The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-11-07

the resultant medicine is well known
though carefully guarded. 1t is a dry
powder which to the uninitiated gives no
sign that the original owner was once
filled with the Joy Of living. it is sold at
q very high price by the medicine man.
whose claims and promises of its virtues
make the price seem ridiculously cheap,
and ID is displayed by its compounder
with all the pride and modesty exhibited
by a scientist who feels he is making Q
contribution toward the health and hap
piness of his race.
Uncomfortable as the making OF this
medicine must be for some white man.
nevertheless It must be conceded that
IL the claims OF the medicine men for
their specific are to be admitted even in
part-and II must be remembered that
they are backed not only by superstition
but also by a government pure drug guar
antee-then the metamorphosis OF one
white man into so potent a drug is a
small loss in consideration of what is the
gain to this whole tribe Of blacks.
The medicine men proceed on the
reasonable metabolic theory that the
patient who takes a powdered white man
in regular doses will ultimately accrue
to himself all the wisdom, virtue and
strength that the white man formerly
possessed. Proceeding further they come
to the logical conclusion that, IL patient
takes two white men in pill or capsule
form the patient will in time become
twice as strong and wise as a white man
and so on through the multiplication
table.
This white man tonic and Alternative is
somewhat more subtly based in the
theories of western medicine than would
at first sight appear. Like to the like"
is the motto on the diplomas of this
school. II the white man who Is to be-
come medicine is only an ordinary sort
of white man then he is considered rather
cheap medicine and suffers the double
ignominy of being sold as a curative only
to the poorest paying ones Of the tribe.
On the other hand If the white man Is
OF some Importance, a distinguished
scientist or a wealthy prospector he has
the sweet satisfaction of knowing that he
will be used incidentally to improve the
health, manners and morals of none but
the chief and the wealthy aristocrats of
the tribe. His heart and liver at any
rate are bound to find a distinguished
resting place in the Intervals of his
majesty, the chief of the tribe himself.
The less distinguished members of his
body are distributed pro rata and accord
ing to their Importance among the mobiles
Of the tribe according to a carefully
graded scale that is based upon the social
nOsition of the dusky patients.
Nor is this the end in this tribe of
medicine and the medicine man. In fact
medicine and the medicine man seem to
be the beginning as well as the end of all
thinks among the Bachokes. The medicine
man is in fact the African Pooh Bah-the
lord high executioner. the supreme court,
the weather arranger, the fixer Of love
and morals, the kings councillor and the
Nemesis of the tribe all in one.
Only the very shrewdest OF the
Rachokes may ever hope to aspire to
Workmanship. II takes a very smart and
clever man indeed to be able to interpret
old superstitions and to manufacture new
ones as the occasion requires even for a
tribe Of lazy savages. The term medicine
with these Bachokes is an extremely
flexible one. The poison of a snake. the
heart of a white man. the cover of a tin