86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



What might be considered natural remedies were not without a 

 magical aspect. For example, the Wenrohronon excelled in drawing 

 the arrow from the body of a wounded man. But, in order to be 

 effective, the extraction and the application of a certain root to the 

 wound had to be performed in the presence of a pregnant woman 

 (JE 15: 181; 17: 213). 



The greater part of their remedies consisted, however, of dances, 

 feasts, and ceremonies ( JR 17 : 121) . 



Men sweated to keep in health and prevent disease. When anyone 

 wished to sweat, he asked several of his friends to sweat with him. 

 A number of stones were heated red hot in a large fire and then taken 

 out and placed m a pile in the middle of the house or wherever they 

 wished to construct the sweat house if they were traveling. In a 

 circle around the pile of stones, they put sticks in the ground, waist 

 high or higher, and bent them over at the top. The naked men 

 then sat on the ground in the space between the stones and the sticks. 

 They were squeezed closely together around the pile of stones with 

 their knees raised up to their stomachs. After they were in this 

 position, the whole sweat house was covered with large pieces of bark 

 and a number of skins so that no heat or air could get out. To heat 

 themselves further, one sang and the rest shouted continually, as in 

 their dances, het^ het, het. Wlien it got too hot, they let in a little 

 air by taking off a skin from the top and sometimes drinking large 

 potfuls of cold water; then the sweat house was covered again. 

 Sometimes they burned tobacco. After taking the sweat, they bathed 

 in a river, if there was one nearby, or washed themselves in cold water, 

 if there was not. Bathing was followed by a feast that had been 

 cooking while they were sweating (S 197-198) .^^ [For other descrip- 

 tions of the sweat house and sweatings, see below, passim.] 



DREAMS AND THE DESIRES 



One of the basic beliefs of the Huron was that the desires of the soul 

 could cause illnesses and misfortune and were often revealed in 

 dreams.*'^ 



The desire might be a dance or an object, as a canoe, a new robe, 

 or a wampum collar ( JR 15 : 179) , or a black or white dog or a large 



"> Sweat baths, although no longer taken by the Iroquois, are remembered. Purges, 

 with some concomitant sweating, are still taken (Shimony 1961 a: 265-266; Parker 

 1913: 11 n.). 



«2 The Iroquois concept of "health" Is similarly a broad one ; it "includes not only 

 physical well-being, but also the maintenance of life, mental ease, and good luck" 

 (Shimony 1961 a: 261; 1961 b: 207). Dreams also indicate to the Iroquois what should 

 be done to maintain "health" (Fenton 1953: passim; Shimony 1961 a: passim). The 

 Iroquoian emphasis on dreams and on the fulfillment of dreams, a view that is partic- 

 ularly apparent in the early descriptions of Iroquoian culture, is, as Wallace (1958) 

 has pointed out, rather close to that of Freud. 



