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and found her as is their custom left by everybody but her three children who sat by her; her complaint was cholick which did not appear to me at all violent; I askd her what medicines she took, she told me none and that she depended intirely upon the preist who had been trying to free her from her distemper by his prayers and ceremonies, which she said he would repeat till she was well, shewing me at the same time Branches of the (Thespesia Populnea) which he had left with her. After this I left her and, whether by the ceremonies of the preist or the goodness of her constitution I know not, in three days time she came down to our tents compleatly recoverd.
I never hapned to be present when their preists performd their ceremonies for the cure of sick people, but one of our gentlemen who was informed me that it consisted in nothing but the preist repeating certain fixd sentences during which time he platted the leaves of the Cocoa nut tree into different figures, neat enough, some of which he fas[t]ned to the fingers and toes of the sick man, who [was during] the time uncoverd as in respect to the prayers, the whole ceremony almost exactly resembling
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 412, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-165.html