Californian trails, intimate guide to the old missions; the story of the California missions . ster inhealing the sick, raising the dead and casting out each mission there was what we moderns would knowas an infirmary—^just a gallery with some mats on whichthe sick neophytes could lie. Here the padres, as bestthey could, acted as physicians, though generally theIndians preferred their own medicine men who by studyor tradition had acquired a certain knowledge of the vir-tues of plants. For ordinary pains counter-irritants pro-duced by a whipping of nettles or even the bites of largean
Californian trails, intimate guide to the old missions; the story of the California missions . ster inhealing the sick, raising the dead and casting out each mission there was what we moderns would knowas an infirmary—^just a gallery with some mats on whichthe sick neophytes could lie. Here the padres, as bestthey could, acted as physicians, though generally theIndians preferred their own medicine men who by studyor tradition had acquired a certain knowledge of the vir-tues of plants. For ordinary pains counter-irritants pro-duced by a whipping of nettles or even the bites of largeants were no uncommon remedy, though blood-lettingwas often practised, the affected part being cut with asharp stone. When a person felt seriously ill, it was alwaysdeclared to be caused bythe presence of some foreignbody such as a hair, bone or thorn, and one of the sorcererswould apply his lips to the seat of the disease and pretendto draw out by suction the cause of the disorder, and wemoderns can ill afford to laugh when we think of themany patients of to-day who have been cured by the. ^rr. /^ ?•^cr3 \*r. ^^ S :l ?W» ?-?a H!H ~ A~-».^a» -tesic* \^il -4SSS* m. ly . ^ tr^ -*^^ ?V CALIFORNIAN TRAILS, INTIMATE GUIDE TO THE OLD MISSIONS 129pretended extraction of some foreign substance from asupposedly affected part. If a disease was persistentthe patient was laid upon a bed of ashes or dry sand withvessels of food and water at his head, and a fire at his feet,and the result anxiously watched by visiting friends. Great confidence being in their medicine men theimagination of the patient was often strong enough orsufficiently excited to effect a wonderful cure, in whichcase the fame of the doctor was spread far and wide. AN EXTRACT FROM THE LIFE BOOK OF TWOMISUNDERSTOOD PADRES It was one of those oppressively hot days, so commonin the pass of San Miguel, when even the animals of thefield lay gasping for breath. And to increase the discom-fort, the steam that was forever flo
Size: 946px × 2641px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectcalifor, bookyear1920
