IROQUOIS HERBALISM — FENTON 513 



these early medicine men undertook the same types of cures that 

 are also attributed to their descendants, the present holders of the 

 Little Water Medicine bundles. As specialists the latter profess 

 some feats that were formerly performed quite commonly by hunters, 

 among whom dislocations were more frequent than fractures. 



If an Indian has disclocated his foot or knee, when hunting alone, he creeps 

 to the next tree, and tying one end of his strap to it, fastens the other to the 

 dislocated limb, and lying on his back, continues to pull it till it is reduced.'^"' 



Sweat lodges were formerly a common feature of Indian settle- 

 ments throughout the eastern woodlands. They were usually situated 

 on the edge of the village near a stream where they served not only 

 as a regular place of bathing, but provided also a retreat for the 

 shaman and the men of the village who gathered there for ceremonies 

 and recreation. The songs which the Medicine Company continues 

 to sing among the modern Iroquois refer to prominent features of 

 sweating, for example the rise and condensation of steam, juggling 

 with hot rocks, and tossing songs across a fire; but the sweat lodge 

 has not survived as a reservation institution. Nevertheless, for a 

 time it came into general use among the colonists of the maritime 

 provinces of Canada.^^ Lafitau's description is probably typical of 

 those in use among the Iroquois : 



The sweat bath is their most universal remedy, and of it they make a great 

 deal of use. It is equally for the sick and the healthy, who thus are purged of 

 abundant hunjors, which can have changed their health, or might in the end 

 have caused infirmities. 



The sweat bath is a little round cabin 6 or 7 feet high with room for seven 

 or eight persons. This cabin is covered with mats and furs to protect it from 

 the outside air. In the middle of it they put, on the ground, a certain number 

 of cobbles, which they have left for a long time in the fire until they have 

 been thoroughly heated, and above these they suspend a kettle full of cool 

 water. Those who are to sweat themselves enter this cabin nude, * * * 

 and having taken their place, granted that they are not to transact secret 

 business, * * * they begin to stir extraordinarily, and to chant, each his 

 song. [Singing individual songs of power is a feature of the Medicine Society 

 meetings.] And as the tunes and words are often entirely different, it is the 

 most disagreeable and discordant music to which one could possibly listen. 



From time to time, when the stones begin to lose their action, they revive 

 them by dousing them with a little of this cold water which is in the kettle. 

 This water no sooner touches the stones than a vapor arises which fills the 

 cabin and greatly increases the heat in it. They throw in each others' faces 

 this cool water in order to prevent themselves from fainting away. In an instant 

 their bodies stream from all parts; and when their pores are well open and 

 the sweat is most plentiful, they go out all singing and run to plunge into the 

 river, where they swim and flounder with much vehemence. Some, the ill ones 



*8»Losklel, George Henry, History of the mission of the United Brethren among the 

 Indians of North America, LaTrobe trans., p. 112, London, 1794. 



^ Bailey, Alfred Goldsworthy, The conflict of European and eastern Algonkian cultures, 

 1504-1700 Publ. New Brunswick Mus., Monogr. Ser. No. 2, p. 121, St. John, New Bruns- 

 wick, 1937, 



