The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-09-22
Wednesday. SEPTEMBER 90. 1897
Me DIClNE BfGS.

Of the Old World.
Cook, il his first voyage to New
Zealand, speaks of little bags of
perfume worn by the Maoris round
their necks, and il would seem from
the observations of Colenso, as given
in 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
talismaD. 1t is a gum procured
from a are and very prickly leaved
alpine plant, collected with great
difficulty and with many supersti-
iious 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 m not go simple as those
of the New ~Zealanders, perhaps be.
cause the purposes for which they
are required are complicated.
OF these the cure of disease is the
least and the making of rain the
most important.
MI. Holden gives the contents OF
the rainmaker's medicine bag as
charcoal made Of bats, inspissated
renal deposit of the mountain coney,
which is used incidentally in the
share of pills, as a good antispas-
mo jaohals' livers, balloons and
lions hearts, hairy calculi from the
bowels of old cows, serpents' skins
ana vertebrB and every kind of tu-
Der, root and plant to be found in
the country" C'Kafir Races" page
310). 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 a
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 I'm
a bag of goatskin in his W special
hut he has treasures-all 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 tatteled photo
graph or two. When rain is want
ed, I'm bandine gets his queer bag
out. He calls one or two witch doc
tors TO attend him and then FER
forms some tricks. An OK is s&cIl-
feed, after which his majesty &c
cla1es that it will rain"
In this multitude Of charms the
idea of medicine as a cure Tor DIS
east 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
have everywhere discover
ed the medicinal uses of their native
roots and plants ard have in many
instances initiated Europeans III
their virtues. The Katf,rs always
carry and use the root OF the maze
fem as an antLelmintlc, &Ld the1e
is n CERTAIN loot Known among me
Dutch at the Cape as 'Davlu ,
root" oagelly sought ny lie ROT
tentots ard Eushmen, ana aug up
by them 18th much ceremony "hen
the sun is at a particular lolh' III
the heavens, the dlgger lslhe ll"D!
precautions that hls or her shido"
may not 1est upon it. ms ioot
A Doweliul tome and Is USED u!
them as such, and t1om them h@T
been transferred to Auioledh h-@"'
cine chests. These uutuiofeu s"N
ages know also the value o. iA'-''