MEDICAL PRACTICE. 297 
used in connection with the vapor sweat, and 
cold bath: wherefore we may consider them 
as the primitive Thomsonians. After a pro- 
fuse sweating, assisted by decoctions of sudo- 
rific herbs, in a tight lodge filled with vapor 
by pouring water over heated stones, and 
while still dripping, they will leap into a pool 
of cold water, and afterwards wrap them- 
selves ina buffalo rug. This course has 
proved successful in some diseases, and ex- 
traordinary cures have thus been performed : 
but in other cases, and especially in the 
small-pox, it has been attended with hor- 
rible fatality. They frequently let blood for 
disease, which is oftenest performed with the 
keen edge of a flint: and though they some- 
times open a vein, they more commonly make 
their incisions indiscriminately. They have 
great faith in their ‘medicine men,’ who pre- 
tend to cure the sick with conjurations and 
charms; and the Comanches and many 
others often keep up an irksome, monotonous 
Singing over the diseased person, to frighten 
away the evil spirit which is supposed to tor- 
ment him: all of which, from its effect upon 
the imagination, often tends, no doubt, to 
hasten recovery. 
These Indians keep no domestic animals, 
except horses, mules, and dogs. With the 
latter every lodge is abundantly supplied ; yet, 
as has already been shown, they are more 
useful appendages than the annoying packs 
which so often infest the country cabins, and 
frequently the villages, in the United States. 
