TRAVELS IN BRAZIL* 



138 



peated, alternately with those of several other 

 plants, for instance, the loco (Plumbago scandens, 

 L.), which draws blisters, the picao (Bidens 

 graveolens, nob. and leucantha, W.), the erva de S. 

 Anna (^Kuhnia arguta^ H.), and the Spilanthes 

 brasiliensis. If the use of the Raiz preta produces 

 considerable evacuations, hopes are entertained of 

 the cure, and violent perspiration is considered as 

 a particularly favourable sign. The same remedies 

 are then administered without intermission for seve- 

 ral days together, till the patient, though very weak, 

 gradually recovers his former features, which, at the 

 beginning, are almost always disfigured like those of 

 a corpse. For some days after the bite, the curador 

 does not quit the bed of the patient for a moment. 

 When he is seized with a shuddering or weakness, 

 he rubs him with spirits, or endeavours to recover 

 him by breathing on him, or by fumigation with aro- 

 matic herbs. The curadores affirm that the cure 

 cannot be pronounced complete in less than sixty 

 days after the bite ; for that till that time the pa- 

 tient is still in danger of dying, if not suddenly in 

 the abovementioned fearful attacks, yet of a slow 

 nervous fever. They forbid him during this time 

 to be near a woman who has just recovered from 

 sickness, to remain out of bed longer than while 

 the sun is up, or to take any animal food but such 

 as is very delicate. The proceedings of the curador 

 are always accompanied with a certain degree of 

 quackery, and several circumstances prove that th@ 



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