“I have herbs that will cure everything,” said the calaguayas to a doctor who doubted his skill. As a proof he handed a leaf to the doubter and asked him to smell it. As the man did so his nose began to bleed, and he was unable to stop it. After a time the calaguayas handed him another leaf, and told him to smell that. The hemorrhage immediately stopped.
The botanical knowledge which they possess, for their medicines are all herbs, has been handed down from generation to generation, from the time of the ancient Incas. In fact their origin is supposed to date from that ancient race, when the medical men had an official position at court and in the cities. As it was a fixed law of the Incas that the son should follow his father’s occupation, the knowledge of the father in the use of herbs was passed by him to his son. The natives have much faith in the skill of these doctors, so much so that if one of them pronounces a man incurable, further effort to relieve the afflicted person is generally abandoned. In fact with some of the tribes the sick are then exposed, in order to hasten their death, so it is said.
There is also said to be a sort of free-masonry among these doctors for mutual protection, and they have built huts on some of the lonesome trails, where the wandering medical man can seek shelter and make himself as comfortable as possible. In these rude shelters the calaguayas is able to take shelter for himself, if overtaken by storm, for he always carries in his pack a little jerked beef, parched corn, beans, and some cocoa leaves, the chewing of which relieves hunger to some extent and gives strength for prolonged exertion. In these wild haunts they also collect in secret their healing herbs, for they will never allow any one to accompany them on such expeditions. It is impossible to get one of them to tell of what his herbs consist, as they preserve the greatest secrecy concerning all of them.
The coming of the calaguayas is usually very welcome to the communities that he visits, because he knows everybody; and travelling from one village to another he carries news and personal messages, frequently, between friends. He thus makes himself a travelling post-office as well as a peripatetic newsmonger.
CHAPTER XI
EDUCATION AND THE ARTS
Modern Chile owes little to the mother country for its educational system. With the exception of the establishment of a university at Santiago, and one or two minor institutions, Spain almost entirely neglected education in this province. The wealthy classes sent their children to Europe for their education, and the poorer classes were given a little instruction by the church. The Indians and peons were taught the catechism and church doctrines in a desultory way. With that all attempt at general intellectual development was ended. It is little wonder that only a small proportion of the population were able to either read or write, when the Spanish yoke was thrown off, or that even to-day, when Chile has celebrated the centennial of her declaration of independence, her educational system will not compare favourably with those found in the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic nations of the world.
Education in Chile is absolutely free, though not compulsory. Within the last few years the Chilean government has given considerable attention to public instruction, and has been greatly extending the school system all over the country. According to government reports there were, in 1907, twenty-two hundred and fifteen elementary schools, with forty-seven hundred and twenty-nine teachers, and an attendance of one hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven pupils. This is only a small percentage of those of school age, according to standards in the United States. Besides these public schools there were more than one hundred private schools for elementary instruction, which were subsidized by the government.