THE INDIANS OF GUIANA. 67 
raw meat) to diseases of the chest, and small pox, which 
are very dangerous. 
The Yaws, a bad sort of disease, is common with 
them, and so contagious, that if a fly has pitched upon 
such a person and places itself afterwards on an open or 
wounded part of another, the infe€tion is carried with 
it, which many Europeans have experienced. 
This disease properly consists of large ulcers, sume- 
thing of the size of a guilder; when the ulcer is ripe, 
which can be seen from its yellow appearance, the 
sufferer is brought to the river, where he is washed, 
after which he is rubbed with lime -juice, which has for 
that purpose been previously boiled, mixed with some 
fine ground charcoal, this generally proves a cure. 
They are likewise much subjeét to dysentery caused 
by eating raw or unripe fruit. There is also an epidemi- 
cal disorder, a sort of scurvy, accompanied with much 
headache, giddiness, and such like. Amongst the 
diseases or disorders the Mebiky, or Sieken, may be 
reckoned a sort of Worms, which we will hereafter 
describe. They treat their sick with great inattention 
and most uncharitably, without considering whether 
they are their parents or other near relations who are 
ill; it is sufficient for them to place the meals of the 
sick under their hammock, without uttering a word, far 
less to see if they partake of them. The sick however 
never complain, or make any noise, let them feel ever so 
much pain ; most of them die with an astonishing serenity, 
They possess a few medicines and herbs of which they 
Know the strength, and often use with much success, but 
in grave diseases they send for one of their Pageyers, 
being at once their priest and physician, to-exercise the 
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