“The medicine man now took a common pipe which had been lighted, and blew four whiffs of smoke toward the sky, four toward the ground, and four on the medicine pipe stem, and prayed to the Sun, Old Man, and all medicine animals, to pity the people and give them long life.  The drums were then produced, the war song commenced, and the old man, with a rattle in each hand, danced four times to the door-way and back.  He stooped slightly, kept all his limbs very rigid, extending his arms like one giving a benediction, and danced in time to the drumming and singing with quick, sudden steps.  This is the medicine pipe dance, which no one but a pipe-owner is allowed to perform.  Afterward, he picked up the pipe stem, and, holding it aloft in front of him, went through the same performance.  At the conclusion of the dance, the pipe stem was passed from one to another of the guests, and each one in turn held it aloft and repeated a short prayer.  The man on my right prayed for the health of his children, the one on my left for success in a proposed war expedition.  This concluded the ceremony.”

Disease among the Blackfeet is supposed to be caused by evil spirits, usually the spirits or ghosts of enemies slain in battle.  These spirits are said to wander about at night, and whenever opportunity offers, they shoot invisible arrows into persons.  These cause various internal troubles, such as consumption, hemorrhages, and diseases of the digestive organs.  Mice, frogs, snakes, and tailed batrachians are said to cause much disease among women, and hence should be shunned, and on no account handled.

Less important external ailments and hurts, such as ulcers, boils, sprains, and so on, are treated by applying various lotions or poultices, compounded by boiling or macerating certain roots or herbs, known only to the person supplying them.  Rheumatic pains are treated in several ways.  Sometimes the sweat lodge is used, or hot rocks are applied over the place where the pain is most severe, or actual cautery is practised, by inserting prickly pear thorns in the flesh, and setting fire to them, when they burn to the very point.

The sweat lodge, so often referred to, is used as a curative agent, as well as in religious ceremonies, and is considered very beneficial in illness of all kinds.  The sweat lodge is built in the shape of a rough hemisphere, three or four feet high and six or eight in diameter.  The frame is usually of willow branches, and is covered with cow-skins and robes.  In the centre of the floor, a small hole is dug out, in which are to be placed red hot stones.  Everything being ready, those who are to take the sweat remove their clothing and crowd into the lodge.  The hot rocks are then handed in from the fire outside, and the cowskins pulled down to the ground to exclude any cold air.  If a medicine pipe man is not at hand, the oldest person present begins to pray to the Sun, and at the same time sprinkles water on the