MEDICINE-WOMEN. 469 



ning. A tiny piece of this arrow or lance was broken off and ground into 

 the finest powder, and then administered in water to women during- time 

 of gestation. I have found the same kind of arrows in use among the 

 women of Laguna and other pueblos. This matter will receive more 

 extended treatment in my coming monograph on &quot;Stone Worship.&quot; 



Mendieta is authority for the statement that the Mexicans had both 

 medicine-men and medicine-women. The former attended to the sick 

 men and the latter to the sick women. &quot;A las mujeres sieinpre las cura- 

 ban otras mujeres, y a los hombres otros hoinbres.&quot; 1 Some of the medi 

 cine-women seem to have made an illicit use of the knowledge they had 

 acquired, in which case both the medicine-woman and the woman con 

 cerned were put to death. &quot; La mujer prcnada que toinaba con quo 

 abortar y echar la criatura, ella y la fisiea que le habia dado con que 

 la lanzase, ambas morian. 2 



Gomara asserts that they were to be found among the Indians of 

 Chicora (South Carolina). 3 He calls them &quot;viejas&quot; (old women). 



&quot; Los Medicos eran Mugeres viejas, i no havia otras.&quot; 4 In Nicaragua, 

 &quot;Las Viejas curabau los Enfermos.&quot; r&amp;gt; 



There were medicine- women in Goazacoalco: &quot;Tienen Medicos para 

 cnrar las enfermedadcs, i los mas eran Mugeres, grandes Herbolarias, 

 que hacian todas las curas con lervas.&quot; 6 



Bernal Diaz, in 1508, speaks of having, on a- certain occasion, at the 

 summit of a high mountain, found &quot;an Indian woman, very fat, and 

 having with her a dog of that species, which they breed in order to eat, 

 and which do not bark. This Indian was a witch; she was in the act 

 of sacrificing the dog, which is a signal of hostility.&quot; 7 



&quot;The office of medicine-man though generally usurped by males does 

 not appertain to them exclusively, and at the time of our visit the one 

 most extensively known was a black (or meztizo) woman, who had ac 

 quired the most unbounded influence by shrewdness, joined to a hid 

 eous personal appearance, and a certain mystery with which she was 

 invested.&quot; 8 Creeks have medicine-women as well as medicine-men. 

 The Eskimo have medicine-men and medicine-women. 9 The medicine 

 men and women of the Dakota*&quot; can cause ghosts to appear on occa 

 sion.&quot; 10 



Speaking of the Chippewa, Spencer says: &quot;Women may practice 

 soothsaying, but the higher religious functions are performed only by 

 men.&quot; 1 



1 Mendieta, Hist. Eclesiastica Indiana, p. 130. 

 ! Ibid., ]&amp;gt;. 136. 



3 Hist, de las Indias, p. 17(1. 



4 Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 10, p. 260. 

 Ibid., dec. 3, lib. 4, p. 121. 



Ibid., dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. 7, p. 188. 



7 Keatiug s translation, p. 352, quoted by Sauiuel Fannar Jarvia, Religion of the Indi-n Tribes, in 

 Coll. New York Historical Soc., vol. 3, 1819, p. 22. 

 * Smith, Araueanians, pp. 238. 239. 

 &quot; Ricbardsou, Arctic Searching Expedition, vol. 1, p. 36ti. 



10 Scbultze, Fetichisin, New York, 1885, p. 49. 



11 Spencer, Desc. Sociology. 



