THE INDIAN AND NASAL AND DEEP BREATHING
The Indian believes absolutely in nasal breathing. Again and again I
have seen the Indian mother, as soon as her child was born, watch it
to see if it breathed properly. If not, she would at once pinch the
child’s lips together and keep them pinched until the breath was taken
in and exhaled easily and naturally through the nostrils. If this did
not answer, I have watched her as she took a strip of buckskin and tied
it as a bandage below the chin and over the crown of the head, forcing
the jaws together, and then with another bandage of buckskin she
covered the lips of the little one. Thus the habit of nasal breathing
was formed immediately the child saw the light, and it knew no other
method.
As one walks through the streets of every large city, he sees the
dull and vacant eye, the inert face, of the mouth-breather; for, as
every physician well knows, the mouth-breather suffers from lack of
memory and a general dullness of the intellect. Not only that, but
he habitually submits himself to unnecessary risks of disease. In
breathing through the nose, the disease germs, which abound in our
city streets and are sent floating through the air by every passing
wind, are caught by the gluey mucus or the capillaries of the mucous
membranes. The wavy air passages of the nose lead one to assume that
they are so constructed expressly for this purpose, as the germs, if
they escape being caught at one angle, are pretty sure to be trapped
in turning another. When this mucus is expelled in the act of “blowing
the nose,” the germs go with it, and disease is prevented. But when
these germs are taken in through the mouth, they go directly into
the throat, the bronchial tubes, and the lungs, and if they are
lively and strong, they lodge there and take root and propagate with
such fearful rapidity that in a very short time a new patient with
tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, or some other disease, is created.
Hence, emulate the Indian. Breathe through your nose; do not use it as
an organ of speech. At the same time that you care for yourself, watch
your children, and even if you have to bandage them up while they are
asleep, as the Indians do, compel them to form early this useful and
healthful habit of nasal breathing.
[Illustration: INDIAN SHOWING EFFECT OF DEEP BREATHING IN WONDERFUL
LUNG DEVELOPMENT].
But not only do the Indians breathe through the nose: they are also
experts in the art of deep breathing. The exercises that are given in
open-air deep breathing at the Battle Creek sanitarium each morning
show that we are learning this useful and beneficial habit from them.
When I first began to visit the Hopis, in northern Arizona, I was
awakened every morning in the wee sma’ hours, as I slept in my blankets
in the open at the foot of the mesa upon which the towns are located,
by cow-bells, as if a number of cows were being driven out to pasture.
But in the daytime I could see no cows nor any evidence of their
existence. When I asked where they were, my questions brought forth
nothing but a wondering stare. Cows? They had no cows. What did I mean?
Then I explained about the bells, and as I explained, a merry laugh
burst upon my ears. “Cows? Those are not cows. To-morrow morning when
you hear them, you jump up and watch.” I did so, and to my amazement I
saw fleeing through the early morning dusk a score (more or less) of
naked youths, on each one of whom a cow-bell was dangling from a rope
or strap around his waist. Later I learned this running was done as a
matter of religion. Every young man was required to run ten, fifteen,
twenty miles, and even double this distance, upon certain allotted
mornings, as a matter of religion. This develops a lung capacity that
is nothing short of marvelous.
This great lung capacity is in itself a great source of health, vim,
energy, and power. It means the power to take in a larger supply of
oxygen to purify and vivify the blood. Half the people of our cities
do not know what real true life is, because their blood is not well
enough oxygenated. The people who are full of life and exuberance and
power--the men and women who accomplish things--generally have large
lung capacity, or else have the faculty of using all they have to the
best advantage.
To a public speaker, a singer, a lawyer, a preacher, or a teacher, this
large lung capacity is invaluable; for, all things else being equal,
the voice itself will possess a clearer, more resonant quality if the
lungs, the abdomen, and the diaphragm are full of, or stretched out by,
plenty of air. These act as a resonant sounding-chamber which increases
the carrying quality of the voice to a wonderful extent.
For years I have watched with keenest observation all our greatest
operatic singers, actors, orators, and public speakers, and those who
possess the sweet and resonant voices are the ones who breathe deep
and own and control these capacious lungs. Only a few weeks ago I went
to hear Sarah Bernhardt, the world’s most wonderful actress, who at
sixty-three years of age still entrances thousands, not only by the
wonder of her art, but by the marvelous quality of her voice. What did
I find? A woman who has learned this lesson of deep breathing as the
Indians breathe. She breathes well down, filling the lungs so that they
thrust out the ribs. She has no waist-line, her body descending (as
does that of the Venus) in an almost straight line from armpit to hips.
The result is, that, with such a resonant air cavity, she scarcely
raises her voice above the conversational pitch, and yet it is easily
heard by two or three thousand people.
It is needless to add that every Indian woman is intelligent enough to
value health, lung capacity, and the power to speak with force, vigor,
and energy more than she values “fashionable appearance”; hence none
of them can be found in their native condition foolish enough to wear
corsets.
I never knew an Indian woman who “needed a corset, don’t you know, to
brace her up, to sustain her weak back.” Of course, if a white woman
is large and fleshy, and values appearance more than health, I suppose
she will have her own way anyhow, but this other reason that women
give for the use of the corset I never heard fall from the lips of an
Indian woman. She is strong and well, and needs no artificial support.
I regret very much to see that while sensible women are giving up the
corset, or at least materially loosening its strings, men are beginning
to wear belts in place of suspenders. It is just as injurious to a
man to encircle his waist and squeeze together the vital organs as it
is to a woman. It is bad, absolutely, completely, thoroughly bad, at
all times, in all circumstances, for all people. The wasp-like waist,
whether in men or women, is a sign either of recklessness, gross
ignorance, or deliberate preference for a false figure over a normal
one and health. The hips are a most important part of a human being’s
anatomy. As Dr. Kellogg has well said:
“No physical endowment is of more importance for a long and a
vigorous life than capacious lungs. The intensity and efficiency of
an individual’s life depend very largely upon the amount of air he
habitually passes in and out of his lungs, just as the intensity of
a fire, granting plenty of fuel, depends upon the rate at which the
air is brought in contact with the fuel. It has been found that lung
capacity depends very largely upon the height; thus, the taller a
person the greater his lung capacity, other things being equal. The
following table shows the lung capacity, or rather the amount of air
which can be forced out of the lungs, the so-called vital capacity, for
men of different heights:
Height Weight Vital Capacity
Inches Pounds Cubic Inches
64 115 205
65 126 228
66 126 230
67 133 244
68 134 248
69 140 254
70 141 256
71 150 272
72 151 287
“The proper time for the development of the chest is in childhood and
in youth. The best of all means for increasing the chest capacity is
running and active sports of all sorts. Mountain climbing, going up and
down stairs, and all kinds of exercises which produce strong breathing
movements are effective means of chest development. Exercises of this
nature are far superior to breathing exercises, so-called, of whatever
sort. Breathing exercises in which the lungs are forcibly compelled to
take in more than the ordinary amount of air very soon become tiresome.
The effort is wholly voluntary, and the muscles soon weary. When,
however, a thirst for air is created by some active exercise which
fills the blood with carbonic-acid gas, so that deeper and more rapid
breathing is necessary to rid the body of this poisonous gas and to
take in a supply of oxygen in its place, the act of breathing is no
longer difficult, embarrassing, or tiresome, but is, on the other hand,
a pleasure and a gratification. The impulse which comes from within,
from the so-called respiratory centers, so excites the respiratory
muscles that they cause the chest to execute the strongest breathing
movements with the greatest ease, ventilating every portion of the
lungs, filling every air-cell to its utmost capacity.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE TRAILS UP WHICH THE HOPIS CLIMB AT FULL
SPEED.]
“Runners always have large and active chests, whereas sedentary persons
have chests of limited capacity and rigid walls. When a chest is not
stretched to its utmost capacity many times daily, it rapidly loses
its flexibility. This is especially true after the age of thirty. In
persons who have passed middle life, the rigidity of the chest is so
great that there can be no very considerable increase in size. By
development of the respiratory muscles the chest capacity may be to
some degree increased, but the proper time for chest development is in
childhood and youth. At this period, also, the integrity of the heart
renders possible without injury those vigorous exercises which are
essential to secure the highest degree of chest development.
“Probably the best of all exercises for the development of the chest
and breathing powers is swimming. The position of the body, the head
held well back and the chest well forward, and the active movements of
the arms and limbs render swimming a most efficient breathing exercise.
The contact of cold water with the skin also actively stimulates the
movement of the chest, while at the same time it renders possible
prolonged and vigorous muscular movements by increasing the energy and
activity of the muscles.
“Special breathing exercises, as well as those active muscular
movements which induce a thirst for air, are beneficial to the lungs by
maintaining the flexibility of the chest, strengthening the respiratory
muscles, and ventilating the lungs. These movements also exercise a
most extraordinary beneficial effect upon the stomach, liver, and
other organs which lie below the diaphragm. Each time the diaphragm
contracts, it gives the liver, stomach, and adjacent organs a hearty
squeeze, so to speak, emptying out the blood contained in these parts
as one may by compression empty a moist sponge. All movements which
increase the strength of the abdominal muscles are an important means
of aiding and improving the breathing function.”
From this it will be seen, therefore, that everything that prevents the
full and free exercise of the lungs, especially in the lower portions,
is of direct injury to the body. Men need all the lung capacity and
power they can gain in order to sustain their energy in the battle of
life; and women, especially young women, who are to become the future
mothers of the race, should be taught that the art of healthy, deep
breathing is one of the fine arts, and the most important one that they
can learn.
[Illustration: NAVAHO BLANKET WEAVER IN HER OPEN AIR WORK-SHOP.]