Olbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 59 



In the folk medicine of many rural communities of western Europe 

 it is often specified that the medicine be prepared, steeped, or boiled 

 in an earthen vessel; this in spite of the fact that the use of earthen 

 vessels for everyday purposes was dropped centuries ago.^® 



Some of the Morocco Mohammedans who have known and used 

 for centuries metal daggers and knives that are the pride of museum 

 collections still use a stone knife for such a delicate, but ritual and 

 archaic operation as circumcision.^^ 



A consideration of the same order as the one commented upon 

 under gourd dippers is no doubt partly responsible for the use of a 

 terrapin shell (tu'ksi v'ya'ska) to keep the medicine in. (Cf. Mooney, 

 SFC, p. 345.) 



The persimmon-wood stamper is an object that has fallen into 

 complete desuetude. It was used in certain manipulations closely 

 related to, if not identical with, massage. Mooney, as appears from 

 his notes, found it mentioned during his first visit, but even then the 

 object was no longer in actual use; after repeated vain efforts he was 

 able to locate a man who was still able to nake a specimen, which 

 now forms part of the collections of the Division of Medicine, United 

 States National Museum, Washington, D. C. 



If I had not found the reference to this object in Mooney 's notes I 

 would not have suspected that it was ever in use, as only a couple 

 of the oldest medicine men could painstaldngly recall it — its name is 

 completely lost — but no one could be found who was able to carve a 

 specimen. Neither of the two medicine men who vaguely remem- 

 bered its having been in use could describe the procedure ; they could not 

 tell me whether it was used to rub, to stamp, or to press the sore spot. 



The beads (aDc'lo") belong, properly speaking, not so much to the 

 medicine man's paraphernalia as to those of the divinator. Since, 

 however, these two arts are very often pursued by one and the same 

 individual, and especially since the divination with the beads is so 

 often inextricably fused with a curing procedure, they can not very 

 well be left outside of this enumeration. 



Finally the rattle calls for a few comments in this connection. 

 Nowadays there is no medicine man, as far as I know, who still uses 

 the rattle (i. e., the gourd rattle, Gandze'^ti) when singing medicine 

 songs; its use is entirely restricted to the accompanying of dance songs. 

 The terrapin -shell rattles were apparently never used in medicine. 



There are some indications, however, that would lead us to believe 

 that the gourd rattle must once have been extensively used in medicine 

 and must once have been practically the emblem of the medicine 

 man's profession. 



28 "Troost der Armen" Gent (n. d.), p. 9. 



2' Rohlfs, "Mein erster Aufenthalt in Marokko," ap. von Hovorka and Kron- 

 feld, vol. II, p. 492. 



