106 SAVAGE SURVIVALS 



ergetic than the good spirits. The good spirits are 

 believed by the savage to be on his side, and the 

 bad spirits are the ones he is all the time trying 

 either to outwit or to gain the favor of. When he 

 has a good day's hunting or has won a victory 

 over his enemies, he credits his success to the aid 

 of good spirits. On the other hand, when he fails 

 in his undertakings, or has some accident, or gets 

 sick, he believes that his misfortunes are caused 

 by evil spirits. The great problem with the sav- 

 age is the problem of dealing successfully with 

 these two different kinds of spirits, which haunt 

 him and hover over him and dog his footsteps day 

 and night from his cradle to his grave. 



The practice of medicine among savages is 

 based on the theory that disease is caused by the 

 dethronement of one spirit by another, the usurp- 

 ing spirit being a demon or evil spirit. There are 

 no microbes among savages. Instead of anti- 

 toxins, savage doctors use tom-toms and bitter 

 medicines. Their task is to ^^cast out'' the evil 

 spirit that has wormed its way into their patient. 

 And they do it either by making loud noises and 

 scaring the intruder out, or by pouring vile drugs 

 into the patient and in this way making it so un- 

 pleasant for the demon that it will move on. 



When any one dies, the savage believes that the 

 spirit of the dead hangs around the place where 

 the body is buried for some time. The notion of 

 ** haunted houses" and of the prevalence of 



