246 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



A-taf (CuGurhita palmata) is a plant the root of which ground is used 

 by the Pima as an apphcation for all kinds of sores on horses. 



In cases of rattlesnake bite the Pima suck the wounds; the latest 

 remedy, however, is to kill the rattlesnake, tear it open, and apply 

 to the wound a certain "fat" which is found along the middle of the 

 snake. This application is repeated, and is said to be a certain cure. 

 It is efficacious even when the limb has already begun to swell. 

 Occasionally it is applied even without sucking the wound. 



Scarification is used by the Pima in localized inflammations. They 

 make several cuts in the sldn with a piece of glass, allow a little blood 

 to flow out, and then apply the heated leaves of a plant known as 

 sai-u-us. 



Cauterization as a counter irritant is used freciuently and in all 

 painful internal affections. For this purpose there is employed IcoTc- 

 su-vo-le-teJc ("the ball of it"), a small, cottony ball of parasitic origin, 

 occasionally found on the Lycium andersoni. Both the Pima and 

 the Maricopa use these balls for moxa. A ball about the size of a 

 pea, that has been well dried, is applied over a painful spot, and set 

 on fire, burning to the skin. Sometimes more than one ball is applied 

 at a time. The balls are used on any part of the body in many dis- 

 eases, and even in fractures. The local effects are an eschar or a 

 blister, followed by a pigmented spot. 



Of the i-JiuTc, or Martynia, the part used is the dry basal segment of 

 the pod. A bit of this is applied burning to the skin over the sore 

 spot. It burns like a piece of punk, sometimes producing a little 

 blister, but more often leaving only a small eschar or a dark spot. 

 The writer saw several such burns, not older than twenty-four hoiu-s, 

 over the stomach in a patient suffering from consumption. 



Massage is said to be used in some mstances. On the occasion of a 

 hysteric spell in a Pima mixed-breed schoolgiTl, the other girls were 

 seen to run to her, rub her all over, and knead her stomach. The 

 schoolgirls not seldom employ of their own initiative rubbing and 

 loieading with those who are sick, especially in localized pains. 



A kind of poultice is made by putting into a wet cloth warm ashes, 

 the poultice being applied over the painful part. Poultices made in 

 this way are applied sometimes for pains in the stomach. , 



The Pima deny using regular sweat baths. They do, however, 

 employ persphation. The most common method of inducing it is by 

 covering the patient with a lot of blankets. 



A case happened a short time ago in which a woman, recently 

 delivered, was ailing. The trouble was diagnosed to be due to reten- 

 tion of some of the blood that should have naturally come out after 

 the labor. The treatment was as follows: A spacious ditch was 

 dug in the ground and well heated with fii'e. The patient was then 

 laid in this ditch with the lower part of the trunk antl the lower 



