80 BULLETIISr 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL. MUSEUM 



an obliging individual lends his foot, a foot which has rarely been 

 incased in a shoe and possesses a sole with a skin like leather. This 

 natural sole is rubbed with the leaves of a plant called slmngwe, 

 which has been chewed and mixed in the palm of the hand with 

 saUva and grease. For the same purpose Mankhelu employed a fat 

 comprising, among other ingredients, the following drugs : Hlampfura 

 and Nwambula-wamitwa. Then the kindly operator places his foot 

 on the red-hot hoe and, with a quick movement, plants it on the spot 

 to be cauterized, the patient being hardly able to bear the contact. 

 As for the owner of the foot, the horny sole seems so thick that he 

 feels no pain at all. This is the remedy for the shit jebe blood, prob- 

 ably pleurisy. "^^ 



The Cherokee Indians had a heat cure for toothache. The doctor 

 warms his thumb and presses it on the tooth, or he blows smoke from 

 a pipe pressed directly against the tooth. ^ 



The most widely distributed of fire customs is the moxa or eschar 

 used for various ills. Beverly quaintly recounts the practice among 

 the Virginia Indians: 



*'0n the part * * * little sticks of lightwood, the coal of which 

 will bm-n like a hot iron, the sharp point of this they run into the 

 flesh, and having made a sore, keep this running till the humor be 

 drawn off. Or else they take punck (which is a sort of soft touch- 

 wood, cut out from the knots of oak or hickor}^ trees, but the hickory 

 affords the best) , this they shape like a cone (as the Japanese do their 

 moxa for the gout) and apply the basis of it to the place affected. 

 They then set fire to it, letting it burn out upon the part, which 

 makes a running sore effectually."*^ 



The Makah Indians of Cape Flattery, Washington, treat rheuma- 

 tism by taking a red-hot iron or stick or wisp of cedar bark and burn- 

 ing holes in the flesh. Cautery is the great remedy for all internal 

 complaints, and serves the double purpose of bHsters and bleeding." 



The Sahsh of Puget Sound make use of the moxa. Mr. Eells saw 

 a Clallam with a dozen sores on him produced in this way. *^ 



The Mapuche Indians of Araucania, South America, prepared balls 

 of dried pith which were lighted and pressed on the skin. 



The ornamental arrangement of moxa scars has been observed on 

 the bodies of Buddhist priests and among other natives of the Far East. 

 In the Philippines Legazpi in 1575 "gave such orders as seemed fit- 

 ting for the government of those provinces which are commonly 

 called the Bisayas de los Pintados because the natives have their 

 bodies marked with fire.*^ This form of tattooing is rare, the cica- 



« H. A. Junod. The Life of a South African Tribe, vol. 2, p. 427, Neuchatel, 1913. 



"James Mooney. Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee, 7th Ann. Kept., Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1891, p. 359 



"Beverly's History of Virginia, 1855, p. 187. 



"J. Q. Swan. The Indians of Cape Flattery, Smith. Contr. Knowl., No. 220, 1868, p. 80. 



"American Antiquarian, vol. 9, 1886, p. 216. 



«Do Morga. History of the Philippines, Hakluyt Society, London, 1863, p. 19. 



