BOTH] THE MEDICINE-MAN 347 



are blamed for everything (KG, i, 270). There is a certain skin disease, 

 believed to be a vitiligo, wliich the Piapocos of the lower Guaviar 

 (Orinoco River) call sero: it is always contracted by drinking the 

 yocuto (couac mixed with water) of an enemy affected with this 

 trouble, who has mLxcd in the brew a few drops of his blood (Cr, 527). 

 Death and other evils may be due also to some human enemy more 

 or less disguised, modified, or mfluenced by a peculiarly terrible Spirit 

 known as Kanaima, against whose machinations the power of the 

 piai avails nothing. To this belief in Kanaima I propose devoting a 

 separate chapter (Sect. 320). 



308. In the Pomeroon District, the present-day Arawak procedure 

 of the piai, for the treatment of disease, is as follows: Suppose the 

 patient visits the "doctor," the latter will sling the sufferer's ham- 

 mock in the special out-house already mentioned. In those cases 

 in which the person is too ill to bear removal, the doctor will visit 

 him, and there erect a closely plaited conical-shaped cage of maiii- 

 cole leaves, with a low door only just large enough to crawl in and 

 out by. Nothing further can be done now until the sun sets, but 

 as soon after sundown as convenient the medicine-man will start 

 a new fire, by twirling one stick upon another. The fire once kindled, 

 he rolls tobacco to make the usual Indian cigarette, and proceeds to 

 examine the patient. He then asks what the pain is hke, and where 

 it is — as, in stomach, head, chest, — and talks to his kickshaws, especi- 

 ally the manikin, or doll, to learn whether the patient is going to 

 be cured. The method of emplo\Tnent of this doU has already 

 been given (Sect. 290). Seated on his sp(^cial chair, the doctor next 

 lights and smokes his cigarette, and finally rubs his hands with 

 haiawa wax. This done, he proceeds to massage the painful spot, 

 and smokes on it tlirough his hantls placed funnel-wise. This part 

 of the treatment may be viewed by the public, there being nothmg 

 secret or mysterious about it, and may of itself effect a cure, in which 

 case, as the Creoles would say, "Story done." With the next pro- 

 cedure, however, pro\aded the illness prove stubborn, the females are 

 all sent away from the place, men have to keep at a respectful distance, 

 quiet must reign, and all lights have to be extinguished. The alleged 

 reason for putting out the fires is that the various Spirits whom he is 

 now about to invoke may not be afraid to come. (If the treatment 

 is being carried out at the patient's residence, the medicine-man will 

 crawl into the cage when the invocation takes place.) In the mean- 

 time, the medicine-man cleans and pohshes Ins maraka, which he 

 pieces together, and ties the feathers carefully on, smoking on it aU 

 the while: he sings and shakes his rattle. Leaving his bench, he 

 touches the painful spot or spots with the maraka, circling it in the 

 air, smoking and singing all the while, altering his voice from bass to 

 alto and vice-versa according to the voice of the Spirit which is pre- 



