SOME REMARKABLE CUSTOMS. 275 



Intercourse between Asia and America in early times is not 

 brought to our knowledge by the direct historical information 

 by which, for instance, distant parts of Asia and Africa are 

 brought into contact; still there is indirect evidence tending 

 to prove Asiatic influence far in the interior of North America, 

 and the following may, perhaps, be held in some degree to 

 confirm and supplement it. Johannes de Piano Carpini, de- 

 scribing in 1246 the manners and customs of the Tatai-s, says 

 that one of their superstitious traditions concerns " sticking a 

 knife into the fire, or in any way touching the fire with a knife, 

 or even taking meat out of the kettle with a knife, or cutting 

 near the fire with an axe ; for they believe that so the head of 

 the fire would be cut off.-"^ ^ The prohibition was no doubt con- 

 nected with the Asiatic fire-worship, and it seems to have long 

 been known in Europe, for it stands among the Pythagorean 

 maxims, " irvp fiaxal'PO' /"■'? crKaXeveiv," ''not to stir the fire 

 with a sword," or, as it is given elsewhere, cnhrjpw, "with 

 an iron."^ In the far north-east of Asia it may be found in 

 the remarkable catalogue of ceremonial sins of the Kamchadals, 

 among whom " it is a sin to take up a burning ember with the 

 knife-point, and light tobacco, but it must be taken hold of 

 with the bare hands."^ How is it possible to separate from " 

 these the following statement, taken out of a list of supersti- 

 tions of the Sioux Indians of North America ? " They must 

 not stick an awl or needle into ... a stick of wood on the 

 fire. No person must chop on it with an axe or knife, or 

 stick an awl into it. . . . Neither are they allowed to take a coal 

 from the fire with a knife, or any other sharp instrument."* 



The first of the four groups of customs, selected as examples 

 of an argument taking a yet wider range, is based upon the 

 idea that disease is commonly caused by bits of wood, stone, 

 hair, or other foreign substances, having got inside the body of 

 the patient. Accordingly, the malady is to be cured by the 

 medicine-man extracting the hurtful things, usually by sucking 



' Vincentius Beluacensis, ' Speculum Historiale,' 1473, book xxxii. c. vii. 

 * Diog. Laert. viii. 1, 17. Plut. ' De Educatione Puerorum,' xvii. 

 ^ G. W. S teller, ' Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka;' Frankfort, 1774, 

 p. 274. ^ Schoolcraft, part iii. p. 230. 



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