| | 1 | Author: | Lewis
Meriwether
1774-1809 | Add | | | Title: | History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Lewis and Clark collection | UVA-LIB-LewisClark | University of Virginia Library, Westward Exploration collection | UVA-LIB-WestwardExplor | | | | Description: | Friday, October 11, 1805. This morning the wind was
from the east, and the weather cloudy. We set out early, and
at the distance of a mile and a half reached a point of rocks in
a bend of the river towards the left, near to which was an
old Indian house, and a meadow on the opposite bank.
Here the hills came down towards the water, and formed by
the rocks, which have fallen from their sides, a rapid over
which we dragged the canoes. We passed, a mile and a
half further, two Indian lodges in a bend towards the right,
and at six miles from our camp of last evening reached the
mouth of a brook on the left. Just above this stream we
stopped for breakfast at a large encampment of Indians on
the same side: we soon began to trade with them for a
stock of provisions, and were so fortunate as to purchase
seven dogs and all the fish they would spare: while this traffic
was going on, we observed a vapour bath or sweating
house in a different form from that used on the frontiers of
the United States, or in the Rocky mountains. It was a
hallow square of six or eight feet deep, formed in the river
bank by damming up with mud the other three sides, and
covering the whole completely except an aperture about two
feet wide at the top. The bathers descend by this hole,
taking with them a number of heated stones, and jugs of
water; and after being seated round the room, throw the
water on the stones till the steam becomes of a temperature
sufficiently high for their purposes. The baths of the
Indians in the Rocky mountains is of different sizes, the
most common being made of mud and sticks like an oven,
but the mode of raising the steam is exactly the same.
Among both these nations it is very uncommon for a man
to bathe alone, he is generally accompanied by one or sometimes
several of his acquaintances; indeed it is so essentially
a social amusement, that to decline going in to bathe when
invited by a friend is one of the highest indignities which
can be offered to him. The Indians on the frontiers generally
use a bath which will accommodate only one person, and
is formed of a wickered work of willows about four feet high,
arched at the top, and covered with skins. In this the patient
sits till by means of the heated stones and water he
has perspired sufficiently. Almost universally these baths
are in the neighbourhood of running water, into which the
Indians plunge immediately on coming out of the vapour
bath, and sometimes return again, and subject themselves
to a second perspiration. This practice is, however, less
frequent among our neighbouring nations than those to the
westward. This bath is employed either for pleasure or
for health, and is used indiscriminately for rheumatism,
venereal, or in short for all kinds of diseases. I wrote you last by the Governor Strong, Cleveland, for Boston;
the present is by the brig Lydia, Hill, of the same place. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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