Dominant Ideas. 791 



with red currant juice, with a large spot of the same on the outer part. 

 Next morning the whole foot was inflamed, and she was confined to her 

 bed with it for many days. l The belief in witchcraft and the power of 

 spells and incantations which have been entertained by the superstitious 

 of both savage and civilized peoples, has always, no doubt, had much 

 to do with actually producing the effects anticipated. And it is well 

 known that many persons have, under the stress of vehement accusation, 

 acknowledged themselves guilt}' of the most unreal and absurdly im- 

 possible crimes. Among the North American Indians, the ' medicine 

 men, or priests, were believed to be possessed of supernatural power, 

 and if they chose to exert it against an enemy, the victim, under the 

 conviction that he was bewitched, would probably reject all food, and 

 sink to death under the terror of his superstitious delusions. It is re- 

 lated that these medicine men sometimes tried their power upon each 

 other in a sort of duel. Each would take a seat opposite the other, 

 surrounded by the mysterious paraphernalia of his craft, and call upon 

 his gods, one after another, to strike his enemy dead. Sometimes one 

 "gathering his medicine," as it was termed, animated by a superior 

 will, would in a severe and authoritative voice, command the other to 

 die ! ' ' Straightway, the latter would drop dead, or, yielding in craven 

 fear to a superior volition, forsake the implements of his art, and with 

 an awful terror at his heart, creep to his lodge, refuse all nourishment, 

 and presently perish. 2 



"Faith-cure," " Christian science " cuies, and the like, depend equally 

 upon the influence exerted through the brain upon the secretions of af- 

 fected parts. Many remarkable cures have been effected by these 

 means, and they have, by the superstitious, often been reckoned as gen- 

 uine miracles. During the "age of faith" in mediaeval times, such 

 cures were doubtless more common than in this period of skepticism. A 

 young woman, a scholar in a nunnery at Port Royal, was affected by a 

 bad case of fistula lachrymalis, or dropsy of the lachrymal sac, in which 

 disease the tear ducts leading into the nostrils become collapsed and 

 f unctionless, and the bones themselves, in consequence, become diseased. 

 It this case the diseased parts emitted a fetid odor and the surgeon had 

 concluded the only remedy was cauterization. Before this was resorted 

 to, it happened that there was exhibited in the chapel of the convent, a 

 " Holy Thorn," and in a procession in its honor in which the girl took 

 part, upon the recommendation of the nuns, she applied the relic to her 

 eye as she passed before the altar, at the same time praying for relief. 

 A change for the better began at once, and within a short time a cure 

 was effected, the doctor having the good sense to let well enough alone. 



1 See Carpenter's Mental Physiology. J Brinton's Myths of the New World, 277. 



