194 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to make some effort to change this condition of things ? Perliaps 

 half the money now spent on superfluities, if devoted to a better 

 system of ventilation, might very sensibly improve the health 

 and increase the happiness of the community. 



DRESS AND ADORNMENT. 



IV. EELIGIOUS DRESS. 

 By J'kof. FREDEKICK STARR. 



UNDER this subject we shall consider a variety of different 

 matters — the dress of religious officers; the dress of wor- 

 shipers ; the dress of victims ; the garb of mourners ; amulets 

 and charms ; and the religious meaning of mutilations. 



In any society we need io hnoiv four individuals only — the 

 babe, the woman, the priest, and the dead man. If we know these, 

 we know the community. The ethnographer usually seeks for 

 the average man in any tribe ; we believe he would better seek to 

 know these four. Of the four the priest is usually the most re- 

 markable. What 

 an influence the 

 shaman or the 

 m e d i c i n e - m a n 

 wields in every 

 community where 

 he exists ! His 

 power is largely 

 due to the terror 

 which he causes, 

 and to add to this 

 he makes use of 

 every auxiliary. 

 Thus in his dress 

 he aims at the 

 wild and gro- 

 tesque. By it he 

 seeks to mark 

 himself off as dis- 

 tinct from com- 

 mon men, and, al- 

 though it may often be rich and costly, it must at the same 

 time strike terror. The Kaffir sorcerer wears the ordinary kilt, 

 but puts a gall-bladder in his hair and winds a snake's skin 

 about his shoulders. A "queen of witches" wore large coils 

 of entrails stuffed with fat about her neck, while her hair was 



Fig. 1. — Necklace of Sorcerer. Zululand. 



