470 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1135 



ternity ceremonial before the birth of his son. 

 The head of the daughter of this once birth- 

 marked man was a bit flattened on one side. 

 It was flattened, believed her grandfather, be- 

 cause her father would go prairie-dog hunt- 

 ing before her birth and he always shot his 

 prairie-dogs in the head. 



3STow the cures for birthmarks or malforma- 

 tions are, the cause being a ceremonial, to put 

 on the ceremonial mask in question and dance 

 hard in the presence of the child, subsequently 

 rubbing the sweat of one's body on to the 

 child; and, the cause being a hunted animal, 

 to hunt the same animal and rub its blood on 

 the child. Similarly, to cure an infant of cry- 

 ing incessantly — it cries because its back pains 

 and its back pains because before its birth its 

 father has overdriven his horses, belaying them 

 presumably on the back — to cure it one must 

 drive a team hard and rub on to the child's 

 back the sweat from under their collar or some 

 piece of their harness. 



If a child becomes deaf — eases of deafness 

 at birth are unknown — it is because during her 

 pregnancy its mother stole. To cure the child 

 she must steal again and burning the object 

 stolen puts its ashes into the ears of the child. 

 If the cord of a new-born infant " runs," it is 

 because one who has been bitten by a snake 

 has been present in the room. That person 

 should be found and then four times he should 

 wave some ashes around the heads of mother 

 and child. Otherwise the child will die. 



The deer-hunter who sees a buck and doe 

 together and the buck mount the doe, knows 

 that by this token the deer are " telling " him 

 of what is happening at home. His faithless 

 wife is far from " staying still " in the house 

 she should leave but once, at noon time, for 

 water, while her husband is off hunting. It 

 becomes his business, therefore, to shoot the 

 deer and take out their hearts. On his re- 

 turn home he will find his wife and her lover 

 sick. To cure them, if he pity them, he will 

 have to rub them with deer heart made up into 

 a ball with meal, rubbing the woman with the 

 heart of the doe, the man with the heart of the 

 buck. 



Should a person be struck or shocked by 



lightning, he or she must be given some rain 

 water of that same storm to drink, rain water 

 plus black beetle and suet. Otherwise the 

 person will "dry up" and die. 1 About three 

 years ago a certain house on the south side of 

 the river was struck. The three women in it 

 neglected to take the prescribed drink. To-day 

 the three are dead, two dying a year or two 

 ago, the third this summer. 



Should a person in dying " frighten " any 

 one, from the head of his corpse a lock of hair 

 is cut. The hair is burned and the smoke of 

 it is inhaled by the person who has been upset. 

 This practise, however, is uncommon. 2 



Elsie Clews Parsons 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE IMPORTANCE OF LATERAL VISION IN ITS 



RELATION TO ORIENTATION 



It is a well-established principle that binoc- 

 ular vision gives to human beings a means of 

 determining the relative distances between 

 near-by objects, as well as the distances of 

 these objects from the observer. The basis of 

 this power lies in seeing the objects from two 

 points of view, giving a stereoscopic effect, 

 which, however, is decreasingly effective as the 

 objects are removed from the eyes. It is ap- 

 parently partly the decreasing stereoscopic ef- 

 fect with increasing distance which forms the 

 basis of measurement; and partly a judgment 

 of distance in some way through the muscular 

 movements of the eyes, and those governing the 

 accommodation of the lenses. The power of 

 measuring distance by binocular vision is, 

 however, scarcely effective at distances greater 

 than four or five hundred feet. It is entirely 



i The experience qualifies a survivor for becom- 

 ing a doctor. One of the present tenientes or 

 members of the governor 's staff or council is a 

 lightning-struck doctor. 



- Mrs. Stevenson 's description of this practise is 

 somewhat different, remaining, however, one may 

 infer, an illustrative of inoculation magic. " If a 

 person takes a bit of hair of a deceased friend, 

 burns it, and inhales the smoke he will have good 

 health and not die, but go to sleep and thus pass 

 on to Ko'thluwa'la " ("The Zufli Indians," p. 

 309, XXIII. (1901-02), Am. Rep. Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol.). 



