00-KOO-HOO'S EL DORADO 107 



and the painkiller supplied by the trader, they refused to rely on 

 the white man's trivial cure-alls, as they could gather better 

 remedies from their own woods. Their chief reason for buying 

 "painkiller" was that they, like other Indians, relished it as a 

 cocktail on festival occasions; and many a time have I seen a 

 group of Indians — like civilized society people — topping off 

 cocktails (of painkiller) before sitting down to dinner. 



In case of illness, however, the Indians resort much to bleed- 

 ing, and this is the mode of operation: a sharp flint is fastened 

 to the split end of a stick, a U-shaped piece of wood is laid over 

 the intended spot, and the thickness of the wood determines the 

 depth of the incision. The flint end of the stick is raised while 

 the other end is held down in such a way as to bend the stick; on 

 releasing the end containing the flint, the stick strikes down- 

 ward and drives the flint into the flesh to the required depth 

 and no more. The bowl of a pipe is then applied to the cut, 

 and the blood is drawn off through the stem. Young birch 

 roots boiled in a second water make a tea which they sweeten 

 with sugar and use as a laxative. Yellow water-lily roots are 

 boiled until a black sediment forms — somewhat similar to 

 iodine in appearance — and with a feather dipped in this liquid 

 wounds are painted in order to consume proud flesh and to 

 prevent mortification. The upper tips — about four inches 

 long — of juniper trees having been boiled, and the outer bark 

 removed, the inner bark is scraped off and mashed up for 

 poultices. The liquor in which the juniper has been boiled is 

 employed for washing wounds, as it causes the rapid formation 

 of a healing cicatrix. To cure colic, the dried root of the "rat 

 root" is chewed, and the juice swallowed. 



Among other work that was well under way was the making 

 of the moccasins, known as the "mitten moccasin" — by far 

 the best for snowshoeing, as the seam runs round only the outer 

 side of the foot and leaves no puckering above the toes to cause 

 blistering. True, the mitten moccasin is not of the Ojibway 



