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
clean, clear, clayey mud, and another plunge, I lay in the sun on a bed
of willows, listening to the Indians tell stories, and I can truthfully
say I never felt so clean in my life.
[Illustration: A MOHAVE INDIAN WRAPPED UP IN HIS RABBIT SKIN BLANKET.]
This bath is taken by thousands of the Southwest Indians once a week
as a matter of religion, so that, as a fact, while their clothes are
ragged and dirty, and they themselves appear to be dirty, they are
really clean. It must be confessed, on the other hand, that too many
Americans value the appearance of cleanliness more than the reality.
They would far rather appear clean even if they were not than _be_
clean and appear dirty. It is better to combine both reality and
appearance, but, for my own sake, if I had to choose between the two, I
believe I would rather _be_ clean than only _appear_ clean.
Civilized man, for centuries, has used hot baths of various kinds
for remedial and healing purposes. Throughout the world, wherever
hot springs are found, men and women congregate in large numbers,
palatial hotels are built, bath-houses established, and an army of
hotel-keepers, physicians, nurses, masseurs, and bath operators
organized. Some go to the baths just as they do any other fashionable
thing, or in order to mingle with the gay and fashionable throng.
Other idlers go purely for the pleasure they gain from such
associations, while still others go for the health they long for,--the
strength and vigor they have lost. And there can be no question that
they often gain it. In spite of the fashionable doctors who care less
for the health of their patients than they do for their own fame and
pockets; in spite of the physical ills that come from the altogether
inappropriate diet of the hotel dining-rooms; in spite of the
excitement of balls and parties, receptions and routs, common at such
places; and in spite of the injurious influences of the gaming tables
too often maintained, the use of the waters is often beneficial to a
number of the patients. Were they to use the waters rationally, live
hygienically, avoid all stimulating foods and drinks, and religiously
refrain from all unnatural excitements, there is no question but that
the use of the hot waters, the hot mud packs, and the like, would give
health to many thousands who now derive but little benefit from them.
From whom did the white race learn the use of the hot bath, the mud
bath, and the like? He learned it from the Indian, and if he would
study the present methods of the Indians he would find many details
connected with these baths that he might learn to his great advantage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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