[Note 88:  Also an American superstition.—­Vide Catlin, vol.i.p. 134.  “Sorcerers or rain makers, for both offices are generally assumed by one individual.”—­Moffat’s South Africa, p. 305.]

As all internal pains are attributed to witchcraft, sorcerers possess the power of relieving or curing them.  Sometimes the mouth is applied to the surface where the pain is seated, the blood is sucked out, and a bunch of green leaves applied to the part; besides the blood, which is derived from the gums of the sorcerer, a bone is sometimes put out of the mouth, and declared to have been procured from the diseased part; on other occasions the disease is drawn out in an invisible form, and burnt in the fire, or thrown into the water; at others the patient is stretched upon the ground, whilst another person presses with his feet or hands upon the diseased part, or cold water is sprinkled over, and green leaves used as before.  There are few complaints that the natives do not attempt to cure, either by charms or by specific applications:  of the latter a very singular one is the appliance personally of the urine from a female—­a very general remedy, and considered a sovereign one for most disorders.  Bandages are often applied round the ankles, legs, arms, wrists, etc. sufficiently tight to impede circulation; suction is applied to the bites of snakes, and is also made use of by their doctors in drawing out blood from the diseased part, a string being tied to the hair, if it be the head that ails, or to any other part, and the opposite end is put into the sorcerer’s mouth, who then commences sucking and spitting out blood, which he declares comes from the patient.  Blood letting is practised occasionally to relieve pains in the head, or oppression of the system.  The operation is performed by opening a vein in the arm, with a piece of rock crystal in the same way as Europeans bleed.

Fractures of the extremities are treated with splints and bandages, as in Europe.  Venereal ulcers are sprinkled with alkaline wood ashes, the astringent liquid of the nettle bark, or a macerated preparation from a particular kind of broad-leaved grass.  Superficial wounds are left to themselves, and usually heal without much trouble.  Malformations of the body are attributed to the influence of the stars, caused by the mother eating forbidden food during pregnancy, or if occurring after birth it is still caused by the stars, in consequence of forbidden food being eaten.  The teeth of the native are generally regular and very beautiful, indeed, in their natural state, I have never seen a single instance of decayed teeth, among them.  Among those, however, who have been living near Europeans for some years past, and whose habits and diet have been changed from simple to more artificial ones, a great alteration is taking place in this respect, and symptoms of decaying teeth are beginning to make their appearance among many.

Among other superstitions of the natives, they believe in the existence of an individual called in the Murrumbidgee Biam, or the Murray Biam-baitch-y, who has the form and figure of a black, but is deformed in the lower extremities, and is always either sitting cross-legged on the ground, or ferrying about in a canoe.