Oowikapun | Page 3

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contact with the savage beasts in their conflict with them, they were
often severely wounded.
Fortunate was it for the injured one if he had companions near when the
bone was fractured or the flesh torn. If, when accidents occur, the
injuries are not considered very desperate, a little camp is improvised
and with a day or two of rest, with some simple remedies from nature's
great storehouse--the forest--a cure is quickly effected. If a leg or arm is
broken, a stretcher of young saplings is skillfully prepared, interwoven
with broad bands of soft bark, and on this elastic, easy couch the

wounded man is rapidly carried to his distant wigwam by his
companions.
When there are but two persons, and an accident happens to one of
them, two young trees that are tough and elastic are used. Then tops of
small branches are allowed to remain, and very much diminish the
jolting caused by the inequalities of the ground. No carriage spring ever
more successfully accomplished its purpose. A couple of cross bars
preserve the saplings in position, and the bark of some varieties of
shrubs or trees cut into bands and joined to either side forms a
comfortable couch. In this way an injured man has often been dragged
many miles by his companion, and in some instances it has been found
on his arrival at his forest home that the fractured bones were uniting,
and soon the limb was whole again.
With these healthy, simple children of the forest wounds heal with
great rapidity and fractured bones soon unite. This reparative power of
the Indians when injured is only paralleled by the wonderful stoicism
with which they bear injuries, and at times inflict upon themselves the
severest torture. With flints as substitutes for lances, they will cut open
the largest abscesses to the very bone. They will amputate limbs with
their hunting knives, checking the haemorrhage with red-hot stones as
was done long years ago by the surgeons of Europe.
With marvellous nerve many a wounded hunter or warrior has been
known to amputate his own limb, or sew up with sinew the gaping
wounds received in conflict with the hostile foe or savage beast. They
were cognisant of the value, and extensively used warm fomentations.
If rheumatism or other kindred diseases assailed them, the Turkish bath
in a very simple form was often used. Sometimes a close tent of
deerskins served the purpose. The patient was put in a little tent where,
in a hollow under him, heated stones were placed, over which water
was thrown until the confined air was heated to the required
temperature and saturated with the steam.
Oowikapun had fortunately broken no bones in his battle with the
savage wolf, but he knew that his wounds were dangerous. Some of
them were so situated in his arm that he could not reach them with his

mouth in order that he might suck out the poisonous saliva of the wolf
that he feared might be in them, and it now being in the depth of winter,
he could not obtain the medicinal herbs which the Indians use as
poultices for dangerous wounds of this description.
While brooding over his misfortune he suddenly remembered the
snowshoe tracks of the stranger, and at once resolved to try and find his
lodge, and secure help. To decide was to act. The few preparations
necessary were soon made, and taking the most direct route to the spot
where he had last seen the trail of the stranger he was soon in it. He was
uncertain at first whether to go backward or forward on it in order to
reach the wigwam, for he had not the remotest idea whether these
tracks led to it or from it. But his native shrewdness came into play to
solve the question. First he noticed from the way the shoes sunk in the
snow that the man was carrying a heavy load; next he observed that the
tracks were not like those of a hunter going out from his home, moving
about cautiously locking for game, but were rather those of a man well
loaded from a successful hunt, and pushing on straight for home with
his burden. Quickly had he read these things and arrived at his
conclusions; so he resolved to go on with the trail, and he was not
disappointed. He had travelled only a few miles, ere in a pleasant grove
of balsam trees, on the borders of a little ice-covered lake, he
discovered, by the ascending smoke from the top, the wigwam of his
unknown friend.
Without hesitancy he marched up to it, and lifting the large moose skin
which served as its only door, he stooped down and entered in. A
pleasant fire was burning on