PHARMAKOS AND MEDICINE 257 



tion as in the Greek. It is certainly suggestive of the 

 root vour or phar. I note in the old Etymologicon of Voss 

 he says as regards verbera, " sed cum Salmasio dicamus 

 verber esse ab aeolico fiipTtvp pro 5sprup." Of course, 

 no stress can be laid on this or on Voss. An interesting 

 analogy is also to be found in the Greek [Jbo&artyictg, a 

 scoundrel. 



According to this view, <pup[Aoix&v&>, " I give drugs or 

 poisons," is, naturally, from the same roots. Its very 

 existence implies an early medicine man, a Shaman, 

 some one equivalent to those found with all their 

 ritual among the Africans and Central Asians. Thus 

 pupiJbaxvziv means, as it would with early races, " to 

 drive out evil spirits with a whip, or with blows." Such 

 a connotation is, on my theory, earlier than " to give 

 poisons," but one knows that the ritual of the savage 

 cure largely consists in driving out the spirit of disease 

 or witchcraft by noisy incantations or by actual physical 

 ill-usage of the patient. If I am right, it is curious to 

 consider that our word " pharmacist ' has for its early 

 meaning exactly that of the ancient medicine man or 

 exorcist. 



There is another interesting point connected with 

 Pharmakos which I have not seen mentioned. All over 

 the East the word jarmaqion is used with the meaning 

 of an outlaw, and quite commonly with that of a cunning 

 blood-drinking enemy of religion, a man who is a satanist 

 or devil-worshipper. Of course, by a sort of meiosis it 

 seems sometimes to mean a mere scoundrel, just as by a 

 kind of hypokorisma the equally interesting word epikouros 

 is used in Northern Africa, where this verbal descendant 

 of the name of the great philosopher has come to mean 

 an enemy of Islam, a Christian, and an atheist or a 

 17 



