Evening star., 1935-07-11
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress i'm Field.
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Mind fights" of the Mission Indians
of California, which still take place in
isolated villages, are described by Dr.
John P. Harrington, Smithsonian Insti-
tuition ethnologist, who has spent many
years in the intensive study of these
people.
They are literally knockout contests
in which no weapons are used and there
is no contact between the contestants.
The gladiators are medicine men.
Crowds. says Mr. Harrington, watch the
performances with all the breathleSs in
tereSt of spectators watching evenly
matched prizef1ghters. The fights usu-
ally are held at village fiestas and usu-
ally are attended with considerable
secrecy.
When village decides to hold such
fiesta, runners are sent to the neigh
boring rancherias to tell the date of the
event and invite the neighbors to be
present. An outside medicine man, how
ever, is not accepted as the professional
equal of the medicine men of the village
holding the fiesta unless he can demon
strate his abilities in one of these wierd
psychic contests.
The hometown talent" usually four
or five of then-meet the visitor and
invite him to a match. If he agrees, q
line is drawn in the center of the road.
The local shamans line up ON one side
of it. All the visitor needs do to be ac-
cepted as their equal or superior is to
walk across that line.
He retires to his dressing room" a
nearby ravine. There he takes off his
clothes and adorns himself with the
elaborate feather costume of his craft.
He then pronounceS various magical in
carnations, the nature of which he keeps
secret. Then he comes Striding straight
towards the medicine men who are to
contest with their power his crossing OF
the line
1t is wierd performance. AS he ad-
vances he goes through the motions OF
catching invisible balls from the air.
He is accumulating the spiritual forces
by which he hopes to conquer. When
ever he makes catch" he presses his
hands to his heart, thus supposedly
pushing the magic strength into his
body.
These invisible balls, to judge from
the acrobatics the contestant goes
through in chasing them, are hard to
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uninitiated, but to the man himself and
the spectators it is very serious matter.
Meanwhile the hometown boys are
doing something-just what is dark
secret since they go through no move
mentS. AS the visitor approaches the
line drawn in the dust the spectators are
breathleSs. Sometimes he falls, strug-
giles and even froths at the mouth as in
an epileptic fit, rises, falls again, and
finally struggles over the line with every
evidence of tremendous exertion. Some
times he falls in a coma, as from real
Knockout. There have been instances
in the past, Mr.. Harrington says, OF the
knockout" ending in death. In such
a case the man was given an elaborate
funeral, which formed part of the fes-
tivities of the fiesta
Sometimes. however, he walks over
the line without difficulty, to be re-
ceived as the champion. He is, indeed,
looked upon as a very great cham
pion, his psychic strength having
proved superior to that of four or five
other champions" Mr. Harrington ven-
lures no explanation of what actually
happens, beyond the fact that the visit
ing shaman himself is firmly convinced
that his opponents have the power Of
striking him dead unless he can resist