BOURKE. ] THE MEDICINE-MAN IN WAR. 463 
be noted the same mumbling of incoherent phrases which has been the 
stock in trade of medicine-men in all ages and places. This use of 
gibberish was admitted by the medicine-men, who claimed that the 
words employed and known only to themselves (each individual seemed 
to have his own vocabulary) were mysteriously effective in dispelling 
sickness of any kind. Gibberish was believed to be more potential in 
magic than was language which the practitioner or his dupes could 
comprehend. In Saxon Leechdoms, compiled by Cockayne, will be 
seen a text of gibberish to be recited by those wishing to stanch the 
flow of blood. (See p. 464.) 
In the following citations it will be observed that Adair and Catlin 
were grievously in error in their respective statements. Adair denies 
that Indians on the warpath or elsewhere depend upon their “ augurs” 
for instruction and guidance.! Gomara is authority for the statement 
that the natives of Hispaniola never made war without consulting their 
medicine-men—‘ no sin respuesta de los idolos 6 sin la de los sacerdotes, 
que adevinan.” ” 
The medicine-men of Chicora (our present South Carolina) sprinkled 
the warriors with the juice of a certain herb as they were about to en- 
gage in battle.? 
In Chicora ‘“ Mascaban los Sacerdotes una Ierva, i con el ¢umo de 
ella rociaban los Soldados, quando querian dar batalla, que era bende- 
cirlos.”4 
“Among the Abipones [of Paraguay] the medicine-man teaches them 
the place, time, and manner proper for attacking wild beasts or the 
enemy.”° 
“The North American Indians are nowhere idolaters.”® 
Idols were always carried to war by the natives of Hispaniola: ‘“‘Atanse 
4 la frente idolos chiquitos cuando quieren pelear.”7 
“Among the primitive Germans * * * the maintenance of disci- 
pline in the field as in the council was left in great measure to the 
priests; they took the auguries and gave the signal for onset.”® 
“In New Caledonia * * * the priests go to battle, but sit in the 
distance, fasting and praying for victory.”® 
Our hunting songs and war songs may be a survival of the incanta- 
tions of Celtic or Teutonic medicine-men. 
The adoption or retention of obsolete phraseology as a hieratie lan- 
guage which has been noted among many nations of the highest com- 
parative development is a manifestation of the same mental process. 
1 American Indians, p. 26. 
2Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, p. 173. 
2“ Estos mascan cierta yerba, y con el zumo rocian las soldados estando para dar batall:..’. Gomara, 
ibid., p. 179. 
4Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 10, p. 260. 
5 Father Dobrizhoffer, quoted by Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, see. 630. 
6 Catlin, N. A. Indians, London, 1845, vol. 2, p. 232. 
7 Gomara, op. cit., p. 173. 
* Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, pp. 780, 781, quoting Stubb's Constitutional History of England. 
*Tbid., sec. 630, p. 781, quoting Turner (Geo.), Nineteen Years in Polynesia. 
