708 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS (2TH. ANN. 38 
hour together ‘sucking out the rheumatism’ . . . Formerly they had 
professional chupadores or suckers, but in my time (1852, ete.) there 
were none such besides the payés” (RS, m, 435). The Makusi pour 
in kokerit-seed oil in cases of earache. 
926. Certain biting ants are used for counterirritants. For the 
cure of fever the patient [Carib] picks up a yoku ant and causes it 
to bite him on the temple. For a headache the ant is placed so as to 
bite the crown of the head, and it is applied to any part of the body 
to relieve by its bite the particular part affected (Da, 348). Among 
the Warrau of the Waini, when rheumatism resists all other means 
of treatment, a certain large ant, Ponera clavata (Formia clavata 
Br.), is held between two little bits of stick and made to bite the 
painful spot a few times (SR, 1, 130). Muniri ants, fastened into the 
slit made in a short stick, may similarly be applied to places where 
pain is felt (BE, 232, 260). <A still more effective manner would 
seem to be that which I have known more than once to happen, where 
the patient afflicted with fever has deliberately lain down and rolled 
himself in an ant’s nest. it 
927. An excellent chapter has been written by Dance on “ Contri- 
bution to a Guiana Indian Pharmacopoeia” (Da, 334-339). In the 
Catalogue of Contributions transmitted from British Guiana to the 
London International Exhibition of 1862 mention is made of some 
140 medicinal barks, collected by W. C. McClintock, as in use by 
several tribes of Indians. The form in which these barks are used 
as remedial agents is chiefly that of a decoction, in many cases the 
inner bark in its recent state being selected as most efficacious (CC, 
19-24). Schomburgk, Brown, and others have also supplied us 
with much valuable information in this connection gathered during 
the course of their travels in the interior. 
The following notes bear on the native treatment by drugs of the 
more common diseases and accidents: 
Eye complaints —The Indians when their eyes are inflamed often 
tie the leaves of the moku-moku (Caladium arborescens) over the 
eyelids, and a plentiful secretion of the lachrymal glands usually 
ensues which generally resolves the inflammation (BA, 104). A de- 
coction of the roots of the wansimai is used on the Pomeroon. The 
purple red juice of the kuruwatti (Renealmia ewaltata) is employed 
for diseases of the eyes (DF, 74). One woman there [on the upper 
Quitaro] applied one of the most extraordinary remedies for oph- 
thalmia to her child of 5 years of age that I ever heard of, says B. 
Brown: She actually rubbed the juice of a large red pepper into 
both its eyes, which made the poor little creature scream and ery 
most bitterly (BB, 171). 
Fevers.—Schomburgk gives the following, made from decoctions 
of their respective barks: Diospyros paralea Steud., Scoparia dulcis 
