The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1893, Page 6

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6 The Lutheran Pioneer.

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The Indian Medicine Man.

That is a queer looking man you see in our
picture. It isan Indian medicine man, or doc-
tor, in his absurd professional dress. These
medicine men wield a great influence among
the poor superstitious Indians. The Indians
believe that sickness is merely an evil spirit
which can be driven out of the body by all kinds
of mysterious ceremonies. In each tribe there
are more or less old women who do the howl-
ing in all cases of sickness. These are im-

mediately sent for in any alarming illness, and
whether the patient is dying of consumption,
or suffering from an acute attack of cholera
Howls,

morbus, the treatment is the same.
only howls, most doleful howls!
As the patient gets worse, the
women of the lodge how] in cho-
rus; then the women of other
lodges come around and join the
howl, until the whole camp is how]-
ing. If all this does no good, the
medicine man is sent for. He
comes dressed up as you see him
in our picture. He mutters in-
cantations, performs some mys-
terious ceremonies, and finally
has the tom-tom beaten with all
force just over the head of the
patient. This treatment generally
very promptly finishes the matter
one way or the other.

Of the Indian medicine men a
missionary in Northwestern Can-
ada gives the following account:

The Indian medicine man, or
*tdoctor,’’ is, as a rule, a prac-
titioner of great agility and in-
genuity. When summoned to at-
tend a sick person, he dons his
professional regalia, takes his rattle
and prognosticator(a small wooden
image) and makes his call.

If, upon seeing his patient, he
be taken with an inclination to sigh,
accompanied by a short catching

breathing into his hands and passing them over
and around the patient’s head, uttering cer-
tain words. The medicine men are never at a
loss for terms by which to describe disease.
“Gastric rhythm,” for instance, would not at
first thought appear to suggest any serious de-
rangement of the vital organs, but, alas for our
ideas of these things, it is a complicated and
troublesome malady!

But surely the Indians are only amusing
themselves at these practices? Alas! no; they
are painfully in earnest. The Indian mother’s
heart aches with as great sorrow for her suffer-
ing child, she is oppressed with as cold a fear,
her lips tremble just as much, her hands are
as tightly clasped, and her eyes have the same

method of not only establishing but also of
maintaining Christian congregations among the
colored people. But what is the best method
in the Colored Mission work will surely also
be the best method in all the mission work of
the church. The following extract taken from
a letter in the Missionary Review of the World,
hy a missionary in Burmah is a strong argu-
ment for Christian schools in the work of the
Church everywhere. The missionary says:

Ten years of missionary life leads me to
share with many others in the belief that in a
heathen land the gathering of children into
schools where the Bible is daily taught with
the other studies is 1 most eflicient way of se-
curing converts from heathenism, and of train-
ing up a truer, stronger body of
Christian workers than these con-
verts could possibly be if left to
grow old in heathenism before leav-
ing it for Christianity.

To the great majority of mission-
aries, who observe carefully the re-
sults of work for a series of years
upon the young and the old in
heathen lands, the question needs
no further argument. ‘There are
individual exceptions, of course;
but, as a rule, those who received
their education in Christian schools
and were converted to Christianity
in their youth, form a body of
Christians truer, stronger, better
working, less superstitious, and
less likely to be drawn aside from
their faith, than an equal number
who were educated in schools where
they learned a mass of heathen
superstition with the rudiments of
a secular education. A skillful
gardener can do much to improve

of the breath, he regards it as a favorable sign | Jook of pain and dread as her English sister,
and promises a speedy cure. But if such jas she sends for the ‘‘doctor,’’? and waits
sensation be absent, he is not so hopeful, and anxiously to hear if there is any hope.

will pronounce his patient to be in a very crit-
ical condition. He will, however, do his best,
and forthwith proceeds to rattle. His idea is
to drive out the spirit of sickness by rattling.

Sometimes all the medicine men of the tribe

————- ome

Mission Schools.

When the Synodical Conference began mis-

act in accord, relieving each other at stated|sion work among the colored people of the

times, their efforts being supported by youths | South, we asked an old colored friend of ours
_ beating tom-toms and boards. which would be the best way for carrying

Search is also made for the spirit of health, |on mission work among his people. ‘'Open
which has forsaken the sick man; and not in-| Christian schools for the children, sir, open
frequently the chief medicine man is rendered | schools!’’ he said. This has been done by
unconscious by a stream of ice cold water| our missionaries. At every missionary station
red upon his head, that while in such a|they have opened mission-schools, in which
discover the spirit’s hiding-place| the children are taught the way of salvation.
hen he recovers consciousness. | God has blessed the work of our schools, and
on of the spirit of health is} our missionaries, we doubt not, are fully con-
effected by the medicine man|vinced that Christian schools are the best

the appearance and the fruit-bear-
ing qualities of an old tree; but
when he wishes to secure a per-
fect tree he begins with a young
one. A general must fight with
his enemy, no matter how well in-
trenched he may be when he finds him; but
that general would be called a fool who, hay-
ing a fair chance to attack his enemy in the
open, should deliberately wait for him to be-
come intrenched and to get his big guns in
position before commencing his attack. We
must preach to those of full age when we can
and where we can, but it is difficult almost to
impossibility to get any number of adults to-
gether where such an influence can be exerted
over them as is possible to the Christian school
teacher, who, while teaching the A, B, C’s,
and 1, 2, 3’s, can at the same time, better than
at any other time, impart a knowledge of the
true God, of His Word, and of His Son, to
minds not already hardened in sin and full of
Satan’s deceits.

But some may ask whether we can not ac-
complish the same end without the expense
and work of maintaining schools. No, we

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