Navajo Indians Take 'Bath' Without Water

1914

Through Necessity, They Have Adopted Unique Plan for Bodily Cleanliness

It has already been indicated that the great desideratum of the Navajo country is water. A perennial water famine is not conducive to habits of bodily cleanliness; and a real bath in real water is something that the average Navajo knows nothing of. Nevertheless, these Bedouins of the Southwest realize that a thorough cleansing of the body is necessary, and have invented a method of accomplishing that end that is well adapted to the land of thirst in which they dwell. This is the sweat bath.

A miniature hogan is built of sticks of wood, and banked up with earth until it is air-tight, with the exception of an opening large enough to admit the body. A fire is built outside, in which large stones are heated red hot. Then these are placed in the sweat house, in a position in which the "bather" will be unlikely to come in contact with them. Then the candidate for a bath crawls in, keeping his head in the open air. One or more heavy blankets are placed over the opening and tightly around the neck of the occupant of the sweat house, to prevent the escape of the heated air.

The Indians remain in the sweat house for several hours, perspiring with incredible freedom. When they emerge they dry themselves by rubbing with the hot sand of the desert. As a cleansing agent, the sweat bath would be hard to beat, although it is a rather heroic substitute for the tub bath of civilization. Nevertheless, it opens the pores of the skin, promotes circulation, and has much to recommend it in preference to the practice of the members of some other tribes, of never taking a bath at all. — Christian Herald.