AMONG THE INDIANS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17802, 10 June 1932, Page 10

AMONG THE INDIANS

MISSIONARY WORK LIFE IN BOLIVIA Returning to thoir respective home countries after, an absence of live.aud ti half years ou Bolivia, whore they have been engaged in missionary work among the Indians and the half-castes, Mr. and Mrs. S. Edmonds arrived at Wellington by the Tainui from Southampton. Mr. Edmonds is an Australian aud 1% wife is a New Zealander, and they are on a year’s l'uv : luugh, Mr, and Mrs, Edmonds are attached to the Bolivian Indian Mission, the headquarters of which arc at San l’edro, in the province of Charcas.

I [n tin interview with a Dost representative, Mr. Edmonds .said that he and his wife were stationed..at a place called Torotoro, situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes, where they conducted the usual evangelical missionary work, education, and medieul work among the < 'kolas (halfcastes) and the Quichuk Indians. Although it was in the tropics, Torotoro enjiiyed a temperate climate because it was situated at an altitude of 8500 ft. The Indians had been in the process of civilisation since the time of the Spanish Conquest, but the mission’s work was to teach them the ideals of evangelism. If left alone the Indian,■> were quite peaceable. The only time they became fearsome was when they were drunk. This they managed bo do by drinking a native beer called chiclia, which was brewed from maize and wheat. On account of their low mentality they required a lot. of educating, and this made them very difficult people to work amongst. They were occupied principally in agricultural work, and exchanged their produce for medicine, treatment, etc. Sunday was the great market day in Torotoro. The people lived on the hillsides in thatch-roofed cabins made of adobes (sun-dried bricks). Their implements for agricultural purposes were very primitive, wooden ploughs drawn by oxen being used. FIGHTING A PASTIME. “Generally speaking, they arc Homan Catholics and Saints’ days ate well observed,” said Mr. Edmonds. “In some districts a Saint’s day is declared a public holiday. The Indians come into the town with, their bauds, dance up and down fee streets, and generally make merry. Especially is this so when they have been drinking native beer. Fighting on these occasions is quite a pastime. They conic prepared wifh helmets made out of cow hides, and in some districts they wear gloves made out of bits of rope, rags, and-in some cases wire. The latter inflict, nasty wounds. They challenge each other, a ring is formed, and they get to battle. A light never last more than twelve spars, buj, the contestants come out of the ring bleeding and lacerated. Borne of these lights have been known to cud - fatally.” WITCH DOCTOR “CUKES” The Indians were very, superstitious and feared imaginary spirits of the air, earth, and water. There were also witch doctors who claimed they could cure all kinds of diseases, real or imaginary, and in effecting their cures they appealed to the spirits. Giving an example of a witch doctor’s method of curing a person suffering from an ailment, Mr. Edmonds said that in a town called Aiquile one of the upper class men had an inflamed arm. A witch doctor was called in, and he asked to bo supplied with a sheet, four candles, flour and water, a jar of beer, and sonic,cigarettes. He made a paste of the flour and water, put it into a piece .of material, and wrapped it around the man’s arm. He stretched the man out on the floor and covered him with the sheet, on each corner of which he placed the lour lighted candles. The doctor sat down, chanted incantations, and then drank tho beer and smoked the cigarettes. The man remained on the floor for some hours, and on an examination being made It was, found that tho paste had set and the arm. had swollen terribly.. The man was suffering agony, and he arose from the floor and kicked tho doctor out of the house.