■ ( *73 ) 

 They feldom look upon a difeafe as purely na- 

 tural, and amongft the ordinary remedies which 

 they ufe, there are fome who have the virtue of 

 curing fimply by themfelves. The great ufe which 

 they make of their fimples, is for the cure of 

 wounds, fractures, diflocations, luxations and rup- 

 rures. They blame the great incifions which our 

 furgeons make, in order to clean wounds, they 

 exprefs the juice of feveral plants, and with this 

 compofition, they draw from them all the matter 

 and even fplinters, ftones, iron, and in general all 

 extraneous bodies remaining in the wound. Thefe 

 very juices are alfo the fole nourifhment of the 

 patient till the wound is clofed : he who probes 

 it, likewife takes a draught of it before he fucks 

 the wound, when this operation is neceffary : but 

 this rarely happens, and they moft commonly con- 

 tent themfelves with fyringing the wound with this 

 liquor. 



All this is in the rules of the art, but as thefe 

 people muft always have fomething fupernatural in 

 every thing, the juggler often tears the wound 

 with his teeth, and afterwards a bit of wood or fuch 

 like matter, which he took care to conceal in his 

 mouth, makes the fick perfon believe he extracted 

 it from the wound, and that this was the charm 

 which made his difeafe fo dangerous. This much 

 is certain, that they are in pofTeffion of fecrets and 

 remedies which are admirable. A broken bone is 

 immediately fet, and is perfectly folid in eight days 

 time. A French foldier who was in garrifon in a 

 fort in Acadia, was feized with the Epilepfy, and 

 and the fits were become a! moft daily and extreme- 

 ly violent : an Indian woman that happened to be 

 prefent at one of his fits, made him two bolufes 

 of a pulverifcd root, the name of which me did 



not 



