CHAP. xn. INDIAN MEDICINES. 189 



retired to our tent Michel and Louis were fast asleep, 

 and when morning dawned all unpleasant symptoms had 

 passed away. 



As we sat before the fire after supper, the conversation 

 naturally turned on Indian remedies. The vapour bath 

 amonff the Indians of the Labrador Peninsula is as 



O 



common as among the Ojibways and Crees of the 

 Saskatchewan basin ; at almost every portage and old 

 camp ground we saw the stones which had been used in 

 preparing it. 



The root of the blue iris (Iris versicolor\ which grows 

 on the coast and in the swampy tracts of the interior, is 

 a strong purgative, and a common medicine among the 

 Montagnais. 



A decoction of the red willow (Cornus alba vel 

 stolonifera), the red osier cornel of Sir John Eichardson, 

 the osier rouge of the voyageurs, is used as a purgative 

 and also as a vomit. It is called the red stick, or mith- 

 wka-pe-min-aktik, by the Crees, which its Montagnais 

 name resembles. They also call the fruit mask-mina, in 

 Cree uiuskwa-mina, bear-berry. They smoke the inner 

 bark. 



Canada balsam (Abies balsamea), from the spruce, is 

 considered an excellent remedy for frost-bites. This is 

 the sapin of the voyageurs. A decoction of the bark of 

 the larch is employed to clear and heal flesh wounds, 

 so also is the thallus of the tripe de roche. The fat 

 of the skunk is considered an excellent remedy in certain 

 diseases. A drop of the fetid secretion is used for tooth- 

 ache and rheumatism. The roots of the white water- 

 lily, the roots of rushes (both as food in times of scarcity 



