abandoned and left unburied, the scared Indians begging the whites to inter 
them. If there were no whites in the vicinity, they were left unburied. The 
ageney and school people interred many Indians who had thus been aban- 
doned. The Kayenta policeman was buried by a government party after he 
had been dead in an abandoned hogan eight days. Also, in the week closing 
April, the government stockman interred two influenza victims who had lain 
in their respective hogans since last fall. 
When sick, the Navajo think one should eat a whole lot. If one can not 
eat, it is expected he will die. Stuffing in sickness is usually practiced as a 
remedy and is often the cause of much trouble and many deaths. At one 
place on the reservation, during the plague, meat balls the size of the end 
of one’s thumb were forced down the patients who were too weak and sick 
to eat until no more could be forced down them. The stomach of an influ- 
enza victim at another place, who had been abandoned and partly eaten 
by the wolves, was seen to contain about a quart of corn which had prob- 
ably been boiled before it was forced down him. Such stuffed patients usu- 
ally died. 
When sick, the medicine man often gives the patient the juice of the 
Arizona jimpson and same was much used during the inflenza epidemic. 
This makes the pulse run high and causes the patient to be delirious. It is 
used as one of the last resorts. One jimpson victim examined by the agency 
physician had a pulse running as high as 240. The Indians also killed 
horses and made horsetail soup as a remedy to combat the disease. This 
was a good thing in a way as it helped get rid of some of the worthless 
ponies. The main remedy, however, was the powwow, Yavachai ceremonies, 
accompanied by elaborate sand-paintings. 
In making these paintings, all but the patient in the respective house- 
hold concerned is removed from the hogan, usually to a corral-like brush 
wind-protection—provided a regular medicine-lodge is not erected for the 
ceremony. The drawing is then made around the central fire or about it; 
each medicine man has his own system and places the drawing to suit his 
own taste and whims. Usually, the parts of the drawing are in concen- 
tric bands whose separating rings represent rainbows. The inter-rainbow 
spaces are filled with crude figures of human-mythical beings called 
“chindes.” When completed, the nude patient is smeared from head to 
foot with a blackish, medicinal concoction. He is then placed either on 
or near the drawing. Then elaborate singing and praying follows. As a 
faith cure, it is a good remedy, but it failed to cure the influenza. This 
failing, the final and last remedy was a massage, contorting process. As the 
disease usually terminated in pneumonia and consequently the lungs became 
“tight,” the medicine man jumped on the chest to loosen up the lungs. The 
result can be imagined ! 
After the final abatement of the malady, the Indians rode over the reser- 
vation, scattering sacred meal and corn pollen in prayer over their stone 
altars on every high point, to prevent the epidemic from returning. It is 
to be hoped that the deities will listen to their earnest supplications. 
