The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-09-22
WAYS OF THE ORIENT.
Queer Ideas About Aneviatinq
Bodily Suffering.
MAGIC CURES OF THE TURKS

OUuUNO
The Treatment to Which Crippled
Children Are subjected-1unehes o
Garlic and Strings Of Blue Beads a
Panaesas Against All Kinds Of Ills.
A stone strikes some part Of the bod,
Of an oriental and inficts q wound
The train Of ideas that this acciden
would produce in his mind would rul
something like this: The stone is til,
cause Of pain. the cause Of the wound
It is the principal origin Of the trouble
But the ssenc Of every origin is hid
den, secret and therefore sacred. Til.
stone becomes an awe inspiring fetch
The wound is neglected. The feticf
has to be propitiated. This simple IL
%lustration is borne out and supported
by everyday experience which med
zeal men encounter in the east.
Another instance may be derived
from among the lower classes of the
Greek population Of Co~nstantinople. A
child falls and cuts his head. The
first thought Of the parent is to be sure
not to wash and to bind up the wound,
still less to call medical assistance,
however grave the cut may turn out
to be. This is always an afterthought,
which very often comes 80 late that
the help Of a surgeon can prove of nc
8
The first thing the father or mother 6f
the injured child thinks Of doing is tc
pour over the shoulder upon the place
Of the accident a libation Of wine OF
sugared water and to whisper in per.
forming this some mysterious formula
supposed to possess supernatural eff.
cacy against every form Of evil.
The Moslems are addicted to the
queerest practices for purposes Of heal.
ing or alleviating bodily pain. A Turk,
for instance, in distress or suffering
from some disease, however severe,
knows Of no better remedy than to fix
a piece Of his dress, torn of with true
oriental equanimity, to an iron bar Of
some saints tomb or to drink water
from a tumbler into which he has pre-.
viously put a sheet of paper with writ.
ings from the Koran. Sometimes he
will take a jar, the interior of which
has been written all over with strange
formulate and signs. He will then fill
it with water. wait till these formulate
and signs have been thoroughly dis.
solved and drink the singular solution
with an absolute faith in it's wonder
working efficacy.
Sheltered by the somber Expresses
Of the great Mohammedan cemetery at
Scutari (the ancient Chrysopolis on the
Asiatic "a Of the Bosporus) there
stands in picturesque solitude the tomb
Of a horse. Every Friday afternoon
Turkish mothers carry to that tomb
their crippled children to be submitted
by a select "khodja" (priest) to an ex.
traordinary course of treatment. These
children are dragged, with their dis.
eased limbs dangling over the hillock,
from one end Of the tomb to the Other
and then back again in the same fash.
ion. The occult influence emanating
from this hillock is supposed to be an
all efficient panacea.
It is not difficult to trace in this case
the crude, imperfect association OF
ideas. The horse has long been con.
sidered an emblem Of vigor, typifying.
as Ruskin says, 1.-The flow and force
of life." Hence the belief of the orr.
entail, inherited, no doubt, from the
Greeks. in the all conquering virtue
and influence of occult and mysterious
ef1uvia which are supposed to emanate
constantly from a horses tomb.
The wearing of a necklace of blue
beads or Of garlic as a potent means
of keeping away disease or of warding
of the evil eye is quite a universal
matter Of sincere belief in the whole
Of Turkey. This superstition is shared.
as is we'll known, by the lower classes
Of many a country in civilized eastern
Europe. There however, it is not so
universal and fragrant as in the orient.
There is scarcely a house in the
Moslem, Greek and Armenian districts
Of the population Of Constantinople
which has not hanging above its en-
trance door a collection of garlic and
scarcely a beast of toll which has not
attached to some part Of 1t a string
Of blue beads. Among the uneducated
1t Is impossible to find an individual
who does not pin absolute faith to the
all healing power Of such charms.
especially Of blue beads, which are
supposed to be an unfailing panacea
against every possible III.
Less general Is the belief in the east
in the baleful influence Of the planets
Saturn and Mars upon the constitution
Of the human body, upon its four car
dinal humors-blood. phlegm, yellow
bile and black bile. These planets are
considered by some orientals. especial
~ in the far south, az the unmistak-
able causes Of all sorts Of ailments.
Woe unto him who begins any work
when Saturn or Mars Is in the ascend.
ant.-Cleveland Plain Dealer.