18 Colorado College Studies. 



a post"; and the third and last, in slaying the foe. It will be 

 seen that it took just six days to complete the task, and at the 

 end of that time the person was supposed to succumb. 



This use of an image for such a purpose is to be found with 

 some modifications among all peoples who have practiced witch- 

 craft. Among the Komans it was an image of wax slowly melted, 

 and in some parts of Europe to-day such an image is still used 

 stuck full of pins. The Ojibway Indian medicine-men make a 

 wooden image, put powders of some sort in a hole in the breast, 

 mutter imprecations over it, and pretend by this means to trans- 

 fer diseases from one person to another. The negroes of Vir- 

 ginia when suffering from rheumatism, or any malady that 

 draws up the limbs, go to or send after a " Conjur Doctor," who 

 is always a very old man. The "doctor" draws a picture of the 

 supposed witch, pins it to an oak tree, loads his carbine with 

 hair from the afflicted person's head, frog's legs, broken glass^ 

 meal, pepper, salt, and divers other things, and finally shoots 

 the picture through the heart. This is supposed to kill the 

 witch and at the same time heal the sick person. There are 

 said to be cases in which the suspected witch has really died 

 from fright, knowing* that the picture was intended for her. A 

 trick somewhat similar to those already given was even tried on 

 Henry VI, of England, and early in the present century on the 

 Nizam of the Deccan. 



The fact that images have been so universally used in witch- 

 craft practices is no more remarkable than the fact that all 

 nations have used them in religious worship. There is no dis- 

 coverable connection between the Ojibway's wooden image and 

 the Hindu's effigy of dough, other than the mere fact that each 

 is the outcome of a desire to injure. Nature teaches both to 

 think of what is practically the same expedient. 



The dsuri rites do not end with this main practice, but there 

 are several other similar ones with various objects, such as the 

 production of epilepsy, boils, loss of sense, family discord, fever, 

 eye-twitching, foolish or ridiculous action, a running behind the 



