BOURKE. ] POWERS CLAIMED BY THE MEDICINE-MAN. 459 
selves seem to have retired from business.!| In Abyssinia, at the pres- 
ent day, blacksmiths are considered to be were-wolves, according to 
Winstanley. The Apache look upon blacksmiths as being allied to the 
spirits and call them “pesh-chidin”—the witch, spirit, or ghost, of the 
iron. The priestly powers conceded to the blacksmith of Gretna Green 
need no allusion here. 
According to Sir Walter Scott,’ trials for lycanthropy were abolished 
in France by an edict of Louis XIV. 
Parkman? describes, from the Relations of Pére Le Jeune, how the 
Algonkin medicine-man announced that he was going to kill a rival 
medicine-man who lived at Gaspé, 100 leagues distant. 
The Abipones of Paraguay, according to Father Dobrizhoffer, “‘ credit 
their medicine-men with power to inflict disease and death, to cure all 
disorders, to make known distant and future events; to cause rain, 
hail, and tempest; to call up the shades of the dead and consult them 
concerning hidden matters; to put on the form of a tiger; to handle 
every kind of serpent without danger, ete.; which powers they imagine 
are not obtained by art, but imparted to certain persons by their grand- 
father, the devil.” 
The medicine-men of Honduras claimed the power of turning them- 
selves into lions and tigers and of wandering in the mountains.‘ 
“Grandes Hechiceros i Bruxos, porque se hacian Perros, Puercos i 
Ximios.”° 
Gomara also calls attention to the fact that the medicine-men, “hechi- 
ceros” and ‘“brujos,” as he calls them, of the Nicaraguans, possessed 
the power of lycanthropy; ‘“‘segun ellos mismos decian, se hacen per- 
TOs, puercos y gimias.”° 
Great as are the powers claimed by the medicine-men, it is admitted 
that baleful influences may be at work to counteract and nullify them. 
As has already been shown, among these are the efforts of witches, the 
presence of women who are sometimes supposed to be so ‘antimedici- 
nal,” if such a term may be applied, that the mere stepping over a war- 
rior’s gun will destroy its value. 
There may be other medicine-men at work with countercharms, and 
there may be certain neglects on the part of the person applying for aid 
which will invalidate all that the medicine-man can do for him. For 
example, while the ‘hoop-me-koft” was raging among the Mohave the 
fathers of families afflicted with it were forbidden to touch coffee or salt, 
and were directed to bathe themselves in the current of the Colorado. 
But the whooping cough ran its course in spite of all that the medicine- 
'“St. Patrick, we are told, floated to Ireland on an altar stone. Among other wonderful things, he 
converted a marauder into a wolf and lighted a fire with icicles.’.—James A. Froude, Reminiscences 
of the High Church Revival. (Letter V.) 
? Demonology and Witcheraft, p. 184. 
3 Jesuits in North America, pp. 34, 35. 
4 Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 8, cap. 5. 159. 
6 Thid.. dec. 3, lib. 4, p. 121. 
© Hist. de las Indias, p. 283. 
