Temporary blindness, which sometimes eventuates in permanent loss of sight, occurs during the winter to incautious travellers who pass over the prairies covered with snow, from which the solar light is so brilliantly reflected. A party that accompanied Mr. Dougherty on a journey, being thus exposed, became unable to distinguish objects, and had not his sight been preserved, they might never have regained their stockade.
The blind are not neglected by their family and friends; on the contrary, we had several opportunities of observing them to be well clothed and fed, and much at their ease. When superannuated, however, they are not exempted from the fate attendant on that state.
An affection, or pain in the breast, distinguished by the name of Mong-ga-ne-a, seems to be the consequence of excessive indulgence in tobacco, and the { 241} habitual inhaling of the smoke of it into the lungs. In their attempts to alleviate this complaint, the magi affect to extract from the part, by suction, balls and pellets of hair, and other extraneous substances, which they had previously concealed in their mouths for the purpose of deceiving the patient.
An individual applied to one of our party to cure him of this pain, but being advised to desist from the indulgence of tobacco smoking, he appeared rather willing to bear with his disease.
They sometimes say that their liver pains them, a disorder which they call Ta-pe-ne-a.
They are not exempt from catarrhs, the consequence of great exposure to sudden vicissitudes of temperature; a disease similar to the influenza is sometimes prevalent, and known by the name of Hoh-pa.
A deaf and dumb boy occurred in the Oto nation; an adult with a curved spine; and another with an inflexible knee, the leg forming a right angle with the thigh. But we have not observed any one of them with either eye deviating from the true line of vision.
The medical and surgical knowledge of the Omawhaws is very inconsiderable, and what there is, is so much blended with ceremonies, which to us appear superstitious, inert, and absurd, that it would seem, that, with the exception of a few instances, they have no reasonable mode of practice.
Sweating-baths are much in estimation, and are used for the cure of many ailments. These are temporary constructions, generally placed near the edge of a water-course; they are formed of osiers, or small pliant branches of trees, stuck into the soil in a circular arrangement, bent over at top so as to form a hemispherical figure, and covered in every part with bison robes. They are of different sizes, some are calculated to contain but a single individual, whilst others afford space for five or six at once. The invalid enters with a kettle of water and some heated { 242} stones, on which the water is sprinkled until the steam produced is sufficient for his purpose. When they conceive that his perspiration has been as profuse as necessary, he is taken out and plunged into the water, and even if the stream be covered with ice, this is broken to admit the patient. He is not subjected a second time to the action of the steam, but covers himself with his robe and returns home.