While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.
Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls.
but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language
While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box
"belief systems"
When it relates to medicine, do our doctors do similar? It may seem crazy, but what about Placebo drugs? We think they work because we are told they do...
fair proportion of the really sick natives who enter the temple ever recover
if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian
The fact that these temple ceremonies may not cure, and may even kill the neophyte, in no way decreases the people's faith in the medicine men.
permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee.
it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic
nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization.[11]