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Show HINTS AND EXPLANATIONS. 43 beneath, the resulting bones or ashes being placed in pits in the ground, in boxes placed on scaffolds or trees, in urns, sometimes scattered. 3. By embalmment or a process of mummifying, the remains being afterwards placed in the earth, caves, mounds, or charnel- houses. 4 By serial sepulture, the bodies being deposited on scaffolds or trees, in boxes or canoes, the two latter receptacles supported on scaffolds or posts, or on the ground Occasionally baskets have been used to contain the remains of children, these being hung to trees. 5. By aquatic burial, beneath the water or in canoes which were turned adrift. Some tribes periodically collect the bones of the dead and bury them in common ossuaries. § 22.- MEDICINE. Among Indians the practice of medicine is usually the practice of sorcery. Diseases are not understood to be the result of the improper working of the bodily functions,. but are believed to be entities- the evil spirits that take possession of the body. Often these evil spirits have definite forms assigned them, as spiders, crickets, frogs, grasshoppers, & c. The practice of medicine is largely the practice of the driving away of evil spirits. There may, to a limited extent, be an objective understanding of diseases, and, perhaps, objective remedies employed. Diseases are also attributed to malign influences due to the failure to perform religious duties, or to the non- observance of curious prohibitions. To a very large extent diseases are attributed to the practice of witchcraft. The study of this subject, therefore, involves the study of the theory of life, both that of man and that of animals; of the theory of diseases as spiritism and as arising from malign influences due to the neglect of ceremonies, the failure to comply with prohibitions, & c, and to the study of witchcraft. The medicine- man is both priest and physician. To some extent there may be special medicines for special diseases, but to a very large extent each medicine man has some great medicine, which cures all diseases and other evils, and has the further virtue of bringing " luck." |
