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The Aborigines of Brazil. 



. 



Medical Treatment. 



The treatment of their sick is very simple and uniform. 

 That imperturbable equanimity, or rather that stolid indif- 

 ference, which has become a second nature to the Indian, is 

 displayed here also. A sort of fatalist delay makes him 

 often miss the favourable moment, and the fatal termi- 

 nation of the disease is much oftener caused by deficient and 

 tardy, than by energetic and precipitate treatment. The 

 Paje is never the master, he is at most the minister of na- 

 ture. While the medical faculty in Europe very often render 

 a complaint serious, the Indian doctor remains merely an 

 observer, often without any distinct diagnosis, and is an un- 

 decided spectator of the progress of disease. But when he 

 has once got a distinct idea of it, and of the treatment to 

 be directed against it, then he assumes as it were the position 

 of a priest of nature towards his patient. This is like the 

 position in which we find the physician in antiquity, when 

 he directed himself individually with his whole might against 

 the demoniacal power of the disease, and when his knowledge 

 of the nature of the opposing circumstances, and the direct- 

 ness of his dealing with them, inspired the respect and vene- 

 ration of the patient for his procedure, as being the inspira- 

 tion of a higher being. 



A consequence of this peculiar sacerdotal relation is this, 

 that the Paje's operations are directed almost exclusively to 

 the patient, that the members of the family draw back from 

 him, that every external influence is excluded as much as 

 possible, and all things are kept in an unusual degree of quiet. 

 If the hut has several compartments, as is especially common 

 along the Amazon and its tributaries, the patient is placed 

 in the most retired corner, and there secluded from light, 

 air, noise and company. In some districts, when the musqui- 

 toes prevail for many months, during which the Indians with- 

 draw into those dark closets with mud walls, (called Furnos 



