Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/246

 '*#* Account of the Cheerake Nativn*.

could exprcfs, and (hewed all the fymptoms of a defperate perfon enraged at his difappointment, and forced to live and fee his ignominy ; he then darted himfelf againft the wall, with all his remaining vigour,. his ftrength being expended by the force of his friends oppofition, he fell: fullenly on the bed, as if by thofe violent ftruggles he was overcome, and wanted to repofe himfelf. His relations' through tendernefs, left him to his reft but as foon as they went away, he raifed himfelf, and after a tedious fearch, finding nothing but a thick and round hoe-helve, he took the fatal inftrument,. and having fixed one end of it in the ground, he repeatedly threw himfelf on it, till he forced it down his throat,, wherv he immediately- expired. He was buried in filence, without the leait. mourning.

Although the Cheerake fhe wed fuch little fkill in curing the fmall pox, yet they, as well as all other Indian nations, have a great knowledge of fpe- cific virtues in fimples ; applying herbs and plants, on the moft danger ous occafions, and feldom if ever, fail to effect a thorough cure, from the natural bulh. In the order of nature, every country and climate Is bled with fpecific remedies for the maladies that are connatural to it Na- turalifts tell us they have obferved, that when the wild goat's fight begins to decay, he rubs his head againft a thorn, and by fome effluvia, or virtue in the vegetable, the fight is renewed. Thus the fnake recovers after biting any creature, by his knowledge of the proper antidote -, and many of our arts and forms of living, are imitated by lower ranks of the ani mal creation : the Indians, inftigated by nature, and quickened by expe rience, have difcovered the peculiar properties of vegetables, as far as needful in their fituation of life. For my own part, I would prefer an old Indian before any chirurgeon whatfoever, in curing green wounds by. bullets, arrows,. &c. both for the certainty, eafe, and fpeedinefs of cure ; for if thofe parts of the body are not hurt, which are effential to the pre- fervation of life, they cure the wounded in a trice. They bring the pa tient into a good temperament of body, by a decoction of proper herbs and roots, and always enjoin a moft'abftemious life : they forbid them wo men, fait, and every kind of flelh-meat, applying mountain allum, as the thief ingredient.

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