Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

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 performed
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.