TKIKAL SnrlKTT 263 



iit. IB supposed to iii.-r.-ane the number of the 

 and give the people a larger food supply." 



Ih'ii.-m medicine -in,. n perform certain magical 



tices which are supposed to efTect the well-being of 



Their supernatural powers 



are also invoked to euro disease and sickness. But tin- 

 savage's notion of disease, of tin- .-an-.- of illness, is 68- 



illy diffrrrnt from tin- modern maiiV imdrrslandini; 

 of it. To the savage, a disease or ~s is always evi- 



that the victim is possessed by an evil spirit or 

 In- has 1 ..... n he\vitrhrd hy evil mairic. It' a \\oimd l.l.-.-.U 

 exce.- ic thought that some malignant spirit 



is surkinvr the blood of the in.jured person. Chants, ac- 

 companied hy tin- Iwatin^ of ilruins, an- nii.lrrtnk.-ii with 



loathat !> tlrse means tin -\ il >pirit may 1 

 enod away and th.- hi., .ling stopped. Sometimes a sav- 

 age dreams that one of th. m< -.li. -in.- men has got some of 

 his hair, or a piece of his food or clothing, or indeed any- 



' that ho has used. Should IK- <lnam this several 

 times he feels sun- that it is so, and he calls his friends 

 together and t-ll> th.-m that he has been dreaming about 

 a man who must havr soin.-thing belonging to him. His 

 fri. -nds go and ask the man if h<- has anything belonging 

 to the other. The medicine-man usually denies it, but 

 if he sees no other way out of it he makes the excuse 



; ic has something that he is burning, but that it was 

 v'ivrn him to burn, and that he did not know to whom it 

 h. longed. In such a case he will give the thing to the 

 friends of the sick man, tellinir them to put it in water 

 to put the tin out ; and when thU has been done, the man 

 will prolwhly feel better. Sometimes a mc.licine-man 

 may suck an evil spirit out of an affected part, thus effect- 



