n for her, and
assured the captain that if he would but cure her, he would place the
Americans near his heart. The worthy captain needed no such inducement.
His kind heart was already touched by the sufferings of the poor girl,
and his sympathies quickened by her appearance; for she was but about
sixteen years of age, and uncommonly beautiful in form and feature.
The only difficulty with the captain was, that he knew nothing of her
malady, and that his medical science was of a most haphazard kind. After
considering and cogitating for some time, as a man is apt to do when
in a maze of vague ideas, he made a desperate dash at a remedy. By his
directions, the girl was placed in a sort of rude vapor bath, much used
by the Nez Perces, where she was kept until near fainting. He then gave
her a dose of gunpowder dissolved in cold water, and ordered her to
be wrapped in buffalo robes and put to sleep under a load of furs and
blankets. The remedy succeeded: the next morning she was free from pain,
though extremely languid; whereupon, the captain prescribed for her a
bowl of colt's head broth, and that she should be kept for a time on
simple diet.

The great chief was unbounded in his expressions of gratitude for the
recovery of his daughter. He would fain have detained the captain a
long time as his guest, but the time for departure had arrived. When the
captain's horse was brought for him to mount, the chief declared that
the steed was not worthy of him, and sent for one of his best horses,
which he presented in its stead; declaring that it made his heart glad
to see his friend so well mounted. He then appointed a young Nez Perce
to accompany his guest to the next village, and "to carry his talk"
concerning them; and the two parties separated with mutual expressions
of good will.

The vapor bath of which we have made mention is in frequent use among
the Nez Perce tribe, chiefly for cleanliness. Their sweating houses, as
they call them, are small and close lodges, and the vapor is produced by
water poured slowly upon red-hot stones.

On passing the limits of O-push-y-e-cut's domains, the travellers left
the elevated table-lands, and all the wild and romantic scenery which
has just been described. They now traversed a gently undulating country,
of such fertility that it excited the rapturous admiration of two of the
captain's followers, a Kentuckian and a native of Ohio. They declared
that it surpassed any land that they had e