Evening star., 1914-08-16


hair taken from the stomach Of a 6uf-
falo: third liz a Kentucky coffee berry
,the replica OF one. having many certi-
lied cures. which was offered to the
Smithsonian for Si.o08,. another is OF The
stone called halloysite.
These stones are supposed to Possess
The property -of curing mad dog bites.
The person bitten holds the stone to the
wound, where II sticks, leechlike. until
the poison has been drawn from the bite
and into the charm. The maidstone 10
then thrown. IN water to let the poison
escape. Many people today have an abid-
Ing faith in. this cure. -. 30 =
Ordeal bark obtained from West
Africa Is. the means by which the voodoo
man exercises a witch. When people &c.
sick In West Africa. or the cattle die. or
the crops are short the voodoo men hold
an invest. gation and finally locate the
individual who Is supposed to be retain
ing within his miserable carcass the spirit
OF the witch. They fix him up nice. long
drink Of. ordeal bark. and he drinks H.
The medicine man then walks around
him. saying:
And the drinker replies:
IT am A witch" He probably also ADDS
II
This continues until violent feeiine
If unrest comes upon the man who drank
the ordeal bark. II he becomes seasich.
then everything Is oil right. Tor then the
witch dies But IL the ordeal bark doesn
trouble him. then he must keep on drink
ing 1t until he dies. AS ordeal DARK rs :
bad-tasting combination suggestive OF an
things that should not be drunk, the per
centaee OF witch deaths greatly exceeds
the deaths among the individuals suspect
"a of harbornR them.
Among the incantations which the mu-
scum shows is this historic one:
Abradcadabra
Bradcada bra
Rad d-adabra
AdcadAb1
Dcadabra
Cadabra
DabrA
Abn
"a r.
II q. to be noticed that the left-hand
angle spells the word either up or down
Also that the top line may be read from
left to right with the same result
This magic Incarnation; inverted ano
cure anything from sorrow to chronic
bankruptcy.
The old charm of the French Canadians
"a spider fastened inside a walnut shell
by a needle-was used by the farmers
in old Acadia as a charm against fever.
II was of this charm that Longfeuow
wrote In "Evangeline":
Only beware Of the fever. my friends; beware 4
For n ia Is not like that of our Aead an climate.
Cured by wearing spider. hung around ones
neck In a nutshell.
Horns. weird masks. rattles shaped In
the form of a turtle and constructed OF
deer hide. and strange wands are part
of the cures in the museum.
Two of the weird specimens are the
mandrake and the so-called "Tartarian
lamb" both of which aroused all Eu-
rope during the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries.
The mandrake is a stemless plant. bear
ing in q crude way resemblance to the
body Of a man. According to supersti-
ton the mandrake grew only under gal
lows trees and was formed from the
matter Of dead men hanging above fall
ing to the ground. For a human being
to pull one from the ground was to In
vite death. The only way that they
could be removed, according to one an
Client authority. was to attach dog to
a thong, fasten this to the plant and
from the ground 1t uttered a shrek.
Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet
says: ..-s-t
e Ard shrfeks Ike mandhakss' torn out Of ths
@ grnnd ~ -, .--t -+..
That living mortals bearing them, 30 mad.
The soul of the hanged criminal was
supposed TO remain in the mandrake until
after It had been torn from the ground.
Then. having been freed Of this evil. II
was a potent remedy for nearly all hu-
man ills.
= The TartariRn lamb, or vegetable lamb.
10 Of oriental origin, being known to the
Chinese; as kon chi. and to the Hindus
.,Asc penghawar 1t made Its appearance
in Europe between the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
The plant bears a resemblance to .
lamb. which is heightened by the fact
that 1t has q peculiar hairy covering
over the whole body. Tradition said that
1t leaped from the ground. growing on a
root like q vegetable and. once above
ground. brpweed on. the heritage near It
until the food was eaten away. But, not
being able. to- move froil its root. the
lamb finally died.
Physicians hailed 1t as the cross be-
tween the animal and vegetable king
doms and II was used for . variety of
human Ills. 1t is still a popular medi-
cine In the orient.
lprse was taken from his French owner
L. 81 r.r