REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 



473 



Kamchatka use enemata much in the same \vay as the Xavajo and 

 Apache do. 1 They also use mox.i made of ;i fungus. 2 



It has never been my good fortune to notice an example of trephining 

 among our savage tribes, although I have seen a good many wounded, 

 some of them in the head. Trephining has been practiced by the 

 aborigines of America, and the whole subject as noted among the 

 primitive peoples of all parts of the globe has been treated in a mono 

 graph by Dr. Robert Fleteher, U. S. Army. 1 



Dr. Fordyce Grinnell, who was for some years attached to the 

 Wichita Agency as resident physician, has published the results of his 

 observations in a monograph, entitled &quot;The healing art as practiced 

 by the Indians of the Plains,&quot; in which he says: &quot;Wet cupping is 

 resorted to quite frequently. The surface is scarified by a sharp stone 

 or knife, and a buffalo horn is used as the cupping glass. Cauterizing 

 with red-hot irons is not infrequently employed.&quot; A cautery of &quot; burning 

 pith&quot; was used by the Araucanians. 1 



&quot;It may be safely affirmed that a majority of the nation |ChoctawJ 

 prefer to receive the attentions of a white physician when one can be 

 obtained. * When the doctor is called to his patient he com 



mences operations by excluding all white men and all who disbelieve in 

 the efficacy of his incantations.&quot;- The [Apachej scouts seem to prefer \ 

 their own medicine-men when seriously ill, and believe the weird sing- 1 

 ing and praying around the couch is more effective than the medicine/ 

 dealt out by our cam]) sawbones. &quot; The promptness with which the 

 American Indian recovers from severe wounds has been commented 

 upon by many authorities. From my personal observation I could, 

 were it necessary, adduce many examples. The natives of Australia 

 seem to be endowed with the same recuperative powers. 1 



After all other means have failed the medicine-men of the; Southwest 

 devote themselves to making altars in the sand and clay near the couch 

 of the dying, because, as Antonio Besias explained, this act was all the 

 same as extreme unction. They portray the figures of various animals, 

 and then take a pinch of the dust or ashes from each one and rub upon 

 the person of the sick man as well as upon themselves. Similar altars 

 or tracings were made by the medicine-men of Guatemala when they 

 were casting the horoscope of a child and seeking to determine what 

 was to be its medicine in life. This matter of sand altars has been fully 

 treated by Matthews in the report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1S8, 5 

 84, and there are several representations to be found in my Snake Dane 

 of the Moquis. -Writing on sand&quot; is a mode of divination among the 



Kraskenuinikorl , History of Kamtchatka ;uid tin- Kurilski Islands, Grie.ve s translation. p. 219. 



Ibid., p. 220. 



Contributions to North American Ktlmolo^v, vol. 5. 



Smith, Araucanians, p. 2:13. 



Dr. Edwin (J. Meek, Toner Collection, Library of Congress. 



I.icut. IVttit in Jour. U. S. Mil. Serv. Instit., ISfiB, pp. 33-337 



Snivtli. Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. irr&amp;gt;. 



