CHAPTER IV

Curious Remedies

" Stand not amazed; here is no remedy."- SHAKESPEARE.

E

Infant Treatment.

VERY mother considers it necessary to massageher infant child at least twice every day. Shesits on the ground with the infant in her lap, andby her side is a low fire. First the child is oiled, thenthe mother places one hand over the fire and the otheron the babe, and thus with rapid movements she willmassage the infant with each hand alternately, singingmeanwhile some soothing lullaby. This simple methodof fomentation is supposed to remove flatulence; butat times a more severe remedy is adopted. An ironsickle is placed in the fire till it is made red- hot, andthe point is then applied to the abdomen in six or eightdifferent places. If flatulence is very persistent, a stillmore severe remedy is used as a last resort. A fewdouble pice( coppers) are heated in the fire, they arethen taken up with pincers and applied to the surfaceof the skin, leaving a burn the size of a pice. I believe

itmay be stated without exaggeration that fully 90 percent.( if not more) of the natives of Bilaspore carry intheir bodies, even when fully grown, the marks of some

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