112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the doctor decided that he must make a parsili: this was a figure of 

 the sick person, of about her size, cut out of the soft stem of a banana- 

 tree, and clothed with a few rags. It is dedicated to the particular 

 object it is designed to serve, with a certain set of magic forms, and 

 is laid in the road outside of the town, with the expectation that 

 the wicked spirit will come out of the sick person and go into it. 

 As another means of making sure that this should happen, the sick 

 woman was " stolen," or secretly taken in the night to another house. 

 When all this proved to be of no avail, the medicine-man declared 

 that he had an extremely perverse spirit to deal with, and must use 

 the most energetic means to drive it out. He pounded up a double 

 handful of the terribly sharp red and green Spanish peppers, and 

 sprinkled the juice into the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears of the poor 

 sick woman, in order to bring the spirit to terms by means of the 

 fearful pain the operation excited. When this did not help, the medi- 

 cine-man lost confidence, notwithstanding a hen was sacrificed in his 

 honor every day, and would not stay any longer. He did not say so, 

 however, but went off secretly ; for he foresaw that he would inevi- 

 tably suffer great shame and reproach if the patient should die on his 

 hands. Of course for that is understood there he would have to 

 go away empty-handed if the case proved fatal. 



An expedient sometimes resorted to in desperate cases is to consult 

 the begu itself for advice. For this purpose all the sick person's family 

 connections living in the town, men, women, and children, assemble at 

 the house. The room having been cleared for the occasion, is dimly 

 illuminated by means of torches made by rolling up a leaf and pouring 

 melted pitch into it. The spectators take their places in a circle around 

 the room, while the actors in the drama are seated in the middle. On 

 one side are the musicians, two, four, six, or eight young fellows, armed 

 with drums of bamboo and deer-skin, and cymbals and gongs, bought 

 from the Chinese, which are kept with the greatest care, in cases spe- 

 cially made for them, among the most precious heirlooms of the family. 

 Of course no melody can be brought out from such instruments, but 

 the musical effect produced by them consists in a variety of rhythms, 

 some of which are quite complicated and characteristic. Opposite the 

 orchestra sit two men, one of whom is the sibaro or haroem ni begu, 

 or medium. Among the Battas who are still heathen, each family or 

 each town has two of these mediums, generally a man and a woman. 

 No one devotes himself to the office of medium of his own free-will, 

 and it requires the learning of no art ; but, when the sibaro dies or 

 goes away, the begu itself chooses a new one by taking possession of 

 him ; and, waiting this, the obligate music is kept up in the presence 

 of the whole family till the desired event takes place. The sibaro is 

 dressed in his ceremonial robes ; from his head hangs a strip of cloth 

 reaching to the floor, under which is a vessel of burning incense, the 

 smoke of which rises to his head. After the music has sounded for a 



