The universality of the evil spirit theory may, perhaps, be made more evident by some specific illustrations. The Malay belief is that mischiefs (i.e. spirits) reside in all objects animate and inanimate which get into man and cause disease. The ancient Egyptians divided the body into thirty-six parts, for each of which there was a particular demon. The Babylonians attributed all diseases to demons and the Assyrians had a special one for each disease. In China, Tartary and Japan the evil spirit theory was once universal. Mooney (60) finds that the folk medicine of Ireland assigns three causes for disease --fairies, the evil eye, and witchcraft. Roth's extensive study (72) among the Australian tribes reveals the fact that most accidents, ills, and diseases are thought to be caused by a "dooming" of the victim either by nature spirits or enemies, living or dead. The demon theory has not been entirely outgrown even in the most civilized countries of the present day although the tendency everywhere is to attribute fewer diseases to it.
The belief in witchcraft is scarcely less universal and, indeed, is only one phase of the evil spirit theory. The Egyptian physician of the olden time, as Maspero (57, p. 213) shows, was credited with all the powers of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft by which he could cause as well as cure disease having by these means the mastery over evil spirits. The sorcerer believed that if he could procure something belonging to an individual he could exercise complete control over him. A few nail parings, hairs, a piece of his clothing, or a drop of his blood embedded in a wax doll made it possible for him to inflict on the individual anything that he could inflict on the image. This is the real meaning of the removal of the scalp lock of an enemy, its possession making the soul of the owner subject to the warrior procuring it. "The illnesses to which the human race is prone," says Maspero, "were not indeed all brought about by enchanters relentlessly persecuting their enemies, but they were all attributed to the presence of an invisible being, whether specter or demon, who by some supernatural means had been made to enter the patient, or who, unbidden had by malice or necessity taken up his abode within him."
In China, Japan, India, and all those countries that came under the influence of the Buddhist religion the belief was universally held that disease was in many cases a punishment sent by the gods for some sin committed either in the present life or in some previous state of existence. Many Chinamen will refuse to rescue a drowning man for fear of interfering with the fates ordained by the gods and thus bringing misfortune on themselves. The Greeks believed the plague a direct visitation of the gods and therefore refused to use any means to stay its ravages. Bartels (2) cites several instances in which savage peoples attribute certain diseases -- notably small-pox, measles, and other epidemics -- to the anger of the gods, although this belief is not so common among primitive as among civilized peoples and those especially who have come under the influence of Islam and Christianity. Here the principle is the same although the spirits are good spirits angered or ill-disposed.
Miracles of Healing
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By Charles W. Waddle (1909)
Primitive Christian Worship
Hereditary genius
