Olbeectts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 55 



Collection. — As a rule simples are never collected and kept ready for 

 emergency in a dried or prepared state. Only those needed in case of 

 childbirth are gathered during the summer, so as to be available in 

 wintertime (see p. 9 1 ) . It is just as rare to find medicine men endowed 

 with enough foresight to lay out a garden of medicinal plants as did the 

 European monks in the Middle Ages. (See p. 90.) 



The rules for collecting the plants are as follows: As soon as the 

 medicine man has made his diagnosis he tells the patient and the 

 latter's household that he will have to go and collect simples. He 

 usually does not tell him what kinds he will need, but if he is a greedy 

 and a " businesslike" individual, he may tell them how great a trouble 

 it will mean to him, how far he will have to walk through the pouring 

 rain or the scorching sun; to how many places he may have to go in 

 vain; how often he will probably have to retrace his steps and start 

 the search all over again, etc.; all this to induce the people to give him 

 a considerable fee. (See p. 95.) He invariably tells them what kind 

 of cloth (what color, and dimensions) he will need to gather the plants 

 in. This is given to him; if the people do not have the cloth available 

 they have to borrow it from neighbors or buy it from the trader. 

 Then the medicine man starts on his quest for the simples. 



He usually knows where to find the specimens he needs — in the 

 woods, along the mountain side, near the river, on marshy ground, etc. 

 He also knows that some plants have a tendency to grow near certain 

 trees, as oaks, in apple orchards, on moist, shady rocks, etc. 



To gather certain plants, such as ginseng, he must first recite a 

 prayer asking i;ne"'tlan5'!i (see p. 20) for permission to pluck them. 

 Or he is not allowed to pluck them without dropping a bead in the 

 earth where they stood. 



Sometimes (in times gone by this was probably a strict and general 

 rule) when his bundle is complete he takes it to the river and puts it in 

 the water; if it floats it is a sign that all the prescriptions have been duly 

 followed and that the eventual taboos have not been violated ; it is a 

 sign, moreover, that the bundle of medicine is all right, and that its 

 use will be followed by the results that are expected of it. 



He then wraps up the simples in the cloth (pi. 6, c) and returns to 

 the cabm of the patient, where he hands the bundle to one of the 

 household. The roots are unwrapped and the cloth is handed back to 

 the medicine man as his fee. The medicine is then steeped, boiled, or 

 prepared as the medicine man directs and in due course of time is 

 administered to the patient, either by a relative or by the medicine 

 man himself, again according to the prescription of the formula. 



Preparation. — There are three major modes of preparing the medi- 

 cine; it is either: (a) pounded and steeped in cold or warm water, 

 (6) boiled, or (c) boiled down. 



