ABSTRACT
The power exists in the body both during the man’s life-time and after his death, and seems above all to be identical with energy proceeding from what people have called the “body-soul”. When it is said of this supernatural power or influence, called by the Melanesians mana and by the Iroquois orenda , that even a living man may possess it, one must take this statement to mean that particular power of the soul which some people possess by nature and which can be enhanced by artificial means. This appears from the fact that, among both peoples, it is the medicine-man or sorcerer in particular who is believed to possess the mysterious power. This chapter examines the peculiar theory that uncivilized peoples hold about the ability of such persons to harm their fellow-creatures by witchcraft or, on the contrary, to cure people from this evil.
