BOUBKK.] POWERS CLAIMED BY THE MEDICINE-MAN. 459 



selves seem to have retired from business. In Abyssinia, at the pres 

 ent day, blacksmiths are considered to be were-wolves, according to 

 Wiustanley. The Apache look upon blacksmiths as being allied to the 

 spirits and call them pesh-chidiu the witch, spirit, or ghost, of the 

 iron. The priestly powers conceded to the blacksmith of Gretna Green 

 need no allusion here. 



According to Sir Walter Scott, 2 trials for lycauthropy were abolished 

 in France by an edict of Louis XIV. 



Parkman 3 describes, from the Relations of Pere Le Jeune, how the 

 Algonkin medicine-man announced that he was going to kill a rival 

 medicine-man who lived at Gaspe, 100 leagues distant. 



The Abipones of Paraguay, according to Father Dobrizhoffer, &quot;credit 

 their medicine-men with power to inflict disease and death, to cure all 

 disorders, to make known distant and future events; to cause rain, 

 hail, and tempest; to call up the shades of the dead and consult them 

 concerning hidden matters; to put on the form of a tiger; to handle 

 every kind of serpent without danger, etc.; which powers they imagine 

 are not obtained by art. but imparted to certain persons by their grand 

 father, the devil.&quot; 



The medicine-men of Honduras claimed the power of turning them 

 selves into lions and tigers and of wandering in the mountains. 4 



&quot; Grandes Hechiceros i Bruxos, porque se hacian Perros, Puercos i 

 Ximios.&quot; 5 



Gomara also calls attention to the fact that the medicine-men, &quot;hechi- 

 ceros&quot; and &quot;brujos,&quot; as he calls them, of the Mcaraguans, possessed 

 the power of lycanthropy ; &quot; segnn ellos mismos decian, se hacen per- 

 ros, puercos ygimias.&quot; 6 



Great as are the powers claimed by the medicine-men, it is admitted 

 that baleful influences may be at work to counteract and nullify them. 

 As has already been shown, among these are the efforts of witches, the 

 presence of women who are sometimes supposed to be so &quot;antimedici- 

 nal,&quot; if such a term may be applied, that the mere stepping over a war 

 rior s gun will destroy its value. 



There may be other medicine-men at work with countercharms, and 

 there may be certain neglects on the part of the person applying for aid 

 which will invalidate all that the medicine-man can do for him. For 

 example, while the &quot;hoop-me-kott &quot; was raging among the Mohave the 

 fathers of families afflicted with it were forbidden to touch coffee or salt, 

 and were directed to bathe themselves in the current of the Colorado. 

 But the whooping cough ran its course in spite of all that the medicine- 



1 &quot;St. Patrick, we are told, floated to Ireland on an altar stone. Amon&amp;lt;; other wonderful things, he 

 converted a marauder into a wolf and lighted a tire with icicles.&quot; James A. Fronde, Reminiscences 

 of the High Church Revival. (Letter V.) 



* Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 184. 



a . Jesuits in North America, pp. 34, :{o. 



4 Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 8, cap. 5. 159. 



&quot; Ibid., dec. 3. lib. 4, p. 121. 



Hist, ile las Indias, p. 283. 



