e
spoonfuls of the liquor, while all the members of the family stand
around and murmur approvingly, "Thank you, thank you." Occasionally
tesvino is exclusively used for curing, with the aid of two small
crosses, one of red Brazil wood, the other of white pine. If he
chooses, a shaman may provoke illness as well as cure it, but he
cannot cure the person he made ill.

When a shaman is asked to cure a person of any complaint,
real or imaginary, his first move is to find the cause of the
trouble. According to his opinion illness is brought on either by
the wind or by sorcery. From the former kind of disease nobody dies,
although the heart, the liver, or the head may be attacked; but the
other kind is serious. Sorcerers may put snakes into the legs, and
such animals as centipedes, toads, larvae, scorpions, or even small
bears into the body of some unfortunate person, and these disturbers
have to be drawn out at once or else they will eat the sick man's
heart. The shaman therefore first feels the patient all over, to
find if something--in other words, the disease-bringing animal--is
moving underneath the skin. Illness may also result from small stones,
or the spine of the nopal placed in the body by the same agency.

A person suspected of having been bewitched is told to hold his mouth
open to the sun, that the shaman may see whether the evil entered the
body through this aperture. People become bewitched at night through
the openings of the body, and the shaman also examines the nostrils,
ears, etc. It is also the shaman's business to find out who caused
the trouble, and since he can see more than ordinary people he is
able to track the offender.

Some people by their mere looks or thoughts are liable to make
a. person ill. Such illness may be brought on in retaliation for some
slight or offence, and may even result in death. The first thoughts
of a person falling ill are: Whom have I offended? What have I taken
that I should have left alone, and what have I kept that I should have
given? Then the shaman may tell him to find the person to whom he had
refused to give food, and the sick one and his wife go from house to
house asking the people: "Was it you whom I refused food? Someone
has made me ill, and I want him to make me well again." If he can
find the person whom he had offended, and arrange matters with him,
he will recover.

The doctor may find that the person's heart is on the wrong side,
and prescribe a libera