NATIVE DOCTORS 



sort of thing ; they profess no witchcraft or sorcery 

 I or magic ; all that sort of thing has passed away as 

 the other relics of heathenism pass, and whether it be 

 in sickness or in health, the Eskimos are a Christian 

 i people. 



The idea that parts of the body are broken, as an 

 i explanation of various pains, led to some curious 

 j experiences. 



The Eskimos did not understand that one disease 

 | could produce aches and pains in different parts 

 i of the body ; and it was quite a common ex- 

 jperience for persons suffering from influenza that 

 bane of Labrador to come and say, " My head is 

 broken, and my back, and my bones, and my lungs ; 

 I am always coughing, and my throat, how it hurts," 

 and then to ask for head-medicine and back-medicine 

 and bone-medicine and cough-medicine and throat- 

 medicine, ticking the items off on their fingers in 

 business-like style. 



Usually they asked for " siumik " (medicine), their 



! favourite way of putting it ; but when they had a 



string of medicines to recite it was generally " illinga- 



i jomik " that they wanted that which belongs to this, 



' that, or the other pain. It was necessary to explain 



ithat the bottle contained something good for (or 



i belonging to) all these pains ; and then the person 



1 would look at the bottle, and eye me, and nod, and 



say " Ha," and walk off with a puzzled sort of air, as 



if he wondered how the different medicines in the 



bottle would know where to go after they were 



swallowed ! 



It was quite in keeping with their childlike ideas, 



and their lack of appreciation of the marvellous com- 



i plexity of the human body, that they should, some 



291 



