MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUNITY— GILLIN 



125 



jasmine, a cheap perfume) ; (c) agiia dc florida e.rtran- 

 jcra (a proprietan' product made in the United States). 

 The Hquid in these bottles is believed to have very strong 

 curative powers. If the patient is seriously ill, he is 

 given some of this liquid by drops in boiled, but tepid, 

 water. After the patient has been "raised" (alcado), one 

 of these bottles with contents inside it is rubbed over 

 the head and body. This is called timpiar al enfermo 

 con la hotcUa. After this has been done, the bottle must 

 be "refreshed" by placing it ne.xt to some pulverized 

 white maize. Otherwise the contents will "burn" with 

 the heat from the patient, and lose its efficacy. 



30-32. Three pcrlas de nacra blanca. Large flat sea shells, 

 bivalves, smooth inside and outside. One for each 

 assistant and one for maestro for "dear" (imbibing 

 through the nose) as explained in text. 



3i-i?. The fcrlas de huaca. Flat sea shells with pink, ser- 

 rated edges, one smooth, and two with spiny backs 

 {Spondylus pictorum). These are sea shells, but were 

 found in the Moche ruins. Bad brujos use these for 

 imbibing through the nose {alzar), but only by left 

 nostril. A good brujo imbibes from them when under 

 attack by rival, a situation which is made evident by 

 "rumores," nearby sounds, like "ka-ka-ka," during the 

 seance. 



36-46. Twelve caracoles (spirally formed sea shells), for 

 ornament only. 



47. One bottle of agua de florida legilimo, manufactured by 

 Murray and Lanman, New York. 



48. An iron magnet (iimfn). These may be purchased in 

 Chiclayo. This particular one was given to the operator 

 by a colleague in Viru. 



49. A gourd rattle {chingana or macana) containing white 

 stones of quartzite ( ?) ; has wooden handle. 



50. Olor. Bottle of cheap jasmine perfume, manufactured 

 by Laboratorios Maldonado, Lima. 



51. A bottle of agua cananga legitimo. 



52. Ten centavos worth of white maize kernels. 



53. Ten centavos worth of white granulated sugar. 



54. A head of the drug plant, misha negra. I do not know 

 the chemical composition of this substance, but it is 

 chewed in small pieces by the maestro and apparently 

 has the property of producing visual hallucinations. 



The contents of the mesa thus constitute the 

 material equipment of the patterns of brujeria prac- 

 ticed by the master, his "stock in trade" from the 

 material point of view. These materials are seen to 

 be in total a strange mixture of the indigenous and 

 the European, of modern and medieval, of pagan and 

 Christian, of coastal, Sierra, jungle, and foreign pro- 

 venience. Yet each brujo feels that every item is 

 essential to his work. In this publication I have no 

 space to analyze in detail the origins of these various 

 elements. A few passing comments will suffice for 

 the present to indicate the diversity of cultural back- 

 grounds involved in this complex. The purifying 

 properties of white maize, for example, seem to be 

 an Inca trait, if not older. Guaman Poma, in discuss- 



ing provisions made by the Incas in times of epidemic, 

 says that a diet of nothing but white corn was decreed 

 (Lastres, 1941, p. 132). Many of the allegedly 

 powerful drug plants (often called "hojas" — leaves), 

 especially the huaringas, mishas, and San Pedro 

 cactus come from the region of Salas, the head- 

 quarters of the north coast cult of brujeria, and may 

 be in part derived from the pharmacopoeia of the 

 ancient coastal cultures. Other items, such as 

 mishpingo, come from the jungle regions. The in- 

 sistence on a trade-marked foreign-made perfumed 

 alcohol called agua de florida alongside these 

 items is a curious touch, as is also the presence of 

 human bones of a baptized Christian alongside the 

 pictures of saints and a bottle of holy water. The 

 importance of the iron magnet and magnetized iron 

 pyrites might be derived from the use of the magnet 

 in 19th-century mesmerism. On the whole, the in- 

 digenous elements seem in the majority to be derived 

 from coastal rather than Sierra indigenous cultures. 

 The treatment with guinea pigs {linipia con city) 

 is said to be entirely different from "mesa work." 



OTHER PROCEDURES OF "GOOD WITCHCRAFT" 



The type of seance in which a guinea pig {limpia 

 con cny) is used for diagnostic purposes is, accord- 

 ing to the brujo with whom I worked, entirely 

 separated from "mesa work." I have not personally 

 witnessed this type of session. It is a method of 

 diagnosis used when the patient is apparently suffer- 

 ing from some serious, but undetermined, internal 

 ailment and, in this man's technique at least, is not 

 in itself concerned with discovering the human being 

 who has perpetrated the black magical cause of the 

 illness. He says that this is the view of all properly 

 trained brujos. Some use the guinea pig diagnosis 

 preceding the mesa in a single session. My in- 

 formant uses it, he says, as one of a series of sessions. 

 The session begins with an invocation and by the 

 brujo making the sign of a cross with his forefinger 

 on the head, chest, and stomach of the patient. He 

 then takes a live guinea pig, preferably red, in his 

 hand and starts to rub the entire body of the patient 

 with it carefully. If the patient is in an extremely 

 grave condition, the animal dies immediately. If 

 not, after the entire body of the patient has been 

 massaged, the animal is opened by ventral incision 

 while still alive to see if the circulation is normal. 

 If any part of the viscera is congested, the analogous 

 organ of the patient is the seat of his trouble. If 

 this type of examination is not convincing, after the 



