HEDLicKA] PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 229 



The treatment administered usually by the medicine-man among 

 the Tepecano was described to the writer by one of the tribe sub- 

 stantially as follows: 



When the medicine-man comes the patient lies down; the healer prays and exhorts 

 the winds and spirits; he lights a cigarette, draws in the smoke, and apj)lics his month 

 over the painfid spot, which he bites a little or sucks, then pui^s the smoke away 

 from the patient and spits into his own hands. With the saliva comes usually some 

 small object — a cactus spine, a bit of stone, or the like — ^whicli the medicine-man 

 either breaks up in his palm or throws into the fire. He then throws away the saliva. 

 Occasionally he gives also some remedy internally, but his prayers, his touches (espe- 

 cially with the fingers moistened with saliva), and the exercise of his magic power 

 are the essentials. 



Fetishes are much used. 



Among the Huichol a medicine-man was observed to treat a case 

 of headache by muttering prayers and making passes over the head 

 and face with his fingers moistened with saliva. 



In a number of instances, even among the most primitive tribes, 

 Indian medicine-men applied for treatment or for medicine to the 

 writer, in common with other patients. 



Prevention 



Preventive means applied to disease, independent of fetishes, are 

 not commonly employed among the Pima. 



In delivery, illness, or wounds there are neither proper precautions 

 nor antisepsis. However, in labor and in wounds some of the steam- 

 ings, lotions, powders, or gums serve, more or less, as cleansing agents 

 or antiseptics. Absolute ignorance, with its sad results, exists every- 

 where concerning the transmissibility and modes of aggravation of 

 diseases like ophthalmia or tuberculosis, and other contagious diseases 

 are hardly better understood. If an epidemic develops, isolation is not 

 thought of, but an attempt is made to find a sorcerer who caused it or 

 to propitiate the angry deities. If the disease continues, general help- 

 lessness and demoralization set in. Resort may be had to banishing 

 or killing a supposed witch or to magic procedures. Once, when 

 smallpox appeared among them, the Hopi tried to catch and bury the 

 disease. As a last resort, and from sheer fright, the people among 

 whom an epidemic rages flee from their houses, abandoning every- 

 thing, even some of the dead or dying. There were in 1898, after a 

 visitation of smallpox, several abandoned Navaho corpses in deserted 

 hogans about the Chaco canyon. 



When a disease or epidemic recurs with some frequenc}^, as is the 

 case, for example, with smallpox among the Tarahumare, the natives 

 come to regard the affliction as almost a necessity. With this tribe a 

 young man who has had smallpox marries more easily than one who 

 has not, being regarded as more likely to live and hence as better able 

 to take care of his family. Among the Opata, mothers deliberately 



