Morris tribune., 1897-09-01
MEDICINE BAGS.
Amulets Used by the Untutoved savages
Of the Old World. ak.

| Amulets Used by the UntutoSed Savages
OF the Old World. sas
Cook, in his first voyage to New
Zealand, speaks of little bags Of
perfume worn by the Maoris round
their necks, and it would seem from
the observations of Colenso, as given
in 1.-THE Transactions of the New
Zealand Institute, = that these little
satchels. or medicine bags, con-
tanned four perfumes "a sweet
scented moss, a fragrant fern, an
odoriferous gum and taramea.
The taramea Is the amulet, or
talisman. 1t is a gum procured
from rare and very prickly leaved
alpine plant, collected with great
difficulty and with many supersti-
tious ceremonies, and is said to be
obtainable only by young virgins
after many prayers, charms, etc..
recited by the priest or medicine
man.
The medicine bags of the natives
of Africa are not so simple as those
of the New Zealanders, perhaps be-
cause the purposes for which they
are required are more complicated.
OF these the cure of disease is the
least and the making of rain the
most important.
Mr.. Holden gives the contenB of
the rainmaker's medicine bag as
charcoal made of bats, inspissated
renal deposit of the mountain coney,
which is used incidentally in the
shape of pills, as a good antispas-
modic; jackals' livers, balloons and
lions hearts, hairy calculi from the
bowels of old cows, serpents skins
and vertebr@ and every kind of tu-
Der, root and plant to be found in
the country" c'Kaf6r Races" page
31O). Among the Zulus and Mata-
belle the kings are the chief medi-
cine men, and description is given
of King Lobengula when busily
engaged in making medicine on the
great feast day of the Matabele in
special hut prepared for the pur-
pose.
The king of Swaziland is also high
priest, prophet and rainmaker to
his people, and, as Mr.. Mather says
in his Golden South Africa" "In
bag of goatskin in his own special
hut he has treasures sorts of
odds and ends. A peep into that
bag discloses knuckle bones of men
and beasts, pieces of dried flesh, bits
of hair, roots and stalks of plants,
rocks, scraps of broken bottles, to-
gether with an old tattered photo
graph or two. When rain is want
ed, mbandine gets his queer bag
out. He calls one or two witch doc
tors to attend him and then per-
forms some tricks. An OK is sacri-
feed, after which his majesty de-
clares that it will rain. y
In this multitude Of charms the
idea Of me dicine as cure for dis
ease seems to be entirely lost sight
of, but probably some Of them may
be used internally, for roots and
stalks of plants usually figure among
them, and it may be observed that
savages have everywhere discover
ed the medicinal uses of their native
roots ana Plants and Lave in many
instances initiated Europeans in
their virtues The Kafdrs always
carry and use the root of the male
fern as an anthelmintic, and there
is a Ger tain root known among the
Dutch at the Cape as ''David's
root" eagerly sought by the Hot
tentots ara Bushmen, and dug up
by them with much ceremony when
the sun is at particular point in
the heavens, the digger using many
precautions that his or her shadow
may not rest upon it. This root is
a powerful tonic and is used by
them as such, and from them has
been transferred to European medi-
cine chests. These untutored saw
ages know also the value of minis
as nerve soothers and employ the
leaves of a native mint to bind upon
the head in case of headache. We
might, indeed, cite instances innu-
merable in which valuable plants
have been introduced into our phar-
macoppia from native sources, but
will only mention the coca, now
SO highly priced, which has been in
use in Central America and Mexico
for who shall say how many cen
turtles. Chambers journal.
His Language.
A