MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUNITi'— GILLIX 



135 



Treatment may take place on any day of the week. 

 A paste is made from ccbo de macho, agua dc caranga, 

 resin, arnica, menthol, and paico. The patient takes 

 a bottle in his mouth and alternately sucks and blows 

 hard according to the directions of the curer. This 

 is supposed to help bring the bone back into place. 

 In the meantime the curer manipulates the swelling 

 with her hands, attempting to reduce it. When she 

 has reduced it ("the bone back into place"), the 

 aforementioned paste is spread over the affected part 

 with a cloth that has been smoked in San Merio 

 and a tight cloth bandage is wrapped around the 

 chest and tied in front over the site of the swelling. 

 Other sprains and dislocations (troncliadures) are 

 treated with the same medicaments. The sprain or 

 dislocation is first reduced by massage and manipula- 

 tion, after w-hich it is bandaged. The curing woman 

 does not believe in reducing such swellings by pulling 

 the joints by force as is done by some curanderos. 



EVIL EYE OR OJEO 



Ojeo, or sickness caused by the evil eye. is prac- 

 tically always a children's ailment. It is caused by 

 a glance given the child by an adult who possesses 

 the power to "ojcar" children. Some persons have 

 this unfortunate power and others do not ; those who 

 do, have it functioning at certain times and not at 

 others. The power is entirely involuntary and the 

 persons possessing it are not held accountable. One 

 of the respected men of the community has this 

 power and he cannot help himself. He is well liked 

 in other respects, and both he and parents take care 

 to keep children out of his way. Some say that this 

 fluctuating power is due to a "bad humor" (mal 

 humor) in the body which arises only on certain 

 days. Others say that it is due to "electricity." At 

 any rate if a person thus endowed looks directly into 

 the face of a child, the latter falls ill with ojeo. If 

 the adult and the child laugh together when the 

 event takes place, the result is said to be much worse. 



The distinctive physical symptom is that the back 

 of the neck and head pulsate (brincan) ; this is not 

 a symptom in susto. Also, the child may be hot and 

 feverish and restless. There may also be nausea and 

 vomiting. The diagnosis is made by the ciirandera's 

 placing thumb and forefinger on the back of the head 

 and neck to feel the pulsating. 



Medicaments which may be used are brown cotton 

 {algodon pardo), willow leaves, a pinch of salt, half 

 of a cigarette, yellow pepper {aji amarillo), cerraja, 

 fruit of lime, a pinch of white sugar, and water. 



The treatment, which may take place only on 

 Tuesdays or Fridays, is as follows. (1.) First the 

 seeds are taken out of the cotton, if not already re- 

 moved, so that they will not scratch the body. A 

 good handful of cotton bolls may be bought from the 

 owner of a cotton bush for 10 centavos. The seeded 

 cotton is made into a pad which is held in the hand, 

 and inside the pad is placed a yellow pepper. (2) 

 The curandera takes the child on her lap and says, 

 "En Nombre de Dies, de Jesucristo, y del Espiritu 

 Santo. Amen." Then she begins to massage the 

 back of the head and the nape of the neck with the 

 cotton held in her hand. Then she proceeds to a 

 careful massage of the abdomen, mostly in a circular 

 motion, then the small of the back, then the arms. 

 The child's clothing is not removed, but the massage 

 is given underneath it. The cotton is now stringy 

 and is thrown out. It must be thrown out toward 

 the north. (3) With the heel of the hand the curan- 

 dera next massages the forehead, the back of the 

 head, nape of the neck, and the whole face. (4) If 

 the child is feverish, a small can of menthol is heated 

 on a dish of hot coals and the contents poured into 

 the bare hand of the curandera who then uses it to 

 massage the crown of the head, the back of the neck, 

 and the whole body. After this, if there are no other 

 symptoms, the child is wrapped in a blanket and put 

 to sleep. It sleeps, sweats, and loses its fever and 

 fretfulness. (5) If the child is nauseated or is 

 vomiting, a special massage of the abdomen is given. 

 A handful of willow leaves, a pinch of salt, and half 

 of a cigarette are all made into a sort of wad which 

 can be held in the hand. It is first heated in a dish 

 of live coals, then used to massage the abdomen in a 

 circular motion. (6) For nausea a small lime is cut 

 at one end with a knife ; the incision has the form 

 of a cross. The lime is not squeezed. It and a 

 handful of cerraja leaves, well chopped up with a 

 knife, are boiled together in one-half cup of water. 

 When this mi.xture cools, a pinch of white sugar is 

 added and the liquid is given to the child internally. 



Some curers precede the massage with brown 

 cotton by an egg treatment. An egg is broken into 

 an earthen pot full of water and is beaten alternately 

 with the right hand and the left (bare) foot of the 

 patient, until it coagulates. Then it is thrown out to 

 the north. What the purpose of this procedure is, 

 I am unable to say, unless in terms of homeopathic 

 magic the egg is taken to represent the eye which has 

 caused the ojeo. Informants are unable to provide 

 a verbal explanation. 



