One of the interesting characters met with along the Pacific coast of South America is the calaguayas, or the Indian doctor. One will find him everywhere, from Panama to the Araucanian country, carrying with him a pack filled with dried herbs, cheap jewelry, handkerchiefs, ribbons, mirrors and other notions, which he sells to the people. He may be met with on the trains, the coast steamers or any other place, and generally carries with him nothing but the suit he wears and a bright-coloured _poncho_, which is thrown over his shoulders for additional warmth. He may be seen sunning himself in the plaza of a town or tramping over mountain trails. This man is both a trader and tinker, and his sources of livelihood are many indeed. He can mend a clock, a tin pan, or a broken piece of crockery. He can tell fortunes, interpret signs and omens, or prepare love philters. He is a magician, and can do all sorts of sleight-of-hand tricks. He is a conjurer; he helps people who have been bewitched, and altogether has a reputation for superior wisdom, which he applies on all possible occasions. The chief business, however, of this unique character is that of healing the sick, whether man or beast, for he is equally successful as a veterinary surgeon, or as a physician for the human race; and it is really remarkable, as many white people testify, the knowledge he has of certain climatic ills to which the people there are subject, and of herbs which will relieve them. They claim to have herbs that will cure everything to which humanity is subject. It is a fact that there is no section of the globe to-day where so many modern drugs come from as the northern half of South America, and it is quite probable that these primitive doctors first discovered the medicinal value of many plants that are now common pharmaceutical terms. Many stories are told among miners and others, who have been obliged to live in the interior, where regular physicians were not obtainable, of climatic fevers and other illnesses which have been cured by these doctors. “I have herbs that will cure everything,” said the calaguayas to a doctor who doubted his skill. As a proof he handed a leaf to the doubter and asked him to smell it. As the man did so his nose began to bleed, and he was unable to stop it. After a time the calaguayas handed him another leaf, and told him to smell that. The hemorrhage immediately stopped.