THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 455 



property, accessible to all, and resorted to by all, male and female, old and young» 

 siek and well. 



In every Mandan lodge is to be seen a crib or basket, mneli in the shape of a 

 bathing-tub, curiously woven with willow boughs, and sufficiently largo to receive 

 any person of the family in a reclining or recumbent posture; which, when any ono 

 is to take a bath, is carried by the squaw to the sudatory for the purpose, and brought 

 back to the wigwam again after it has been used. 



These sudatories are always near the village, above or below it, on the bank of the 

 river. They aro generally built of skins (in form of a Crow or Sioux lodge, which I 

 have before described), covered with buffalo skins sewed tight together, with a kind 

 of furnace in the center; or, in other words, in the center of the lodge aro two walls 

 of stone about 6 feet long and 2| apart, and about 3 feet high; across and over this 

 space, between the two walls, are laid a number of round sticks, on which the bath- 

 ing crib is placed (vide Plate 71). [Vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years, facing this page.] 

 Contiguous to the lodge, and outside of it, is a little furnace something similar, 

 in the side of the bank, where the woman kindles a hot fire, and heats to a red 

 heat a number of large stones, which are kept at these places for this particular 

 purpose ; and having them all in readiness she goes home or sends word to inform 

 her husband or other one who is waiting, that all is ready, when he makes his 

 appearance, entirely naked, though with a largo buffalo robe wrapped around 

 him. He then enters the lodge and places himself in the crib or basket, either 

 on his back or in a sitting posture (the latter of which is generally preferred), with 

 his back towards the door of the lodge, when the squaw brings in a largo 

 stone red hot, between two sticks (lashed together somewhat in the form of a 

 pair of tongs), and, placing it under him, throws cold water upon it, which raises 

 a profusion of vapor about him. He is at once enveloped in a cloud of steam, and 

 a woman or child will sit at a little distance and continue to dash water upon the 

 stone, whilst the matron of the lodge is out and preparing to make her appearance 

 with another heated stone ; or he will sit and dip from a wooden bowl, with a ladlo 

 made of the mountain sheep's horn, and throw upon the heated stones, with his own 

 hands, the water which he is drawing through his lungs and pores in the next mo- 

 ment, in the most delectable and exhilarating vapors, as it distills through the 

 mat of wild sage and other medicinal and aromatic herbs, which he has strewed over 

 the bottom of his basket, and on which he reclines. 



During all this time the lodge is shut perfectly tight, and he quaffs this delicious 

 and renovating draught to his lungs with deep-drawn sighs, and with extended nos- 

 trils, until he is drenched in the most profuse degree of perspiration that can be pro- 

 duced; when he makes a kind of strangled signal, at which the lodge is opened, and 

 he darts forth with the speed of a frightened deer and plunges headlong into the 

 river, from which he instantly escapes again, wraps his robe around him and " leans ! ' 

 as fast as possible for home. Here his limbs are wiped dry, and wrapped close and 

 tight within the fur of the buffalo robes, in which he takes his nap, with his feet to 

 the fire; then oils his limbs and hair with bear's grease, dresses and plumes himself 

 for a visit, a feast, a parade, or a council ; or slicks down his long hair, and rubs his 

 oiled limbs to a polish, with a piece of soft buckskin, prepared to join in games of 

 ball or Tchung-lcee. 



Such is the sudatory or the vapor bath of the Mandans, and, as I before observed, it 

 is resorted to both as an everyday luxury by those who have the time and energy or 

 industry to indulge in it; and also used by the sick as a remedy for nearly all the dis- 

 eases which are known amongst them. 



Fevers are very rare, and in fact almost unknown amongst these people; but in the 

 few cases of fever which have been known, this treatment has been applied, and 

 without the fatal consequences which we would naturally predict. The greater part 

 of their diseases are inflammatory rheumatisms, and other chronic diseases; and for 

 these, this mode of treatment, with their modes of life, does admirably well. This 



