“Certain marks on the face, or bits of wood on his hair, or tied around his neck, are medicines or charms to be taken in sickness, or proximity to lions, or in other circumstances of danger."[65]

Bastian relates that in many parts of Africa every infant is tattooed on the belly, to dedicate it thereby to a certain fetich.[66] The inland negroes mark all sorts of patterns on their skins, partly “to expel evil influences."[67] The Nicaraguans punctured and scarified their tongues because, as they explained to Oviedo, it would bring them luck in bargains.  The Peruvians, says Cieza, pulled out three teeth of each jaw in children of very tender age because that would be acceptable to the gods; and Garcilassa notes that the Peruvians pulled out a hair of an eyebrow when making an offering.  Jos. d’Acosta also describes how the Peruvians pulled out eyelashes and eyebrows and offered them to the deities.  The natives of Yucatan, according to Fancourt, wore their hair long as “a sign of idolatry."[68] When Franklin relates that Chippewayan Indians “prize pictures very highly and esteem any they can get,” we seem to have come across a genuine esthetic sense, till we read that it makes no difference how badly they are executed, and that they are valued “as efficient charms."[69] All Abipones of both sexes

“pluck up the hair from the forehead to the crown of the head, so that the forepart of the head is bald almost for the space of two inches; this baldness they ... account a religious mark of their nation."[70]

The Point Barrow Eskimos believe that clipping their hair on the back of the head in a certain way “prevents snow-blindness in the spring.”  These Eskimos painted their faces when they went whaling, and the Kadiaks did so before any important undertaking, such as crossing a wide strait, chasing the sea-otter, etc.[71] In regard to the amulets or charms worn by Eskimos, Crantz says: 

“These powerful preventives consist in a bit of old wood hung around their necks, or a stone, or a bone, or a beak or claw of a bird, or else a leather strap tied round their forehead, breast, or arm."[72]

Marcano says that “the Indians of French Guiana paint themselves in order to drive away the devil when they start on a journey or for war."[73] In his treatise on the religion of the Dakotas, Lynd remarks: 

“Scarlet or red is the religious color for sacrifices....  The use of paint, the Dakotas aver, was taught them by the gods.  Unkteh taught the first medicine men how to paint themselves when they worshipped him and what colors to use.  Takushkanshkan (the moving god) whispers to his favorites what colors to use.  Heyoka hovers over them in dreams, and informs them how many streaks to employ upon their bodies and the tinge they must have.  No ceremony of worship is complete without the wakan, or sacred application of paint."[74]