160 EEV, G. E. WHITE, ON SURVIVALS OF PRIMITIVE 



then the aching head is sprinkled with dnst taken from beside 

 the grave. To exorcise an evil spirit, a Cjuotation from a sacred 

 volume is written — the greater the reputation of the copyist 

 for holiness, the more efficacious his copy — the paper is 

 burned, and the patient inhales the flame : or the paper may be 

 reduced to pulp in water, and the whole given to the afflicted 

 person to drink. People who dread a snake, or fear that they 

 have been in some way bewitched, find a cast off snake skin,, 

 burn it and inhale the smoke. 



A teacher called upon me one day bringing his son, a child, 

 who had a tremendously swollen cheek, over which some 

 astonishing ink marks were traced. The father explained 

 that he had written a powerful quotation there in the expec- 

 tation that it would reduce the swelling. A venerable 

 gentleman of my acquaintance attributes his good health to the 

 fact, that when he was a lad, a dervish wrote for him something 

 on a paper, and had him lick off the ink. It has proved to be a 

 cheap and effective medical prescription. A Greek boy attending 

 a Protestant school became quite sick with malaiia. His 

 friends attributed it to the influence of his unorthodox teacher, 

 and tried to persuade the boy to go and spit in the teacher's- 

 face, thus to repudiate and conquer his influence. The decent 

 pupil's sense of shame was too much for him, however, and so 

 his father bought a mulberry leaf to the tejicher, asking him to 

 spit on it, that the sick boy might spit over the spittle of the- 

 teacher and thus break the spell. Chance visitors at shrines, 

 will have their heads and bodies rubbed by the attendant with 

 a pair of deer's horns kept resting on the grave, if tbey will 

 allow it. Some Armenian villagers fix a certain kind of thorny 

 plant in the form of a cross over the chinmey of a house in 

 order to prevent witches from coming down nnd strai]gling 

 the little children. In some places they set a cross of wood in 

 the chief window of a house at the vernal equinox, that the 

 sun's rays as it crosses the line, and thereafter, may light the 

 household across the holy symbol. Armenians often, and Greeks- 

 still more often, acting under the auspices of their respective 

 churches, throw metal crosses, usually of silver or gold, into a 

 pool, or into the sea, tlie young men dive for tlieni, and whoever 

 can bring up one is reckoned specially fortunate or blessed. 

 Small presents are showered upon hin), and the waters are 

 accounted holy. The characteristic Christian symbol is put to 

 more uses than can be recounted here. 



All Anatolians value pilgrimage, whether the i)lace of resort 

 be Mecca, Jerusalem, Kerbela, where the late Shah of Persia. 



