338 INDIANS. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 



DISEASE. 



THE Indians, like most people who live in the fresh air, 

 are a naturally healthy race, and, like all healthy people, 

 are very impatient of sickness. A wound is tangible 

 and understood. A slight knowledge of surgery is 

 universal, and the treatment very successful, owing pro- 

 bably to the general good health of the subject and the 

 pure, dry air of the plains. 



Sickness is very different. To be burning with fever 

 or racked with rheumatism without external wound or 

 apparent cause, is so wonderful that it can be attributed 

 only to the direct action of the 'bad god.' JSTo idea 

 of diagnosis has occurred to them, for they have not 

 even advanced sufficiently to comprehend that there are 

 different kinds of ordinary disease. Sickness is sickness ; 

 that is all. There being but one disease, there is but 

 one remedy (other than the exorcisms, chauntings, and 

 other religious ceremonies) that is, the sweat-house. A 

 small structure, shaped like a bake-oven, with one open- 

 ing in the side, is constructed of rough stone, if possible, 

 on a bank overlooking a pool of water. A fire is built 

 within, and, when a proper degree of heat is attained, the 

 fire is raked out ; the patient, stripped naked, crawls in ; 

 and the opening is closed with a blanket. When almost 

 baked, and the perspiration streaming from every pore, 

 he is taken out and plunged into the water below. In 

 some instances this treatment is very efficacious. In 

 others, the patient enters the water and the Happy 



