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Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Rumphius

Rumphius declares that many extraordinary cases were related of warriors who could not be injured by any weapons until the mestica had been cut out of their flesh, wherein it had become embedded. Indeed, he states that Dutch officers of proved veracity had confidently asserted that they had encountered such men among their native antagonists. While Rumphius feels himself therefore forced to admit the truth of the invulnerability of these men, he hastens to add that such powers could not be inherent in any piece of stone, but must owe their origin to diabolical agencies. The fact that the Mohammedans had their mesticas blessed by the priests of their faith, and burned incense beneath them on Fridays, the Mohammedan equivalent of the Christian Sunday, did not probably shake the belief of Rumphius that the Devil had something to do with these substances.

The medicine-men of the Kainuga Indians of Paraguay mutter incantations over the bodies of the sick, and then, after many struggles and contortions, proceed to extract stones from their mouths, claiming that they have taken the patient's disease into their own bodies, the stones being regarded as the seat of the ailment. In one case, the medicine-man produced five of these stones before the patient admitted that his pain was relieved. After the cure was completed the sorcerer was clever enough to feign extreme exhaustion, as though his vital forces had been subjected to a tremendous strain. In British New Guinea similar tactics are resorted to by the native doctors. A native who was suffering from lumbago fully believed the tale that his disease was caused by a stone embedded in his flesh. When the sorcerer made passes over this man's back and then exhibited a stone which he pretended to have taken thence, the sufferer was convinced that the disease had left his body, and he began to feel relief. When examined, his back showed some superficial cuts at the spot where the stone was said to have been extracted. In another case, however, when a child was to be operated upon in a like way, the child's father became suspicious and seized the operator's hands before they came into contact with the little one's body; the result being that the disease-laden stone was found concealed in the operator's hand.