La Relación - page 42
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La Relación - page 42
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And since, he said, we were powerful men, we were certain to have greater powers and properties. In brief, we were in such need that we had to do it, putting aside our fear that anyone would be punished for it.
Their manner of healing is as follows: when they are sick, they call a medicine man, and after they are cured they give him not only all their possessions, but also seek things from their relatives to give him. What the medicine man does is to make a cut where the pain is and suck around it. They cauterize with fire, a practice they consider very beneficial. I tried it and found that it gave good results. Afterwards they blow on the painful area, believing that their illness goes away in this manner.
We did our healing by making the sign of the cross on the sick persons, breathing on them, saying the Lord's Prayer and a Hail Mary over them, and asking God our Lord, as best we could, to heal them and inspire them to treat us well. God our Lord in his mercy deigned to heal all those for whom we prayed. Once we made the sign of the cross on them, they told the others that they were well and healthy. For this reason they treated us well, and refrained from eating to give us food. They also gave us hides and other small things.
Everyone's hunger was so great there were times that I went three days without eating anything, and they did too. It seemed impossible for me to survive, although I found myself in greater want and hunger afterwards, as I shall relate later on.
The Indians that were keeping Alonso del Castillo aiid Andrés Dorantes and the other survivors were of another language and lineage. They went to another part of the mainland to eat oysters and stayed there until the first day of April. Then they returned to the island which was up to two leagues away across the widest part of the water. The island is half a league wide and five leagues long.
All the people of this land go about naked. Only the women cover part of their bodies with a kind of wool that
Their manner of healing is as follows: when they are sick, they call a medicine man, and after they are cured they give him not only all their possessions, but also seek things from their relatives to give him. What the medicine man does is to make a cut where the pain is and suck around it. They cauterize with fire, a practice they consider very beneficial. I tried it and found that it gave good results. Afterwards they blow on the painful area, believing that their illness goes away in this manner.
We did our healing by making the sign of the cross on the sick persons, breathing on them, saying the Lord's Prayer and a Hail Mary over them, and asking God our Lord, as best we could, to heal them and inspire them to treat us well. God our Lord in his mercy deigned to heal all those for whom we prayed. Once we made the sign of the cross on them, they told the others that they were well and healthy. For this reason they treated us well, and refrained from eating to give us food. They also gave us hides and other small things.
Everyone's hunger was so great there were times that I went three days without eating anything, and they did too. It seemed impossible for me to survive, although I found myself in greater want and hunger afterwards, as I shall relate later on.
The Indians that were keeping Alonso del Castillo aiid Andrés Dorantes and the other survivors were of another language and lineage. They went to another part of the mainland to eat oysters and stayed there until the first day of April. Then they returned to the island which was up to two leagues away across the widest part of the water. The island is half a league wide and five leagues long.
All the people of this land go about naked. Only the women cover part of their bodies with a kind of wool that
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“La Relación - page 42,” Cabeza de Vaca, accessed October 8, 2024, https://exhibits.library.txstate.edu/cabeza/items/show/75.