Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1908 — Queer Side of Japan. [ARTICLE]

Queer Side of Japan.

In Japan the lower orders of life not pnly make war ami supply meat, but evince sundry other 1 peculiarities that render the invaluable concomitants of civilization, writes J. Ingram Bryan, in Harper’s Weekly. A few days ago a number of people were seen gazrtig intently toward the upper limbs of a large pine tree. Stopping to learn the secret of this unusual interest a man was observed descending the tree, while a crow was furiously cawing and beating about his head. Then it was seen that the trespasser had possessed himself of one of her brood, an unprepossessing pittie chick that no one could be imagined to fancy for a pet. Asked what he intended doing with the crow, he replied that it made excellent medicine for the blood. “Chino-mlchi-no-kusuri,” to use his exact words. To insure the efficacy of the medicine, he explained, the bird must be taken before it leaves the nest, if possible, or, if it has left the nest, before it gets to where It can drink water, for, he asserted, If it nas of itself taken water it loses all virtue as a blood cure. The process of preparing the remedy is, first, to kill the crow and, without cleaning it, to incase the body in an airtight covering of cement or clay. The mold is then baked for two or three days in a hot fire. When the clay crust is removed, naturally the crow will be found to ne black, a lump of pure charcoal. This Is pulverized and converted into pills of the “pink” order, which are very popular here as a blood .regulator. He reminded his interlocutors that the medicine was very rare because of the difficulty of finding a crow that had not taken water. The man was perfectly sincere and appeared extremely proud of his success in having secured the bird. He was reluctant to leave the tree lest taere should be another one on the ground somewhere.

Those who, since the brilliant achievements of the Japanese Red Cross society in the late war, are accustomed to take for granted the advance of medical science in this country will, of course, bear in mind that the practltioner under consideration had not at this time acquired membership in .any legally recognized therapeutic fraternity; but probably his nostrum was quite as effective as much of the medicine that is sold to a large constituency at a higher price in other portions of the globe. — Washington Post.