14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. // 



It is the belief of the Tule that almost every plant and tree has 

 a good use. A'egetable poisons were known and used long ago but 

 the chiefs have forbidden their use in recent years. A majority of 

 the medicinal trees and plants grow along the rivers on the main 

 land but some are found on the islands and a limited number of 

 vegetable growths with medicinal value are found in the ocean. 

 Leaves are never gathered green and then dried, but a doctor may 

 gather leaves that have dried on the tree and keep them for a special 

 use. He prepares his remedies in various ways and administers them 

 both externally and internally. For a " weak medicine '' he uses the 

 water in which a vegetal substance has been boiled, but for a ** strong 

 medicine " he squeezes a liquid out of the substance after it has 

 been boiled. Sometimes he pounds or mashes a root or bark and 

 uses the resultant liquid. 



Treatment by means of medicated baths is in favor among the 

 Tule and is used especially for delirious persons. Alfred said that 

 his father, like other doctors, has a small canoe on the land which 

 he fills with water and uses for such treatments. The water is cooled 

 by round, shining stones that he gathers " where a river starts." 

 Some of these stones are white, others green, and they are always 

 cool though the rocks around them may be hot. The healing bath 

 used by Alfred's father is particularly interesting in the manner of 

 its preparation. He takes two little strips about 9 inches long of 

 the bark of the cocoanut tree, ties them in the form of a cross, and 

 puts this in the water. The writer asked whether this form were 

 not learned from a missionary and Alfred replied very positively, 

 " Not missionary. Little man told him to do it that way." The 

 patient bathes in this water three to five times a day, " according to 

 how hot he is." The water is cooled by the stones and " cools him 

 ofif," and he goes to bed between the treatments, drinking a medicinal 

 potion. The place is kept as cjuiet as possible and the time required 

 for a cure was said to vary from a few days to a month. 



Infants are given strengthening as well as cooling baths. \\nTen 

 an infant is five or six months old it is fed, occasionally, a little sweet- 

 ened corn juice or water in which cocoa, beans have been boiled. A 

 little later it is given chicken broth and allowed to chew a stalk of 

 sugar-cane. Its first solid food is potato or fish. The infant mortality 

 is said to be low, and the general health of the people excellent. It 

 is interesting to note that they avoid the flies and mosquitoes by living 

 on the islands, and, as some of the islands are only a half mile from 

 the shore, they can easily reach their farms and plantations on the 

 main land, going there in the morning and returning at night. 



