254 CLEMENT>S. 



■scale oi' charges usually exacted by a native physician, 1 am uiiahle 

 to sav. There is some i'ea]- of "drug store" medicine, as contrasted with 

 roots, Ijarks, etc., which are obtained in the neighl)orliood, due to the 

 idea that the former are poisonous and the latter not. Nevertheless, in 

 about two months, more than a thousand persons voluntarily presented 

 themselves at our clinic, and there were numerous requests to see those who 

 were too sick to come. 



The houses afford no better accommodations, and no more comfort, for 

 the sick than for the well. The patient lies on a mat on the floor, 

 usually M-ith a cotton blanket over him. He is entirely dependent upon 

 the family and neighbors for attention, and gets plenty of it such as 

 it is, but much of it is misdirected. The prevalent idea that currents 

 of air are not good for the sick causes them to shut up the house as 

 tight as possible. Neither light nor air is admitted. The loom, and 

 indeed the entire liouse, is filled with sympathizing neighbors at all hours 

 of the day and night if the patient is .suffering from an acute and 

 dangerous disease. Sick diet consists of rice cooked very soft, or of the 

 broth strained from this. This is fed to the patient as long as he can 

 swallow, and, needless to say, often to his detriment. The "herb doctor" 

 acquires through experience a laiowledge of the symptoms of the com- 

 moner diseases of the locality, and of some of the properties of medicinal 

 plants of the neighborhood. The latter are known to furnish reliable 

 purgatives, counterirritants, and sedatives, and it is claimed that some 

 of the plants have abortifacient and antiperiodic properties. 



Obstetrics is practiced as a separate art by old women who are ignorant 

 of the first principles of cleanliness. Luckily, few abnormal labors 

 occur. A length of cloth is often passed around the body of the par- 

 turient and traction made on the ends with the idea of assisting in the 

 expulsion of the child. After birth, the coid is cut and tied, a pad of 

 rags, not always of the cleanest, is secured over the umbilicus by a band, 

 and the child is wrapped in a cloth. The mother does not get up for 

 a week, and leaves the house for the first time when the child is l)aptized; 

 that is. thirty to forty days after confinement. 



The mother practically always nurses her infant. The latter is usually 

 not weaned until it is 2 years old, and sometimes not until it is 3. It 

 is not uncommon to see two children of different ages nursing from the 

 same mother. On the other hand, the infant's diet is not breast milk 

 alone. IJice feeding is usually begun at three or four numtlis of age and 

 perhaps causes the enlargement of the abdomen which is so strikingly 

 noticeal)le in the children. 



Funerals usually take place either in the eaily forenoon or late after- 

 noon and within twenty-four hours of the death. Delay only occurs when 

 some member of the family is al)sent. and there is ho])e of hi:; being able 

 to l)e present in a few hours or a day more. All the details of the hui'ial 

 are attended to bv I'elatives or friends of the deceased. The body is 



