84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



using tliem. I lonnu^l that they had been placed in a botanic garden made ex- 

 pressly for them by order of the company. * * * o 



It is to this investigation that we owe several notes regarding the 

 medicinal virtues or supposed medicinal virtues of certain plants 

 given by the same author in other places. 



I will not undertake to detail all the virtues of the balsam of the sweet gum 

 (copalm or liquidambar). not having learned all of them from the native doc- 

 tors of Louisiana, who would be as astonished to see that it serves us only for 

 making varnish as they were when they saw our surgeons bleed their patients. 

 I will tell thei'efore only those which have been revealed to me. 



This balsam is an excellent febrifuge. Before meals 10 or 12 drops are taken 

 in some broth on an empty stomach. Even if more should be put in one need 

 not fear that it will do any harm. It is too good a friend of nature. The 

 native doctors purge the sick i)erson before giving it. It cures wounds in two 

 days without any evil consequences. It is equally sovran for all kinds of 

 ulcers, after a poultice of pounded ground ivy has been applied for five days. It 

 cures diseases of the lungs; it removes obstructions; it relieves from colic and 

 from all internal ills; it gladdens the heart. In fact, it contains so many vir- 

 tues that I learn with pleasure that something new is discovered in it every 

 day.f- 



The native doctors employ this simple ("the barbed creeper") in fever 

 cases in this manner. They take a piece of the barbed creeper as long as 

 the finger. They split it into as many parts as possible and put it into about a 

 pint of water, Paris measure. They boil all until it is diminished by one-third. 

 This decoction is then poured out and strained, and the remedy is prepared. 

 Then they purge the sick person, and the next day, when the attack of fever 

 recommences, they give him a third iiart of the water from the creeper to drink. 

 It happens very often that he is cured the first time, but if the fever comes back 

 he is purged anew and the next day he is made to driidc another third of the 

 medicinal water, which rarely fails to have its effect at this second dose. It is 

 only for the greatest certainty that he is made to take the third part of the 

 decoction. This remedy is, in truth, bitter, but it strengthens the stomach, ;'. 

 precious advantage which it has over Peruvian bark, which is accused of 

 producing a contrary effect.'^ 



Another creeper is called by the native doctors "the medicine for poisoned 

 arrows." '' It is large and beautiful. Its leaves are quite long and the pods 

 which it bears are thin, about 1 inch wide, and 8 to 10 inches long.'' 



* * * Besides tlie sudorific virtue which the China root possesses like 

 sarsaparilla, it has that of making the hair grow, and the native women make 

 use of it for this purpose with success. With this oliject they take the root, 

 cut it into little pieces, boil it, and wash their hair in this water. I have seen 

 many whose hair reached beyond the buttocks and one among them whose hair 

 descended to the heels. '^ 



However many virtues we in France know the maiden liair {(■(iiiilhiirv) to 

 possess, the native doctors know still more.'' 



« Du Piatz, Hist, de La Loulsiane, i, 211-212. 



6 Ibid., II, 28-29. 



•^ Ibid., 5.5-50. 



' This is the only reference 1 have to the use of such arrows in Louisiana. 



« Du I'ratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, ii, 56. 



ribid., 57. 



fflbid.. 58. 



