Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV NATIVE DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT White and black magic--Albinos--Causes of disease--Those easy to diagnose--Non-professional healers--Discovering a troublesome spirit-- Various remedies--Cupping--The clyster--Ligatures for snake-bites-- Snake-men--Rubbing things out of a patient--Ignorance of physiology --White man's difficulty--Dangers of buffalo-hunting--Ravages of crocodiles--Escaping crocodiles. 'HE medicine man's white magic, i.e. those means employed for curing the people of their mental and *- bodily ailments, may, to us, seem foolish and inadequate, but there is nothing to condemn in its practice except that it often deceives the people. Whether the medicine man deceives himself--believes in himself or not--is another matter. Undoubtedly, through generations of inherited knowledge concerning herbs, etc., they possess some remedies that do their patients good; and there are many faith cures--the results of an implicit belief in the medicine man and the means he uses. I have noticed that the Congo medicine man cures just that class of ailments that the different branches of " faith healers " cure in Europe and America. The Congo system of white magic is founded on quackery, but like quackery in other parts of the world the remedy sometimes meets the disease, and such successes are remembered and talked about, while the many failures are forgotten. Black magic, i.e. those means employed for inflicting pain, misfortune, and death on an enemy, is to be found in all parts of the Congo. Although black magic is so widely practised, ALBINOS yet it is condemned by the natives in as strong language as that used by the white man. Every native condemns it in everybody else, and excuses it in himself. Those who practise it must...