A new pastor was met by one of his parishioners who was fat and of many years, who said to the pastor: "You must feed the sheep." Whereupon the pastor replied: "My dear old man, you do not need food, you need exercise."
(984)
EXERCISE VERSUS MEDICINE
Boerhaave, the famous physician, declared
that a man was more likely to get well by
climbing a tree than by drinking a decoction
made of its leaves! That is, he thought exercise
better than medicine.—London Hospital.
(985)
Exertion—See Difficulties, Overcoming.
Exhaustion by Swallowing—See Early
Promise.
EXORCISM
Mr. Sconten, writing from Kambui, East Central Africa, was an eye-witness of the following treatment for malarial fever of a lad and a girl, by a native medicine doctor:
A hole in the ground was lined with
banana-leaves and some water brought. Part
of the water was poured on the ground beside
the patients, and the rest was poured
into the hole. The intestines of a sheep
were emptied of their filth and the foreheads
and palms of the sufferers and their relations
smeared with it. The lad and girl were
tied together by the feet with a vine, while
the man mixed some colored powders in the
water. The stomach of the sheep was then
brought, and through a hole in the side the
patients were made to suck in the fluid contents,
and cast the rest into the colored
water. Then, taking a bunch of herbs, the
doctor lifted a good portion of the concoction
and placed it in the mouth of each
patient with a singsong monotone, saying:
"By this I take away all the evil effects of
whatever is troubling you, the attacks of
evil spirits, whatever poison you may have
eaten, whatever harm has been inflicted
upon you by blacksmiths, whatever evil has
come to you in the path, whatever disease
has been brought upon you through your
friends, whatever has been inflicted upon you
by your enemies, and all disease with which
God has afflicted you." This was not all
that he said, and he repeated it three times,
all the while dipping from the nauseating
mixture and putting it into the patients'
mouths. A foot of the sheep was then
dipt into the remaining fluid and the
ground sprinkled all around them, and their
bodies sprinkled. Lastly, noses, thumbs and
great toes were painted with white paint
and they were untied, and told to go and
get well. Both patients were in a dying
condition the next day, while the medicine-*man
was feasting upon the good flesh of the
slaughtered sheep.
(986)
When the first missionaries visited Marsovan, Turkey, the old Armenian church-members were Christians in little more than name. Their beliefs were a mixture of superstitions with a suggestion of a Christian origin. They feared the evil eye, and wore charms to break its power. They put branches of a thorny plant over their chimneys in the form of a cross to prevent witches from coming down and strangling their little children. They visited the graves of saints and offered prayers for relief from sickness, tying a rag on a near-by bush with the hope of returning home leaving their disease tied to the holy spot.
(987)
See Birth Ceremonies; Demonology.
EXPECTORATING
The father of President Hadley, of Yale, is reported to have said to certain members of one of his Greek classes who were guilty of a filthy habit:
Gentlemen, those of you who expect to
rate high in my esteem must not expectorate
on the floor. This matter of expectoration is
a very serious problem. If you do it in
China, you should not do so toward the
north. In certain sections of Africa, you
may, if you like, expectorate upon a person,
because in that particular language, the
Benga, the word for bless and spit are precisely
the same. It is the way in which you
bless a person. But one must know the customs;
for there are few places where men
deem themselves blest when spit upon, no
matter how sincere may be the missionary's
desire to bless everybody.—H. P. Beach,
"Student Volunteer Movement," 1906.
(988)
Expense Account—See Balance, A Loose.
EXPERIENCE
"I guess my father must have been a
pretty bad boy," said one youngster.
"Why?" inquired the other.
