This intermediate-length medical work is one part anthropological text, one part recipe book, and one part good medical history. About 90% of the entries here are herbal; but it lists some minerals and chemical compounds and even a couple of insect species, all of which were apparently sold through the Indian subcontinent as medical materials in the 1860s.
This is of interest potentially to two groups of people; the occultist will here find some interesting folk tales and spiritual rites from cultures then being actively studied at the height of the colonial era, and the history buff will find in these pages an interesting but sometimes outdated colonial perspective on non-European cultures. It focuses mostly on African lore but...
This work is pure rationalism circa the early 20th century. Penned by Odell Shepard, it goes to great lengths in being as detailed as possible, not limiting itself by time period or region. Speaking of lore as separate as that of Africa and India, the tale of the unicorn (or alicorn) is rendered not simply to a misunderstood and real beast here, but takes on a wider symbology and...
