420. The Nez Percés 'are generally healthy, the only disorders which we have had occasion to remark being of scrophulous kind.' With the Sokulks 'a bad soreness of the eyes is a very common disorder.' 'Bad teeth are very general.' The Chilluckittequaws' diseases are sore eyes, decayed teeth, and tumors. The Walla Wallas have ulcers and eruptions of the skin, and occasionally rheumatism. The Chopunnish had 'scrofula, rheumatism, and sore eyes,' and a few have entirely lost the use of their limbs. Lewis and Clarke's Trav., pp. 341, 352, 382, 531, 549. The medicine-man uses a medicine-bag of relics in his incantations. Parker's Explor. Tour, pp. 240–1. The Okanagan medicine-men are called tlaquillaughs, and 'are men generally past the meridian of life; in their habits grave and sedate.' 'They possess a good knowledge of herbs and roots, and their virtues.' I have often 'seen him throw out whole mouthfuls of blood, and yet not the least mark would appear on the skin.' 'I once saw an Indian who had been nearly devoured by a grizzly bear, and had his skull split open in several places, and several pieces of bone taken out just above the brain, and measuring three-fourths of an inch in length, cured so effectually by one of these jugglers, that in less than two months after he was riding on his horse again at the chase. I have also seen them cut open the belly with a knife, extract a large quantity of fat from the inside, sew up the part again, and the patient soon after perfectly recovered.' The most frequent diseases are 'indigestion, fluxes, asthmas, and consumptions.' Instances of longevity rare. Ross' Adven., pp. 302–8. A desperate case of consumption cured by killing a dog each day for thirty-two days, ripping it open and placing the patient's legs in the warm intestines, administering some barks meanwhile. The Flatheads subject to few diseases; splints used for fractures, bleeding with sharp flints for contusions, ice-cold baths for ordinary rheumatism, and vapor bath with cold plunge for chronic rheumatism. Cox's Adven., vol. ii., pp. 90–3, vol. i., pp. 248–51. Among the Walla Wallas convalescents are directed to sing some hours each day. The Spokanes require all garments, etc., about the death-bed to be buried with the body, hence few comforts for the sick. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 426–7, 485. The Flatheads say their wounds cure themselves. De Smet, Voy., pp. 198–200. The Wascos cure rattlesnake bites by salt applied to the wound or by whisky taken internally. Kane's Wand., pp. 265, 273, 317–18. A female doctor's throat cut by the father of a patient she had failed to cure. Hines' Voy., p. 190. The office of medicine-men among the Sahaptins is generally hereditary. Men often die from fear of a medicine-man's evil glance. Rival doctors work on the fears of patients to get each other killed. Murders of doctors somewhat rare among the Nez Percés. Alvord, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., pp. 652–3, 655. Small-pox seems to have come among the Yakimas and Kliketats before direct intercourse with whites. Gibbs, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., pp. 405, 408. A Nez Percé doctor killed by a brother of a man who had shot himself in mourning for his dead relative; the brother in turn killed, and several other lives lost. Ross' Fur Hunters, vol. i., p. 239.
421. The Sokulks wrap the dead in skins, bury them in graves, cover with earth, and mark the grave by little pickets of wood struck over and about it. On the Columbia below the Snake was a shed-tomb sixty by twelve feet, open at the ends, standing east and west. Recently dead bodies wrapped in leather and arranged on boards at the west end. About the centre a promiscuous heap of partially decayed corpses; and at eastern end a mat with twenty-one skulls arranged in a circle. Articles of property suspended on the inside and skeletons of horses scattered outside. About the Dalles eight vaults of boards eight feet square, and six feet high, and all the walls decorated with pictures and carvings. The bodies were laid east and west. Lewis and Clarke's Trav., pp. 344–5, 359–60, 379–80, 557–8. Okanagans observe silence about the death-bed, but the moment the person dies the house is abandoned, and clamorous mourning is joined in by all the camp for some hours; then dead silence while the body is wrapped in a new garment, brought out, and the lodge torn down. Then alternate mourning and silence, and the deceased is buried in a sitting posture in a round hole. Widows must mourn two years, incessantly for some months, then only morning and evening. Ross' Adven., pp. 321–2. Frantic mourning, cutting the flesh, etc., by Nez Percés. Ross' Fur Hunters, vol. i., pp. 234–5, 238–9, vol. ii., p. 139. Destruction of horses and other property by Spokanes. Cox's Adven., vol. i., pp. 200–1. A Shushwap widow instigates the murder of a victim as a sacrifice to her husband. The horses of a Walla Walla chief not used after his death. Kane's Wand., pp. 178–9, 264–5, 277, 289. Hundreds of Wasco bodies piled in a small house on an island, just below the Dalles. A Walla Walla chief caused himself to be buried alive in the grave of his last son. Hines' Voy., pp. 159, 184–8. Among the Yakimas and Kliketats the women do the mourning, living apart for a few days, and then bathing. Okanagan bodies strapped to a tree. Stone mounds over Spokane graves. Gibbs and Stevens, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., pp. 405, 413, vol. xii., pt. i., p. 150. Pend d'Oreilles buried old and young alive when unable to take care of them. Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, pp. 211, 238. 'High conical stacks of drift-wood' over Walla Walla graves. Townsend's Nar., p. 157. Shushwaps often deposit dead in trees. If in the ground, always cover grave with stones. Mayne's BC, p. 304. Killing a slave by Wascos. White's Ogn., pp. 260–3. Dances and prayers for three days at Nez Percé chief's burial. Irving's Bonneville's Adven., p. 283. Burying infant with parents by Flatheads. De Smet, Voy., p. 173. Light wooden pilings about Shushwap graves. Milton and Cheadle's Northw. Pass., p. 242; Alvord, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 655; Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 104; Palmer, in BC Papers, pt. iii., p. 85; Gass' Jour., p. 219; Ind. Life, p. 55; Tolmie, in Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 237–8, 260–1.
422. Sokulks 'of a mild and peaceable disposition,' respectful to old age. Chilluckittequaws 'unusually hospitable and good humoured.' Chopunnish 'the most amiable we have seen. Their character is placid and gentle, rarely moved into passion.' 'They are indeed selfish and avaricious.' Will pilfer small articles. Lewis and Clarke's Trav., pp. 338, 341, 351, 376, 556–8, 564. The Flatheads 'se distinguent par la civilité, l'honnétété, et la bonté.' De Smet, Voy., pp. 31–2, 38–40, 47–50, 166–74, 202–4. Flatheads 'the best Indians of the mountains and the plains—honest, brave, and docile.' Kootenais 'men of great docility and artlessness of character.' Stevens and Hoecken, in De Smet's West. Miss., pp. 281, 284, 290, 300. Coeurs d'Alène selfish and poor-spirited. De Smet, Miss. de l'Orégon, p. 329. In the Walla Wallas 'an air of open unsuspecting confidence,' 'natural politeness,' no obtrusive familiarity. Flatheads 'frank and hospitable.' Except cruelty to captives have 'fewer failings than any of the tribes I ever met.' Brave, quiet, and amenable to their chiefs. Spokanes 'quiet, honest, inoffensive,' but rather indolent. 'Thoughtless and improvident.' Okanagans 'Indolent rascals;' 'an honest and quiet tribe.' Sanspoils dirty, slothful, dishonest, quarrelsome, etc. Coeurs d'Alène 'uniformly honest;' 'more savage than their neighbours.' Kootenais honest, brave, jealous, truthful. Kamloops 'thieving and quarrelling.' Cox's Adven., vol. i., pp. 145, 148, 192, 199, 239–40, 262–3, 344, vol. ii., pp. 44, 87–8, 109, 145–60. Okanagans active and industrious, revengeful, generous and brave. Ross' Adven., pp. 142, 290–5, 327–9. Skeen 'a hardy, brave people.' Cayuses far more vicious and ungovernable than the Walla Wallas. Nez Percés treacherous and villainous. Kane's Wand., pp. 263, 280, 290, 307–8, 315. Nez Percés 'a quiet, civil, people, but proud and haughty.' Palmer's Jour., pp. 128, 48, 53, 59, 61, 124–7.