MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUNITi^— GILLIN 



129 



through the bushes on the field border, sprang on the hawk, 

 and struck it with the stick, breaking the left wing. Immedi- 

 ately the bird yelled out, "Don't hurt me, compadre, I am A. 

 (one of the known brujos). I am doing nothing to your 

 chacra." The two men drew back and the bird scurried into 

 the bushes and disappeared as if by magic. It did not fly 

 away and C. claims that he and his tenant could not find it 

 (although he admits that they were somewhat afraid and 

 not very enthusiastic in the search). At all events, some 

 neighbors found old A. a few hours later in the night at a 

 spot between the site of this event and .^.'s house. His left 

 arm was broken, as if by a sharp blow, and it was bleeding. 

 He was taken to his house, speechless, and a short time later 

 died of his wound. 



When I ask why brujos, if they have the power 

 to transform themselves into animal shapes, cannot 

 ward off attacks of this sort, or at least cure them- 

 selves afterward, my informants say that once a 

 brujo has been surprised and wounded in this way, 

 he is lost. If they see a man about to attack them, 

 they can frequently transform themselves quickly 

 enough to save themselves, but when taken by sur- 

 prise and real damage is inflicted upon them, there 

 is no hope. Many other anecdotes tell of supposedly 

 personal experiences in which individuals have been 

 about to beat some stray animal and drive it away, 

 when, before they can begin, it disappears and a 

 •known human being appears in its place. In some 

 cases this has been the first intimation that the ob- 

 server has had that the individual in question is a 

 brujo. In order to start a whispering campaign 

 against an individual, all that is necessary is to tell 

 a story of this sort. "Last night I was about to 

 kick a duck out of my garden when it suddenly 

 turned into Fulano. I had no idea that Fulano was 

 a brujo." The persons to whom such a story is told 

 will say, "Oh, so that's it, is it? I thought Fulano 

 was behaving queerly lately. He must have studied 

 to be a brujo." And thereafter everyone will keep 

 a sharp eye out for Fulano and suspect his move- 

 ments. 



Horgamo is an herb which is ground to a powder 

 and thrown on the doorsteps of a house by evil 

 witches. It is supposed to make everyone therein 

 fall sick. The evil witches likewise are said to 

 possess a full armory of herbs and stones, com- 

 parable to those employed by good witches, except 

 that their effects are deleterious to the health and 

 peace of mind of victims. These are given to clients 

 with instructions for slipping them into the food and 

 drink of intended victims. Toads seem to be a 

 favorite spell-casting animal used by the evil brujos 

 or used with their advice. 



When an evil witch wishes to ascertain who is 

 working countervailing magic against his spells, it 

 is said that he sets up a "mesa negra" — black table. 

 This resembles the mesa of the curing brujo except 

 that everything which is white in the latter is black 

 in the evil mesa. Thus black bottles are used instead 

 of white, a black cloth instead of a white one, 

 powdered charcoal instead of white maize, etc. 



Finally, an evil witch may work harm against 

 his victim by blowing a "bad air" {mal aire) at him. 

 I am by no means clear how this is supposed to be 

 done. In the seances of the good brujos the patient 

 is sometimes asked if sometime before falling sick 

 he did not feel a draft or aire, followed by a chill. 

 With all due respect, this seems to be a sure-fire 

 question for the diviner, because it is seldom that 

 the patient cannot recall such an occurrence. Of 

 course, the diviner still has to give an answer to the 

 question, "Who did it and why?" 



Any cold draft or sudden chill is suspected of being 

 a lual aire, and in the list of remedies (pp. 139-142) 

 will be found a number of items used by laymen to 

 ward off the evil effects. 



CURANDISMO 



A CURANDERA 



Most of my infonnation on the practice of 

 ciirandismo in Moche comes from an old lady 

 about 68 years old. acknowledged to be the out- 

 standing curing woman of the community. She is 

 now married to her second husband, who cultivates 

 with her help a small chaera, and they live in a small 

 adobe house, not very well kept up, on the outskirts 

 of the pueblo. The house has the arbor or ramada 

 in front rather than behind and here she receives 

 her patients. Directly behind this is a semiopen 

 room containing the kitchen and the usual large 

 wooden table. There the brews which she uses in 

 her cures are prepared. 



When I first visited her, she was sitting on a petate 

 on the ground under the front arbor with two eholo 

 women who had journeyed to her from outside the 

 community. She was engaged in the cure of sitsto 

 in their respective babies, and the ladies were loud 

 in praise of her knowledge and techniqtie. None- 

 theless, her appearance was somewhat forbidding, 

 and, during the following months of our acquaintance- 

 ship, I learned to know that this first impression was 

 typical. She was wearing a dark-gray cotton skirt, 

 somewhat patched, very ragged, a once-white blouse, 



