Note 432.2 — 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.

I am not aware whether it is deemed enough by many savage peoples to apply the remedy in this way, without also treating the patient himself. That it is considered necessary in various parts of the world to treat not only the sufferer but other members of his tribe, presumably kinsmen, is quite certain. Among the Buryats of Siberia the patient’s tribesmen take part in the ceremony of healing performed by the shaman, and share the wine, tea and sour cream which is drunk by the shaman and the patient.432.2 The Wakuni, who inhabit a district of Unyamwezi, treat a victim of witchcraft by killing a cow and spotting with the blood his forehead, the root of his neck, his insteps and the palms of his hands; and such of his kinsmen as are present are similarly marked.432.3 Dr. Matthews describes the mode of cure he witnessed among the Navajo Indians of New Mexico. At one stage of the ceremonies the sick woman and a companion were brought into the medicine-lodge and made to sit on the divine portraits in dry pigment which covered the floor. The medicine-man, having made a cold infusion in an earthen bowl, dipped a brush, or sprinkler, made of feathers, in the solution, sprinkled the picture, touched the figure of each divinity on the brow, mouth and chest with the brush, and then administered the contents of the bowl to both women, in two alternate draughts to each. What was left he himself drank, and handed the bowl to the bystanders, “that they might finish the dregs, and let none of the precious stuff go to waste”:433.1 a pious economy, the like of which is prescribed to one Christian sect in England by the schedule to an Act of Parliament. In this Navajo ceremony, in addition to the lady-companion and the bystanders, who perhaps were blood-relations of the patient, the shaman himself partook of the sacred beverage. It is not at all impossible, though no stress can be laid upon the conjecture, that he also may have been of the woman’s kin. Many North American tribes attach great importance to the co-operation of kindred in the cure, and that to the exclusion of other persons. The Cherokees, for instance, do not allow a medicine-man to treat his own wife. Nay, they will not permit the husband or wife of any sick person to send for a medicine-man. The call must come from one of the sufferer’s blood-relations, among whom wife or husband could not of course be. Their spells for the treatment of rheumatism—the Crippler, as they appropriately call it—are very elaborate; and in order to success the doctor is subjected to the same taboos as the patient. Neither of them must touch a squirrel, a dog, a cat or a mountain trout. Neither of them, if married, may approach his wife for four nights. And according to another formula, the ceremony must be performed by both shaman and patient fasting.433.2