April 11, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



569 



age of the empire the fair Quetzalcoatl 

 taught the useful arts, and of the lands 

 of Anahuac he formed a paradise. Cotton 

 had not then to be cultivated, but grew 

 wild, ready colored the hue of every dye. 

 The maize plant was of such a size that a 

 single ear was a carrier's load. ■ Melons 

 o'ertopped their owners' heads. Not the 

 favored class alone, but all men possessed 

 palaces of silver and gold. But the adver- 

 sary came in the form of an old man who 

 roused in Quetzalcoatl a desire to wander 

 to other lands. With his departure the 

 fruit-trees withered and the singing birds 

 took flight. Then arose the belief that he 

 would return, and it was the expectation 

 of his second coming that unnerved the 

 fierce courage of the Aztec warriors before 

 the pale-faced Cortez. Was he the white 

 god of their fathei'sl Credulity, doubt 

 and dissension hastened their undoing. 



For more than a millennium England 

 has been a Christian nation, yet in the 

 museum at Oxford we see images, bris- 

 tling with rusty nails and needles, which 

 demonstrate the late survival of a belief 

 in sympathetic magic in the rural commu- 

 nities whence these objects came. Within 

 the university itself I secured a desiccated 

 specimen of a familiar vegetable which an 

 officer of one of the colleges had carried 

 for years as a preventive of rheumatism ! 

 Neither centui'ies of enlightenment nor the 

 revolutionary changes of this progressive 

 age have exterminated such beliefs. They 

 even adapt themselves to the new condi- 

 tions, as in the ease of the lady living with- 

 in the shadow of the walls of Harvard 

 University, who maintains that carbons 

 from arc lamps are a sure preventive of 

 neuralgia ! 



I am aware that the study of these be- 

 liefs sheds light upon the history of the 

 mental development of the race, and is of 

 the highest value in certain theoretic con- 

 siderations, but I involuntarily think of 



folk-lore as a study that will influence 

 practically the life of him who engages in 

 it. He learns that much that he has ac- 

 cepted from childhood without thought as 

 truth is mere superstition and error. Not 

 until he has had his attention called to the 

 existence of these survivals does he realize 

 their abundance, or the part they play in 

 the daily lives of those around him. They 

 are by no means confined to the servants' 

 quarters; they are also in his own family, 

 to whatever class or country he may belong. 

 The nature and the prevalence of error 

 are literally brought home to him. We all 

 admire truth and natural law — in the ab- 

 stract—and seek the widest possible knowl- 

 edge of them by means of a most admira- 

 ble educational system. And yet the 

 graduate seldom possesses the power of 

 applying theoretical knowledge to his own 

 individual life. This is not an argument 

 for what is termed ' a practical education, ' 

 but an explanation of a condition which I 

 believe can be greatly improved by thor- 

 ough training in anthropology. 



By the comparison of customs and be- 

 liefs it was discovered several years ago 

 that striking similarities exist whenever 

 like environmental conditions prevail. It 

 was the discovery of this principle of unity 

 that led anthropologists to seek among the 

 savages and barbarians of to-day an expla- 

 nation of survivals in the Caucasian group. 

 Hundreds of examples of these ' Ethno- 

 graphic Parallels' have been observed. One 

 will serve our purpose here. In savagery 

 the functions of priest and physician are 

 combined in the medicine-man. He fits 

 himself for his profession by a rigorous 

 training, and has the utmost faith in his 

 own power to enlist the sympathy of the 

 beneficent gods and to expel the evil ones. 

 Disease he banishes with a formula of 

 magic words, or with ceremonies that are 

 oftentimes elaborate. Upon analysis it is 

 found that the success of the shaman de- 



