dancing about the skull. Earlier in the
evening we had noticed this lad (evidently a consumptive) among
the spectators. When the spirit made this claim, we looked for him,
but he had vanished. A little later we learned that he had died of
a hemorrhage at about the time of the flash.

Such occurrences make a deep impression on the mind of the people,
and strengthen their belief in the spirit world; but, so far as could
be observed, the prestige of the medium was in nowise enhanced.

Since most of the ceremonies are held to keep the family or individual
in good health, the medium takes the place of a physician. She often
makes use of simple herbs and medicinal plants, but always with the
idea that the treatment is distasteful to the being, who has caused
the trouble, and not with any idea of its curative properties. Since
magic and religion are practically the same in this society, the
medium is the one who usually conducts or orders the magic rites;
and for the same reason she, better than all others, can read the
signs and omens sent by members of the spirit world.

_Magic and Omens_.--The folk-tales are filled with accounts of magical
acts, performed by "the people of the first times." They annihilated
time and space, commanded inanimate objects to do their will, created
human beings from pieces of betel-nut, and caused the magical increase
of food and drink. Those days have passed, yet magical acts still
pervade all the ceremonies; nature is overcome, while the power to
work evil by other than human means is a recognized fact of daily
life. In the detailed accounts of the ceremonies will be found many
examples of these magical acts, but the few here mentioned will give
a good idea of all.

In one ceremony, a blanket is placed over the family, and on their
heads a coconut is cut in two, and the halves are allowed to fall;
for, "as they drop to the ground, so does sickness and evil fall away
from the people." A bound pig is placed in the center of the floor,
and water is poured into its ear that, "as it shakes out the water,
so may evil spirits and sickness be thrown out of the place." At one
point in the _Tangpap_ ceremony, a boy takes the sacrificial blood
and rice from a large dish, and puts it in a number of smaller ones,
then returns it again to the first; for, "when the spirits make a
man sick, they take a part of his life. When they make him well, they
put it back, just as the boy takes away a part of the foo