MASSAGE. 543 



I have been told of the buffalo-berry, but it can not be plenty or 

 very choice, from accounts. 



On the creeks there is a good gooseberry, and in low grounds the 

 black- or choke-cherry ; of these, native jellies are made ; but ye highly 

 favored, abundant-fruit people, can you imagine choke-cherries a lux- 

 ury ? Yea, verily, to us in desert-lands they are. 



MASSAGE. 



By Lady JOHN MANNERS. 



IN the present day, when we hear so much of the wear and tear of 

 daily work and worry, and when the preservation and restoration 

 of health are of supreme importance to those who take the foremost 

 rank in the battle of life, it may not be unprofitable to cast a glance 

 on the means employed by the nations of the Orient and of antiquity 

 to develop and maintain the vigor of the body. 



The history of massage, which of late years has been employed 

 with wonderful success as a cure for many ailments, has been written 

 by Dr. Hiinerfauth, of Homburg, and, in the hope that some hints may 

 be useful, I have translated extracts from his comprehensive work. 



The expression "massage" is derived, according to Pierry ("Dic- 

 tionary of Medical Science "), from a Greek word signifying " to rub " ; 

 according to Savary (" Letters on Egypt "), its derivation is from the 

 Arabic word " mass," to press softly. In England a process of some- 

 what the same character is known as shampooing. It seems certain 

 that massage was practiced by the Indians and the Chinese many cent- 

 uries before the birth of our Saviour. It was combined with hygienic 

 gymnastics. The Brahmans exercised the art of healing ; the priests 

 of Buddha are known to have acquired much of their power over their 

 people by their skill in medicine. Sir William Jones, the great Ori- 

 ental linguist, discovered fragments of the third sacred book of the 

 Brahman period, entitled " The Knowledge of Life," which contained 

 many secrets of Indian medicine. An extract from Daily's work states 

 that, when Alexander the Great penetrated as far as India, in the year 

 337 before Christ, his soldiers suffered much from the bites of serpents, 

 for which no cure was known by the Greeks. Alexander had gath- 

 ered round him the best Indian doctors, and he proclaimed to the army 

 that any who had been bitten must come to the royal tent to be cured. 

 These Indian doctors were in great repute ; illnesses were not of fre- 

 quent occurrence in those delightful climates, but any who were sick 

 resorted to the wise men, or Brahmans, who cured them by wonderful 

 or, as they professed, supernatural means. It has been ascertained 

 that massage and shampooing were among the remedies employed by 

 them. 



