oIbeechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 61 



any particular ritualistic meaning. The general feeling among the 

 medicine men is that the blowing tube is used so as to be better able 

 to direct the liquid or the air. If one feels that this effect is attained 

 without the aid of the tube the latter is not used. 



As is customary when he is having medicine administered to him, 

 the patient should face the east when the liquid or the medicine man's 

 breath is being blown over him. 



Again, instead of being blown over the patient the m.edicine may 

 be s'prinkhd over him; a small pine branch is used for this purpose. 



In a few cases the cure is expected from an inunction with the 

 liquid of the parts affected. This procedure is especially frequently 

 associated ^vith the "scratching" of the patient. (See p. 68.) 



Another method which can boast of all but intertribal reputation 

 is to spray or pour the decoction on previously heated stones and to 

 expose the 'patient to the vapors thus obtained. 



A practice which is very much related to the one just mentioned is 

 the sweat bath, hardly less popular with the majority of the North 

 American aborigines. The difference between the sweat bath and the 

 vapor bath described seems to be that in the latter the curing power is 

 expected from the ingredients of the decoction sprinkled on the stones, 

 whereas in the sweat bath the object is primarily to cause the patient 

 to profusely perspire. 



This custom is another one that has been discontinued, and it 

 would not be possible now to obtain such a vivid description of it as 

 Mooney has left us in his notes: ''The operation was formerly per- 

 formed in the a'st or 'hothouse,' a small low hut, intended for sleeping 

 purposes, in which a fire was always kept burning. It has but one 

 small door, which was closed during the operation, in order to confine 

 the steam. The patient divested himself of all clothing, and entered 

 the a'st, when the doctor poured the hquid over the heated stones 

 already placed inside, then retired and closed the door, leaving the 

 patient to remain inside until in a profuse perspiration from the steam 

 which filled the hothouse. The door was then opened and the man 

 came out, naked as he was, and plunged into the neighboring stream. 

 The sweat bath, with the accompanjdng cold plunge bath, was a 

 favorite part of Indian medical practice as far north as Alaska, so 

 much so that it was even adopted in cases of smallpox epidemics, when 

 it almost invariably resulted fatally. The East Cherokee lost 300 

 souls in consequence of pursuing this course of treatment for smallpox 

 in 1865. The sweat bath is still in use among them,-^ but as the 

 a' St is no longer built, the patient is steamed in his own house, and 

 afterwards plunges into the nearest stream, or is placed in the open 

 doorway and drenched with cold water over his naked body." 



-8 This was written by Mooney about 40 years ago. 



