Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/445

Rh The curandera is another outside household appendage. She is the professional nurse, and as such is faithful, ready, and attentive. In this capacity her services are invaluable. She may also assume the rôle of practicing physician, and with numerous remedies and herbs of every kind, she becomes quite a power in the land. There is a world of witchcraft and superstition in the practice of the curanderas, and the common people stand in great awe of them.

In the rural districts their pharmacy consists of ground glass, beaten shells, white lead, and an infinity of herbs. Their diagnosis embraces calor y frio (heat and cold), and their therapeutics are always directed toward these two conditions. A disease quite common which these women assume to cure is empeche, a condition where undigested food adheres to some part of the stomach. To dislodge the empeche, they give white lead and quicksilver, at frequent intervals, in compound doses. For paralysis, they have been known to give blue and red glass beads, ground up in equal portions, a table-spoonful at a dose. Strange to relate, the patient recovered.



If a child is slow in learning to talk, they recommend a diet of boiled swallows. This is infallible. If he is slow about walking, his legs should be rubbed with dirt. This accounts for the fact that pelado (poor) children acquire the use of their limbs sooner than those of the higher classes.