isks upon
it was good to bring in money; any fanciful interpretation of a mark
was enough to give a character to the stone and its associated Vui" or
spirit in Melanesia. In Scotland, stones shaped like various parts
of the human body are expected to cure the diseases with which these
members may be afflicted. "These stones were called by the names of the
limbs which they represented, as 'eye-stone,' 'head-stone'." The patient
washed the affected part of the body, and rubbed it well with the stone
corresponding.(2)

(1) Codrington, Journ. Anth. Soc., x. iii. 276.

(2) Gregor, Folk-Lore of North-East Counties, p. 40.

To return from European peasant-magic to that of savages, we find that
when the Bushmen want wet weather they light fires, believing that
the black smoke clouds will attract black rain clouds; while the Zulus
sacrifice black cattle to attract black clouds of rain.(1) Though this
magic has its origin in savage ignorance, it survives into civilisation.
Thus the sacrifices of the Vedic age were imitations of the natural
phenomena which the priests desired to produce.(2) "C'etait un moyen de
faire tombre la pluie en realisant, par les representations terrestres
des eaux du nuage et de l'eclair, les conditions dans lesquelles
celui-ci determine dans le ciel l'epanchement de celles-la." A good
example of magical science is afforded by the medical practice of the
Dacotahs of North America.(3) When any one is ill, an image of his
disease, a boil or what not, is carved in wood. This little image is
then placed in a bowl of water and shot at with a gun. The image of the
disease being destroyed, the disease itself is expected to disappear.
Compare the magic of the Philistines, who made golden images of the
sores which plagued them and stowed them away in the ark.(4) The custom
of making a wax statuette of an enemy, and piercing it with pins or
melting it before the fire, so that the detested person might waste
as his semblance melted, was common in mediaeval Europe, was known to
Plato, and is practised by Negroes. Some Australians take some of the
hair of an enemy, mix it with grease and the feathers of the eagle, and
burn it in the fire. This is "bar" or black magic. The boarding under
the chair of a magistrate in Barbadoes was lifted not long ago, and the
ground beneath was found covered with wax images of litigants stuck full
of pins.

(1) Callaway, i. 92.

(2) Bergaigne, Religion Vedique, i. 126-138, i