xl INTKODUCTION. 



ism among them, since, unlike the wandering Algon- 

 quins, they were rarely under the desperation of extreme 

 famine. 



A great knowledge of simples for the cure of disease 

 is popularly ascribed to the Indian. Here, however, as 

 elsewhere, his knowledge is in fact scanty. He rarely 

 reasons from cause to effect, or from effect to cause 

 Disease, in his belief, is the result of sorcery, the agency 

 of spirits or supernatural influences, undefined and inde- 

 finable. The Indian doctor was a conjurer, and his reme- 

 dies were to the last degree preposterous, ridiculous, or 

 revolting. The well-known Indian sweating-bath is the 

 most prominent of the few means of cure based on agen- 

 cies simply physical ; and this, with all the other natural 

 remedies, was applied, not by the professed doctor, but 

 by the sufferer himself, or his friends.^ 



The Indian doctor beat, shook, and pinched his patient, 

 howled, whooped, rattled a tortoise-shell at his ear to ex- 

 pel the evil spirit, bit him till blood flowed, and then 

 displayed in triumph a small piece of wood, bone, or iron, 

 which he had hidden in his mouth, and which he affirmed 



Hurons, 1636, 121. — Le Mercier gives a description of one of these scenes, 

 at which he was present. {Ibid., 1637, 118.) The same horrible practice 

 prevailed to a greater extent among the Iroquois. One of the most re- 

 markable instances of Indian cannibalism is that furnished by a Western 

 tribe, the Miamis, among whom there was a clan, or family, whose heredi- 

 tary duty and privilege it was to devour the bodies of prisoners burned 

 to death. The act had somewhat of a religious character, was attended 

 with ceremonial observances, and was restricted to the family in question. 

 — See Hon. Lewis Cass, in the appendix to Colonel Whiting's poem, 

 " Ontwa." 



1 The Indians had many simple applications for wounds, said to have 

 been very efficacious ; but the purity of their blood, owing to the absence 

 from their diet of condiments and stimulants, as well as to their active 

 habits, aided the remedy. In general, they were remarkably exempt 

 from disease or deformity, though often seriously injured by alternations 

 of hunger and excess. The Hurons sometimes died from the effects of 

 their festins a manger tout. 



