1953} RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 193 



aggregation of plants in past and present use as medicinal cures has already 

 been commented on. The following discussion will analyze other primitive 

 techniques of curing under the heading of: mechanical methods, shamanistic 

 techniques, and protective and preventive methods. 



MECHANICAL METHODS OF CURING 



Cuppmg 



There are only a few recognized "specialists" practicing blood-letting 

 by the cupping method at the present time. The practitioners are usually 

 women (bepe'swe'jikwe, cutting or scratching woman), and there is no cult 

 or supernatural practices connected with it. The knowledge and technique is 

 taught to an apprentice for a fee, although one male informant claimed he 

 was taught how to do it by a mosquito and horse-fly, through a dream. The 

 patient pays the doctor a fee, usually tobacco and some common article, 

 but one person charges a fee of $5.00 per treatment. The most common 

 ailments treated in this manner are headaches and blood-poisoning, but such 

 things as dizziness, soreness, swelling, and rheumatism are also regarded 

 as curable by this technique. 



The equipment consists of a sharp instrument for making the incision, 

 and a section of horn to draw off the blood (Fig. 5). In several instances 

 the lancet was obtained by smashing a coldcream jar and selecting a sharp 

 fragment, but a knife or razor may be used, and one practitioner had a 

 triangular steel blade set into a wooden handle. The cupper is made from 

 a three- or four-inch section of the small end of a cow horn which is cleaned 

 out and the tip perforated. To cure a headache, for example, the doctor 

 makes a slanting incision in the temple of the patient so as to strike a vein, 

 puts the large end of the horn over the cut, and sucks on the small end to 

 draw off the blood which is caught in a dish. According to one informant 

 the blood is caught in a dish containing water and emptied outside in an 

 isolated spot "where no-one will step on it or disturb it." Blood-letting is 

 limited to the head and limbs, and for blood-poisoning the person is bled 

 until "all the dark blood is out and the blood runs red and clear." A pint 

 seems to be about the maximum removed at any one time. No sterilization 

 of the lancet is reported, but some doctors apply a native salve to the cut 

 after the bleeding has stopped, or a native astringent may be used to stop 

 the bleeding. When a metal lancet is used the point is placed over a vein 



