Every tribe has a secret society, through which every freeman must pass. In the course of this education, should a boy be found who can see spirits, he is assigned to the medical profession, and is apprenticed to a witch-doctor to whom a good fee must be paid, and who instructs him in the mysteries of the spirit-world. He accompanies his teacher, picks up his bedside manner, learns to howl in a professional way, and, if possible, how to simulate epilepsy. A knowledge, also of the dispositions of the prospective patients, their financial standing, the scandals of the people, is of great value to the budding doctor. Perhaps this method of practice may seem absurd; but, in spite of this, many of the doctors possess a fund of wisdom in dealing with human nature, and also a store of knowledge of medical herbs, which has been of great value in later times to the white explorers and missionaries, as well as to the Negroes. According to the lights which they possess, they are guided often by the same motives which sway the civilized physician, and apply the same method of investigation employed by the enlightened scientist. The most that should be said is that the African doctor is behind the times. Yet, even here, it is interesting to know, and simple justice to Africa to repeat the record, that for many centuries men of the Yoruba tribe have known that smallpox is produced by the evil god _Shank-panna_ whose agents are _mosquitoes and flies_; and there are not a few examples of doctors who examine their patients, locate the disease by scientific diagnosis, and prescribe both diet and medicine. In general terms, “religion and medicine” are one and the same in the mind of the African, since all medical practice is contact with the spirits. A priestly caste, consisting of three orders, prevails in some of these tribes. Each order represents a class of gods. Their office is hereditary, but is replenished through the secret society of the tribe which forms a school of training for the priest, as for the doctor. Idols are much used, to whom sacrifices are offered in worship of the god represented. The very high development in aesthetics is so conspicuous a characteristic of the Negro as to make a racial differentiation. No other race is so musical, no other more given to dancing, no other so profuse in personal decorations.