Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

326
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
pleasant climate, there can be no doubt of its general
healthiness when one sees how many very old people
are in it. On the i6th of the present month an old
lady died here at the age of one hundred and eleven \
Her living descendants, including some great-greatgrandchildren,
are said to be exactly as many as the
years
of her life.
Piura is considered the sovereignest place on
earth for the cure of " rheumatic "
(lege " syphilitic ")
affections. Many wonderful cures are reported ;
but the treatment is rather severe. It is as follows :
First, you pay the priest to say " novenas " -that is,
masses on nine consecutive days on your behalf;
on each of these days you drink copiously of a warm
decoction of sarsaparilla towards midday, and then
your friends take you outside the town and bury
you up to the neck in the burning sand, shielding
your head with a broad straw hat and an umbrella.
There you perspire in such a way as to bring out
all the mercury you may have taken, and to reduce
your swollen joints to their proper dimensions.
Now you may see the use of the masses, for if you
survive the operation (which is not always) they
serve to express your thankfulness ; and if you die
under it, you will need not only those nine masses,
but several additional ones for which you make
due provision in your last will and testament to
secure the repose of your soul.
Piura is perhaps the most superstitious place I
have seen in South America, although Quito
gone that way ;
but
is far
I can tolerate even superstition
when it is harmless and picturesque. As I write,
at 8 P.M. of the eve of " Nuestra Senora de los
Dolores," the bells are ringing to call the devout