this order. The medicine-men of Lubuku may be women, 2 and among the Fan, too, women sometimes. enjoy a certain authority as wizards. In the Kafir tribes the seer's office may be filled by a female. * Turning to Asia, we find female priests among several peoples in the north-western and northern parts. of the continent. Although women are by all shamanic peoples held as much inferior to men, there are nevertheless. female shamans among them considered to be as powerful as male shamans. 5 In certain Tartar tribes men, women, and even young maidens are permitted to practise as shamans. 6 The Yakuts have both male and female shamans, the latter are even said to be more numerous, although less highly estimated than the former; the Golds, also, on the Amur river, have female shamans. 8 Referring to the Land Dyaks, Mr. St. John writes that in most tribes »there are five or six priests, and in some districts half the female population are included under the denomination of priestesses.» 9. In the Pacific. Islands female priests are of no exceptional occurrence. 10 1 Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, ii. 155. 2 Wissmann, Quer durch Afrika, p. 380. 3 Lenz, Skizzen aus Westafrika, p. 87. + Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, p. 191. Arbousset and Daumas, Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 136. Maclean, Kafir Laws and Customs, p. 79. 6 •. Каратановъ, Поповъ and Потанинъ, 'Качинскіе Татары, in Извѣстія Геогр. Общ. хх, 6. р. 631. 7 Припузовъ, "Шаманство у Якутовъ, in Извѣстія В.-Сиб. Отд. Геогр. Общ. хѵ. 64. Приклонскій, "Три года въ Якутской Области, in Хивая Старина, і, 4. р. 58. 8 Шимкевичъ, 'Шаманство у Гольдовъ,'in Записки Приамурск. Отд. Геогр. Общ. ії, 1. р. 8. 9 St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 72. 10 Meinicke, Inseln des Stillen Oceans, i. 48. With special regard to the Fijians, Williams records that there are priestesses among them, although few of sufficient importance to have a temple as the priests have. ' Of peoples who more or less exclusively confine the priesthood to the male sex, a few may be instanced. We hear of the natives about the Altai mountains in Northern Central Asia that men are alone allowed to take part in their sacrificial feasts, and that, consequently, the shamans must be men. 2 Mentioning the Chippewas, a writer says that »soothsayers exist among them, both male and female, but the great medicines or charms are only practised by men.» 3 Andamanese seers are invariably of the male sex. Eyre declares that in Central Australia women are never sorcerers, 5 and, so far as we are aware, professed female sorcerers are not mentioned from other parts of the Australian continent either. 4 The priestly offices to which women seem principally to devote themselves are foretelling the future and healing diseases. In regard to the former art, as practised by the female sex, we read, for instance, that among the Nootkas »old women are not without their traditional mysterious powers in matters of prophecy and witchcraft.» 6 As regards the Ahts, too, prophecy is represented as the particular department of their aged women. In ancient Peru the old women commonly exercised the office of divination, especially those of certain provinces. By the 1 3 Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, p. 189. 2 Вербицкій, Алтайскіе Инородцы, р. 43. Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, ii. 159. * Man, 'On the Andamanese and Nicobarese Objects,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xi. 289. 5 Eyre, Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia, ii. 366. Kamchadales »every old woman is looked upon as a witch and interpreter of dreams. » 1 3 2 5 As respects the occurrence of female doctors, we are told that among the East African Mgangas, although they are of both sexes, the women generally confine themselves to the medical part of the profession. The healing of wounds, as also in general all medical treatment, is among the Kafirs performed by women. 3 Among the Ogowe River tribes women administer medicine and pharmacy. 4 In Fezzan the medical practice is more particularly in the hands of old experienced women. Female doctors seem to be more numerous than men among the Northern Californians, and among the Karok, likewise, the doctors who had to diagnose cases of illness were mostly women. In their complaints and disorders the Creeks sometimes employ male, but more frequently female practitioners to attend them. From Nicaragua we hear that the old women cured the sick, and this was also the case in the province of Chicora, where they had no other physicians, as is expressly stated. 10 In the Koitapu tribe of New Guinea, who among their neigh 1 2 7 6 9 Крашенниковъ, Описаніе земли Камчатки, іі. 81. 7 Powers, Tribes of California,' in Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, iii. 26. 8 Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States, v. 270. 9 cap. vii. 10 Herrera, Description de las Indias Ocidentales, dec. iii. lib. iv. bours enjoy a great reputation for skill in the healing art, women are oftener called upon than men. ' It is in this connection a remarkable fact that women are almost universally considered to be endowed with mysterious powers in a much higher degree than is the case with men. Mr. Lane's account displays the idea of the Moslem world in this respect: >The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affected feeling of superior virtue, often dwell, in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment and good sense. is held as a fact not to be disputed even by themselves, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning is pronounced equally certain and notorious. Their general depravity is pronounced to be much greater than that of men.» 2 Doughty, in his description of the Arabian desert, tells of a Moslem who had put away his wife, and subsequently declared with great lamentation that she had bewitched him in revenge. Such cases were said to be common in that region the work of the hareem, or women, with their sly philters and maleficent drinks. 3 The Santals fear the malevolent propensities of their women, as is shown by the fact that the men >> are particularly careful to keep their sacred knowledge from their wives for fear that they should acquire undue influence with the bongas (gods), become witches, and eat up the family with impunity when the protection of its gods has been withdrawn.» A similar observation occurs among certain Australians. From Central and us 4 1 Lawes, 'Ethnological Notes on the Tribes of New Guinea,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. viii. 374. The Thousand and One Nights, Introduction, i. 38. 1 South-Eastern Australia we hear that the sacred implements, by means of which the sorcerers work various spells, are specially kept concealed from the sight of women. In Dahome, where supposed spiritual power in women is very general, »the husband may not chastise or interfere with his wife whilst the fetish is upon her, and even at other times the use of the rod might be dangerous. >> 2 3 The notions of the spiritual propensities of women account for the inclination, which is displayed by many peoples, to attribute witchcraft particularly to the female sex. In Greenland decrepit old women especially are thought to serve as Illiseersut, or malevolent sorcerers. The Yurok and Karok in California »believe old squaws can by witchcraft prevent the salmon from ascending the river, and in former times they not unfrequently slew by butcherly murder the unfortunate hag so suspected.» 4 1 Eyre, Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia, ii. 359. Howitt, 'Australian Medicine Men,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 26. 2 Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, ii. 155. It is worth noticing that slaves are also in certain cases said to be comparatively well treated by their masters, because the latter fear the slaves would in revenge bewitch them, if severely chastised. This is reported by Du Chaillu to be the case among certain Equatorial African peoples (Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, p. 331), and with reference to Ashanti customs, Wilson writes that masters would abuse their power over the slaves if the fear of witchcraft, in which slaves are supposed to be particularly skilled, did not act as a most salutary check. In many cases the law, or what is the same thing, public opinion, allows a man the power of life and death over his slaves, but he will not hastily resort to extreme measures when he knows that a thousand secret invisible engines of witchcraft may be let loose against him. Slaves know very well in what their own power and the means of redress consist, and they are sure to turn their master's dread of witchcraft to good account. (Western Africa, p. 179) 4 Powers, Tribes of California,' in Survey of the Rocky Mountain Regior, iii. 57. |