12 King, Folk-lore of the North American Indiatis. 



Names, again, are things not to be trifled with (i., 207). 

 The Jesuits found that the Indians did not h'ke to tell 

 their names. Similarly, Australian savages have each a 

 secret name which is never to be uttered except upon the 

 most solemn occasions, for fear it should be exposed to 

 magical influence.* 



Savages live in a world of mysterious dangers, which 

 are ascribed to living agencies who can be controlled and 

 directed by those who know the proper way. 



Some natural cures for sickness the Indians had, such 

 as sweating (vi., 19 r). A low tent of bark was put 

 up in the cabin, covered with fur robes ; five or six 

 heated stones were put in, and the patient entered. 

 Such a remedy is found amongst other savages, as, 

 for instance, on the West Coast of Africa, where the 

 Bantus dig a hole in the earth and put in herbs and boiling 

 water.f The patient enters, and a coating of clay is put 

 over him, leaving the head free. This sweating was used 

 by the Indians as a means of magic, to secure good hunt- 

 ing, for instance, and as such was forbidden to the Jesuit 

 converts. 



They sing and make these noises also in their sweating operations. 

 They believe that this medicine, which is the best of all they have, would be of 

 no use whatever to them if they did not sing during the sweat. They plant 

 some iticks in the ground, making a sort of low tent, for, if a tall man were 

 seated therein, his head would touch the top of this hut, which they enclose 

 and cover with skins, robes and blankets. They put in this dark room a 

 number of heavy stones which they have had heated and made red-hot in a 

 good fire, then they slip entirely naked into these sweat bo.Kes. The women 

 occasionally sweat as well as the men. Sometimes they sweat all together, 

 men and women, pell mell. They sing, cry and groan in this oven, and make 

 speeches ; occasionally the sorcerer beats his drum there. I heard him once 

 acting the prophet therein, crying out that he saw Moose ; that my host, his 

 brother, would kill some. I could not refrain from telling him, or rather 

 those who were present and listened to him as if to an oracle, that it was. 



* Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of C€nt7-al Australia, p. 139. 

 t Miss Kingsley, 'J 'rave Is in West Africa, p. 431. 



