A BURIAL, 137 



cause. There lay, helpless upon the floor, and apparently at the point oi* 

 death, a squaw of some eighteen years ; — she, in her eagerness, had swal- 

 lowed nearly a pint of the vile stuff, undiluted, and now experienced its 

 dreadful consequences. 



But most conspicuous in the throng was a large, obese, cross-eyed Indian, 

 earnestly engaged in his medicine-performances for her recovery. 



A breech-cloth was his sole garb, as, with eyes half strained from their 

 sockets and volving in a strange unearthly manner, he stood, first upon one 

 foot and then upon the other, alternately — then, stamping the floor as if to 

 crush it through, and meanwhile, grunting, screeching, and bellowing, and 

 beating his breast or the wall with his clenched fists, — then, with inhaled 

 breath, swelling like a puff-ball, he would bend over his patient and apply 

 sugescents to her mouth, throat and breast. 



This done, sundry ejections of saliva prepared his mouth for the recep- 

 tion of an ample draught of water, with which he bespatted her face and 

 forehead. 



But yet, all these extraordinary eflbrts failed to produce their designed 

 effect. The poor squaw grew weaker, and her breathing became fainter 

 and more difficult. 



Some powerful restorative must be adopted, or she will soon be beyond 

 the reach of medicine, — so thought the officiating doctor ; or, at least, his 

 succeedino- antics indicated that such were the cogitations of his mind. 

 StandinfT for a minute or two in the attitude of reflection, an idea stuck 

 him. Ah, he has it now ! This cannot fail. 



Snatching a butcher-knife and hastening with it to the fire, he heats the 

 point to redness upon the coals, — then balancing it between his teeth, at a 

 toss he flings it vaulting above his head and backward upon the floor, — 

 then, re-catching it, he goes through the performance a second and a third 

 time. 



Thus premised, he addresses himself with threefold energy to the gro- 

 tesque and uncouth manoeuvres before described. If he had stamped his 

 feet, he now stamps them with a determination hitherto unknown ; — if he 

 had thumped his breast and beat the walls, he now thumps and beats as if 

 each blow were intended to prostrate the object against which it was directed, 

 — if he had grunted, screeched, and bellowed, he now grunts, screeches, 

 bellows, and yells, till the very room quakes wath the reverberations of 

 demoniac noise ; — if he had gagged, puffed, and swelled, he now gags, 

 puffs, and swells, as if he would explode from the potency of his extraor- 

 dinary inflations. 



Then, with an air of confidence, he hies to his patient and commences 

 a process of manipulation from her breast downwards, and reverse, — and 

 then again he repeats his previous operations, with scrnpulous exactness 

 and unsparing effort, in all their varie 1 minutiae. 



But, alas for the medicine-man ! — the squaw died, despite the orampo- 

 tence of his skill ! 



Then was enacted another such a scene of piteous wailing, as Indians 

 alone have in requisition, as vent for their grief. 



After the usual preliminaries, the corpse of the deceased was placed 

 upon a scaffold beside that of Susu-ceicha, the old chief of whom I have 

 spoken in a former chapter. Each member of the bereaved family depoa- 



