238 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



Injuries are treated by the Mescaleros as follows: In dislocation 

 the operator rubs the injured part until it is warm and then with a 

 quick jerk forces the bone into place, rubbing medicine on afterward 

 to allay the pain, and finally tying the part with a rag. In frac- 

 ture rubbing and straightening as well as the pain-allaying medicine 

 are employed, and finally sticks are applied all around the broken 

 part as splints, being bound tightly in place with rags. In case of 

 open wounds, the Mescaleros grind very fine a certain brown root 

 and apply the powder. If the cut is large, they sew the skin with 

 sinew. When they think that a wound should continue to discharge 

 they sometimes insert therein a twisted rag (a custom probably of 

 Mexican origin). 



In swellings, the root of the i-ze I'ku-i (''yellow medicine") is 

 ground, mixed with water, and rubbed in. 



I-zS Itso-Jii is used by the Mescaleros on sores of all kinds. They 

 dry the root, grind it fine, apply powder to the afflicted parts. It is 

 said to act beneficially, especially in old suppurations. 



I-ze Jio-clii-ne ("black medicine": Balsamorrhiza ?) is used in frac- 

 tures or injuries of any kind. The root is ground, mixed with water, 

 and applied to the contused part. A small quantity may also be taken 

 internally. 



I-ia-ai (Artemisia dracunculoides) grows about White Mountain 

 (N. Mex.). The Mescaleros, as well as the Lipan, use it as a remedy. 

 They pound the root either fresh or dried, mix it with cold water, and 

 apply to all kmds of bruises or contusions, and even to fractures. 

 Repeated applications are used, which keep the injured part cool 

 and prevent swelling. 



The Navaho employ many herbs in curing their various bodily 

 disorders.*^ The use of some of these they possibly learned in the past 

 from captive Mexicans, who became incorporated into the tribe. 

 They also frequently employ sweat baths to restore health. In all 

 the more serious afflictions, however, as m other tribes, reliance is 

 placed in the tribal medicine-men, who are numerous, and who treat 

 almost entirely by fetishes, prayers, and incantations. In serious 

 cases and with rich patients the ceremonial part of the treatment 

 may be made very complex and important. The medicine-man 

 alone, or with several assistants, visits the hogan of the patient, or 

 has constructed a separate lodge, and conducts a curative cere- 

 mony of from one to nine nights' duration.'' 



Hostyn Klai, one of the medicine-men about Chaco canyon, brought 

 to the writer, to sell, a circular piece of sandstone about a foot in 



a See also Washington Matthews, Navajo Names for Plants, American Naturalist, Sept., 1886, 767 et 

 seq. 



b See other publications of Washington Matthews, particularly his Mountain Chant: a Navajo 

 Ceremony, Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 385 et seq.; and The Night 

 Chant: a Navaho Ceremony, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, vi, 1902; also, A. M, 

 Stephen, The Navajo, American Anthropologist, 1893, vi, 360-361. 



