2 cure of any person is liable to be put to death, on the assumption that he did not wish to cure his patient. 1 Among the Creeks, as also in Hispaniola, 3 unsuccessful physicians were sometimes treated in a similar way. So, too, weather prophets and diviners may have to fear the most serious consequences, if they do not succeed in making favourable weather or giving good counsel. Of the Patagonians, Natches, 5 and Eskimo, we hear that rain-makers and prophets, whose words are falsified by subsequent events, in many cases expiate their failure. with death. We likewise read in the history of Herodotus that >lying diviners» were burnt to death among the Scythians. 7 4 6 The methods by which the priests and sorcerers of savage races acquire confidence and reputation among their countrymen naturally raise the question whether, on the whole, we are to look upon them as a class of impostors or not. Lord Avebury thinks that we must >>by no means suppose that sorcerers are always, or indeed generally, impostors. >> Professor Réville writes: 8 >> Rien de plus superficiel que l'opinion de ceux qui ne veulent voir dans le sorcier des non-civilisés qu'un charlatan et un jongleur. Sans doute, il est fortement poussé sur une pente où le charlatanisme ne tarde pas à devenir en quelque sorte fatal. Mais en réalité, non 1 2 Mayne, Four Years in British Columbia, p. 260. Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States, v. 271. cap. 4. 3 Herrera, Description de las Indias Ocidentales, dec. i. lib. iii. * Musters, Unter den Patagoniern, p. 195. 5 6 Charlevoix, A Voyage to North-America, ii. 204. Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in Smithsonian Reports, xviii. 430. seulement tout le monde autour de lui croit à ses pouvoirs supérieurs, il y croit lui-même, parce que les états d'hallucination, d'extase, de surexcitation mentale, dont il a conscience et qui ne sont pas feints, ne s'expliquent pour lui comme pour les autres que dans la supposition du commerce intime qu'il s'attribue avec les esprits invisibles.» M. de la Grasserie, who concurs in the opinion of Professor Réville, observes: »Les sorciers, à l'origine, ne sont pas des charlatans, ils sont eux-mêmes convaincus.»> 2 Dr. Lippert remarks that the medicinemen of the barbarous Indians have not themselves created the superstitious imaginations in which they are enwrapped. Hence there cannot, generally speaking, be any question of dissimulation or deceit on their part; but it may be that accessory fictions become more or less associated with the fundamental beliefs. 3 The opinions of travellers, again, are much divided. But however precarious it may be to try to lay down a universal rule as to the fair or unfair aims of the whole bodies of priests and sorcerers among uncivilized peoples, we nevertheless venture to think that this diversity of opinion largely depends upon the fact that different investigators have considered the question from somewhat different points of view. There is no reason to condemn the priests and sorcerers as deceivers, because their proceedings seem meaningless to European observers, or because some travellers have ascertained, by experiments, that the savage mystery-men are not endowed with those miraculous powers which they claim to possess. The principal point is whether the priests and sorcerers believe in their own powers or not. Especially when the ancient religion begins to decay, owing to contact with with civilization, deceitful 1 Réville, Histoire des Religions, ii. 238. 2 De la Grasserie, Des Religions Comparées, p. 260. 3 Lippert, Allgemeine Geschichte des Priesterthums, i. 58. He machinations tend to replace the original rites of the priesthood. But impostors are undoubtedly met with among the priests at all stages of early beliefs. Thus, for example, Howitt writes that the doctors and wizards in certain South-East Australian tribes are, with a few exceptions, conscious pretenders and impostors. mentions two old Murring men who had a great reputation for being very powerful wizards; to him these men, however, did not profess to be able to do supernatural actions. In another passage the author admits that >there remain some who really have a belief in their own powers as well as in those of other men.» 1 In Savage Island the best known of the native doctors >>exact heavy fees in kind for their services, but their faith in their own nostrums must be rather slender, for they themselves, when taken ill, resort to the Mission dispensary.» Although, according to Codrington, the Melanesian magicians generally believe in the power of their arts, there is, in some cases, conscious deceit, such as has been many times confessed to by those who have become Christians. 3 The doctors of certain Dyaks are held by Tromp to be »sly rogues», and St. John likewise remarks that the priests of the Land Dyaks »must in many respects be regarded as impostors, though, of course, even with their deceitful practices is mixed much superstitious credulity.» 5 Mr. Man thinks it quite possible that the Andamanese medicine-men imagine themselves gifted with superior wisdom, but in another place he 1 3 Howitt, 'Australian Medicine Men,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst, xvi. 57 sq. 2 Thomson, Savage Island, p. 135. Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 192 sq. Tromp, 'De Rambai en Sebroeang Dajaks,' in Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde, xxv. 113. 6 St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 211. Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 97 sq. says that the sleep during which they exercise their powers is in all probability feigned. With reference to the diviners of the Khevsurs in the Caucasus, who pronounce their predictions in a state of inspiration, Merzbacher maintains that cases of real ecstasy may occur among them and perhaps even constitute the rule in the beginning of their priestly career, when the sincere belief in supernatural powers provokes an abnormal exaltation; but afterwards when their minds are no longer susceptible of such exitement, the whole performance is, in most cases, simply a question of well-calculated dissimulation. We read that deceitful shamans who dupe the people for egotistic purposes have become more and more frequent among the Buryats. The Rev. J. Shooter gives us some examples showing to what deceptive methods the priests and sorcerers of the Kafirs sometimes resort. 4 The medicine-men of the Chactas are styled by M. Bossu, »vrais Charlatans qui imposent 2 3 au sot vulgaire, pour vivre gracieusement à ses depens.»> In some cases the conduct of the priests seems incontestably to prove that they are impostors. It is, for instance, a universal mode of curing illnesses among savage races, to suck or squeeze the affected part of the body in order to extract the complaint. Now, we are told respecting many peoples, that the priest-doctors, before they effect such a cure, conceal about them pieces of wood or bones or other extraneous substances, which they afterwards produce and represent as the cause of 1 Man, 'On the Andamanese and Nicobarese Objects,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xi. 289. 2 Merzbacher, Aus den Hochregionen des Kaukasus, ii. 87. 3 Кулаковъ, "Буряты Иркутской Губерніи, in Извѣстія В.-Сиб. Отд. Геогр. Общ. xxvi, 4-5. р. 140. * Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, pp. 168 sqq. 5 Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes Occidentales, ii. 96.. the disorder. 1 But even in cases of such seemingly manifest deceptions we must take care not too precipitately to condemn the priests as impostors. There are good. reasons to agree with Dr. Hirn when saying that, although the sucking cure may be a mere trick, »it is also possible that, at least originally, it may have been performed as a bona fide magic, based upon the notion of the efficacy of vehicles and symbolic action. »> 2 As a matter of fact, self-deception and the power of imagination often seem to be almost boundless among savages. Truth and imposture are altogether mixed up with each other, and habitual dissimulation may even make deceitful practitioners finally believe in their own pretended powers. As already mentioned, the priests and sorcerers of barbarous peoples are very generally of an excitable and peculiar mental disposition; from an early age they are filled with all kinds of superstitious ideas, and they have passed through a frightful and mysterious probation during which, in many cases, they have learned to work themselves up to exaltation and deliriousness. No wonder therefore, that a man who has 1 Such fraudulent practices of the priests in removing the »cause▸ of the disease are reported by a very great number of authorities, as for instance the following: Bonwick, 'The Australian Natives,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 208. Oldfield, 'Aborigines of Australia,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N. S. iii. 243. Howitt, 'Australian Medicine Men,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 38 sq. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia, ii. 360. Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 195. Codrington, Melanesians, p. 198 (Banks Islanders). Nordenskjöld, Från Eldslandet, p. 123 (Fuegians). Smith, Araucanians, p. 236. Dobrizhoffer, Abipones, ii. 250 sq. Southey, History of Brazil, i. 229 (Tupinambas). Ehrenreich, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde Brasiliens, p. 69 (Ipurinas). Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch-Guiana, i. 172 (Waraus). Works, i. 779 (Isthmians) and ib., i. 287 (Certain Columbians). 'A Study of Siouan Cults,' in Smithsonian Reports, xi. 417. Bancroft, Dorsey, Nelson, 'The Eskimo about Bering Strait,' Ib., xviii. 435. Junker, Reisen in Afrika, i. 405 (Makaraka). Hiekisch, Die Tungusen, p. 103. |