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Olbeectts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 55
Collection.—As a rule simples are never collected and kept ready for
emergency in a dried or prepared state. Only those needed in case of
childbirth are gathered during the summer, so as to be available in
wintertime (see p. 9 1 ) . It is just as rare to find medicine men endowed
with enough foresight to lay out a garden of medicinal plants as did the
European monks in the Middle Ages. (See p. 90.)
The rules for collecting the plants are as follows: As soon as the
medicine man has made his diagnosis he tells the patient and the
latter's household that he will have to go and collect simples. He
usually does not tell him what kinds he will need, but if he is a greedy
and a " businesslike" individual, he may tell them how great a trouble
it will mean to him, how far he will have to walk through the pouring
rain or the scorching sun; to how many places he may have to go in
vain; how often he will probably have to retrace his steps and start
the search all over again, etc.; all this to induce the people to give him
a considerable fee. (See p. 95.) He invariably tells them what kind
of cloth (what color, and dimensions) he will need to gather the plants
in. This is given to him; if the people do not have the cloth available
they have to borrow it from neighbors or buy it from the trader.
Then the medicine man starts on his quest for the simples.
He usually knows where to find the specimens he needs—in the
woods, along the mountain side, near the river, on marshy ground, etc.
He also knows that some plants have a tendency to grow near certain
trees, as oaks, in apple orchards, on moist, shady rocks, etc.
To gather certain plants, such as ginseng, he must first recite a
prayer asking i;ne"'tlan5'!i (see p. 20) for permission to pluck them.
Or he is not allowed to pluck them without dropping a bead in the
earth where they stood.
Sometimes (in times gone by this was probably a strict and general
rule) when his bundle is complete he takes it to the river and puts it in
the water; if it floats it is a sign that all the prescriptions have been duly
followed and that the eventual taboos have not been violated ; it is a
sign, moreover, that the bundle of medicine is all right, and that its
use will be followed by the results that are expected of it.
He then wraps up the simples in the cloth (pi. 6, c) and returns to
the cabm of the patient, where he hands the bundle to one of the
household. The roots are unwrapped and the cloth is handed back to
the medicine man as his fee. The medicine is then steeped, boiled, or
prepared as the medicine man directs and in due course of time is
administered to the patient, either by a relative or by the medicine
man himself, again according to the prescription of the formula.
Preparation.—There are three major modes of preparing the medi-
cine; it is either: (a) pounded and steeped in cold or warm water,
(6) boiled, or (c) boiled down.