is apt to regard the
medicine-men or
sorcerers as cheats who
deliberately humbug their
neighbours; but it is
probable that most of them
really believe themselves
to be possessed of occult
or supernormal power
Doubtless they do many things
for mere effect, in order
to enhance the respect
they desire to have paid
to themselves personally, as
well as to put the subjects
or spectators into a proper
frame of mind; but this
is precisely what is deliberately
done by the organisers
of all ceremonies by all peoples.
Doubtless, also, many acts are
performed which are intended to
impose upon the credulity of others;
but this is a device which
is not unknown among
cultured people, as, for
example, the liquefying of the blood
of St. Januarius in Naples. ".
Magic and Fetishism, Arthur C Haddon
1906
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