In the movie Crocodile Dundee, the main character, Crocodile Dundee, is in Australia and puts a large water buffalo to sleep using his mind.
This seems like some ancient aboriginal method, he calls it an "old bushman's trick" in the movie but I have yet to find any real historical correlations.
Note: Of course there is Tadashi Kanzawa who does this in real life, but he also doesn't claim any historical correlations. (at least to my knowledge).