URDLicKA] PlIYSrOLOGTCAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 221 



and heat, are capable of affecting liiin adversely, and that men, 

 animals, plants, and other objects may harm him. Ailments thns 

 caused are observed to be accom|)anied by various symj)toms, as 

 pain, debility, loss of appetite, fever, etc. These occurrences, if no 

 complications arise, are viewed (piite rationally; Init similar symp- 

 toms arise at other times without their cause having been observed. 

 They may develop suddenly or during a night or they may approach 

 gradually, but their origin remains obscure. Under such circuin- 

 siances there is no rational explanation at hand, and the inquisitive 

 but uninstructed mind is readily led to suspect natural or super- 

 natural secret agencies as the volitional causes of the illness; and 

 often also the Indian comes to suspect as the actual agent of a disease 

 some material or magic object such as in his belief might cause the 

 princi])al sym])toms if introduced into the body in a natural way 

 and with his knowledge. 



Thus in regard to etiology, pathology, and necessarily also the treat- 

 ment of disease, the Indian reached the conclusion that there exist 

 two chief classes of ailments: (1) Those of an ordinary character, which 

 have their origin in extreme old age, in accidents, or in some other 

 palpable manner, and which can be interpreted and occasionally dealt 

 with in a more or less simple way; and (2) those of a mysterious 

 nature, incited by some adverse natural or supernatural power, sus- 

 tained often by magic or particularly by some material agent intro- 

 duced secretly into the body, and recjuiring special, largely thauma- 

 turgic, treatment. 



In brief, the fundamental and universal characteristics of Indian 

 medicine in the Southwest and northern Mexico are the notions that 

 all serious or protracted illness the cause of which is not clearly 

 appreciated by the senses is due to occult evil influences of men, ani- 

 mate or inanimate objects, spirits, or deities, and that the influence 

 is exercised by a magic or a secret introduction into the body, par- 

 ticularly during sleep or through touch while awake, of a noxious 

 object or objects, as poison, a w^orm, an insect, a hair, a thorn, a 

 live coal, which produce and keep up the morbid manifestations. 



Death from disease, especiallv of a young male adult, is regarded 

 as the work of supernatural agencies superior in power to the counter 

 agencies that were employed as a cure. 



Medicine-men 



The supernatural elements in the Indian's notions of disease led 

 him to offer invocations (or prayers) and incantations, to make offer- 

 ings, to establish and practise an intricate system of tabus, regula- 

 tions, propitiatory rites, and fetishism, and to seek persons capable, 

 through supernatural endowment, of emplojang or of determining 

 the proper safeguards and remedies or of controlling or counteract- 



