MUNIZ—MC GEE] MOTIVE APPARENTLY THAUMATURGIC 69 
by antecedent wounds, the question arises whether—superficial indica- 
tions to the contrary notwithstanding—there is any definite indication 
that the trephining was therapeutic; on the one hand, there is (1) the 
association in place and the sequence in time of lesion and cutting, 
and (2) the fact that in two or three cases trephining was adapted to 
the relief of the wound; on the other hand, there is (1) the aberrant 
location of the cutting and the reckless exploration in two cases; (2) 
the ignorance of physiology and etiology demonstrated by these and 
other specimens, and (3) the invariable failure of the operation, regarded 
as a curative treatment. On the whole, it would appear, even when 
attention is confined to the inherent evidence of this most suggestive 
portion of the collection, exceedingly doubtiul whether the cranial 
cutting can justly be considered therapeutic. 
Neglecting cranium 2 (in which there are doubtful indications of 
location of the operation by pathologic lesions), there remain 11 crania, 
displaying 16 operations, none of which can be traced to antecedent 
lesions of any sort. In these cases, therefore, there is no suggestion 
of motive. Accordingly, it seems needful and unobjectionable to seek 
explanation of these operations in the records concerning other peoples 
of corresponding cultural development. For immediate explanation, 
it will suffice to consider the primitive operation performed among the 
South Sea islanders by scraping with stone or shell and covering with 
plates of cocoanut shell. Among them the operation is not designed 
to relieve traumatic lesions, so far as the records show, but to relieve 
various neural and cerebral disorders, such as vertigo and even simple 
headache; and the operation is performed by the shaman. Now, while 
the records concerning the South Sea islanders are adequate so far as 
procedure and results are concerned, there are clear indications that 
the recorders did not so fully enter into the ideas of the operators as 
to understand the motives by which they were actuated; but the motives 
can easily be inferred from those actuating the shamans among other peo- 
ples of the same culture-grade. Among the Indians of North America 
and South America, among the Australian aborigines, among several 
native African tribes, and among different Eurasian peoples after the 
dawn of history, the shamanistic diagnosis and motive were closely 
similar. The medicine-man ascribed the disorder to an evil “mystery,” 
often an imaginary worm, sometimes an inanimate foreign body, lodged in 
the flesh, bone, marrow, brain, or intestines of the sufferer, and the treat- 
ment consisted in the exorcism or extraction of the foreign organism or 
substance by incantation, sometimes accompanied by local manipulation 
or other treatment; and among those tribes in which this notion of 
disease and its treatment culminated, the imaginary maleficent organ- 
ism or substance was commonly symbolized by an actual worm or grub, 
or a pebble, or a bit of wood or other substance, which the shaman dex- 
terously manipulated in such manner as to convey to the lay observers 
the impression that it was taken from the body of the sufferer. As 
