tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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130
delude
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| vt.欺骗；哄骗 | |
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131
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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132
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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133
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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134
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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135
perpetuated
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| vt.使永存（perpetuate的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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136
mites
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| n.（尤指令人怜悯的）小孩( mite的名词复数 )；一点点；一文钱；螨 | |
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137
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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138
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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139
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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140
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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141
symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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142
intruding
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| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的现在分词)；把…强加于 | |
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143
propitiating
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| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的现在分词 ) | |
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144
deranged
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| adj.疯狂的 | |
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145
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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146
appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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147
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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148
hog
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| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
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149
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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150
adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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151
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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152
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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153
subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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154
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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155
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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156
amulets
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| n.护身符( amulet的名词复数 ) | |
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157
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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158
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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159
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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160
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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161
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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162
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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163
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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164
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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165
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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166
animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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167
clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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168
inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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169
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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170
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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171
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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