A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 03: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 03: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
16. When the Buhuitihu goes to visit a sick person, he smears his face
with soot or powdered charcoal. He wraps up some small bones and a bit of
flesh, which he conceals in his mouth. The sick man is purged with cohaba.
The doctor sits down in the house, after turning out all children and
others, so that only one or two remain with him and the sick person, who
must all remain silent. After many mumming tricks[2], the Buhuitihu lights
a torch and begins a mystic song. He then turns the sick man twice about,
pinches his thighs and legs, descending by degrees to the feet, and draws
hard as if pulling something away; then going to the door he says, "begone
to the sea or the mountains, or whither thou wilt," and giving a blast as
if he blew something away, turns round clapping his hands together, which
tremble as if with cold, and shuts his mouth. After this he blows on his
hands as if warming them, then draws in his breath as if sucking something,
and sucks the sick mans neck, stomach, shoulders, jaws, breast, belly, and
other parts of his body. This done he coughs and makes wry faces as if he
had swallowed something very bitter, and pulls from his mouth what he had
before concealed there, stone, flesh, bone, or whatever that may have been.
If any thing eatable, he alleges that the sick man had eaten this which
had occasioned his disorder, pretending, it had been put in by the cemi
because he had not been sufficiently devout, and that he must build a
temple to the cemi, or give him some offering. If a stone, he desires it
to be carefully preserved, wrapped up in cotton and deposited in a basket.
On solemn days when they provide much food, whether fish, flesh, or any
other, they put it all first into the house of their cemi, that the idol
may eat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account