ng certain ordeals, which were looked upon
as a compact with the spirits of the air. The process of the vapor bath
was first endured; severe fasting followed, accompanied by constant
shouting, singing, beating a sort of drum, and smoking. After these
preliminaries the jugglers were installed by extravagant ceremonies,
performed with furious excitement and agitation. They possessed,
doubtless, some real knowledge of the healing art; and in external
wounds or injuries, the causes of which are obvious, they applied
powerful simples, chiefly vegetable, with considerable skill. With
decoctions from ginseng, sassafras, hedisaron, and a tall shrub called
bellis, they have been known to perform remarkable cures in cases of
wounds and ulcers. They scarified the seat of inflammation or rheumatic
pain skillfully with sharp-pointed bones, and accomplished the cupping
process by the use of gourd shells as substitutes for glasses. For all
internal complaints, their favorite specific was the vapor bath, which
they formed with much ingenuity from their rude materials. This was
doubtless a very efficient remedy, but they attached to it a
supernatural influence, and employed it in the ceremonies of solemn
preparation for great councils.

All cases of disease, when the cause could not be discovered, were
attributed to the influence of malignant spirits. To meet these, the
medicine-man, or juggler, invested himself with his mysterious
character, and endeavored to exorcise the demon by a great variety of
ceremonies, a mixture of delusion and imposture. For this purpose, he
arrayed himself in a strange and fanciful dress, and on his first
arrival began to sing and dance round the sufferer, invoking the
spirits with loud cries. When exhausted with these exertions, he
attributed the hidden cause of the malady to the first unusual idea that
suggested itself to his mind, and in the confidence of his supposed
inspiration, proclaimed the necessary cure. The juggler usually
contrived to avoid the responsibility of failure by ordering a remedy
impossible of attainment when the patient was not likely to recover. The
Iroquois believed that every ailment was a desire of the soul, and, when
death followed, it was from the desire not having been accomplished.

Among many of the Indian tribes, the barbarous custom of putting to
death those who were thought past recovery, existed, and still exists.
Others abandoned these unfortunates to perish of hunger a