What the White Race May Learn from the IndianJames, George Wharton
Religion
What the White Race May Learn from the Indian
James, George Wharton
Indians of North America
The Indian man and woman will pick up an olla of water, containing a
gallon or more, and swinging it easily to the top of the head will walk
along with hands by their sides, as unconcernedly as if they carried no
fragile bowl balanced and ready to fall at the slightest provocation.
And they will climb up steep and difficult trails, still balancing
the jar upon the head. The effect of this is to compel a natural and
dignified carriage. I know Navaho, Hopi, and Havasupai women who
walk with a simple dignity that is not surpassed in drawing-room of
president or king.
Then, too, another reason for this dignified, healthfully erect
carriage is found in the fact that neither men nor women wear
high-heeled shoes. The moccasin is always flat, and therefore the foot
of the Indian rests firmly and securely upon the floor. No doubt if the
Indian woman wished to imitate the forward motion of the kangaroo, or
any other frivolous creature, she could tilt herself in an unnatural
and absurd position by high-heeled shoes, but in all my twenty-five
years of association with them I never found one foolish enough to do
so.
The men, as well as the women, gain this upright attitude as the
result of “holding up their vital organs” when they go for their long
hunting and other tramps. It seems to me that fully one-half the white
men (and women) we meet on the streets are suffering from prolapsus
of the transverse colon. This is evidenced by the projection of the
abdomen, which generally grows larger as they grow older; so that we
have “tailors for fat men,” and special implements of torture for
compressing into what we call a decent shape the _embonpoint_ of women.
But, I ask, as I see the Indians, _why do white people have this
paunch?_
[Illustration: APACHE MAIDEN CARRYING A BASKET WATER OLLA UPON HER
HEAD. FULL OF WATER THIS WEIGHS MANY POUNDS.]
An Indian with a “bay-window” stomach, a paunch, is seldom, if ever
seen. Why? He has long ago learned the art, the necessity, of keeping
his abdominal muscles stretched tight. His belly is always held in. The
muscles across his abdomen are like steel. The result is the transverse
colon is held securely in position. It has no prolapse, hence there
is no paunch. If we taught ourselves, as the Indian does, to draw in
the abdomen and at the same time breathe long and deep, this prolapsus
would be practically impossible. Half the medicine that is sold to
so-called “kidney sufferers” is sold to people whose kidneys are no
more diseased than are those of the man in the moon. It is the pulling
and tugging of the falling colon that causes the wearisome backache;
and the lying and scoundrelous wretches who prey upon the ignorant
write out their catch-penny advertisements describing these feelings,
so that when the sufferer picks up their literature he is as good as
entrapped for “a dozen or more bottles,” or until his money gives out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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