Il8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I33 



An occasional machi employs bloodletting. He makes a slight in- 

 cision in the area of pain and lets blood flow. An occasional machi 

 sucks the spirit of sickness out either through the skin of the area of 

 pain or through a small abrasion made by him in the skin, 



A Panguipulli woman in her thirties who had no faith in machi 

 related the following : 



My father, as a young man, was very curious. He went to attend a machitun. 

 The machi, a woman, after sucking the sick person at the place of pain for a 

 long time, drew from her mouth a long snake and put it into a pottery vessel. 

 Then she asked, "Are there two brave young men present?" My father and 

 another young man stepped forward. By this time she had tied a cover very 

 securely over the opening of the vessel. She handed the vessel to the young men 

 and told them to go to a place some distance from there, to build a fire there, 

 and to burn the vessel with its contents. Under no condition were they to look 

 into that vessel ; if they did so, the evil spirit of sickness would come out of it. 

 The young men left with the vessel. When they were out of sight my father 

 said, "Let us look in 1" But the other man said, "Under no conditions will I 

 look into that vessel" — he was very much afraid of it. Then my father hesitated, 

 too. Instead of looking into it, my father dashed it against a stone and broke it. 

 Both men ran away. After a short time they went back and examined every- 

 thing carefully. They found the snake to be cochayuyo, a Pacific alga, so pre- 

 pared as to look exactly like a snake's head at one end. Being wet with saliva, 

 made it look gray like a snake. "It takes an intelligent, sly person to be a machi," 

 my father has often said; "a stupid person could never be one." Another time, 

 my father saw a machi going about in the woods stripping bark off trees ; she 

 was looking for larvae or worms. Many she discarded, but some she kept — 

 probably unusual ones. Later, while treating a sick person, she produced these, 

 pretending they were the result of her sucking. When I was still a child, my 

 father told men and also his other children never to believe in the powers of the 

 machi ; that if we examined their performances, we would find them to be hoaxes. 

 My father has reported to Chilean authorities the outrageous fee charged by the 

 machi for their machitun. In consequence one machi was in prison until her 

 fine was paid. If the machi had true power to injure another, this one would 

 most certainly have injured my father. My father said no injury has even been 

 done to him. 



The following is a complete account of a machitun as conducted 

 in Alepue area : 



Somebody in a ruka is sick ; a man leaves from there with two horses. When 

 he arrives at the machi's place, he goes into the ruka immediately, takes a bench, 

 and sits down very close to the machi. [This is contrary to the custom which 

 requires an invitation to be seated.] The two shake hands in a friendly way. 

 The man then looks the machi straight in the face and begins to talk to him; 

 he begs him to come to perform a machitun over his sick relative. The machi 

 looks directly at the man, too, listens for a little while, and then turns away 

 from him — but he is still listening. The man continues to talk using all the 

 friendly words he knows, coaxing the machi to come with him ; he uses expres- 

 sions like these, "You are the only man who can help my sick relative. You 



