704 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
919. Independently of the treatment of disease as practiced spe- 
cially by the medicine men, e. g., the incantation of certain spirits, 
and their exorcism, the blowing of tobacco smoke, and the extraction 
by suction of the offending cause of the complaint, as already de- 
scribed (WER, v1, secs. 305-316), there is a sort of routine treat- 
ment followed by the lay and medical fraternity in general. This 
usually consists of restrictions in diet, emetics and purgatives, ab- 
lutions and vapor baths, bleeding, counterirritants, and drugs, but 
as to how far and in what order one or all of these precedures are 
carried out will depend upon circumstances—generally upon how 
long the poor patient’s condition is able to survive them. The 
restrictions of diet may vary from the limitation of several foods to 
a cooked drink of cassava meal, often an absolute fast. But the 
curious part of the affair is that similar taboos may be, and are, 
simultaneously imposed upon the sick person’s kinsfolk. The ma- 
jority of the medicine men on the Orinoco demand that no one be- 
longing to the household should eat anything hot, anything cooked, 
or peppers (G, 1, 208). Similar restrictions are observed in cases of 
snake bite (sec. 929). 
920. Let the disorder be what it may, an emetic is first adminis- 
tered, followed by a purgative. Both of these are of such propor- 
tions that many die from sheer exhaustion (BE, 60, 231). The bark 
of the wallaba tree [EZ perua spp.], which is somewhat bitter, is a 
very good emetic, and the only one which the Indians ever use in 
this part of Guiana [Demerary]. They usually boil two or three 
drams in a quart of water, of which they drink a few spoonfuls, 
which immediately excites the stomach (BA, 85). Stedman reports 
the employment of tobacco juice for similar purposes (St, 1, 399). 
A small creeper, a species of Vandellia, is used as an emetic with 
great success (ScD, 97). The root of the Cephaelis ipecacuanha 
Rich. supplies the strongest ipecacuanha. Of the purges among the 
medicinal plants mentioned by Schomburgk as known to the Indians, 
as well as to the mulattoes and Negroes, are Adenoropium gossypi- 
folium Pohl., Boerhavia hirsuta Linn., Lisanthus alatus Aubl., Alla- 
manda -Aubletii Pohl. (SR, m, 335). 
921. The first mention of enemata is made by Barrére from French 
Guiana, though he believes this practice to have been learned from 
the Portuguese and English. There are nations toward the Ama- 
zon who use an injection with syringes (fig. 4) or a kind of ball 
made from the milky juice of a tree (sec. 23), which they boil and 
then pour into molds made of clay kneaded with sand (PBA, 
139-140, 205). Dance mentions these articles as apparently known 
to the British Guiana Indians (Da, 334-339), while even at the 
present time they are of very common use on the Pomeroon and 
