Arizona republican., 1899-05-08
NAVAJO BATH HUTS
How They Drive Away Evil
 Spirits and Disease.
No Use for Water HpDEie d Externally. The Red Hans Burden-rie diCine r1an as f1aSfer of Ceremonies Making Fire By Friction.

what it may has no great f0ndneSs for water taken internally, ard 10 use at
 al for it as an external application.
 One CT two quarts tof water will carry
 a family through a day, and even in 1 the arid regions of New Mexico and ] Arizona, where the atmosphere takes
 up moisture from the body before it
 reaches, the surface of the skin, the per
 capita Of water used is small. Perhaps the scarcity of that fluid has some thing to do with the wonderful econ
 o1ny in its use which prevails, for it
 is almost never applied to the body, win She single exception that no In
 dian will lose an opportunity to wash
 his ilcng, glossy black hair. Of their
 hair they are as pr-ud as any woman,
 and devote much time and attention to
 it's proper care, even sacrificing a small
 quantity of the precious water now and
 bhCn fer that purpose. Two quarts, with the bruised roots Of the yucca, ttr
 soap weed, are all that is necessary f-,
 this purpose.
 As might be expected under these
 conditions the tribes are periodically
 visited by dreadful epidenics of small Iox, whi,la often decima'te them. AL
 though the Indian population of the southwest increases steadily from year
 to year, cnce in a decade or so this plague cuts down 50 many that taken
 over any considerable period Of time
 each tribe shows decrease in mum
 ber5. This is the burden which the
 Indian has taken from the white man, although the latter did not free himself
 from it when he passed it over. But
 aside from the great epidemics which
 carry off hundreds and even thcUsands
 there is much illness prevalent among
 the Indians, and oddly enough the great and universal remedy in the h.
 dian mind for all ills of the flesh and
 many of the spirit is a bath. Not a water bath as we use the wtord, but an
 operation something on the order Of a Turkish bath, with the water
 emitted.
 T. should be said i'll the first place that cause and effect as we use the term and apply it to nalsura2 phe- ncmerl, are absolutely inconprehens- ible to the Indian mind. He can form no conception Of medicine, fer example, which even remotely resembles ours. Tcl his mind all diseases and. disorders are the work of evil spirits. and the remedy is to exercise those spirits and, if possible, induce them D P2s5 i1Co some substance, such as a magic stone, where they will be under the control Of the medicine man, wh3 is, in fact, the priest, for he merely sings oyer his E3aticnt and never thinks Of giving him anything but prayers. Even in the case of q person bitten by rattle snake the pa,psble cause Of injury is entirely overlooked, and resort is had tC, songs and prayers unt1 the patient dies In that case, death is au,yibuted to his own evil spirii e. to the lack Of skill on the part of the priest singers, never to the poison Of the serpent.
 While this aspect Of the Indian mind is universal, nowhere is it better eX- hititsd than on the Navaho reserva- ticn. Many parts Of that region in northern Arizona have never been wis ited by white man and, indeed, the children of some Of the cider chiefs, who stay away from the agency, as q ma tier Of principle have never seen an American, and their families have
 little intercourse with each other each living by itself and, as it were, on it's ciwn ground. Thus many of the an CIGLG CLISuCILS dIlI IJlS+o GdIi StIII OG found in their abcrigina! forms, not St all modified by the influence of the white man. Among these Iiees nCne is Of greater importance than the bath. which is in effect a religious ceremony, undertaken for the purpose of driving away z-na evil spirit which has taken possession Of the patient and produced the phencmena we call disease.
 n covered 'huts sea ttered widely through out the reservation and never grouped into villages Rude as the huts ap- Pesr, however, they are always built strictly according to rule and the building is followed by an elaborate religious ceremony by which the house is dedicated. Each timber in it must be laid ir a certain way and in Q pre- scribed order, and finally a doorway is added not unlike the dorn2er windows Of our houses. This is the home prep CT, but all over the reservation there are hundreds of little structures which are miniature models, as it were, of tho houses, except that they lack the projecting doorway. These miniature huts, sc2rce.y as high as mans hip, look like children's play houses, but they occupy an important place in the Navaho system, for they are the sweat hi-uses CT bath houses and are the main reliance of thC9e people against sorcery and disease. Each of these is designed to hcld bu- one person at time, and he mus crawl in and squat upon his heels, with his knees drawn up to his chin.
 In the construction Of the sweat houses the same procedure is followed as in the building of a home hut, each timber in the latter having it's counter part in shape and function in the min iaturc structure, and, like the hcmc hut, the doorway is invariably placed ! 10 face the naSt When the framework i is in place enough bark and earth is ! laid to make the structure practically | air tight when the entrance is closed. :