The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-02-14
Witch Doctors.
Nix Miracle and Medicine In
Brittany.
by W. C. FITZGERALD.

lie is familiar to us In books of travel
ieaiing with remote and savage re.
iions, such as Zululand, Morocco,
.siatic Turkey and China, where the
amily practitioner" squats by the
oadside selling amulets and charms,
owe phlltres, mysterious protection
.gainst invisible enemies, and cures
or all ills, even more weird than
hose of the witches in Macbeth"
But who would look for witch and
wizard doctors at this day in civilized
france? 1t need hardly be said that
heir habitat is beautiful old Brittany
that paradise of artists, where the
world has stood still for centuries and
Ill conditions of life are in some re-
'pects as backward as they we're in
he twilight days OF King Arthur and
lis knights. Even the marriage cere-
Monies, with their barbaric open air
casts and dances and the queer
pursuit" of the bride, are survivals
If paganism when marriage by cap
ure was in vogue.
The Bretons speak a tongue of
heir own, and in many villages of
he Department of Morbihan French
is entirely unknown. Everywhere
,ne comes across quaint old manners
md customs, for the people are filled
with superstition and cling to the
manners of their forefathers with
positive fanaticism.
This is nowhere more in evidence
han in the matter of the village doc
.or or doctress-grave persons la
comic in speech, and supposed to be
1lled with all knowledge of the
heavens and the earth and things
hat are under the earth.
In villages like Concarnau or love
~ old Quimperle one meets the
Breton magician-doctor at his best
It may be the patient is a fisherman
who has badly sprained his back on a
,ugger, and knows no peace until the
loctor is sent for. The treatment In
many cases is given in the open air
!or a number of reasons. First, the
roars and yells of the victim, much
diminished by space, do not so great.
iy distress his relatives; and, more.
1ver, the scene draws q small crowd
If respectful spectators who are vast
~ impressed by the wonderful skill
0r occult knowledge of the operator.
The wizard doctor of Brittany has
10 bedside manner" to speak of
tIe is sent for for a specific object
md strives to attain this in the most
direct and vigorous manner possible
we'll knowing that unless his herb po'
lions are appallingly nauseous and
drastic in result and his bone setting
q matter of agony little faith would
De put in him and his payments II
cash and kind would dwindle to the
vanishing point as murmurs agains
his feeble methods slipped from vii
lage to village,
A matter like neuralgia, being diff
icult to cure in any SNOWY or dra
matte manner, calls for the "magi,
wand" with much cabalistic mutter
ing and laying on of hands" mort
IL less after the manner of the apos
| lies. Some of these so-called doctor
| nave q uuG uOllOu "
bone setting, and their treatment o
sprains and simple fractures, al
though causing intense pain to tn
patient, undoubtedly attains its OBJ
iect
The women doctors are usuall
Did, with primitive knowledge o
the effects of certain herbs upon tn
system, and their speciality is tn
| treatment of children and women
Their methods would excite disma
| in New York, London or Paris, but
most touching and implicit faith
put in them, even when they act a
dentists by the old string and chai
method. Fees are frequently paid /
grain, hay, native costumes and sil
yer ornaments, but the women ais
often pay the witch doctors by mean
of their own hair.
1t should be explained that ther
is a regular hair harvest in Britain!
and the girls and women do not min
much parting with their back tresse
because the native Breton bonnt
conceals the loss.
The doctors also practice a certai
kind of hypnotism, especially in tt
case of nervous affections, and fr,
quently succeed in persuading q pi
tient (eyen with blows, curses an
contumely) that there is nothing ;
all the matter with him, and that /
ought to be ashamed of himself gl
ing up work these hard times an
causing anxiety to his friends an
relatives
Mud poultices, cats fur, dogs hal
human blood, parchment with my
terious words written on it-theI
are some of the remedies" which Il
quack doctors of Brittany common
use, and which are believed in by Il
patients with the faith that movet
mountains The more successful I
these village practitioners employ a
slstants, especially in dlslocatio
cases, where the patient is likely
put up a stout resistance to the dral
tic and painful methods employed
put the bone back into its place.
In some of the very smallest {
Breton villages, however, the ma
or woman doctor adopts this honor
BILE profession only as occasion ms
arise, and as a kind of "side line
Thus 1t may be small farmer or {
old woman who keeps tiny store
both OF them with an heredita
knowledge and taste for the Gu
of ills.