atal, and it was mountain fever that had seized upon the delicate frame
of the little woman. This fever is often tenacious and intermittent;
sometimes it is congestive. Indian medicine may cure a slight attack,
and prevent too frequent returns of more violent ones; but if the case
is a serious one, Indian remedies are of no avail. Say suffered from a
slight attack at first, and recovered from it. A primitive cold-water
treatment was effective for the time being; but in the year ensuing
fever set in again, and no sudorific was of any use. She tried a
decoction of willow bark, but it did her no good. She took the root of
the yucca, or soapweed, and drank the froth produced by whipping water
with it, but gained no relief. The poor woman did not know that these
remedies are not employed by the Indians in a case like hers, but only
for toothache and, in the case of soapweed, for consumption.

Thus it went on for three years. During the dry seasons there were no
signs of the illness; but as soon as, in July or August, thunderstorms
shed their moisture over the mountains, and chilly nights alternated
with warm sunshine, the fever made its appearance. Two years before the
rainy season had lasted unusually long, and it was followed immediately
by snow-falls. The attacks from the disease were therefore unusually
violent, and by November Say Koitza thought herself dying from weakness
and exhaustion. Her condition was such that her husband felt alarmed,
and every effort was made to relieve her by the aid of such arts as the
Indian believes in. The chief medicine-man, or great shaman, of the
tribe had to come and see the patient, pray by her side, and then go
home to fast and mortify himself for four consecutive days. His efforts
had no effect whatever. Every indigenous medicine that was thought of
had been already used, and none had been of any avail.

At last the shaman, encouraged by the many blue and green stones, cotton
wraps, and quantities of corn meal which Zashue Tihua contributed in
reward of his juggleries, resolved to make a final trial by submitting
himself and his associates to the dangerous ordeal of fire-eating for
the invalid's sake. This ceremony was always performed by a certain
group of medicine-men, called therefore Hakanyi Chayani, or Fire
Shamans. The Hishtanyi Chayan was their official head, and he, with the
four others belonging to the fire-eating crew, fasted rigorously for
four days and nights. Then they w