312 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



tively civilized nations ; the massacre which takes 

 place at the death of a king of Dahomey is well 

 known, and is revolting from the number of victims 

 and from the mode of their sacrifice. It is therefore 

 easy to imagine the way in which musical instruments 

 and the sounds produced by them were personified, 

 since these manifestations seemed to approximate 

 more closely to those of animals. 



Fetishtic beliefs concerning magic songs or sounds 

 were, as we have seen, confirmed by the influence 

 naturally exerted on men and animals in their 

 normal or abnormal state by rhythmic and musical 

 sounds, however rude and unformed they may be. 

 Theophrastus tells us that blowing a flute over the 

 affected limb was supposed to cure gout ; the Eomans 

 recited carmina to drive away disease and demons : 

 the old Slav word for physician, vragi, comes from 

 a root which means to murmur ; in Servian, vrac is a 

 physician, and balii, an enchanter or physician. The 

 use of incantations as a remedy prevailed among the 

 Greeks in Homer's time. The Atarva-Veda retains 

 the old formula of imprecation against disease, and 

 the Zend-avesta divides physicians into three classes, 

 those which cure with the knife, with herbs, and 

 with magic formulas. Kuhn believes that the Latin 

 word mcderi refers to these proceedings, comparing 

 with it the Sanscrit meth, medh, to oppose or curse. 

 Pictet traces the meaning of exerciser in another 

 Sanscrit word for a physician : Bhisag from sag, sang, 

 tojurbo gate. 



