[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

69¢ MALEKULA
up small, and puts them into a banana. leaf. To this he adds a
hot stone and salt water so that the bundle steams. The patient,
who is lying on his bed, is now covered with mats. The doctor
mutters a charm, puts the steaming concoction near the patient's
chest, and leaves it there for some time. After this it is removed
to a distance, and, like the coco-nut in riavï¬Ås, is left to stand for
an hour or two, when it is opened and searched for the fragment
which the sorcerer had used to make the man ill.
Sometimes, without having recourse to any divinatory
measures, a rnan may be engaged to " mutter away " an illness—
that is, to murmur spells which will drive it out. To do this is
termed in Seniang imaau m'meheien.1 The man who is going to
“mutterâ€ù takes a leaf of the plant called naai konokan and
holds it in front of the patient while he recites the spell. When
this is ended the leat is put up in the roof of the sick man’s house
and the latter becomes quickly well again.
It seems that in the treatment of all illnesses which have been
induced by magic there is nothing oi what the white man would
regard as “ practical " medicine. What magic has caused, magic
must cure. But for all this the Malekulans are not without some
interest in physic and surgery for such ailments as do not result
from nimesian or nan? ndh. Massage is very frequently employed
for swellings, sprains, and strains, and seems to be very effective.
Blood-letting also is practised in Seniang by means of a ï¬Åeam
which is operated just above the right eyebrow, the blood being
allowed to fall on the ground. From this same district, too, there
is record of a simple cough-mixture made from the leaf of a tree
called tivhunai mwinivï¬Åh, the juice of which is squeezed into
water. The treatment of wounds would seem, from what
fragmentary information we have, to be far from unintelligent.
On one occasion a man called Ailing Burei was so grieved at the
death of his child that he thrust a poisoned arrow into himself.
To prevent his spirit also from going to the Land of the Dead,
cuts were quickly made above, below, on either side of the wound,
and on the wound itself, and a small rectangular piece of skin
was thus removed from the spot. As the blood welled forth it
was blown aside by means of a small bamboo tube. After a
1 Imaau is the word used in Seniang to denote the muttering oi any spell
or charm, whether used in malevolent, love, fertility, or curative magic, as also
to mutter prayers to the ancestors.-C. H. W.
M.-
Y;
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