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faith, magic, and disease

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TOTEMISM was one of the chief motives of tattoo-ing among the American Indians Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag  Indians. The figures of animalstattooed on their bodies were the symbols of their totems—their protectors, the suppliers of a magic power. But themany religious and magic- invoking designs in the tattooingof white Americans do not owe their inception, in anynoticeable measure, to the totemic tattooing of American In-dians Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag dians. These designs can be traced to the early days of theAnglo- Saxon world. Among the dawn Christians of Englandthe custom of tattooing holy designs on the body was so wide-spread that in 787 A. D. a council in Northumberland voicedits alarm and prohibited the practice. The Irish monks of thedistant past were tattooed extensively. But the greatest im-petus to the phenomenon was given by the pilgrims to theHoly Land.

It was, and still is, the custom for a Christian pilgrim,shortly after his arrival in Jerusalem, to have a religioussymbol, or a whole series of them, tattooed on his chest orarms. The custom is said to have been introduced by Arme-nians. The name or initials of the pilgrim and the date of his

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