594 MEDICINE MEN OF THE APACHE. 



history there is 110 one element of their social life which demands closer 

 attention than the power of these teachers. . . . However much 

 we may deplore the use they made of their skill, we must estimate it 

 fairly and grant it its due weight in measuring the influence of the re 

 ligious sentiment on the history of man.&quot; 1 



&quot;Like Old Men of the Sea, they have clung to the neck of their 

 nations, throttling all attempts at progress, binding them to the 

 thraldom of superstition and profligacy, dragging them down to 

 wretchedness and death. Christianity and civilization meet in them 

 their most determined, most implacable foes.&quot; 2 



In spite of all the zeal and vigilance of the Spanish friars, supported 

 by military power, the Indians of Bogottt clung to their idolatry. 

 Padre Simon cites several instances and says tersely: &quot;De manera 

 que no lo hay del Indio que parece mas Cristiano y ladino, de que no 

 tenga idolos a quien adore, como nos lo dice cada dia la experiencia.&quot; 

 (So that there is no Indian, no matter how well educated he may appear 

 in our language and the Christian doctrine, who has not idols which 

 he adores, as experience teaches us every day.) 3 



&quot;The Indian doctor relied far more on magic than on natural reme 

 dies. Dreams, beating of the drum, songs, magic feasts and dances, 

 and howling to frighten the female demon from the patient, were his 

 ordinary methods of cure.&quot; 4 



In a very rare work by Padre Jose de Ariiaga, published in Lima, 

 lliHl, it is shown that the Indians among whom this priest was sent on 

 a special tour of investigation were still practicing their old idolatrous 

 rites in secret. This work may be found quoted in Montesinos, Meinoires 

 sur 1 Ancien Pe&quot;rou, in Ternaux-Coinpans, Voyages, vol. 17 ; the title of 

 Arriaga s work is Extirpacion de la Idolatria de los Indies del Peru. 

 Arriaga also states that the functions of the priesthood were exercised 

 by both sexes. 



It will only be after we have thoroughly routed the medicine-men 

 from their intrerichments and made them an object of ridicule that we 

 can hope to bend and train the mind of our Indian wards in the direc 

 tion of civilization. In my own opinion, the reduction of the medicine 

 men will effect more for the savages than the giving of laud in severally 

 or instruction in the schools at Carlisle and Hampton; rather, the 

 latter should be conducted with this great object mainly in view : to 

 let pupils insensibly absorb such knowledge as may soonest and most 

 completely convince them of the impotency of the charlatans who hold 

 the tribes in bondage. 



Teach the scholars at Carlisle and Hampton some of the wonders 

 of electricity, magnetism, chemistry, the spectroscope, magic lantern, 



1 Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 285, 286. 

 Ibid., p. 264. 



3 Kinshorou&amp;lt;;h, vol. 8. sup., p. 249. 



4 Parkman, Jesuits, introduction, p. Ixxxiv. 



