Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/226

168 complaint was colic, which did not appear to me to be at all violent. I asked her what medicine she took, she told me none, and that she depended entirely upon the priest, who had been trying to free her from her distemper by his prayers and ceremonies, which, she said, he would repeat till she was well, showing me at the same time branches of the Thespesia populnea, which he had left with her. After this I left her, and whether through the priest's ceremonies or her own constitution, she came down to our tents completely recovered in three days' time.

I never happened to be present when the priests performed their ceremonies for the cure of sick people; but one of our gentlemen who was informed me that they consisted of nothing but the repetition of certain fixed sentences, during which time the priest plaited leaves of the cocoanut tree into different figures, neatly enough; some of which he fastened to the fingers and toes of the sick man, who was at the time uncovered, out of respect to the prayers. The whole ceremony almost exactly resembled their method of praying at the marais, which I shall by and by describe. They appear, however, to have some knowledge of medicine, besides these operations of priestcraft. That they have skilful surgeons among them we easily gathered from the dreadful scars of wounds which we frequently saw cured, some of which were far greater than any I have seen anywhere else; and these were made by stones which these people throw with slings with great dexterity and force. One man I particularly recollect whose face was almost entirely destroyed; yet this dreadful wound had healed cleanly without any ulcer remaining. Tupia, who has had several wounds, had one made by a spear headed with the bone of a sting-ray's tail which had pierced right through his body, entering at his back and coming out just under his breast; yet this has been so well cured that the remaining scar is as smooth and as small as any I have seen from the cures by our best European surgeons.

Vulnerary herbs they have many, nor do they seem at all nice in the choice of them. They have plenty of such