INDIAN "MEDICINE-MEN."

Bay of Plenty Times, Issue 3033, 9 October 1893, Page 4

INDIAN "MEDICINE-MEN."

IfAVE spoken of the •• me^icine-inan 1.% Let" me now say a few words upon this prominent character among the Indianssorcerer, priest, or whatever name isj-ppiied to the charlatan so fefnjliarly knowntto all readers of |ndiafi stbr%T Thoiigh we have been in the habit of translating the Indiiir name fot anything very.sfrange or super r J natural-in; thehr h eyes into the reader must not " Suppose that these fjeople have any connection with medical practice, -except in so far as it relates to incantations and'/*'sorcery. n Medicine v understood as the physicians arCis chiefly in the hands of old women —withered, wrinkled o|d hags, bearing a strongs family likeness to the witches in •• Macbeth," who, of course, superadd to it many incantations and. charms. Indeed, they have little knowledge of any curative agents, but what little information, supposed or real, they do possess, I have given a summary of in another place. These medicine-men seem to hold tfre dffice, of wizards or "mediums" between the supernatural world and the Indians. They are generally the idlest and the sharpest fellows in the whole tribe, and by dint of imposing on the credulity of superstitious peor)fe, manage to make a very easy living from the more industrious, t, All of them, probably the same principle that an habitual liat in course of time believes in his own oftenrepeated falsehpods, have ?more 'or less, credence in, their, jown, power-4 or&ial&frC which they sh&e with* the " witches' '**and ".wizards" pf |s«gesar\d countries. Amon« the northern trffce^Uiere a«^tbiee «sae^Kf them, and M thHr^tesr'MrfSf these rank^^-vouchsafed to few. During their exhibition o(prowesa» the lowest erade eat the^ary,foc^o^f^pfe^hlnext fe*?* irf the fr«h£ed condition they work themselvS

Never I—You often hear of a man being •fax 01 ""? «» the same predicament!