The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-03-06
Children's Column.
INDIAN MEDICINE ANOMbDICINR
MAN

DOUBT In the Indians mind as to the
cause of the trouble. He has neglected
s)med duty, has transgressed some obi.
CATION to his deity, or. more likely still.
10 bewitcaed. WItchcraft is of ali
things most dreaded by the savage,
and, as belief in witchcraft is univer-
sal among all primitive tribes, it is
snail wonder that civilized folk, who
after ell are removed but a few thou
s 'ud years or less from the savage,
should retain many survivals of this
belief. 1t is not SO strange, after all,
that the good Puritans Of Nav E lg-
land hanged people as witches. They
merely retained a Little longer than
some others an extreme form of a we'll
nigh universal baliet. When sick,
then, the Indian believes that his body
is possessed by spirits which assume
various shapes, according to the part
of the body affected, or the tribe enter
tanning the belief. Tnus a toothache is
supposed to be caused by a small worm
which is busy gnawipg at the root of
the tooth; and the sdaman or M dlclne
man, when called upon tt sssts5 the
sufferer, praFs to q bird or squirrel to
take away the worm, and put it into
the hollow or fork of tree. Rneuma-
tism is caused by the deer or by the
measuring worm, the idea being sug
gested in the latter case by the man
ner in which the messuring-worm
arches his body in walking, which is
supposed to be like the ~contortions of
a rheumatic patient. Ga no account
must the patient eat asquGrrel or touch
q Cat, since the n 1 which these
creatures arch the back indicates an
affinity with the disease. Nor must he
eat n legs of any animal, since, as
every n knows, the limbs are most
frequently aft cted with rheumatism,
n by eating the les of an animal the
diseased spirit residing there might
De taken in. The above are certainly
curious beliefs, but the cure resorted to
is even more curious. Every one has
noticed ferns as they spring up from
the ground in spring. The staIk and
leaves are curled into a ball, which
slowly uncoils under the inf lence of
the sun and r rains. The patient
is given an infusion of the roots of
ferns, and is supposed to receive power
from the friendly plant to straighten
the members which are curled and
npnOHnH h- tho g~SwS& - ~Aovr-,1A~-a
just as the fern siraightens IT'S own
stalk. The teTrapin is thought to have
much iLflence in causing sIckoess,
and the terraDin disease is either a
and ribs, or 90 ,sIbly some pulmonary
trouble. The association Of the terrapin
with diseases in this portion Of the
body, doubtless, originates from the
fact that the ribs of the terrapin are
not free, as in case Of most OF the
higher animals, but are united into one
piece. B ,ggars' lice" or ticks" as
as they are called, which stick TO the
the woods. are thought to be- q sure
cur for a short memory. A tea made
Of the ticks will mako facts stick to the
mind; and what is more, If admins
tered to your sweetheart it will fix her
eff lotions upon you. II one would be
a good singer, let him drink a tea
made Of crlcket=; for has not the
cricket q pleasant voice, AND does he
4 MI e5nD ro1MaTlU oil don l0nnQ q IN
through the while list. Cnitd So
enough such fancies may seem to us,
out they are real TO the Indian. More
over, such notions constitute the first
crude conceptions which ulSima5ely
ripen into the more scientific medicine
OF today. The Indian theories of dis
ease originated chiefly among the sham
AIS, and they claimed to Oe able no5
only TO cure the disease, to drive away
Or cock Gus the fiji citing spirit, but
also &c send disease Spirits co whom
soever they chess. Ii was this sup
posed power which made male them
so greatly dreaded, and conferred so
much l. auence upon them. TIE i'm
plIcit reliance placed upon the word Of
a shaman, and his influence over a fell
10 " tribesman, may be illustrated
with this auecdote. A Sioux Irdian,
who had lost arelative by death, vowed
to kill the first living thing he met.
This was onca not al uncommon prac-
tlce among our Indiians. Issuiog from
his lodge, he CHANGED to meet a mis-
s,onary-a man muc1 belovDd by all,
from whom this Indian had received
many favors. Unwilling, but bouGd
by his VOW, he shot his banotactor as
-ozo,5 T,5j,- 17saoo RId D0t sane