CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



205 



slightly broiled, on which is spi'inkled a little 

 salt. The patient's mouth is opened and the 

 tomato is pressed upward against the soft 

 palate while with the left hand the curer pushes 

 down on the crown of the patient's head. 

 After doing this for some minutes, the tomato 

 is removed from the finger, opened, and rubbed 

 on the crown of the patient's head, on the 

 wrists, and on the joints of the arms. Follow- 

 ing this, the patient's head is massaged with 

 gentle pressure, with special attention to the 

 face, the cheek bones, forehead, temples, and 

 occiput. This is called "raising the crown of 

 the head." The treatment is given to both 

 adults and children. 



Few data were secured on "wind" or "air." 

 People with the sickness are sometimes said to 

 have been "taken by the wind." In some cases 

 "air" attacks the stomach; some data on treat- 

 ment have been given above. 



The "evil eye" is a very dangerous matter 

 because it attacks mainly small children who 

 are often unable to resist the sickness. More- 

 over, the power of the evil eye may be possessed 

 by anyone without the knowledge of the pos- 

 sessor. Most commonly persons with the power 

 of the evil eye will afflict individuals of whom 

 they are especially fond. Children who are 

 very pretty or clean and with neatly combed 

 hair are particularly subject to the evil eye. 

 When two persons desii'e very much to see each 

 other and cannot do so, one is apt to afflict the 

 other with the evil eye ; for example, lovers who 

 wish very much to see each other. The evil eye 

 is always believed to be caused unconsciously 

 and without malice. 



Symptoms of the evil eye among children 

 are weakness, pale or yellowish complexion, and 

 a tendency to cry a great deal. Adults feel 

 disconsolate; are unable to sleep or, when they 

 do sleep, dream constantly of the person caus- 

 ing the disease, dream someone is calling or 

 talking; or while awake, they think constantly 

 of the person causing the sickness, with feelings 

 of sorrow and pain. In either case, if a cure 

 is not effected, the person dies with vomiting 

 and fever. 



In order to cure infants of the evil eye, 

 mothers take their children to a street inter- 

 section. All passersby are asked to "clean" the 

 child with their clothing. As everyone knows 



what is involved, they accede without asking 

 questions. They take one of the gai'ments they 

 have on, such as the end of a rebozo or a 

 blanket, and pass it over the infant's body, 

 pretending to rub the child, although actually 

 they often do not touch it. According to 

 Rendon's information, as they "clean" the child 

 each person says "cita ka'ka" (meaning not 

 learned) , repeating the phrase three or more 

 times. The person cleaning the child then 

 raises its shirt and either spits on the child 

 over the heart, or pretends to do so. All 

 persons, regardless of age, are asked to "clean" 

 the child, for the evil eye may be caused by a 

 child as well as an adult. This statement 

 would seem to imply that the performance is 

 conducted with the hope that the person causing 

 the attack will be one of those to "clean" the 

 victim; this is borne out by other information 

 that if the person causing the evil eye is known, 

 anyone can effect a cure by "cleaning" the 

 victim with a piece of worn, soiled clothing 

 lent by the causer. 



Another method of curing the evil eye is to 

 "clean" the patient with certain grasses or 

 animals. The animals used are pigeons, black 

 cats, and dogs. The entire body of the patient 

 is rubbed with the animal, which is then 

 released. By using only the pigeon or both the 

 cat and dog, a child may be cured, but adults 

 require rubbing with all three. If the evil eye 

 is very strong, the pigeons may die, but the 

 other two animals apparently are uninjured. 



In order to prevent the evil eye, "deer eyes" 

 are tied to the wrist or about the neck, or a 

 little sack filled with salt, lime, and black chile 

 is hung about the neck. Adults wear a scapu- 

 lar with a stamp of some saint inside as a 

 preventive. 



McCorkle made several efforts to be "cured" 

 in order to secure additional data, but in only 

 one instance was he taken seriously. Even 

 this case is open to suspicion that the curer 

 decided there was a possible gold mine in the 

 situation and tried to exploit it to the limit. 

 The curer in this instance also has the reputa- 

 tion of being a witch and able to turn herself 

 into an owl at night. She refused to talk until 

 her husband arrived, and he actually did most 

 of the talking. They were very suspicious, 

 asking if there were not doctors in Uruapan or 



