NATIVE "CURES”

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 March 1934, Page 10

NATIVE "CURES”

MEDICINE AND MAGIC. I SYDNEY, March 6. Some idea of the primitive character of the people among whom the missionaries are working in East Arnhem Land can be had by a study of the extraordinary medical practices in that remote part of Australia. The Rev. T. Theodor Webb (chairman of the North Australia district of the Methodist Missionary Society L who has lived among these aborigines for many years, has just revealed some of the measures adopted to heal wounds and banish internal complaints. The disclosures are contained in a paper that was prepared for the National Research Council, and it is pointed out that the operation of magic both in causing and relieving sickness, is still largely believed in. In some cases the treatment consists of a combination of magic and the administration of medicine which mainly has its origin in plants and trees. A frequent complaint is muscular rheumatism. For this the aid. of the magician is sought. The patient is made to lie face downward on the sand. After feeling carefully over the back the magician breaks from a tree a small leafy branch, and then dances round and round. Presently he dashes away tor a considerable distance, as though in pursuit of someI thing, swishing his branch. This is done to drive away the evil spirit. I Returning to the patient the magician j selects one spot on the man’s back, i which he presses and kneads thor- ! oughly. After this he massages the ■surrounding area, working towards I the spot selected. After a while he applies his mouth to the spot and ; sucks vigorously. He next blows • water on the affected part, and then convincingly ejects from the mouth of the patient some foreign substance ■which, he claims, has been injected into the mouth of the patient by some i gross spirit of a dead person. The [ matter taken from the patient’s mouth might be a small stone, a piece of bone, or a piece of charcoal. Mhati ever it may be it is shown to the i patient and he rises, cured, and willing to pay his fee. For a severe attack of indigestion . a rough platform of sticks is constructed, cn which is laid a thick , covering of leafy branches of ironwood tree. On these leaves is placed a covering of wet grass. The sand ; beneath the platform is scooped out ’ and a fire made. When the fire is , burning the patient is placed, face downward, on the platform, a cover- . ing of boughs is placed over him. and ’ then he’ is left for hours to steam. . He is then turned over on his back, J and thus spends several more hours. ' At the end' of the day he is bathed i with cold water and will most certainly feel relieved, but if not the process ; may be repeated the following day. ; For a snake bite the man is made ' to sit down beside a fire while an- ’ other man blows smoke through a 1 hollow branch on to him. As the smoke emerges at the end of the tube a. third man carefully watches, and if, in the smoke, he sees the non-material form of a snake, it is known that the sorcerer has brought about the misfortune and that the man will die. If no form is observed (he man will re- • cover. Frequently the ceremony is performed after the man has died, and so serves to corroborate a con-) yiction which has already been I

reached. For sores, boils, or swollen glands, a pifece of charcoal is wrapped in thin sheets of paper bark and placed on the sore. The packet is then bitten by the man himself or by a companion. The sore, hearing the crunching of the charcoal, learns t.iat somewhere a fight is going on, and so takes its departure. Various forms of bleeding, some extremely painful, are resorted to for a severe headache. An interesting method is used in the treatment of sores on the palms of the hands or on the soles of the feet. The suffeiei goes out on a reef when the tide is low and finds a sea anemone which is lying open. He then presses the affected part into the open centre of the creature, whose tentacles immediately contract and cause a certain amount of suction. The affected part is held there for a considerable time. Gid women are chiefly engaged in the preparation and administration of the medicines that are used. The magician deals only with these cases where the condition of the patient is believed io he directly due to the operation of evil magic.