840 INDIANS. 



holes through his body, within an inch or two of the 

 spine, the only apparent effect of which was to change 

 his gait from a run to a dignified walk. I have heard 

 anecdotes enough of this remarkable character to make a 

 book of themselves. 



The Indian, in his natural condition, is almost as little 

 afflicted with disease as an animal in its wild state. 

 Chills and fever in some localities, rheumatism in others, 

 and sometimes, but rarely, a case of consumption, form 

 the principal ills their flesh is heir to. Contact with 

 civilisation has brought its scourge in measles, whooping 

 cough, scarlet fever, small pox, and that worst of all 

 horrors, syphilis, which is slowly, but surely, destroying 

 all that portion of the Indian race which raids upon 

 Mexico. 



The occasional attack of a tribe or band by cholera 

 can be accounted for no more satisfactorily than can be 

 the Epizootic, which passed at a regular rate, without 

 contact or apparent cause, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, sparing no herd of horses, however isolated, 

 either of white man or Indian. 



The Indians generally are beginning to believe 

 strongly in ' white man's medicines,' and will travel 

 a long way to see or obtain remedies from a post 

 surgeon. 



