CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 75 



handle. The canes are highly regarded, because of certain astringent prop- 

 erties said to be contained in the wood, and they are sometimes scraped and 

 the scrapings drunk with water as a curative. It is supposed to stop bleeding, 

 and is also valued for intestinal ailments. Formerly they may have been 

 the property only of the headmen. 



In Tule, the carved head of the medicine man's staff, " kava 

 turgana " (Tule), always resembles a man dressed as a modern 

 European. 



It is " shurama " (Tule), the god of health, whom the doctor 

 holds in his hand or has mounted on a staff. Shurama tells the 

 lele (doctor) what to do to effect a cure of the sick patient. 



The coat of the god image is painted usually a black or green, 

 with a </reen visored cap topped with a knob at the center of the 

 crown. The shirt, necktie, collar, buttons, and waistcoat are 

 painted a lighter pink, green, blue, or white. In some cases the 

 figure holds in his right hand a staff with a serpent carving in low 

 relief extending from one end of this miniature staff to the other 

 (Cat, No. 327462, U.S.N.M.), Details in the carving sometimes 

 found on these figured staffs are undoubtedly of earlier origin than 

 those just mentioned as they are found on wood carvings other 

 than canes and on which no traceable acculturated design may be 

 found. All the facial features represented are in two planes, 

 intersecting at a diagonal and terminating in an exaggerated nasal 

 projection. Stone pebbles or metal pellets are inserted into holes 

 sunk into the facial plane to represent eyes; zigzag lines are in- 

 cised on the narrow hat brim. The high-crowned hat, anterior 

 flexing of the knees, and the employment of only three parallel 

 incisions to indicate all of the fingers of the hand — all these are 

 primitive in design and native. 



Wood carvings of male and female figurines are numerous in the 

 collection. One of these (Cat. No. 327482, U.S.N.M., pi. 18, No. 1), 

 employed by the Tule, is mounted on a handle carved from the 

 same block of black chonta palm wood. The figurine is 11.5 cm. 

 (4.5 in.) in length and together with handle is 22.4 cm. (8.8 in.) 

 in length. It is held in the hand of the medicine man while he 

 recites incantations to heal the sick. The flexing of the arms over 

 the chest with finger tips touching as in supplication is, however, 

 not imitative of the characteristic Christian attitude oi prayer. 

 The explanation lies along different lines. The primitive artist had 

 to solve the problem of either placing the arms extended vertically 

 at the sides of the torso or of flexing the arms over or about the 

 chest. Any other position would be extremely unrealistic and 

 typical of a conventionalized art that is not native to Darien or to 

 a primitive art. In the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 10 K. Th. Preuss 



10 Vol. 46, No. 1, p. 107. 

 77826—26- G 



