426 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [bth. ann. 46 



bandage to the part affected. We can bear witness to the efficacy 

 of this root in the cure of the bite of the rattlesnake or in alleviat- 

 ing the pain and reducing the tension and inflammation of frozen 

 parts, gunshot wounds, etc. It has a slightly pungent taste re- 

 sembling black pepper, and produces a great deal of saliva while 

 chewing it. Its virtues are known to all the tribes with which we 

 are acquainted, and it is often used with success. A decoction of the 

 root of cat-tail (pi. 67, b) is also used to reduce inflammation, and 

 given internally to produce perspiration, but mostly as an external 

 application for wounds, sprains, and pains of all kinds, as also the in- 

 ner bark of the red willow ; both of which are said to be beneficial, 

 and are much used by the Indians and French voyageurs in all the 

 Indian country. 



At the risk of a smile and perhaps something more from the en- 

 lightened civilized medical fraternity we will now state how they 

 absolutely can and do cure hydrophobia, in hopes of furnishing 

 them with a hint that may be improved upon. We have never 

 actually seen this operation, but are as certain of its being done as 



we can be of anything not seen but in all 

 other respects well authenticated. Al- 

 though Indians are often bitten by mad 

 wolves, yet they never die from the disease 

 if operated upon. After it is known that 

 the patient has hydrophobia, the symptoms 

 of which they are well acquainted with, and has had a fit or two, he is 

 sewed up in a fresh rawhide of a buffalo. With two cords attached to 

 the head and foot of the bale the man is swung backward and forward 

 through a hot fire until the skin is burnt to cinders and the patient is 

 burned and suffocated [sic]. He is brought to the brink of the grave 

 by the operation; taken out in a state of profuse perspiration and 

 plunged into cold water ; and if he survives the treatment the disease 

 disappears. The remedy is terrible. Now, if the poison of the rattle- 

 snake is expelled by perspiration by administering ammonia and 

 other remedies, might not the poison communicated by the rabid 

 animal undergo a like process by the violent treatment mentioned, 

 or intense heat produce the desired constitutional revolution and 

 effect a cure. 



Depletion by Bleeding. — They bleed often, both when the pulse is 

 full from sickness and at any time they think it beneficial. 



The instrument is a sharpened arrow point or any other small piece 

 of pointed iron. (Fig. 30.) They wrap the whole of this with sinew 

 except as much as they wish to enter the vein. It is then tied into a 

 split stick and secured firmly with sinew and being laid on the vein is 

 knocked in suddenly with the thumb and middle finger. They also 



