“The Samoans supposed disease to be occasioned by the wrath of some particular deity.... The friends of the sick went to the high priest of the village.... Each disease had its particular physician.”—(Turner, “Samoa,” London, 1884, p. 140.) See, in this connection, Banier’s “Mythology,” English translation, vol. i. p. 196, et seq.
“They (the ancients) had gods and goddesses for all the necessaries of our life, from our cradles to our graves; viz., 1. for sucking; 2. for swathing; 3. for eating; 4. for drinking; 5. for sleeping; 6. for husbandry; 7. for venery; 8. for fighting; 9. for physic; 10. for marriage; 11. for child-bed; 12. for fire; 13. for water; 14. for the thresholds; 15. for the chimneys.”—(Harington, “Ajax,” p. 27.)
Consult, for the Chaldeans, “The Chaldean Account of Genesis,” George Smith, New York, 1880, pages 11 and 125. Dibbara, the god of pestilence, has the title of “The Darkening One,” which recalls the passage in Psalm xci. 6, “The pestilence that walketh in darkness.” ... “Each of the Babylonian gods had a particular city.” (Idem, p. 46.) “The Chaldeans had twelve great gods.” (Idem, p. 47.) See, also, “Chaldean Magic,” Lenormant, 35. It was written of the deceased (Egyptian), “There is not a limb of him without a god.” (“Ritual of the Dead,” cap. xliii., idem.) See “Le Moyen Age Médical,” Dupouy, for the list of saints and shrines to cure all afflictions, in Europe, Minor’s translation, p. 83. Those possessed claimed to be in the power of a demon, who entered their body by one of the natural passages, sporting with their persons. (Idem, p. 50.) The Church recognized the truth of these beliefs (idem, p. 40); see, also, notes taken from Turner’s “Samoa.”
[57] These ideas remained among the early Christians: “an odor of a sweet smell; a sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing to God.”—(Phil. iv. 18.)
So, among the Chaldeans: “The gods smelt the savor, the gods smelt the good savor.”—(“Chaldean Account of Genesis,” Smith, p. 286.)
[58] They also keep urine in tubs in their huts for use in dressing deer and seal skins. (Hans Egede; also quoted in Richardson’s “Polar Regions,” Edinburgh, 1861, p. 304.) The same custom has been noted in Alaska. The same thing mentioned by Egede’s grand-nephew, Hans Egede Saabye. (“Greenland,” London, 1816, p. 6.)
[59] The whole process was carefully observed by Captain Robert G. Carter, 4th Cavalry, U. S. Army.
[60] “Todas estas cosas que digo y muchas que no sé y otras que callo se venden en este mercado destos de Mejico.”—(Gómara, “Historia de la Conquista de Mejico,” p. 349.)
[61] See Graah, “Greenland,” London, 1837, p. 111, and Hans Egede Saabye, “Greenland,” London, 1818, p. 256.
[62] Contra la caspa será necesario cortar muy á raiz los cabellos y lavarse la cabeza con orinas y despues tomar las hojas de ciertas yerbas que en indio se llaman coioxochitl y amolli ó iztahuatl que es el agenjo de esta tierra, y con el cuesco del aguacate molido y mezclado con el cisco que está dicho arriba; y sobre esto se ha de poner, el barro negro que está referido, con cantidad de la corteza de lo dicho.—(Sahagun, in Kingsborough, vol. vii. p. 294.)