The Aborigines of Brazil, 319 



Articles from the Animal kingdom. 



The Materia Medica of the Indians is remarkable for the 

 number of substances belonging to the animal kingdom which 

 it includes. All the excretions of the system are to him either 

 impure and injurious, or pure, and under certain circumstances 

 beneficial. He carefully buries human excrement the moment 

 it is passed. He attributes unclean properties to the mucus 

 of the nose, to the blood, and to the wax of the ear, and em- 

 ploys them in preparing magical charms. The spittle and the 

 urine are also remedies in use. The secretion of Tyson's 

 glands is used as a cure for the bites of serpents and of large 

 ants. He has a great idea of the healing virtues of certain 

 bones, beaks, talons, and spurs, of particular birds, (such as 

 Parra, Palamedea). He wears the teeth of the ounce, the 

 claws of the great ant-eater, the hinge of the large river 

 oysters, &c, not only as ornaments, but as amulets on his 

 neck and his extremities. Thus, he considers wearing the 

 teeth of the crocodile a prophylactic against the bite of poison- 

 ous serpents, and their powdered teeth are drunk in water 

 as cures for snake bites. From the musky smelling fat, 

 which is found in two bags under the neck of the crocodile, 

 he prepares a powerful remedy against the bite of the rattle- 

 snake. He cuts portions of the horns of the Cervus Palu- 

 dosus into four cornered pieces of the length of an inch, heats 

 them till they are almost burnt, and then drops in the croco- 

 dile fat. The pieces of bone thus prepared are bound over 

 snake bites, from which they are supposed to extract all 

 the poison. Many people of European origin have faith in 

 this remedy, and wear it on their persons. The Indians 

 employ the Bezoar of the deer as a most excellent medicine 

 in complaints of the digestive organs, and the green fat of the 

 crocodile is used as a liniment in rheumatism, and as a salve 

 for wounds. The pounded flesh of the black toad (Spix Ranae) 

 split and roasted at the fire, is a protective against witchcraft, 



