Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/73

Rh of long continuance, requiring strong remedies, are cured by burning off the hair and blistering the skin of the head. Earaches are treated by pouring water on hot stones placed in a hole in the ground, and holding the ear over the steam. For pains in the joints, fresh skins of eels are wrapped round the place, flesh side inwards. The same cure is very common in Scotland for a sprained wrist. Sow thistles are eaten raw to soothe pain and induce sleep. The gum of the eucalyptus, or common white gum tree, is a cure for toothache. It is stuffed into the hollow of the tooth. Teeth are never extracted unless they are loose enough to be removed by the finger and thumb. For indigestion, the small roots of the narrow-leafed gum tree, or the bark of the acacia, are infused in hot water, and the liquor drunk as a tonic. When a child gorges itself with food, its mother gathers yellow leeches from underneath dry logs, and bruises them up along with the roasted liver of kangaroo, and sow thistles, and compels it to eat the mess, which is called kallup kallup. It acts as a strong emetic. Adults, when ill from overfeeding, are sometimes induced to take this dose, in ignorance of it composition; and it affects them strongly, but beneficially. Wood ashes are applied to wounds and cuts. Burns are covered with fat. Running sores which are difficult to heal, are rubbed with the fat of the powerful owl, which dries them up quickly. The fat of large grubs is used for anointing the skin of delicate children. Women unable to nourish their newly-born infants have their breasts bathed with lime-water, which is made by burning the shells of fresh-water mussels and dissolving them in water. Every married woman carries several shells in her basket, which are commonly used as spoons.

If diseases will not yield to these ordinary remedies, the doctor invokes the aid of spirits. Visiting his patient in the evening, and finding that the case is beyond the reach of the ordinary remedies, the doctor goes up to the clouds after dark, and brings down the celebrated spirit, 'Wirtin Wirtin Jaawan,' who is said to be the mate of the 'good spirit, pringheeal.' When he is expected to arrive, the women and children are sent away from the camp, and the men sit in a circle of fifty yards in diameter, with a banksia tree in the centre. The doctor and spirit alight on the top of the tree, and jump to the ground ' with a thud like a kangaroo.' The spirit gives his name; and, after the doctor has felt all over the body of his patient, they both go up to the clouds again. It is supposed that the patient must get well. Occasionally the doctor brings down with him the spirit of the sick man, in the form of a doll wrapped in an opossum rug. This doll produces a moaning noise. The sick person is placed sitting in the middle of a