78 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing Strait this custom extends, but it ceases before the snow house 

 begins. ^^ 



The sweat houses or sweating booths of the Shuswaps are identical 

 with those of the Tinneh, Crees, and other peoples. They consist 

 usually of about a dozen thin willow wands planted in the ground at 

 both ends. Half of them run at right angles to the other half, and 

 they are tied together at each intersection. Over these a blanket 

 or skin is usually spread, but I have also seen them covered with earth. 

 A small heap of hot stones is piled in the center, and upon these, after 

 carefully closing the apertures, the occupant pours some water. The 

 sweat house is always situated on the banks of a stream or lake, so 

 that on issuing therefrom the bather in.hj at once plunge into the 

 cold water.3^ 



The Kiowa (Kiowan) sweat lodge is a half oval crate covered with 

 skins or blankets. Two poles are stuck in the ground at each end, 

 bent over until the four meet in the middle of the roof. Across these 

 are horseshoe-shaped bows at intervals of a foot stuck in the ground 

 to form the crate. Robes are laid over these to make all steam- 

 tight. A slight excavation in the middle of the floor receives the 

 stones, heated in a fire outside. Water is poured on the stones, 

 the naked bather lies on his mat inside, and afterwards plunges into 

 the water. 



Special vapor baths were given, an example of which may be cited 

 among the Coucouyenne Indians of French Guiana, where a woman 

 after birth of an infant is given a vapor bath by placing hot stones 

 under her hammock and throwing water upon them.^^ 



For comparison the Russian bathhouse has a stove in the center 

 and benches one above another like those of a greenhouse. Large 

 stones are heated in the stove; when they are taken out water is 

 poured over them, filling the room with steam. The people lie on 

 the benches, and the hottest part of the room is on the higher 

 benches. ^^ 



Several reasons are given for the use of the vapor bath; as a sani- 

 tary practice, for the curing of disease, and as a religious observance. 

 All these classes are found in America and in other places where the 

 sweat bath is distributed." 



One of the earliest observations of men acquainted with fire would 

 be the effect of water on live coals, producing steam. The utiliza- 

 tion of steam for the purposes described is an interesting feature of 

 the fire study, presenting as it does one of the earliest employments 

 of water vapor. 



" Dr. H. Rink. The Eskimo Tribes, Copenhagen and London, 1891, p. 12. 



»< Q. M. Dawson. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, sec. 2, 1891, pp. 7 and 8. 



>^ Le Tour du Monde, vol. 40, p. 1022"; vol. 54, p. 96. 



"Through Iceland, Holland, etc., 1893 (Murray's Handbook) p. 135. 



" See Article, Sweating and Sweat Houses in Bull. 30, Bur. Amer. Ethnol.. 1910. 



