Sorcerers and magicians not only use evil words and cast evil glances at the persons whom they wish to afflict, but they endeavour to obtain possession of some article which has belonged to the individual, or something connected more closely with his personality, as parings of the nails or a few of his hairs, and through these he professes to be able to operate more effectually on the object of his malice. It is to this use of portions of the body that ignorant persons, even at the present day, insist that nail-parings, hair-cuttings, and the like, shall be at once destroyed by fire. Such superstitions are found at work all over the world. Mr. Black tells us[37] that the servants of the chiefs of the South Sea Islanders carefully collect and bury their masters’ spittle in places where sorcerers are not likely to find it. He says also it is believed in the West of Scotland that if a bird used any of the hair of a person’s head in building his nest, the individual would be subject to headaches and become bald. Of course the bird is held to be the embodiment of an evil spirit or witch. Images of persons to be bewitched are sometimes made in wood or wax, in which has been inserted some of the hair of the victim of the enchantment; the image is then buried, and before long some malady attacks the part of the bewitched person corresponding to that in which the hair has been placed in his effigy. Disease-making is a profession in the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides; the sorcerers collect the skins and shells of the fruits eaten by any one who is to be punished, they are then slowly burned, and the victims sicken. Disease-demons are driven away from patients in Alaska by the beating of drums. The size of the drum and the force of the beating are directly proportioned to the gravity of the disease. A headache can be dispelled by the gentle tapping of a toy drum; concussion of the brain would require that the big drum should be thumped till it broke; if that failed to expel the evil spirit, there would be nothing left but to strangle the patient. The wild natives of Australia are exceedingly superstitious. Sorcery enters into every relation of life, and their great fear is lest they should be injured by the mysterious influence called _boyl-ya_. The sorcerers have power to enter the bodies of men and slowly consume them; the victim feels the pain as the _boyl-ya_ enters him, and it does not leave him till it is extracted by another sorcerer. While he is sleeping, he may be attacked and bewitched by having pointed at him a leg-bone of a kangaroo, or the sorcerer may steal away his kidney-fat, where the savage believes that his power resides, or he may secretly slay his victim by a blow on the back of his neck. The magician may dispose of his victim by procuring a lock of his hair and roasting it with fat; as it is consumed, so does his victim pine away and die.