All language subtitles for 1x07 - Unusual Rituals_track3_[eng]

- The following program

contains disturbing images
and dangerous stunts

that should not
be tried at home.

Viewer discretion is advised.

(suspenseful music)

Imagine taking a
headfirst leap of faith

from a 100-foot tower

with only a vine
tied to your ankle.

- It dates back
about 1,500 years

and it involves a boy who is
coming of age into manhood.

(crowd yelling)

- How about drinking
cobra's blood

to cement a brotherly bond?

- The ritual behind it is
not just for hydration,

it's not just for
consuming nutrients,

you are ingesting the
power of this cobra

to unleash it on your
enemies in the battlefields.

(crowd cheering)

- Or burying yourself alive
to achieve enlightenment.

- He does this all the way
until his heart gives out.

- These are the
rituals so surprising,

they are truly unbelievable.

(suspenseful music)

Throughout history, young
men hoping to become warriors

have gone through
tests of courage,

strength, and mental fortitude.

For the young boys of Sparta,
it's all of those things,

but also, you are
not allowed to cry.

(dramatic music)

- The Spartan warrior is
one of the most feared,

legendary, disciplined, and
successful warriors in history.

- [Dan] Preparation for
battlefield victory

starts young,
very young.

- At birth, young Spartan
boys are dipped in wine.

The ones who cry are sent
off to become slaves.

The ones who don't cry are
admitted to warrior training.

- Spartan boys are
trained in toughness.

At age seven, they are
turned over to the state,

and there, they become a part
of a company of other boys

where they live, work,
and study together.

They go barefoot.

They're not allowed
to wear shoes.

They don't bathe.

- Additionally, to
make the boys tough,

they're given very
minimal clothing.

It's this little cloak.

So during the winter, they're
getting extremely cold,

being exposed to the elements.

(dark pulsing music)

- [Dan] In the Spartan camps,

becoming a warrior is
about three things,

strength, survival,
and suffering.

- They have to make their own
beds with their own hands,

and it's made out
of plant matter

that they pull from
the riverbanks.

- These boys are
deliberately malnourished

and that's done for
a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, so that
they don't get fat and lazy.

And then secondly, because
they're malnourished,

they'll constantly be looking
for ways to feed themselves.

It's an idea toward
developing resourcefulness.

- [Dan] This gives
the boys an edge in

their next important
test, how to steal.

- There's a wheel of cheese
that's placed on an altar

and these Spartan
guards all have whips

and the boys are told to go
in and try to steal the cheese

and dodge the whips.

- They're gonna use
cunning and guile

as a means to try to
get beyond the guards

and get to the cheese.

Then, if they're caught,
they are publicly beaten.

(whip cracking)
(boy gasping)

Even that is training,

because if they're caught
and they're beaten in public,

they'll feel a compulsion to
maintain a stoic appearance.

They don't want to endure
the public humiliation

of breaking under the beating.

They have to always maintain
this warrior outlook.

(whip cracking)

(suspenseful music)

- [Dan] Once they turn 12,

young Spartans are ready
for their final test,

and it's a doozy.

- They're forced to endure a
month-long survival challenge.

They're sent out into the
wilderness by themselves

with a spear and a blanket.

- They have a
variety of challenges

that they have to survive,

food, water, shelter,

surviving the elements,
surviving predators.

- Sure, the lions and
the pack of wolves come.

You got your spear and blanket.

- This is a world
in which citizenship

is not something that
automatically falls on you.

You earn it by succeeding,

by passing the series
of rituals and trials,

and if you survive that final
ritual, you become a citizen.

You have earned the right
to marry and have children,

and you earn the right
to be called a warrior.

(crowd cheering)

- A couple thousand
years later, in 1982,

another unusual
military ritual begins

in the fetid
jungles of Thailand,

and remarkably, it
still occurs today.

(atmospheric music)

- Cobra Gold is a joint exercise

between the US military
and the Thai military.

After 1975, the United
States is no longer

on active military
operations in Southeast Asia,

so the United States is
a little bit out of touch

with the way that you
have to fight to survive

in the jungle environment
of Southeast Asia.

- [Dan] Under the tutelage
of the Royal Thai Marines,

the US military
begins a very unique

jungle survival training
ritual called Cobra Gold.

Oh, and warning, it's a
little hard to stomach.

- So in Cobra Gold,
they start off

with eating pieces of
trees, vegetation, grass,

any type of edible
flower, any type of plant.

Then, they progress
on to the bugs.

- [Solider] Bite it!
(group groaning)

- So we're talking roasted
cockroaches, grilled beetles.

- And they even teach
them how to eat scorpions,

which there are lots of.

(group yelling)

- [Dan] That's when the
practice takes a turn

into something
stranger and grosser.

- They also teach
them how to bite

the heads off of chickens
using only their teeth,

in case they lose their knives.

(dramatic music)

- You're being taught how
to live off of the jungle

and how to survive off
of animals that seem like

they would otherwise be
very dangerous to you,

but if you know how,

you can kill them and
survive off of them.

(suspenseful music)

- While biting
heads off chickens

and slurping up
scorpions seems crazy,

the culmination of Cobra Gold

is where it really
earns its stripes.

It even scares me,
and I've seen ghosts.

- What the ritual is
really named after

is the final grand finale of
the buffet, and this is cobra.

(group chattering indistinctly)

- What the Thai people show them

is one way you can give yourself

both hydration and sustenance
is by finding a cobra,

a deadly snake, and
drinking its blood.

- Even though it
doesn't seem like it

in a jungle environment,

it is easy to become dehydrated

just as a result of sweat
from high temperatures,

and so the snake's blood
will provide hydration.

- The legend has it, the
more deadly your cobra is,

the more that you will
consume the cobra's power.

(hissing snake)

So the ritual behind it
is not just for hydration,

it's not just for
consuming nutrients,

you are ingesting the
power of this cobra

and able to unleash it on your
enemies in the battlefield.

- [Dan] Today, the power
of the Cobra Gold ritual

has spread across the world,

becoming the ultimate
bonding experience

for warrior brothers.

- Now, it's evolved to be

the largest multinational
military exercise in the world.

It includes 29 nations,
including the US and Thailand,

and also South Korea,
Vietnam, and Japan.

(chopper whirring)

- Cobra Gold provides
this strong bond

between our military and
these foreign nations

that we may one day be called
on to fight side-by-side with.

The kind of bond that
can only be developed

through enduring
harsh circumstances.

(helicopter engines whirring)

- [Dan] When I mention mummies,
you might think Egypt,

but preparing bodies
for the afterlife

goes far beyond the
Valley of the Kings,

and some people don't
even wait to die

before starting the process.

(suspenseful music)

- In the ninth century AD, a
Japanese monk named Kobo Daishi

founds a school of Buddhism

called Shingon Buddhism.

- This type of Buddhism,

according to Daishi
and his followers,

its goal is to attain
ultimate enlightenment,

and to do that, what

one is supposed to do

is they're supposed to give up

the simple common
pleasures of life.

- They live in the mountains,
they live like hermits.

They forage for their food.

They rid themselves of
anything that pretty much

any of us would consider
good and pleasurable

in this very, very
difficult, hard lifestyle.

- [Dan] It's not enough to
attain enlightenment in life,

they want to reach
Nirvana in the afterlife

and Shingon leader Kobo Daishi

decides to show his
followers it can be done.

- [Brandy] As he nears
the end of his life,

Kobo Daishi crawls
into his own tomb,

denies himself
everything,

including the
sustenance of life.

- We're talking no food,
no water, no nothing,

and he dedicates himself 100%

to being truly one with himself.

He does this practice all the
way until his heart gives out.

- Kobo Daishi doesn't
think of this as suicide

because he plans on returning

to the life of the living.

According to Shingon beliefs,

Kobo Daishi will return
from the afterlife

in 5.67 million years.

- [Dan] But his
followers get curious,

and a few years later,
opened Daishi's tomb.

What they find is unbelievable.

- His body is incredibly
well-preserved.

There seems to be no
real signs of decay

as you would see
on a normal corpse.

His skin is still intact,
muscle is still intact.

- He just looks like
he might be sleeping.

His followers recognize that
he seems to have achieved

everything that
he set out to do,

enlightenment, and
they worship him.

- [Dan] Kobo Daishi's
followers are convinced

they too can achieve
life after death,

so over the next 900 years,
they evolve his arduous ritual

into an even more
torturous process known as

"sokushinbutsu" or
"Buddha in this body."

- It begins with the
denial of food and drink,

sometimes involving
fasts that, unbelievably,

can last up to 4,000 days.

After a certain point,
the initiate will consume

the sap of a Chinese
lacquer tree.

- This special brew makes
the human body so toxic

that insects want
nothing to do with it,

so they leave it alone,
thus allowing it to stay

that much more preserved
for a longer period of time.

- [Dan] drinking
this lethal brew,

there's only one
thing left to do.

- The monk is put
into a small pine box

and lowered 10 feet
into the ground.

There's charcoal
put on top of him,

and there is a small pine rod

that the monk can use to
breathe from the inside.

They don't want to asphyxiate.

There's also a bell
inside the box.

As the monk is meditating,
they ring the bell

to let people above know
that they're still alive.

- Once the bell ringing ceases,

they will then
formally bury the body.

It will be left
buried for 1,000 days,

after which it is exhumed.

If it shows no signs of
physical decomposition,

then the monk has attained
the idealized state

and will be placed
on holy display.

- [Dan] The Japanese government

eventually outlaws
sokushinbutsu,

but not before many
more attempt it.

- From the year 1081 to 1903,

hundreds of monks attempt
this, but only 17 succeed.

- As a matter of fact,
you can see these monks.

They are on display in Japan.

You can go and see their bodies.

- They don't look
like they're sleeping.

They don't look alive,
but they are preserved.

They sit in the lotus
position forever.

Their bodies hardened in place,

and many of them while on
display have sunglasses on.

That's because the one thing

that does decompose and
rot away are your eyeballs.

- Displaying the deceased
after they've been preserved

is practiced in a number of
cultures around the world,

but an indigenous
group in Indonesia

has turned such a
ritual into an art form.

- While waiting to make
funeral arrangements,

some Toraja people
keep their dead

in their house for
weeks, if not for years.

- The Toraja people firmly
believe that a family member

is not dead until they
are buried in the ground.

As a matter of fact,
until they're buried,

the family member
who has passed on

is referred to as
"makula" or just sick.

- So if someone says,
"How's your grandmother?"

you'd say, "Grandmother is ill,"

but grandmother
might actually be

slowly mummifying around
your kitchen table.

- [Dan] The key to the
Torajan afterlife ritual

is the way the body is
preserved by loved ones.

- They can't let the body
decompose in the house,

because if they leave it alone,

eventually, it's going
to wither away and rot

and it's not going
to smell well.

- They wrap the bodies in cloth,

and the cloth has been
doused in formaldehyde,

and this wrapping
process continues,

and once you have done
that enough times,

the body itself has dried out

to a point that it has
basically been mummified.

- Families interact
with the family member

as though he or she is
still very much present.

- People talk to the body.

People dress the body.

People offer it things
like cigarettes.

During mealtime, they
make the body a plate,

because again, it is
not seen as dead yet.

It is only seen as sick.

- The longer the
body is kept at home,

the more money can be
saved for a funeral

and thus the more
elaborate the funeral.

- In the United States,

the wedding is the thing
that people save money for.

They have to save for
their kid's wedding

or for their own wedding,
their grandchildren's wedding.

In Torajan culture,

it's the funeral that
you save money for,

and these can be outlandishly
expensive and lavish

because you want people
to come and celebrate

the person who has died, and
you can't celebrate them well

if you don't have
enough money to do it.

- This can range
in dollar amounts

from $50,000 to
literally $500,000.

- While the family saves up,

the body continues
to be on display

for the community to come
by and pay their respects

to honor the person, to
say their final goodbyes,

to make sure they get
the proper sendoff.

to honor the person, to
say their final goodbyltures,

the passage from
childhood into adulthood

involves celebration and smiles.

For a tribe in Brazil, it means
something quite different.

(mysterious droning music)

- Deep in the Amazon jungle,

the aspiring young men
of the Satere-Mawe tribe

have to endure the
most excruciating

rite of passage imaginable,

the wearing of two gloves,
each filled with bullet ants.

- You don't want to
encounter a bullet ant.

Their sting feels like
you've been shot by a gun.

It hurts really bad

- And that's just one ant.

Each glove?
Filled with hundreds of ants.

- [Dan] On the
day of the ritual,

the village buzzes
with anticipation.

The first order of business,
round up some ants.

- Members of the tribe will
go out into the Amazon jungle

and collect all of
these bullet ants,

hundreds of bullet ants.

Elders of the community will
blow smoke on these ants

as a way to pacify them, right,

to sort of lull them to sleep.

- The elders take them and they
weave them into the gloves,

with the stingers
pointing hand ward,

so whoever puts on these
gloves is in for a painful day.

(suspenseful music)

- I mean, imagine the feeling,
there are hundreds of bullets

piercing your own
flesh repeatedly.

- The boy must keep his hands

in the gloves for 10 minutes.

These boys will sometimes
enter a trance-like dance

to sort of detach
themselves mentally

from what they're going
through physically

to make sure that
they can withstand

the excruciating amount of pain.

(tribe members chanting)

- [Dan] And if that
isn't bad enough,

they have to do this
again another 19 times.

(tribal instrumental music)

- You must really
want to be a man.

You have to get stung not
just anywhere in your body,

but in one of the places
with the most nerve endings,

in your hand, and you have to
endure this for 10 minutes,

and then do it for
a total of 20 times.

I'd be like, "You know what?
I'll pass.

I'll just be a boy forever.
Call me Peter Pan."

(suspenseful music)

- While enduring pain might
make a man in the Amazon,

boys of the Vanuatu tribe
in the Southwest Pacific

must take a leap of faith
that could kill them.

(rumbling dark music)

- About 1,000 miles off
the coast of Australia,

on one of nearly 80 islands
of what's called Vanuatu,

local boys practice a
rite of passage called

land diving or Nanggol.

- It dates back
about 1,500 years,

and it involves a boy who is

coming of age into manhood

to climb up a 100-foot tower.

- Once they reach
the top of the tower,

they take two thick,
stretchy vines

and they tie them
to their ankles.

What they will then do

is they will stand
atop this wooden tower

and they just dive
onto the earth.

(suspenseful music)

- [Dan] The goal is
to brush the ground

with the lightest of touches.

Picking the right vine
can be the difference

between success and a funeral.

- The land diving ritual
takes place every year

from April to June when
the land is at its wettest

and the vines are
at their stretchiest.

- There have been instances
where boys have gone land diving

and they end up breaking bones,

shattering parts of their body.

It's incredibly dangerous.

- The job of selecting
the vines for each boy

is left up to trusted elders,

and they do so based on the
height and weight of the boy.

So talk about a
process to make sure

you treat your
elders with respect?

This is it, because any
miscalculation can be fatal.

- A successful jump means
the boy is now a man.

It also brings good
luck to the village,

and that usually means
an excellent yam harvest.

- [Dan] So just who started
this daring ritual of manhood?

Surprisingly, not a man.

(suspenseful music)

- A wife is being
abused by her husband.

She flees him, she
climbs up into a tree,

attaches vines to her legs,
and dives from the tree,

saved by these springy,
moist, strong vines.

- Her husband, seeing this,
attempts the same thing,

but when he jumps, he dies.

(pulsing mysterious music)

- Women in the area
begin jumping for fun,

inspired by the woman's
act of marital defiance.

- But to avert the shame

of being shown up by
women of the village,

the males claim this
ritual for their own.

(suspenseful music)

- If this ritual sounds
familiar, it should,

because it's become a
recreational activity

that's been scaring
the pants off people

for more than 50 years.

- In the 1970s, a man by
the name of A.J. Hackett

visits the island and he sees
land diving being performed,

and he is fascinated,
he's intrigued,

and he also thinks "I could
make some money off of this."

- He asks the locals if he can
make a version of land diving

that he can share
outside of Vanuatu,

and he makes a few safety
modifications along the way,

and ends up calling
it bungee jumping.

(dramatic insistent music)

- [Dan] Five million
people worldwide

have tried bungee jumping,

but land diving isn't
something you can just try.

- To this day, this
ritual remains,

and when tourists visit Vanuatu,

the island residents
perform the ritual for them,

and quite often, of course,
a tourist would think,

"Hey, can I try?"

and the answer is
"Absolutely not.

You're not a member
of our community.

Take your butt outta here
and go bungee jumping."

Take your butt outta here
and go bungee jumping."

Take your butt outta here
and go bungee jumping."

(crowd cheering)

(suspenseful music)

- Do you pinky swear?

Well, I sure as heck don't.

As innocuous as this
childhood oath may seem,

it has a seriously
dark origin story.

(dark ambient music)

- The Yakuza, the infamous
Japanese crime syndicate,

begins a ritual that is actually
known as finger shortening.

They call it "yubitsume,"

which is the act of
amputating your own finger

using a super sharp knife,

and this would be
used as a punishment

for disobeying the rules
of the organization.

- You are required to cut
off the uppermost portion

of your left pinky, wrap
in some kind of a cloth,

and present as ceremonially
to the authority figure

who you have offended.

- First infraction?
One knuckle.

Second infraction?
Next knuckle.

You could tell someone's
level of infractions

in their crime syndicate

by how many knuckles
they have left.

- [Dan] In a move that
seems to defy logic,

the ritual makes its way
to American playgrounds,

thankfully transformed.

- Not quite as brutal,

but a pinky swear is the
most solemn form of swear.

Nobody breaks that bond.

- As it turns out,
oath rituals don't get

any less outlandish
the older you get,

even for the planet's
most powerful people.

- Bohemian Club is set up
in San Francisco in 1872,

and basically, this is

a club for journalists,

for people who are exploring

and thinking about ideas.

The cool kids, if you will.

Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon,
Kissinger is in the club.

- [Dan] But the city is no
place to forge fraternal bonds.

That happens in a hidden
forest in Northern California

called Bohemian Grove.

- It's really like the
ultimate sleepaway

summer camp for

rich and famous men.

They sleep in tents,
they drink heavily,

and they also network.

(light haunting music)

- [Dan] Don't let the
laughs and liquor fool you.

Members gather at
the Bohemian Grove

to hatch plans that
change history.

(suspenseful music)

- No less than the Manhattan
Project was agreed upon here.

J. Robert Oppenheimer
first breaches the idea

at Bohemian Grove.

We can thank atomic
weaponry and atomic power

for what happens
at Bohemian Grove.

- [Dan] Before getting
down to business,

the retreat kicks off
with an odd ritual.

This is when things get weird.

- The retreat begins
with an ornate ceremony

called "the cremation of care."

The idea being that we are here

to take the weight of
power off of our shoulders.

We're leaving behind the
cares of the outer world.

- A boat known as "the ferry
of care" contains an effigy

in the shape of a body
known as "the body of care"

and it is sent across
the body of water

to these dark, mysterious,
hooded figures.

(haunting ambient music)

- This effigy is
placed at the feet

of this 40-foot owl structure

that's covered in moss and
leaves, and it is set afire,

and so is immolated the
cares of the world,

and so is sealed a bond
of privacy among members.

- This 40-foot owl statue,

this shrine, is so
important to these men,

they've actually come
up with a name for it

that has deep meaning for them.

They call it "The Owl."

(pulsing electronic music)

- And apparently, The
Owl speaks with the voice

of famed newsman
Walter Cronkite.

An owl that sounds
like Walter Cronkite?

Super weird, but that's how
the rich and powerful get down.

- [Dan] I am Walter Cronkite,

and that's the way it is.

The Bohemian Club
is still active today,

planning who knows
what, because remember,

what happens in the
grove stays in the grove.

To date, Bohemian Grove
has a several decades long

waiting list for admission.

Wonder when I'll get my invite?

But I digress.

Talking owls might seem tame
compared to this next ritual

performed by members of another
powerful secret society.

(dark atmospheric music)

- Founded in 1832, Skull and
Bones will become the first

of what will later be called
the "Ancient Eight Consortium"

of Yale's Secret Societies.

(suspenseful music)

So shrouded in secrecy
is the Skull and Bones

that when two bonesmen,
George W. Bush and John Kerry,

run against each other in the
2004 presidential election,

the media pestered
them constantly on

"What was it like in
the Skull and Bones?"

And zip.
Mum's the word.

Neither of them say a
single thing about it.

- [Dan] Another thing
they're keeping in the vault,

the secret society's
unusual initiation ritual.

- To become a member
of Skull and Bones,

it all begins with a ritual
that takes place every spring

and is known as "tap night."

The men dress up in their suits

and they stand
there and they wait.

- Literally, someone
will come up behind them,

tap them on the
shoulder and say,

"Skull and Bones.
Do you accept?"

- [Dan] And if you say yes,
you're led to an ominous looking

building called "The Tomb,"

and are henceforth
known as a neophyte.

- From the first moment that
the neophyte enters the Tomb,

he's greeted by two members,

a bag is placed over his head.

- They are surrounded by
figures in various macabre garb,

including that of
the devil himself.

They are then compelled to
strip bare their clothing

and physically wrestle
with other neophytes.

- [Dan] After all the
tapping, beating, stripping,

and wrestling, the initiate
meets his maker, sort of.

- They make you lie
in a coffin, naked,

in front of everyone,

and then offer up a
detailed recounting

of your sexual history.

- They then read
the oath of secrecy

and they drink a
red, viscous fluid

that's supposed to be blood
from an upended skull.

Afterwards, the pledge
is slapped in the face

with the devil's tail.

(smack)

- To wrap it all up,

he kneels before a person
dressed as the Pope.

The Pope is seated in a
chair in full Pope garb.

On his left foot, there
is a white slipper,

and that foot is resting
on a human skull.

The initiate walks up,
kisses the foot of the Pope,

and at that moment,
becomes a bonesman.

They are now a member
of the Skull and Bones.

- [Dan] If drinking
blood and foot kissing

doesn't sound like your thing,

membership does
have its privileges.

- Apparently, if
you're a bonesman,

you get thousands of
dollars upon graduation,

access to mansions and
different buildings

around the country,
around the world,

and some of the most powerful
people in American history

have been members
of Skull and Bones.

(dramatic whoosh)

- Health rituals are a
part of our everyday lives.

Catch a cold?

Eat chicken noodle soup
and pop a few aspirin.

Works like a charm.

But 400 years ago,
one British king

embraces a different
healing ritual,

one in which the cure might
be worse than the disease.

(suspenseful music)

- King Charles II
knows how to party.

By golly, he makes sure to
have as much fun as you can fit

into one lifespan.

- He has multiple mistresses,

12 illegitimate children.

He also is consuming
delicacies left and right,

fatty, rich meats and delicious
wines, day in and day out.

- [Dan] The King's
party boy lifestyle

finally gets the better of him

and he falls victim
to gout and a stroke.

- He wants something to make him

feel better after his stroke,

and so he decides that the
most incredible thing he can do

is choose an almost
magical implement

called "Goddard's Drops."

- [Dan] Created by
physician Jonathan Goddard,

the drops are a strange tincture

containing a most
unusual ingredient.

(pulsing suspenseful music)

- These aren't just any drops.

These drops contain up to
five pounds in one batch

of crushed human skulls.

(haunting music)

- [Dan] Charles II's doctors
begin ritualistically

administering Goddard's
drops to him every day.

- King Charles II becomes
so enamored of his drops

that he ultimately buys the
formula for 6,000 pounds,

which roughly translates to
half a million in today's money.

At that point, they stop
being "Goddard's drops"

and they start being
called "the King's drops."

- It doesn't actually cure him.

In fact, there's
some suggestion that,

because his physicians are
giving him 40 drops a day

as he's ailing at
the end of his life,

that it's probably the
drops that hastened

his final end in 1685.

(dramatic music)

- [Dan] Next up, another
17th century ritual

that involves
ingesting something

that sounds a little
more appealing, at first.

(suspenseful music)

- The Salem Witch Trials truly
begin with erratic behavior,

showed on the part
of a few young women,

in particular, a young woman
known as Elizabeth Paris,

more commonly known as Betty.

- Betty and several
other young girls

are suffering convulsions
and acting erratically,

and everything is
going wrong in Salem.

- Betty is examined by the
local doctor, William Griggs,

who can't find anything
physically wrong with her.

That's when they decide
it has to be witchcraft.

- Enter the Paris family's
neighbor, Mary Sibley,

who believes she has the answer.

A witch cake.

- Mary Sibley's cake

is a little bit different
than your average cake.

It's rye, it's ashes,
something personal of Betty's,

and then there's
one last ingredient,

a dash of Betty's urine.

(mysterious pulsing music)

- [Dan] That last ingredient
isn't the icing on the cake,

it's the key to making
the dough do its thing.

- That is right.

You have to take the urine
of the affected individual

and then mix it in
with this rye flour,

and then you bake a cake that
kind of looks a little bit

like this ball
with spikes on it.

- And when baked, it has to
be fed to something particular

to figure out if
Betty is a witch,

and that's something particular

is the Paris's family dog.

(dog barking)
Poor dog.

- The folk belief
around this witch's cake

is that feeding it to a
dog will induce in the dog

the same symptoms that are
displayed by the accused witch.

- More bizarre still
is that the dog

is meant to fall into a trance

and then somehow, dog speaks
and says the name of the witch.

(dog barking)

- I bet all of the girls
in the village named Ruth

were probably pretty nervous
at this point in time.

- [Dan] After the Paris
family dog has eaten the cake,

the results are in, and
as for Betty's fate?

- Betty Paris gets off.

Her dog does not rat her out.

- In this particular instance,

the witch cake ritual
doesn't definitively

mark out a specific
person as a witch.

- Over the next year,
the witch's cake

is considered a
valid tool of justice

and serves as a device
of mass hysteria

to point fingers at
increasing numbers of victims.

- That's one cake I do
not want the recipe for.

Next up, some hygiene rituals

that promise a different
kind of transformation.

- We all have our
morning rituals.

For some of us,
it's a hot shower.

For others, a quick
wash of the face.

Some can only manage
to brush their teeth

before getting out the door.

The citizens of ancient Rome,

they like mouthwash,
and the go-to flavor?

Well let's just say it's
not cinnamon or mint.

(pulsing ambient music)

- If you're living
in ancient Rome

and you want the freshest
of breath to start the day,

why not grab the finest cup

of urine, swish it around,

and gargle and spit?

- [Dan] As wild as it sounds,

this very strange and very
natural teeth cleaning agent

actually works really well.

- Should you distill
urine for long enough,

it can become ammonia.

Mix it with water and voila,

a not necessarily palatable,

but a very functional
teeth-whitening,

teeth-preserving agent.

- [Dan] The ritual
becomes so popular, in fact,

that it turns into big business

for urine collectors
throughout the eternal city.

- When you walk
through public spaces,

there are pots
that you can go to

to relieve yourself
if necessary.

- They are turned
into ammonia over time

and redistributed out and it
is quite a lucrative business.

- So popular does the
urine mouthwash become

that the government
puts a tax on urine.

Imagine that, a pee tax.

- [Dan] It even coins
a turn of phrase

that somehow has a
positive connotation.

- Today, if you go to Rome

and you see somebody with
exceptionally white teeth,

there is a common saying, I
don't know what in Italian,

but it translates to,
"You're full of piss."

- I'll stick to regular
mouthwash, thanks.

But if you're still looking
for natural self-care trends,

there's a new one
to get you to relax,

but it's not for the squeamish.

(bubbling electronic music)

- I've been to a fair
few spas in my life

and they are very ritualistic,

but I've never
had this one done.

(snakes hissing)

- Instead of a massage
therapist laying hands on you,

you instead have snakes
placed upon your body

and their whole job is to crawl
and slither over your body

as you lay there.

(snakes hissing)

- And contrary to
popular misconception,

snakes are not slimy,

and the reason this
might actually feel good

is that snakes are
very muscular animals,

so simply placing
them on your body,

they are gonna be
just sort of clinging

and moving around a little bit,

and that motion, you
know, maybe it can be

kind of therapeutic and work out

some of the tension
in your muscles.

- [Dan] So where can one go
to get said snake massage?

- It's become very popular
in Thailand, in Russia,

and in fact, even
in New York City,

you can pay $300 an
hour to be embraced

by a boa constrictor.

(calming new age music)

- You can get one of
these snake massages,

which is led by a snake
handler dubbed "Serpent Tessa."

People who do this ritual

claim that it lowers
their blood pressure.

Some claim that it even
lessens their anxiety.

Some even say that it helps them

to overcome their
fear of snakes.

- [Dan] Although Serpent
Tessa's snakes sound scary,

there is a skincare ritual
that can suck the life

right out of you, or
at least the color.

(suspenseful music)

- Bloodletting, the practice
of letting out blood

in order to help the body
rejuvenate its defenses,

get rid of infections,

it's been used for
thousands of years.

- [Dan] In the 16th century,
European women find a way

to use bloodletting to
make a fashion statement.

- You've probably seen paintings
of 16th century noblewomen

and they have these wonderfully
powder white complexions.

There's a reason for that.

It turns out,

bloodletting can be used
for cosmetic purposes.

And how are you going to get
the blood out of your face

to make it pale like that?

Well, you're going to elicit
the help of some friends.

(atmospheric music)

- Simply the temporary
application of a leech,

let it suck your blood for
a bit, and then take it off.

- Leeches have three jaws
and over a hundred teeth,

so they are the perfect
thing to suck the blood,

to suck the color,
directly from your face.

- [Dan] And where do
they get these leeches?

Let's just say a lot of
rich aristocratic women

suddenly take up gardening.

- You've got noblewomen
pinning them on

behind their ears,
to their neck,

generally places
where, you know,

the scar wouldn't be too much.

- [Dan] If you
think leech facials

are a vestige of
16th century Europe,

well, you won't believe this.

(playful music)

- You can actually
get a leech facial today

if you wanted to.

- For $200, you can
go to a specialist

who will take a leech,
attach it under your chin,

and then ultimately rub
both the extracted blood

and the leech secretions
into and around your face.

Supposedly, it gives
you a lovely glow.

- These unusual rituals
reveal many interesting things

about us humans.

Some of them might seem strange,

others downright terrifying,

but all of them are
truly unbelievable.