' 
886 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 
tions of such violent character that the noise almost resembled thunder, and 
could be heard at a distance of forty and more paces. The eructations lasted. 
about half a minute, and followed each other after an interval of a few minutes. 
The appetite of the patient was good, and she complained of nothing else. In this 
condition she remained for a week, when she suddenly dropped down in such a 
manner that I thought she would never rise again; but I was mistaken, for the 
. eructations and the peculiar fits continued for three years, until she became at 
last emaciated and cited in the month of July, 1766. A few days after the 
outbreak of her malady, her husband was attacked by the same disorder, and 
on my departure, in 1768, I left him without hope of recovery. Subsequently 
the woman’s brother and his wife suffered in like manner, and after these 
_ several other Californians, principally of the female sex. Neither the oldest of 
the natives, nor missionaries living for thirty years in the country, had hitherto 
been acquainted with this extraordinary and apparently contagious disease. 
The patience of Californians in sickness is really admirable. Hardly a sigh 
is heaved by those who lie on the bare ground in the most pitiable. condition 
and racked with pain. They look without dread upon their ulcers and wounds, 
and submit to burning and cutting, or make incisions in their own flesh for ex- 
tracting thorns and splinters, with as much indifference as though the operation 
were performed on somebody else. It is, however, an indication of approach- 
ing death when they lose their appetite. : 
Their medical art is very limited, consisting almost exclusively, whatever 
the character of the disease may be, in the practice of binding, when feasible, 
a cord or coarse rope tightly around the affected part of the body. Sometimes 
they make use of a kind of bleeding by cutting with a sharp stone a few small 
openings in the inflamed part, in order to draw blood and thus relieve the 
patient. Though every year a number of Californians die by the bite of the 
rattlesnake, their only remedy against such accidents consists in tightly bind- 
ing the injured member a little above the wound towards the heart; but if the 
part wounded by the reptile is a finger or a hand, they simply cut it off, and I 
knew several who had performed this cure on themselves or on individuals of their 
families. Now-a-days they beg in nearly all cases of disease for tallow to rub 
the affected part, and also for Spanish snuff which they use against headache 
and sore eyes. Excepting the remedies just mentioned, they have no appli- 
ances whatever against ulcers, wounds, or other external injuries, and far less 
against internal disorders; and though they may repeatedly have seen the 
missionary using some sitmple for removing a complaint, they will, either from 
forgetfulness or indolence, never employ it for themselves or others, but always 
apply to the missionary again. 
They do not, however, content themselves with these natural remedies, but 
have also recourse to supernatural means, which certainly never brought about 
a recovery. There are many impostors among them, pretending to possess the 
power of curing diseases, and the ignorant Indians have so much faith in their 
art that they send for one er more of these scoundrels whenever they are indis- 
posed. In treating a sick person, these jugglers employ a small tube, which 
they use for sucking or blowing the patient for a while, making, also, various 
grimaces and muttering something which they do not understand themselves, 
until, finally, after much hard breathing and panting, they show the patient a 
flint, or some other object previously hidden about their persons, pretentling to 
have at last removed the real cause of the disorder. ‘Twelve of these. liars 
received one day, by my orders, the punishment they deserved, and the whole 
people had to promise to desist in future from these practices, or else I would 
no more preach for them. But when, a few weeks afterwards, that individual, 
who first of all had engaged to renounce the devil, fell sick, he sent imme- 
diately again for the blower to perform the usual jugglery. 
