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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 3 



various objects on the mesa in question are identified. 

 This, so far as I am aware, is the first time tliat a 

 brujo or his apparatus has been photographed at 

 work and is the first published account of the details 

 of the apparatus. As previously mentioned, each 

 brujo has specialties and peculiarities of his own 

 and, according to accounts, no two mesas are exactly 

 alike. The mesa in question is supposed to be 

 for white witchcraft, i. e., for the helping and cur- 

 ing of persons who have been attacked by witchcraft. 

 The mesa itself consists of a rectangle of white 

 muslin, actually a sugar sack, laid out on the floor 

 or on tlie ground, as shown in the photographs. 

 Before anything else is put down, the puna!, a large 

 wooden-handled steel knife, is stuck in the ground 

 at the head of the mesa (opposite end from the 

 operator) with its edge facing outward. This is 

 supposed to "cut" the interference of rival brujos 

 and must be of pure steel. The other items may be 

 listed as follows, according to the identifying numbers 

 which appear in the sketch (fig. 8). 



1. Puilal, or knife. 



2. A half bottle of cane alcohol with which to prepare 

 cailaso. 



3. Bottle of caiiaso, made from one-half bottle of alcohol, 

 fresh water, and three tablespoonfuls of sugar. 



4. Frame containing pictures of La Virgen de los Dolores 

 de Viru, covered with glass. 



5. Framed, glass-covered picture of La Virgen de la Puerta 

 de Otuzco. Each brujo has his own favorite saints' pic- 

 tures. In them appear the visions at a certain point in 

 the seance. 



6. A raw piece of San Pedro cactus. 



7. Tin 5-gallon gasoline can for making infusion of San 

 Pedro cactus, with a cross made of carrico stuck into it. 

 One-half the contents of the can are given to the patient. 



8. Paper-wrapped package of an herb called flotation. 



9. A bottle of holy water (agitabendita). 



10. Paper package of white sugar. 



11. Paper package of solimdn, a white powder which is used 

 dry in massage of the skin. It is a counterirritant. It is 

 powdered onto the skin with cotton, then rubbed with 

 the hand. 



12. Yerbas fara el aire, wrapped in paper. Included in the 

 package are five types which are mixed together in an 

 infusion and given to the patient hot: (a) loro stems, 

 (6) viisha ncgra, a root, (c) picdra mineral negro, a 

 black root, {d) picdra mineral hlanca, a root, and {e) 

 condor bianco, a root. 



13. A cloth sack containing the following: (a) Mishpingo 

 fruit, about as big as a walnut, in a hairy shell; (6) 

 picdra imdn (iron pyrites), male and female; the male 

 pieces are covered with long exudations of rust which 

 look like hair and cling by magnetic attraction to the 

 female piece; (c) a cube of bone with an incised face; 

 design consists of three squares one within the other, 



and seven dots on the face of the inner square; (rf) I 

 metatarsal bones of a human " cristiano" ; (c) three rusty i 

 steel needles; (/) hayliilito negro, a stone; {g) aserin, 

 loose flaky and dusty rust, which is called the food of 

 the pyrites (aiimento del itnan). The contents of this 

 sack are used with the yerba para el aire to cure and 

 control "aire." The seven dots on the bone cube indicate 

 that the remedy should be taken every 7 days, on Tues- 

 day or Friday, at 11a. m. The piedra de imdn is placed 

 in a glass of cold water for an hour, then taken out and . 

 dried with a cloth before putting back in the sack ; then ' 

 the water in which it has been soaked is used for cooking 

 the herbs listed in No. 12. The bones and other articles 

 in the package are considered "food for the imdn." 



14. Piedra de ara ("communion stone"). This is scraped to 

 make a powder which is administered one-half teaspoon- 

 ful in one-half a glass of cold boiled water for heart 

 troubles. 



15. Piedra de lobo del mar. Comes from the body of the 

 sea lion. Powder is made from it fty scraping, which is 

 mixed with powder of No. 14, and the two administered 

 for heart troubles. 



16. Picdra de huaca del rayo. Ornament only. All items 

 called "de huaca" have been obtained in archeological 

 ruins. 



17. Piedra de huaca del Cerro Blanco. Ornament. 



18. Piedra de lobo del mar. More of the same as in No. 15. 



19. Corason. Ornament for the "heart of the mesa." It is 

 a heart-shaped piece of chalky stone with piedra de huaca 

 set into it. 



20. Caracal bianco de huaca. Ornamental shell. 



21. Blessed image of San Antonio de Padua, patron of the 

 mesa. San Antonio de Padua was a brujo before be- 

 coming a saint. This image was blessed in the church 

 in Moche. 



22. Piedra de ara oscura. 



23. Piedra de huaca. 



24. PiVfira rfc /iMaiTj; quartzite? 



25. Picdra de luuica; quartzite? These two stones (Nos. 24 

 and 25) are a part of the defenses of the operator. Dur- 

 ing the seance, when the opposition influence ('7a parte 

 de la contra") is nearby, these stones shoot off sparks 

 which warn the operator. He then takes the two stones 

 in his hands and rubs them together vigorously so that 

 more sparks fly_out, which forces the rival to go away. 



26. Round egg-shaped pebble de huaca, for decoration. 



27 and 28. "Los seguros." Two small glass bottles contain- 

 ing the most powerful drugs and plants (called pajas or 

 hojas) of the brujo. These are called "la fuerza de la 

 mesa." The contents of these bottles is as follows: (a) 

 Trensacia blanca, small sections of certain plants called 

 huaringas found in a large sacred lake inland from Salas 

 among the outliers of the Andes; {b) trencacia negra; 

 (c) vira-z'ira; (d) baton de oro, a plant; (c) trencacia 

 macho; (/) condor macho; (g) condor hembra; (h) 

 simora blanca; (i) simora negra; (/) liungtiay ; (k) 

 misha blanca; (/) misha ncgra; (m) piedra de ara, 

 small pieces. All of these remedies are surrounded in 

 the bottles by a liquid composed of the following sub- 

 stances: (a) agua calanga legitima extranjera; (b) 

 cssencia de jasmin e.rtranjera (foreign-made essence of 



