Note 431.1 — Chapter XV · THE COUVADE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE STRENGTH OF THE BLOOD-TIE—CONCLUSION OF THE INQUIRY INTO THE THEORY OF THE LIFE-TOKEN.

The forms of medical treatment examined in a former chapter exhibited the connection which remained unsevered when portions of the body, or of its issues, or clothing, had been detached; so that it was sufficient to subject these objects to healing or sacred influences in order to effect the cure of the man himself. But if the kin together form one body in any substantial sense, the treatment of other members than the one actually suffering, if not sufficient to restore him to health, will at all events help his recovery. Among the Dieyerie of South Australia, if a child meet with an accident, all its relations are struck over the head with sticks or boomerangs until the blood flows. And this blood-letting by deputy is held to alleviate the infant’s pain.431.1 In civilised times, when the feeling of kindred has become attenuated and the real reason for this vicarious treatment consequently lost, an intimate friend may sometimes take the place of a relative. He may perform the pilgrimage, or undergo the remedy. A Devonshire prescription for curing a friend of boils is to go into a churchyard on a dark night and walk six times round the grave of a person who has been interred the previous day, and crawl over it three times. If the sufferer be a man the ceremony must be performed by a woman, and vice versâ.432.1 Parallel with this are pilgrimages made by a friend or relative in the name of a sick person, of which I have cited some instances in a former chapter; and possibly the same principle dictated the early Christian practice of “baptism for the dead.”