Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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Sometimes The Mouth Is Applied To The
Surface Where The Pain Is Seated, The Blood Is Sucked Out, And A
Bunch of
green leaves applied to the part; besides the blood, which is derived
from the gums of the sorcerer,
A bone is sometimes put out of the mouth,
and declared to have been procured from the diseased part; on other
occasions the disease is drawn out in an invisible form, and burnt in the
fire, or thrown into the water; at others the patient is stretched upon
the ground, whilst another person presses with his feet or hands upon the
diseased part, or cold water is sprinkled over, and green leaves used as
before. There are few complaints that the natives do not attempt to cure,
either by charms or by specific applications: of the latter a very
singular one is the appliance personally of the urine from a female - a
very general remedy, and considered a sovereign one for most disorders.
Bandages are often applied round the ankles, legs, arms, wrists, etc.
sufficiently tight to impede circulation; suction is applied to the bites
of snakes, and is also made use of by their doctors in drawing out blood
from the diseased part, a string being tied to the hair, if it be the
head that ails, or to any other part, and the opposite end is put into
the sorcerer's mouth, who then commences sucking and spitting out blood,
which he declares comes from the patient. Blood letting is practised
occasionally to relieve pains in the head, or oppression of the system.
The operation is performed by opening a vein in the arm, with a piece of
rock crystal in the same way as Europeans bleed.
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