was to go through a thorough course of
sweating and personal cleansing. This was done by resorting to
their sweat houses, which were similar in construction to the
_o'-chums_, except that the top was rounded and the whole
structure was covered thickly with mud and earth to exclude the
air. These houses were heated with hot stones and coals of fire,
and the hunters would then crawl into them and remain until in a
profuse perspiration, when they would come out and plunge into
cold water for a wash-off. This was repeated until they thought
themselves sufficiently free from all bodily odor so that the
deer could not detect their approach by scent, and flee for
safety.

After this purification they kept themselves strictly as
celibates until the hunt was over, though their women went along
to help carry the outfit, keep camp, cook, search for berries and
pine nuts, and assist in bringing to camp and taking care of the
deer as killed, and in "packing" the meat out to the place of
rendezvous appointed for the grand ceremonies and feast.

Their usual manner of cooking fresh meat was by broiling on hot
coals, or roasting before the fire or in the embers. Sometimes,
however, they made a cavity in the ground, in which they built a
fire, which was afterwards cleared away and the cavity lined with
very hot stones, on which they placed the meat wrapped in green
herbage, and covered it with other hot rocks and earth, to remain
until suitably cooked.

When they had a surplus of fresh meat they cut it in strips and
hung it in the sun-shine to dry. The dried meat was generally
cooked by roasting in hot embers, and then beaten to soften it
before being eaten.

A young hunter never ate any of the first deer he killed, as he
believed that if he did so he would never succeed in killing
another.

FISHING.

They had various methods of catching fish--with hook and line,
with a spear, by weir-traps in the stream, and by saturating the
water with the juice of the soap-root plant (_Chlorogalum
pomeridianum_). Before they could obtain fishhooks of modern
make, they made them of bone. Their lines were made of the tough,
fibrous, silken bark of the variety of milkweed or silkweed,
already mentioned. Their spears were small poles pointed with a
single tine of bone, which was so arranged that it became
detached by the struggles of the fish, and was then held by a
string fastened near its center, which turned it crosswise of the
wound and