78 THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 



all his might as though he was trying to separate the skull from the backbone. 

 He exerted himself to such a degree that every muscle and vein was distended, 

 and drops of perspiration ran freely from his face. At length he gave a wrench 

 and a twist, the patient uttered a yell, when it was announced to me by the doctor 

 that the skookoom had been caught, and that the man would recover. I told him 

 the man would die in half an hour, but if he had not been squeezed so hard, and 

 had taken my medicine, he would possibly have lived two or three days. The 

 doctor laughed, and replied that I did not know as well as the Indians did; but it 

 proved as I predicted. The man did die, and in less than two hours from the time 

 I had made the remark he was buried, myself assisting in the ceremonies, as I 

 desired to see how they were performed. 



They have a variety of songs and chants during the performance, each doctor 

 seeming to have a tune of his own. But the method adopted by all, is first to 

 remove the skookoom by manipulation, and after that administer other remedies. 

 Some of the old women are skilled as physicians both in the above method and in 

 the preparation of medicinal herbs. I saw the application of a most singular 

 remedy in the case of a young man who had been shot through the left arm by a 

 dragoon pistol, in the hand of another Indian who was drunk. The ball passed 

 through the arm between the shoulder and the elbow, injuring, but not breaking 

 the bone, and lodged in the muscles of the back, from whence it was extracted in 

 a rude manner by an incision made with a jack-knife. I advised the friends to take 

 him immediately to Port Angeles or Victoria, where he could have surgical advice, 

 but they concluded to try their own remedies first. They attempted to stop the 

 bleeding by applying hemlock bark chewed fine, which seemed to have the desired 

 effect. They next went to where the young man s father was buried, and dug up 

 the bone of the upper part of the left arm, which they washed, and then sawed or 

 split in two, lengthwise, and formed splints of it. These were scraped, and the 

 scrapings of the bone applied as a dressing. The bone splints were applied and 

 the arm bandaged firmly. The Indians assured me that the bone from the father s 

 arm would renew or replace the wounded one in the boy s arm ; that they always 

 tried it in the case of a broken bone, and it always effected a cure. Thus, if a leg, 

 an arm, or a rib is broken, they take a similar one from the body of the nearest 

 relative who has been dead over a year, and apply it either as a dressing by 

 scraping, or in the form of splints. I have, however, seen none but the instance 

 above quoted where the splints were applied. In this case fragments of the bone 

 continually coming away, the remedy proved worthless, and after several months 

 suffering, the young man was carried to Victo ria, where the arm was attended to 

 by a skilful surgeon, and he shortly recovered. There is not an instance in the 

 whole tribe where an amputation has been performed, although I have known 

 several cases where life would have been saved had the patient or his friends sub 

 mitted to or allowed the operation. But as they know nothing of the practice 

 themselves, they are very reluctant to have any such operations performed, pre 

 ferring death to the loss of a limb. Incised wounds and lacerations are treated 

 either with a poultice of chewed hemlock, or elder bark, or wood ashes strewed on, 

 which absorbs the discharge and forms a crust or scab. Wounds of this descrip- 



