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THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



JOHN O. BOTJRKE, 

Captain, Third Cavalry, U. S. Army. 



443 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

CHAPTER I. The medicine-men, their modes of treating disease, their super- 
stitions, paraphernalia, etc 451 

Medicine-women 468 

Remedies and modes of treatment 471 

Hair and wigs 474 

Mudheads 475 

Scalp shirts 476 

The rhombus, or bull roarer 476 

The cross 479 

Necklaces of human fingers 480 

Necklaces of human teeth 487 

The scratch stick 490 

The drinking reed 493 

CHAPTER II. Hoddentin, the pollen of the tule, the sacrificial powder of the 
Apache ; with remarks upon sacred powders and offerings in gen- 
eral 499 

The "kunque" of the Zuni and others 507 

Use of the pollen by the Israelites and Egyptians 517 

Hoddentin a prehistoric food 518 

Hoddentin the yiauhtli of the Aztecs 521 

"Bledos" of ancient writers its meaning 522 

Tzoalli 523 

General use of the powder among Indians 528 

Analogues of hoddentin 530 

The down of birds in ceremonial observances 533 

Hair powder 535 

Dust from churches its use 537 

Clay-eating 537 

Prehistoric foods used in covenants 540 

Sacred breads and cakes 541 

Unleavened bread 543 

The hot cross buns of Good Friday 544 

Galena 548 

CHAPTER III. The izze-kloth or medicine cord of the Apache 550 

Analogues to be found among the Aztecs, Peruvians, and others '.'. 558 

The magic wind-knotted cords of the Lapps and others 560 

Rosaries and other mnemonic cords 561 

The sacred cords of the Parsis and Brahmans 563 

Use of cords and knots and girdles in parturition 570 

"Medidas," "measuring cords," "wresting threads," etc 572 

Unclassified superstitions upon this subject 575 

The medicine hat 580 

445 



446 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III Continued. 

The spirit or ghost dance headdress 585 

Amulets and talismans 587 

The " tzi-daltai " 587 

Chalchihuitl 588 

Phylacteries 591 

Bibliography Q96 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

PLATE III. Scalp shirt of Little Big Man 476 

IV. Necklace of human fingers 480 

V. Apache medicine hat used in ghost or spirit dance 586 

VI. Apache medicine shirt 588 

VII. Apache medicine shirt 590 

VIII. Apache medicine shirt 592 

FIG. 429. Medicine arrow used by Apache and Pueblo women 468 

430. Khombus of the Apache 477 

431. Rhombus of the Apache 478 

432. The scratch stick and drinking reed 494 

433. Bag containing hoddentin 500 

434. Nan-ta-do-tash's medicine hat 503 

435. Single-strand medicine cord (Znui) 550 

436. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache) 551 

437. Three-strand medicine cord (Apache) 552 

438. Two-strand medicine cord 553 

439. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache) 554 

440. Apache war bonnet 581 

441. Ghost dance headdress 582 

442. Apache kan or gods. (Drawn by Apache) 586 

443. Tzi-daltai amulets (Apache) 587 

444. Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache) 588 

445. Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache) 589 

446. Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache) 589 

447. Phylacteries 592 

448. Apache medicine sash 593 

447 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1891. 

SIR : Herewith I have the honor to submit a paper upon the para- 
phernalia of the medicine-men of the Apache and other tribes. 

Analogues have been pointed out, wherever possible, especially in 
the case of the hoddentin and the izze-kloth, which have never to my 
knowledge previously received treatment. 

Accompanying the paper is a bibliography of the principal works 
dted. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JOHN G. BOITBKE, 
Captain, Third Cavalry, U. S. Army. 
Hon. J. W. POWELL, 

Director Bureau of Ethnology. 

449 
9 ETH 29 



THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



BY JOHN G. BOURKE. 



C H A P T E R 1. 

THE MEDICINE-MEN, THEIR MODES OF TREATING DISEASE, 
THEIR SUPERSTITIONS, PARAPHERNALIA, ETC. 

The Caucasian population of the United States has been in inti- 
mate contact with the aborigines for a period of not less than two hun- 
dred and lifty years. In certain sections, as in Florida and New 
Mexico, this contact has been for a still greater period ; but claiming 
no earlier date than the settlement of New England, it will be seen 
that the white race has been slow to learn or the red man has been 
skillful in withholding knowledge which, if imparted, would have less- 
oned friction and done much to preserve and assimilate a race that, 
in spite of some serious defects of character, will for all time to come 
be looked upon as " the noble savage." 

Recent deplorable occurrences in the country of the Dakotas have 
emphasized our ignorance and made clear to the minds of all thinking 
people that, notwithstanding the acceptance by the native tribes of 
many of the improvements in living introduced by civilization, the 
savage has remained a savage, and is still under the control of an in- 
fluence antagonistic to the rapid absorption of new ideas and the 
adoption of new customs. 

This influence is the "medicine-man." 

Who, and what are the medicine-men (or medicine-women), of the 
American Indians? What powers do they possess in time of peace or 
war? How is this power obtained, how renewed, how exercised? 
What is the character of the remedies employed? Are they pharma- 
ceutical, as we employ the term, or are they the superstitious efforts of 
empirics and charlatans, seeking to deceive and to misguide by pre- 
tended consultations with spiritual powers and by reliance upon mys- 
terious and occult influences ? 

Such a discussion will be attempted in this paper, which will be 
restricted to a description of the personality of the medicine-men, the 
regalia worn, and the powers possessed and claimed. To go farther, 

451 



452 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

and enter into a treatment of the religious ideas, the superstitions, 
omens, and prayers of these spiritual leaders, would be to open a road 
without end. 

As the subject of the paraphernalia of the medicine-men has never, 
to my knowledge, been comprehensively treated by any writer, I ven- 
ture to submit what I have learned during the twenty-two years of my 
acquaintance with our savage tribes, and the studies and conclusions 
to which my observations have led. While treating in the main of the 
medicine-men of the Apache, I do not intend to omit any point of im- 
portance noted among other tribes or peoples. 

First, in regard to the organization of the medicine-men of the 
Apache, it should be premised that most of my observations were made 
while the tribe was still actively engaged in hostilities with the whites, 
and they cannot be regarded as, and are not claimed to be, conclusive 
upon all points. The Apache are not so surely divided into medicine 
lodges or secret societies as is the case with the Ojibwa, as shown by Dr. 
W. J. Hoft'man ; the Siouan tribes, as related by Mr. J. Owen Dorsey ; the 
Zuui, according to Mr. F. H. Gushing; the Tusayan, as shown by myself, 
and other tribes described by other authorities. 

The Navajo, who are the full brothers of the Apache, seem to have 
well denned divisions among their medicine-men, as demonstrated by 
Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. Army; and 1 myself have seen 
great medicine lodges, which must have contained at least a dozen 
Apache medicine-men, engaged in some of their incantations. I 
have also been taken to several of the sacred caves, in which solemn 
religious dances and other ceremonies were conducted under the same 
superintendence, but never have I witnessed among the Apache any 
rite of religious significance in which more than four or five, or at the 
most six, of the medicine-men took part. 

The difficulty of making an accurate determination was increased by 
the nomadic character of the Apache, who would always prefer to live 
in small villages containing only a few brush shelters, and not needing 
the care of more than one or two of their " doctors." These people show an 
unusual secretiveness and taciturnity in all that relates to their inner 
selves, and, living as they do in a region filled with caves and secluded 
nooks, on clift's, and in deep canyons, have not been compelled to celebrate 
their sacred offices in "estufas," or "plazas," open to the inspection of 
the profane, as has been the case with so many of the Pueblo tribes. 

Diligent and persistent inquiry of medicine-men whose confidence I 
had succeeded in gaining, convinced me that any young man can be- 
come a "doctor" ("diyi" in the Apache language, which is translated 
"sabio" by the Mexican captives). It is necessary to convince his 
friends that he "has the gift," as one of my informants expressed it; 
that is, he must show that he is a dreamer of dreams, given to long 
fasts and vigils, able to interpret omens in a satisfactory manner, and 
do other things of that general nature to demonstrate the possession of 



BOURKK.J THE MAKING OF THE MEDICINE-MAN. 453 

an intense spirituality. Then he will begin to withdraw, at least tem- 
porarily, from the society of his fellows and devote himself to long ab- 
sences, especially by night, in the "high places" which were inter- 
dicted to the Israelites. Such sacred fanes, perched in dangerous and 
hidden retreats, can be, or until lately could be, found in many parts 
in our remote western territory. In my own experiences I have found 
them not only in the country of the Apache, but two-thirds of the way 
up the vertical face of the dizzy precipice of Taaiyalana, close to Zufii, 
where there is a shrine much resorted to by the young men who seek to 
divine the result of a contemplated enterprise by shooting arrows into 
a long cleft in the smooth surface of the sandstone; I have seen them 
in the Wolf Mountains, Montana; in the Big Horn range, Wyoming; on 
the lofty sides of Cloud Peak, and elsewhere. Maj. W. S. Stanton, 
Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, ascended the Cloud Peak twice, and, 
reaching the summit on the second attempt, he found that beyond the 
posi don first attained and seeming then to be the limit of possible ascent, 
some wandering Indian had climbed and made his ''medicine." 

While it is regarded as a surer mode of learning how to be a medicine- 
man to seek the tuition of some one who has already gained power and 
influence as such, and pay him liberally in presents of all kinds for a 
course of instruction lasting a year or longer, I could learn of nothing 
to prohibit a man from assuming the role of a prophet or healer of the 
sick, if so disposed, beyond the dread of punishment for failure to cure 
or alleviate sickness or infirmity. Neither is there such a thing as 
settled dogma among these medicine-men. Each follows the dictates 
of his own inclinations, consulting "such spirits^and powers as are 
most amenable to his supplications and charms; but no two seem 
to rely upon identically the same influences. Even in the spirit dance, 
which is possibly the most solemn function in which the Apache medi- 
cine-men can engage, the head-dresses and kilts adhered closely enough 
to the one pattern, but the symbolism employed by each medicine-man 
was entirely different from that adopted by his neighbors. 

Schultze, Perrin du Lac, Adaiiyand others allude to " houses of mercy," 
the "right of asylum" in certain lodges and buildings, or even whole 
villages, to which if the pursued of the tribe or even an enemy could 
obtain admission his life was secure. Frank Gruard and others who 
have lived for years among the Sipux, the Cheyenne, and other tribes 
of the plains have assured me that the same right of asylum obtains 
among them for the fugitive who takes shelter in the medicine lodge or 
the council lodge, and almost parallel notions prevail among the 
Apache. I have heard that the first American who came into one of 
their villages, tired and hungry, was not molested in the slightest de- 
gree. 

It is stated by Kelly 1 that all warriors who go through the sun dance 
of the Sioux rank thereafter as medicine-men. This statement seems 



'Narrative of Captivity, Cincinnati, W71. p. 141. 



454 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

to me to be overdrawn. Nothing of the kind was learned by me at the, 
sun dance of the Sioux which I noted in 1881, and in any event the re- 
mark would scarcely apply to the medicine-men of the Apache, who 
have nothing clearly identifiable with the sun dance, and who do not 
cut, gash, or in any manner mutilate themselves, as did the principal 
participants in the sun dance, or as was done in still earlier ages by the 
galli (the priests of Cybele) or the priests of Mexico. 

Herodotus tells us that the priests of Egypt, or rather the doctors, 
who were at one time identified with them, were separated into classes; 
some cured the eyes, some the ears, others the head or the belly. Such 
a differentiation is to be observed among the Apache, Mohave, and 
other tribes; there are some doctors who enjoy great fame as the bring- 
ers of rain, some who claim special power over snakes, and some who 
profess to consult the spirits only, and do not treat the sick except 
when no other practitioner may be available. Among the Mohave, the 
relatives of a dead man will consult one of these spirit-doctors and get 
him to interview the ghosts who respond to his call and learn from them 
whether the patient died from ignorance or neglect on the part of the 
doctor who had charge of the case. If the spirits assert that he did, 
then the culprit doctor must either flee for his life or throw the onus of 
the crime upon some witch. This differentiation is not carried so far 
that a medicine-man, no matter what his class, would decline a large 
fee. 

The right of sanctuary was conceded to all criminals who sought 
shelter in the vanquech or temple of Chinigchinich. 1 

The castration of the galli, or priests of Cybele, is described by 
Dupuis. 2 

Diego Dnran asserts that the Mexican priests " se endiaii por medio 
los miembros viriles y se hacian mil cosas para volverse impotentes 
por no ofender a sus Dioses." 3 

The hierophants at Athens drank of the hemlock to render them- 
selves impotent, that when they came to the pontificate they might 
cease to be men. 4 

One class of the Peruvian priests, the Huachus, made auguries from 
grains of corn or the excrement of animals. 5 

Balboa tells us 5 that the Peruvian priesthood was divided into classes, 
each with its appropriate functions the Guacos made the idols for the 
temples, or rather, they made the idols speak; the others were necro- 
mancers and spoke only with the dead ; the Huecheoc divined by means 
of tobacco and coco ; the Caviocac became drunk before they attempted 
to divine, and after them came the Rumatinguis and the Huachus al- 
ready mentioned. 



'Padre Boscana, Chinigchinich, in Robinson's California, p. 261. 

"Origins lie tous les Cnltes, vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 87. 88. 

3 Diego Dnran, vol. 3, pp. 237, 238. 

4 Higgins, Auacalypsis, lib. 2, it. 77. 

* Balboa, Hist, iln PtTou, in Tornanx-Compans, Voy.. vol. 15. 



THE MAKING OF THE MEDICINE-MAN. 455 

The Oregon tribes have .spirit doctors and medicine doctors. 1 

The Chinese historians relate that the shamans of the Huns possessed 
the power "to bring down snow, hail, rain, and wind." '' 

In all nations in the infancy of growth, social or mental, the power 
to coax from reluctant clouds the fructifying rain has been regarded 
with highest approval and will always be found confided to the most 
important hierophants or devolving upon some of the most prominent 
deities; almighty Jove was a deified rain-maker or cloud-compeller. 
Bain-makers flourished in Europe down to the time of Charlemagne, 
who prohibited these "tempestiarii" from plying their trade. 

One of the first requests made of Vaca and his comrades oy the 
people living in fixed habitations near the Bio Grande was "to tell the 
sky to rain," and also to pray for it. :i 

The prophet Samuel has been alluded to as a rain-maker. 4 

There does not seem to have been any inheritance of priestly func- 
tions among the Apache or any setting apart of a particular clan or family 
for the priestly duties. 

Francis Parkman is quoted as describing a certain family among the 
Miami who were reserved for the sacred ritualistic cannibalism perpe- 
trated by that tribe upon captives taken in war. Such families devoted 
more or less completely to sacred uses are to be noted among the 
Hebrews (in the line of Levi) and others; but they do not occur in the 
tribes of the Southwest. 

One of the ceremonies connected with the initiation, as with every 
exercise of spiritual functions by the medicine-man, is the " ta-a-chi," 
or sweat-bath, in which, if he be physically able, the patient must par- 
ticipate. 

The Apache do not, to my knowledge, indulge in any poisonous in- 
toxicants during their medicine ceremonies; but in this they differ to 
a perceptible degree from other tribes of America. The " black 
drink" of the Creeks and the "wisoccan" of the Virginians maybe 
cited as cases in point; and the Walapai of Arizona, the near neighbors 
of the Apache, make use of the juice, or a decoction of the leaves, roots, 
and flowers of the Datura stramonium to induce frenzy and exhilara- 
tion. The laurel grows wild on all the mountain tops of Sonora and 
Arizona, and the Apache credit it with the power of setting men crazy, 
but they deny that they have ever made use of it in their medicine or 
religion. Picart 5 speaks of the drink (wisoccan) which took away the 
brains of the young men undergoing initiation as medicine-men among 
the tribes of Virginia, but he does not say what this "wisoccan" was. 

In Guiana, 6 the candidate for the office of medicine-man must, among 



1 Boss, Fur Hunters, quoted by Spencer, Desc. Soc. 

* Max Muller, Science of Religion, p. 88. 

3 Davis. Spanish Conq. til' X. II ., p. 98. 

4 I Samuel, xn, 17,18. 

6 Ceremonies et Continues, vol. 6, p. 75. 

6 Everard im Thurn, Indiana of Guiana. London, 1883, p. 334. 



456 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

other ordeals, "drink fearfully large drafts of tobacco juice, mixed 
with water." The medicine-men of Guiana are called peaiman. 

I have never seen tobacco juice drank by medicine-men or others, 
but I remember seeing Shunca-Luta (Sorrel Horse) a medicine-man of 
the Dakota, chewing and swallowing a piece of tobacco and then going 
into what seemed to be a trance, all the while emitting deep grunts or 
groans. When he revived he insisted that those sounds had been 
made by a spirit which he kept down in his stomach. He also pre- 
tended to extract the quid of tobacco from underneath his ribs, and 
was full of petty tricks of legerdemain and other means of mystifying 
women and children. 

All medicine-men claim the power of swallowing spear heads or 
arrows and fire, and there are at times many really wonderful things 
done by them which have the effect of strengthening their hold upon 
the people. 

The medicine- men of the Ojibwa thrust arrows .and similar instru- 
ments down their throats. They also allow themselves to be shot at 
with marked bullets. 1 

While I was among the Tusayau, in 1881, I learned of a young boy, 
quite a child, who was looked up to by the other Indians, and on special 
occasions made his appearance decked out in much native finery of 
beads and gewgaws, but the exact nature of his duties and supposed 
responsibilities could not be ascertained. 

Diego Duran 2 thought that the priesthood among the Mexicans was 
to a great extent hereditary, much like the right of primogeniture 
among the people of Spain. Speaking of the five assistants who held 
down the human victim at the moment of sacrifice, he says : 

Los nombres de los cinco eran Chachalmeca, qne en nuestra Lengua quiere tauto 
decircomo Levita 6 ministro de cosa divina 6 sagrada. Eraesta dignidad entreelloa 
muy supreina y en mucha tenida, la cual seheredaba de hijos a padres como cosa de 
mayorazgo, sucediendo los hijos ;i los Padres en aquella sangrienta Dignidad endemo- 
niada y cruel. 

Concerning the medicine- men of Peru, Dorman 3 says: 
The priestly office among the Peruvians appears to have been hereditary; some 
attained it by election ; a man struck by lightning was considered as chosen by 
heaven ; also those who became suddenly insane. Mr. Southey says that among the 
Moxos of Brazil, who worshiped the tiger, a man who was rescued from but marked 
by the claws of the animal, was set apart for the priesthood, and none other. 

I shall have occasion to introduce a medicine-woman of the Apache, 
Tze-go-juni, or " Pretty-mouth," whose claims to preeminence among 
her people would seem to have had no better foundation than her es- 
cape from lightning stroke and from the bites of a mountain lion, which 
had seized her during the night and had not killed her. 

I remember the case of an old Navajo medicine-man who was killed 



1 Tanner's Narrative, p. 390. 

'Diego Duran, lib. 3, cap. 3, p. 201. 

8 Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 384. 



BOURKE.] THE MAKING OP THE MEDICINE -MAN. 457 

by lightning. The whole tribe participated in the singing, drumming, 
and dancing incident to so important an event, but no white men were 
allowed to be present. My information was derived from the dead 
man's young nephew, while I was among that tribe. 

Among the Arawak of South America there are hereditary conjurers 
who profess to find out the enemy who by the agency of an evil spirit 
has killed the deceased. 1 

Picart says of the medicine-men of the tribes along Rio de la Plata: 
" Pour etre Pretre ou Medecin parmi eux, il faut avoir jenne longtems 
& souvent. II faut avoir combatu plusieurs fois coutre les betes Sau- 
vages, principalement centre les Tigres, & tout au moins en avoir ete 
mordu ou egratigm-. Apres cela on peut obtenir 1'Ordre, de Pretrise; 
car le Tigre est chez eux un animal presque divin." 2 

The medicine-men of the Apache are not confined to one gens or clan, 
as among the Shawnee and Cherokee, according to Brinton, 3 neither 
do they believe, as the Cherokee do, according to the same authority, 
that the seventh sou is a natural-born prophet with the gift of healing 
by touch, but upon this latter point I must be discreet, as I have never 
known an Apache seventh son. 

The Cherokee still preserve the custom of consecrating a family of 
their tribe to the priesthood, as the family of Levi was consecrated 
among the Jews. 4 

The neophytes of the isthmus of Darien were boys from ten to twelve 
years " selected for the natural inclination or the peculiar aptitude 
and intelligence which they displayed for the service." 5 

Peter Martyr says of the Chiribchis of South America: " Out of the 
multitude of children they chuse some of 10 or 12 yeeres old, whom they 
know by conjecture to be naturally inclined to that service." 6 

The peculiarity of the Moxos was that they thought none designated 
for the office of medicine-man but such as had escaped from the claws 
of the South American tiger which, indeed, it is said they worshiped as 
a god. 7 

Contrary to what Spencer says, the chiefs of the, tribes of the South- 
west, at least, are not ipso facto medicine-men ; but among the Tonto 
Apache the brother of the head chief, Cha-ut-lip-un, was the great medi- 
cine-man, and generally the medicine-men are related closely to the 
prominent chiefs, which would seem to imply either a formal deputation 
of priestly functions from the chiefs to relatives, or what may be prac- 
tically the same thing, the exercise of family influence to bring about 
a recognition of the necromantic powers of some aspirant; but among 

1 Spencer, Desc. Sociology. 

2 Picart, Ceremonies i;t Coutumes Keligieuses, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 122. 

3 Myths of the New World, p. 281. 

4 Domenech, Deserts, vol. 2, p. 392. 

5 Bancroft, Nat. Races, vol, 1, p. 777. 
6 H;lklnyt, Voyages, vol.5, p. 402. 

' Krinton, Myths of the New World, p. 281. 



458 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

the Apache there is no priest caste ; the same man may be priest, war- 
rior, etc. 1 

"The juice of the Datura seed is employed by the Portuguese women 
of Goa: they mix it, says Linschott, in the liquor drank by their hus- 
bands, who fall, for twenty-four hours at least, into a stupor accom- 
panied by continued laughing; but so deep is the sleep that nothing 
passing before them affects them ; and when they recover their senses, 
they have no recollection of what has taken place." z 

" The Darien Indians used the seeds of the Datura nanguinea to bring 
on in children prophetic delirium, in which they revealed hidden treas- 
ure. In Peru the priests who talked with the "huaca"or fetishes used 
to throw themselves into an ecstatic condition by a narcotic drink called 
" tonca," made from the same plant." 3 

The medicine-men of fhe Walapai, according to Charlie Spencer, who 
married one of their women and lived among them for years, were in 
the habit of casting bullets in molds which contained a small piece of 
paper. They would allow these bullets to be fired at them, and of 
course the missile would split in two parts and do no injury. Again, 
they would roll a ball of sinew and attach one end to a small twig, 
which was inserted between the teeth. They would then swallow the 
ball of sinew, excepting the end thus attached to the teeth, and after 
the heat and moisture of the stomach had softened and expanded the 
sinew they would begin to draw it out yard after yard, saying to the 
frightened squaws that they had no need of intestines and were going 
to pull them all out. Others among the Apache have claimed the 
power to shoot off guns without touching the triggers or going near the 
weapons; to be able to kill or otherwise harm their enemies at a dis- 
tance of 100 miles. In nearly every boast made there is some sort of a 
saving clause, to the effect that no witchcraft must be made or the 
spell will not work, no women should be near in a delicate state from 
any cause, etc. 

Mickey Free has assured me that he has seen an Apache medicine- 
man light a pipe without doing anything but hold his hands up toward 
the sun. This story is credible enough if we could aver that the medi- 
cine-man was supplied, as I suspect he was, with a burning glass. 

That the medicine-man has the faculty of transforming himself into a 
coyote and other animals at pleasure and then resuming the human 
form is as implicitly believed in by the American Indians as it was by 
our own forefathers in Europe. This former prevalence of lycanthropy 
all over Europe can be indicated in no more forcible manner than by 
stating that until the reign of Louis XIV, in France, the fact of being 
a were- wolf was a crime upon which one could be arraigned before a 
court; but with the discontinuance of the crime the were-wolves thein- 



1 Spencer, Ecclesiastical InstitntionH, cap. V. 

2 Salverte. Philosophy of Majcic, vol. 2, pp. 0-7. 

4 Tylor. Primitive Culture. London. 1871, vol. 2, p. 377. 



BOURKK.] POWERS CLAIMED BY THK MEDICINE-MAN. 459 

selves seem to have retired from business. 1 In Abyssinia, at the pres^ 
ent day, blacksmiths are considered to be were-wolves, according to 
Winstanley. The Apache look upon blacksmiths as being allied to the 
spirirs and call them "pesh-chidin" the witch, spirit, or ghost, of the 
iron. The priestly powers conceded to the blacksmith of Gretna Green 
need no allusion here. 

According to Sir Walter Scott, 2 trials for lycanthropy were abolished 
in France by an edict of Louis XIV. 

Parkman 3 describes, from the Relations of Pere Le Jeune, how the 
Algonkin niedicine-ma-n announced that he was going to kill a rival 
medicine-man who lived at Gaspe, 100 leagues distant. 

The Abipones of Paraguay, according to Father Dobrizhoffer, "credit 
their medicine-men with power to inflict disease and death, to cure all 
disorders, to make known distant and future events; to cause rain, 
hail, and tempest; to call up the shades of the dead and consult them 
concerning hidden matters; to put on the form of a tiger; to handle 
every kind of serpent without danger, etc.; which powers they imagine 
are not obtained by art, but imparted to certain persons by their grand- 
father, the devil." 

The medicine-men of Honduras claimed the power of turning them- 
selves into lions and tigers and of wandering in the mountains. 4 

"Grandes Hechiceros i Bruxos, porqiie se hacian Perros, Puercosi 
Ximios." 5 

Gomara also calls attention to the fact that the medicine-men, "hechi- 
ceros" and "brujos," as he calls them, of the Nicaraguans, possessed 
the power of lycanthropy; "segnn ellos mismos decian, se hacen per- 
ros, puercos y gimias." 6 

Great as are the powers claimed by the medicine-men, it is admitted 
that baleful influences may be at work to counteract and nullify them. 
As has already been shown, among these are the efforts of witches, the 
presence of women who are sometimes supposed to be so "antimedici- 
nal," if such a term may be applied, that the mere stepping over a war- 
rior's gun will destroy its value. 

There may be other medicine-men at work with countercharms, and 
there may be certain neglects on the part of the person applying for aid 
which will invalidate all that the medicine-man can do for him. For 
example, while the "hoop-me-kofr'" was raging among the Mohave the 
fathers of families afflicted with it were forbidden to touch coffee or salt, 
and were, directed to bathe themselves in the current of the Colorado. 
But the whooping cough ran its course in spite of all that the medicine- 



1 "St. Patrick, we are told, floated to Ireland on :m jiltar stone. 
eonvcrtfd a marauder into a wolf and lighted a fire with icicles." 
of the High Church Revival. (Letter V.) 
Deiiionology and Witchcraft, p. 184. 



Among other wonderful things, he 
James A. Fronde, Reminiscences 



.It-suits in North America, pp. 34, 35. 
1I< nvni, dot'. 4, lib. 8, cap. 5. 159. 
Ilriil., dec. 3, lib. 4, p. 121. 
Hist. dc las Indias, p. 283. 



460 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

men could do to check its progress. When the Walapai were about to 
engage in a great hunt continence was enjoined upon the warriors for a 
certain period. 

Besides all these accidental impairments of the vigor of the medicine- 
men, there seems to be a gradual decadence of their abilities which can 
be rejuvenated only by rubbing the back against a sacred stone pro- 
jecting from the ground in the country of the Walapai, not many miles 
from the present town of Kingmau, on the Atlantic and Pacific Kail- 
road. Another stone of the same kind was formerly used for the same 
purpose by the medicine-men of the pueblos of Laguna and Acoma, as 
I have been informed by them. I am unable to state whether or not 
such recuperative properties were ever ascribed to the medicine stone 
at the Sioux agency near Standing Rock, S. Dak., or to the great stone 
around which the medicine-men of Tusayan marched in solemn pro- 
cession in their snake dance, but I can say that in the face of the latter, 
each time that I saw it (at different dates between 1874 and 1881), there 
was a niche which was filled with votive offerings. 

Eegnard, a traveler in Lapland, makes the statement that when the 
shamans of that country began to lose their teeth they retired from 
practice. There is nothing of this kind to be noted among the Apache 
or other tribes of North America with which I am in any degree familiar. 
On the contrary, some of the most influential of those whom I have 
known have been old and decrepit men, with thin, gray hair and teeth 
gone or loose in their heads. In a description given by Corbusier of a 
great "medicine" ceremony of the Apache- Yuma at Camp Verde, it is 
stated that the principal officer was a "toothless, gray-haired man." 1 

Among many savage or barbarous peoples of the world albinos have 
been reserved for the priestly office. There are many well marked ex- 
amples of albinism among the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, 
especially among the Zufii and Tusayan; but in no case did I learn that 
the individuals thus distinguished were accredited with power not 
ascribable to them under ordinary circumstances. Among the Chey- 
enne I saw one family, all of whose members had the crown lock white. 
They were not medicine-men, neither were any of the members of the 
single albino family among the Navajo in 1881. 

It is a well known fact that among the Romans epilepsy was looked 
upon as a disease sent direct from the gods, and that it was designated 
the "sacred disease" mortnis sacer. Mahomet is believed to have 
been an epileptic. The nations of the East regard epileptics and the 
insane as inspired from on high. 

Our native tribes do not exactly believe that the mildly insane are 
gifted with medical or spiritual powers ; but they regard them with a 
feeling of superstitious awe, akin to reverence. I have personally 
known several cases of this kind, though not within late years, and am 
not able to say whether or not the education of the younger generation 



1 American Antiquarian, November, 1K86, p. 334. 



BOUBKE.] TASKS OF THE MEDICINE-MEN. 461 

iii our schools has as yet exercised an influence in eradicating this sen- 
timent. 

Strange to say, I was unable to find any observance of lucky or 
unlucky clays among the Apache. The Romans in the period of their 
greatest enlightenment had their days, both "fasti'' and "nefasti." 
Neither was I able to determine the selection of auspicious days for 
marriage; indeed, it was stated that the medicine-men had nothing to 
do with marriage. Among the Zapotecs the wedding day was fixed 
by the priests. 1 In this the Apache again stands above the Roman who 
would not marry in the month dedicated to the goddess Maia (May), 
because human sacrifice used to be offered in that month. This super- 
stition survived in Europe until a comparatively recent period. Accord- 
ing to Picart the Hebrew rabbis designated the days upon which 
weddings should take place. 

Herbert Spencer 2 says that the medicine-men of the Arawaks claimed 
the "jus primae uoctis.'* There is no such privilege claimed or conceded 
among the North American tribes, to my knowledge, and the Arawaks 
would seem to be alone among the natives of the whole continent in 
this respect. 

In the town of Cumana, in Amaracapanna, apparently close to 
Carthagena, in the present republic of Colombia, South America, the 
medicine-men, according to Girolamo Benzoni, exercised the "jua 
primae uoctis." 3 

To recover stolen or lost property, especially ponies, is one of the 
principal tasks imposed upon the medicine-men. They rely greatly 
upon the aid of pieces of crystal in effecting this I made a friend of 
an Apache medicine-man by presenting him with a large crystal of den- 
ticulated spar, much larger than the one of whose mystical properties 
he had just been boasting to me. I can not say how this property of 
the crystal is manifested. Na-a-cha, the medicine-man alluded to, could 
give no explanation, except that by looking into it he could see every- 
thing he wanted to see. 

The name of an American Indian is a sacred thing, not to be divulged 
by the owner himself without due consideration. One may ask a 
warrior of any tribe to give his name and the question will be met with 
either a point-blank refusal or the more diplomatic evasion that he can 
not understand what is wanted of him. The moment a friend ap- 
proaches, the warrior first interrogated will whisper what is wanted, 
and the friend can tell the name, receiving a reciprocation of the cour- 
tesy from the other. The giving of names to children is a solemn mat- 
ter, and one iu which the medicine-men should always be consulted. 
Among the Plains tribes the children were formerly named at the 
moment of piercing their ears, which should occur at the first sun 
dance after their birth, or rather as near their first year as possible. 

'Dornian, Primitive -Superstitious, p. 380, quoting Herrera, dec. 3, p. 262. 

2 Descriptive Sociology. 

5 Admiral Smyth's translation in Hakluyt Society, London, 1857, vol. 21, p. 9. 



462 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

The wailing of the children at the sun dance as their ears were slit 
will always be to me a most distressing memory. 

The warriors of the Plains tribes used to assume agnomens or battle 
names, and I have known some of them who had enjoyed as many as 
four or five; but the Apache name once conferred seems to remain 
through life, except in the case of the medicine-men, who, I have always 
suspected, change their names upon assuming their profession, much 
as a professor of learning in China is said to do. 

The names of mothers-in-law are never mentioned and it would be 
highly improper to ask for them by name; neither are the names of the 
dead, at least not for a long period of time. But it often happens that 
the child will bear the name of its grandfather or some other relative 
who was a distinguished warrior. 

All charms, idols, talismans, medicine hats, and other sacred regalia 
should be made, or at least blessed, by the medicine-men. They assume 
charge of all ceremonial feasts and dances such as the nubile dance, 
which occurs when any maiden attains marriageable age, and war 
dances preceding battle. Nearly all preparations for the warpath are 
under their control, and when on the trail of the enemy their power is 
almost supreme. Not a night passes but that the medicine-men get 
iuto the "ta-a-chi," or sweat bath, if such a thing be possible, and 
there remain for some minutes, singing and making " medicine" for the 
good of the party. After dark they sit around the fire and sing and 
talk with the spirits and predict the results of the campaign. I have 
alluded quite fully to these poiiits in a previous work. 

When a man is taken sick the medicine-men are iii the zenith of their 
glory. One or two will assume charge of the case, and the clansmen 
and friends of the patient are called upon to supply the fire and help 
out in the chorus. On such occasions the Apache use no music except 
a drum or a rawhide. The drum is nearly always improvised from an 
iron camp kettle, partially filled with water and covered with a piece of 
cloth, well soaped and drawn as tight as possible. The drumstick does 
not terminate in a ball, as with us, but is curved into a circle, and the 
stroke is not perpendicular to the surface, but is often given from one 
side to the other. The American Indian's theory of disease is the 
theory of the Chaldean, th# Assyrian, the Hebrew, the Greek, the 
Roman all bodily disorders and ailments are attributed to the malefi- 
cence of spirits who must be expelled or placated. Where there is only 
one person sick, the exercises consist of singing and drumming exclus- 
ively, but dancing is added in all cases when an epidemic is raging in 
the tribe. The medicine-men lead off in the singing, to which the 
assistants reply with a refrain which at times has appeared to me to 
be antiphonal. Then the chorus is swelled by the voices of the women 
and larger children and rises and falls with monotonous cadence. 
Prayers are recited, several of which have been repeated to me and 
transcribed; but very frequently the words are ejaculatory and con- 
fined to such expressions as "ugashe" (go away), and again there is to 



BOURKE.I THE MEDICINE-MAN IN WAR. 463 

be noted the same mumbling of incoherent phrases which has been the 
stock in trade of medicine-men in all ages and places*. This use of 
gibberish was admitted by the medicine-men, who claimed that the 
words employed and known only to themselves (each individual seemed 
to have his own vocabulary) were mysteriously effective in dispelling 
sickness of any kind. Gibberish was believed to be more potential in 
magic than was language which the practitioner or his dupes could 
comprehend. In Saxon Leechdoms, compiled by Cockayne, will be 
seen a text of gibberish to be recited by those wishing to stanch the 
flow of blood. (See p. 464.) 

In the following citations it will be observed that Adair and Oatlin 
were grievously in error in their respective statements. Adair denies 
that Indians on the warpath or elsewhere depend upon their " augurs" 
for instruction and guidance. ' Gomara is authority for the statement 
that the natives of Hispaniola never made war without consulting their 
medicine-men " no sin respuesta de los idolos 6 sin la de los sacerdotes, 
que adevinan." 2 

The medicine men of Chicora (our present South Carolina) sprinkled 
the warriors with the juice of a certain herb as they were about to en- 
gage in battle. 3 

In Chicora " Mascaban los Sacerdotes una lerva, i con el 9umo de 
ella rociaban los Soldados, quando querian dar batalla, que era bende- 
cirlos." 4 

"Among the Abipones [of Paraguay] the medicine-man teaches them 
the place, time, and manner proper for attacking wild beasts or the 
enemy." 5 

"The North American Indians are nowhere idolaters." 6 

Idols were always carried to war by the natives of Hispaniola : "Atanse 
A la frente idolos chiquitos cuando quieren pelear." 7 

"Among the primitive Germans * * * the maintenance of disci- 
pline in the field as in the council was left in great measure to the 
priests; they took the auguries and gave the signal for onset." 8 

" In New Caledonia * * * the priests go to battle, but sit in the 
distance, fasting and praying for victory." 9 

Our hunting songs and war songs may be a survival of the incanta- 
tions of Celtic or Teutonic medicine-men. 

The adoption or retention of obsolete phraseology as a hieratic lan- 
guage which has been noted among many nations of the highest com- 
parative development is a manifestation of the same mental process. 

1 American Indiana, p. 26. 
'Honiara. Hist, de las Indias, p. 173. 

3 "Estos mascan ciertayerba, y cou el zumo rocinn las soldados estando para dar ha tall: .'' Goinara, 
ibid., p. 179. 

4 Herrero, dec. 2, lib. 10. p. 260. 

5 Father Dobrizhoffer, quoted by Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, sec. 630. 
Catlin, N. A. Indians, London, 1845, vol. 2. p. 232. 

7 Gomara, op. cit., p. 173. 

8 Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, pp. 780, 781, quoting Stubb's Constitutional History of England. 

Ibid., sec. 630, p. 781, quoting Turner (Geo.), Nineteen Years in Polynesia. 



464 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Gibberish was so invariable an accompaniment of the sacred antics 
of the meiliciue-ineii of Mexico that Pray Diego Duran warns his 
readers that if they see any Indian dancing and singing, " 6 diciendo 
algunas palabras que no son inteligibles, pues es de saber que aquellos 
representaban Dioses." ' 

Henry Youle Hind says : 

The, Dakotahs have a common and a sacred language. The conjurer, the war 
prophet, and the dreamer employ a language in which words are borrowed from other 
Indian tongues and dialects: they make much use of descriptive expressions, and 
use words apart from the ordinary signification. The Ojibways abbreviate their 
sentences and employ many elliptical forms of expression, so much so that half- 
breeds, quite familiar with the colloquial language, fail to comprehend a medicine- 
man when in the full flow of excited oratory. 2 

"Blood may be stanched by the words sicycuma, cucuma, ucuma, 
cuma, uma, ma, a." 3 There are numbers of these gibberish formulae 
given, but one is sufficient. 

"The third part of the magic 4 of the Chaldeans belonged entirely to 
that description of charlatanism which consists in the use of gestures, 
postures, and mysterious speeches, as byplay, and which formed an 
accompaniment to the proceedings of the thaumaturgist well calculated 
to mislead." 5 

Sahaguu 6 calls attention to the fact that the Aztec hymns were in 
language known only to the initiated. 

It must be conceded that the monotonous intonation of the medicine- 
men is not without good results, especially in such ailments as can be 
benefited by the sleep which such singing induces. On the same princi- 
ple that petulant babies are lulled to slumber by the crooning of their 
nurses, the sick will frequently be composed to a sound and beneficial 
slumber, from which they awake refreshed and ameliorated. I can 

> Vol. 3, p. 176. 

" In every part of the globe fragments of primitivelanguagesarf preserved iureligiousrites." limn 
bolilt, Researches, London, 1814. vol. 1, p. 97. 

" Et meme Jean P.c, Prince de la Mirandc, escrit que les mots barbares & non entemlus ont plus de 
puissance en la Magie que ceux qni sont entendus." Pieart, vol. 10, p. 45. 

The medicine-men of Cumana (now the United States of Colombia, South America) cured their 
patients " con palabras muy revesadas y que aun el mismo medico no las entiende." Goniara. Hist, 
de las Indias, p. 208. 

The Tlascaltecs had "oradores " who employed gibberish "hablabau Gerigonca." Herrera, dec. 2, 
lib. 6, p. 163. 

In Peru, if the fields were afflicted with drought, the priests, among other things, "chantaient 
un cantique dont le sens etait incouuu du vulgaire." Balboa, Hist, du Perou, p. 128. in Ternaux- 
Compans, vol. 15. 

2 Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exped., London. I860, vol. 2, p. 155. 

Cockayne, Leechdoms. vol. 1, p. xxx. 

4 "The belief in the magic power of sacred words, whether religious formulas or the name of gods, was 
also acknowledged [i. e. in Egypt] and was the source of a frightful amount of superstition. . . . The 
superstitious repetition of names (many of which perhaps never had any meaning at all) is particularly 
conspicuous in numerous documents much more recent than the Book of the Dead." Hibbert, Lec- 
tures. 1879, pri. 192. 193. 

'Salvcrte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. 1, p. 134. 

'Kingsborough, lib. 2, vol. 7, p. 102. 



BOI-HKE.] MODES OF TREATING DISEASE. 465 

recall, among many other cases, those of Chaundezi ("Long Ear," or 
"Mule") and Chemihuevi-Sal, both chiefs of the Apache, who recov- 
ered under the treatment of their own medicine-men after our surgeons 
had abandoned the case. This recovery could be attributed only to 
the sedative effects of the chanting. 

Music of a gentle, monotonous kind has been prescribed in the medi- 
cal treatment of Romans, Greeks, and even of comparatively modern 
Europeans. John Mason Goode, in his translation of Lucretius' De 
Nat uni Eerum, mentions among others Galen, Theophrastus, and Aulns 
Gellius. Au anonymous writer in the Press of Philadelphia, Pa., under 
date of December 2.3. 1888, takes the ground that its use should be 
resumed. 

The noise made by medicine-men around the couch of the sick is no 
better, no worse, than the clangor of bells in Europe. Bells, we are 
told, were rung on every possible occasion. Brand is full of quaint 
information on this head. According to him they were rung in Spain 
when women were in labor, 1 at weddings, 2 to dispel thunder, drive 
away bad spirits, and frustrate the deviltry of witches ; 3 throughout 
Europe on the arrival of emperors, kings, the higher nobility, bishops, 
etc., 4 to ease pain of the dead, 5 were solemnly baptized, receiving 
names, 6 and became the objects of superstition, various powers being 
ascribed to them. 7 

Adair, who was gifted with an excellent imagination, alludes to the 
possession of an " ark" by the medicine-men of the Creeks and other 
tribes of the Mississippi country, among whom he lived for so many 
years as a trader. The Apache have no such things ; but I did see a 
sacred bundle or package, which I was allowed to feel, but not to open, 
and which I learned contained some of the lightning-riven twigs upon 
which they place such dependence. This was carried by a young 
medicine-man, scarcely out of his teens, during Gen. Crook's expe- 
dition into the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, in pursuit of the hostile 
Chiricahua Apache. Maj. Frank North also told me that the Pawnee 
had a sacred package which contained, among other objects of venera- 
tion, the skin of an albino buffalo calf. 

There are allusions by several authorities to the necessity of confes- 
sion by the patient before the efforts of the medicine-men can prove 
efficacious'. 8 

1 Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 70. 

2 Ibid., p. 160. 
'Ibid., p. 217. 
4 Ibid., p. 218. 
'Ibid., p. 21ft 

6 Ibid., pp.214, 215. 

'Ibid., p. 216. 

"Wben the Carriers are severely sick, they often think that they shall not recover, unless they 
divulge to a priest or magician, every crime which they may have committed, which has hitherto been 
kept secret." [Harmon's Journal, p. 300. The Carriers or Ta-kully are Tinneh. 

9 ETH 30 



466 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

This confession, granting that it really existed, could well be com- 
pared to the warpath secret, which imposed upon all the warriors 
engaged the duty of making a clean breast of all delinquencies and 
secured them immunity from punishment for the same, even if they had 
been offenses against some of the other warriors present. 

The Sioux and others had a custom of " striking the post" in their 
dances, especially the sun dance, and there was then an obligation upon 
the striker to tell the truth. I was told that the medicine-men were wont 
to strike with a club the stalagmites in the sacred caves of the Apache, 
but what else they did I was not able to ascertain. 

Under the title of " hoddentin " will be found the statement made by 
one of the Apache as to the means employed to secure the presence 
of a medicine-man at the bedside of the sick. I give it for what it is 
worth, merely stating that Kohl, in his Kitchi-Gami, if I remember cor- 
rectly, refers to something of the same kind where the medicine-man is 
represented as being obliged to respond to every summons made unless 
he can catch the messenger within a given distance and kick him. 

There is very little discrepancy of statement as to what would hap- 
pen to a mediciue-mau in case of failure to cure; but many conflicting 
stories have been in circulation as to the number of patients he would 
be allowed to kill before incurring risk of punishment. My own con- 
clusions are that there is no truth whatever in the numbers alleged, 
either three or seven, but that a medicine-man would be in danger, 
under certain circumstances, if he let only one patient die on his hands. 
These circumstances would be the verdict of the spirit doctors that he 
was culpably negligent or ignorant. He could evade death at the hands 
of the patient's kinsfolk only by flight or by demonstrating that a witch 
had been at the bottom of the mischief. 1 

Medicine-men, called "wizards" by Falkuer, sometimes were killed 
by the Patagonians, when unsuccessful in their treatment, and were 
also obliged to wear women's clothing. They were selected in youth 
for supposed qualifications, especially if epileptic. 2 

In Hispaniola we are told that when a man died his friends resorted 
to necromancy to learn whether he had died through the neglect of the 
attending medicine-man to observe the prescribed fasts. If they found 
the medicine-man guilty, they killed him and broke all his bones. In 
spite of this the medicine-man often returned to life and had to be 
killed again, and mutilated by castration and otherwise. 3 

Herrera repeats the story about a patient who died and whose rela- 
tives felt dissatisfied with the medicine-man : 

Para saber si la muerte fue por su culpa, tomabaii el fumo de cierta lerva, i cor- 
taban las vfias del muerto, i los cabellos de cncima do In frente, i los hacian polvos, 

'For identical notions among the Arawaks of Guiana, Tupis of Brazil, Creeks, Patagouians, Kaflirs, 
Chiquitos, and others, see the works of Schoolcraft, Herbert Spencer, Sehultze, and others. 

a Extract from the Jesuit Falkner's account of Patagonia, in Voyages pf the Adventure and Beayle, 
London, 1839, vol. 2, p. 163. 

3 "Nul deces iuedc;-insiH! pent moiirirsi'ls ue lui enlevent ]es testicules.'' Brasseur de Bonrbourg, 
Trans, of Fra Roman Pane, Des Antiquites des Indiens, Paris. 18G4. p. 451. 



BOUKKE.] THE PAY OP THE MEDICINE-MAN. 467 

i mezclados con el ctimo, so lo dabaii a beber al niuerto por la boca, i las nurivcs, i 
Inego lo pregimtaban nmclios veces, si el Medico gnardb dieta, hasta quo hablando 
el demonio, respoudia tan claro, coino si fuera vivo, i decia, que el Medico no hico 
dicta, i luego le bolvian a la sepultnra. 

Then the relatives attacked the medicine-man: "I le daban tautos 
palos, que le quebraban los braos, i las piernas, i ii otros sacaban los 
ojos, i los cortaban sus miembros genitales." ' 

Alexander the Great expressed his sorrow at the death of his friend 
Hephsestion by crucifying the poor physicians who had attended the 
deceased. 2 

The, medicine-men of the Natchez were put to death when they failed 
to cure. 3 

The Apache attach as much importance to the necessity of " laying 
the inanes " of their dead as the Romans did. They have not localized 
the site of the future world as the Mohave have, but believe that the 
dead remain for a few days or nights in the neighborhood of the place 
where they departed from this life, and that they try to communicate 
with their living friends through the voice of the owl. If a relative hears 
this sound by night, or, as often happens, he imagines that he has 
seen the ghost itself, he hurries to the nearest medicine-man, relates his 
story, and carries out to the smallest detail the prescription of feast, 
singing, dancing, and other means of keeping the spirit in good humor 
on the journey which it will now undertake to the "house of spirits," 
the " chidin-bi-kungua." Nearly all medicine-men claim the power of 
going there at will, and not a few who are not medicine-men claim the 
same faculty. 

The medicine-men of the Apache are paid by each patient or by his 
friends at the time" they are consulted. There is no such thing as a 
maintenance fund, no system of tithes, nor any other burden for their 
support, although I can recall having seen while among the Zuiii one 
of the medicine-men who was making cane holders for the tobacco to 
be smoked at a coming festival, and whose fields were attended and 
his herds guarded by the other members of the tribe. 

Among the Eskimo " the priest receives fees beforehand." 4 

" Tous ces sorciers ne refusaient leurs secours a personne, pourvu 
qu'on les payait." 5 

"Among other customs was that of those who came to be cured, giv- 
ing their bow and arrows, shoes, and beads to the Indians who accom- 
panied Vaca and his companions." 6 (But we must remember that Yaca 
and his comrades traveled across the continent as medicine- men.) 

" Las semeuteras que hacen los Assenais son tambien de comunidad 

1 Hist. Gen., dec. 1, lib. 3, p. 69. 

2 Madden, Shrines and Sepulchres, vol. 1, p. 14. 

1 Gayarre, Louisiana ; its Colonial History v p. 355. 
4 Spencer, Desc. Sociology. 

8 Balboa, Hist, du Perou, Temaux-Compans, vol. 15. 
Davis. Conq. of Xew Mexico, p. 86. 



468 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

y comienzan la primera en la casa de su Cliemisi que es su sacerdote 
principal y el que cuidade la Casa del Fuego." ' The Asinai extended 
as far east as the present city of Natchitoches (Nacogdoches). 

Spencer quotes Bernan and Hilhouse to the effect that the poor 
among the Arawaks of South America (Guiana) have no names because 
they can not pay the medicine-men. 2 

As a general rule, the medicine-men do not attend to their own fam- 
ilies, neither do they assist in cases of childbirth unless specially 
needed. To both these rules there are exceptions innumerable. While 
I was at San Carlos Agency, Surgeon Davis was sent for to help in a 
case of uterine inertia, and I myself have been asked in the pueblo of 
Nambe, New Mexico, to give advice in a case of puerperal fever. 

The medicine-men are accused of administering poisons to their 
enemies. Among the Navajo I was told that they would put finely 
pounded glass in food. 

MEDICINE-WOMEN. 

There are medicine-women as well as medicine-men among the 
Apache, with two of whom I was personally acquainted. One named 
" Captain Jack '' was well advanced in years and physically quite 
feeble, but bright in intellect and said to be well versed in the lore of 
her people. She was fond of instructing her grandchil- 
dren, whom she supported, in the prayers and invocations 
to the gods worshiped by her fathers, and I have several 
times listened carefully and unobserved to these recitations 
and determined that the prayers were the same as those 
which had already been given to myself as those of the 
tribe. The other was named Tze-go-juni, a Chiricahua, 
and a woman with a most romantic history. She had 
passed five years in captivity among the Mexicans in So- 
nora and had learned to speak Spanish with facility. A 
mountain lion had severely mangled her in the shoulder 
and knee, and once she had been struck by lightning; so 
that whether bv reason of superior attainments or by an 

Fig. 429. Med- ' 

icine arrow appeal to the superstitious reverence of her comrades, she 
used by Apa. w ielded considerable influence. These medicine-women 
iiio women. devote their attention principally to obstetrics, and have 
many peculiar stories to relate concerning pre-natal influ- 
ences and matters of that sort. Tze-go-juni wore at her neck the stone 
amulet, shaped like a spear, which is figured in the illustrations of this 
paper. The material was the silex from the top of a mountain, taken 
from a ledge at the foot of a tree which had been struck by lightning. 
The fact that siliceous rock will emit sparks when struck by another 
hard body appeals to the reasoning powers of the savage as a proof that 
the fire must have been originally deposited therein by the, bolt of light- 




1 Cronica Serafica y Apostolica, Espinosa, Mexico, 1746, p. 421. 
1 Desc. Sociology. 



MEDICINE-WOMEN. 469 

uing. A tiny piece of this arrow or lance was broken oft' and ground into 
the finest powder, and then administered in water to women during time 
of gestation. I have found the same kind of arrows in use among the 
women of Laguna and other pueblos. This matter will receive more 
extended treatment in my coming monograph on " Stone Worship." 

Mendieta is authority for the statement that the Mexicans had both 
medicine-men and medicine-women. The former attended to the sick 
men and the latter to the sick women. "A las mujeres siempre las cnra- 
ban otras mujeres, y a los hombres otros hombres." ' Some of the medi- 
cine-women seem to have made an illicit use of the knowledge they had 
acquired, in which case both the mediciue-Avoman and the woman con- 
cerned were put to death. " La mujer prenada que tomaba con que 
abortar y echar la criatnra, ella y la fisica que le habia dado con que 
lalanzase, ambas morian.' ;2 

Gomara asserts that they were to be found among the Indians of 
Chjcora (South Carolina). 3 He calls them "viejas" (old women). 

"Los Medicos eran Mugeres viejas, i no havia otras." 4 In Nicaragua, 
"Las Viejas curaban los Eiifermos." 5 

There were medicine- women in Goazacoalco: "Tienen Medicos para 
curar las enfermedades, i los mas eran Mugeres, grandes Herbolarias, 
que hacian todas las curas con lervas." 6 

Berual Diaz, in 1568, speaks of having, on a certain occasion, at the 
summit of a high mountain, found "an Indian woman, very fat, and 
having with her a dog of that species, which they breed in order to eat, 
and which do not bark. This Indian was a witch; she was in the act 
of sacrificing the dog, which is a signal of hostility." 7 

"The office of medicine-man though generally usurped by males does 
not appertain to them exclusively, and at the time of our visit the one 
most extensively known was a black (or ineztizo) woman, who had ac- 
quired the most unbounded influence by shrewdness, joined to a hid- 
eous personal appearance, and a certain mystery with which she was 
invested." 8 Creeks have medicine-women, as well as medicine-men. 
The Eskimo have medicine-men and medicine-women. 9 The medicine- 
men and women of the Dakota "can cause ghosts to appear on occa- 
sion." 10 

Speaking of the Chippewa, Spencer says: "Women may practice 
soothsaying, but the higher religious functions are performed only by 
men." " 



1 Mi-mlieta, Hist. Eclesiastica Indiana, p. 136. 

2 Ibid., [i. 136. 

3 Hist. <le las India.s, p. 179. 

4 Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 10, p. 2611. 
* Ibid., dec. 3, lib. 4, p. 121. 

6 Ibid., dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. 7, p. 188. 

7 Keating's translation, p. 352, quoted by Samuel Farmar Jarvis, Keligion of tbe Indi-n Tribes, in 
Coll. Xew York Historical Soc., vol. 3. 1819, p. 202. 

" Smitb, Arailruniitns, Jip. 2W, 239. 

9 Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, vol. 1, p. 366. 

10 Si-liultzf, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 49. 
" Spencer, Desc. Sociology. 



470 MEDICINE-MEN OE THE APACHE. 

The medicine-men of the Apacne do not assume to live upon food 
different from that used by the laity. There are such things as sacred 
feasts among the tribes of North America as, for example, the feast 
of stewed puppy at the sun dance of the Sioux but in these all people, 
share. 

In the mortuary ceremonies of the inedicine-men there is a difference 
of degree, but not of kind. The Mohave, however, believe that the 
medicine-men go to a heaven of their own. They also believe vaguely 
in four different lives after this one. 

Cabeza de Vaca says that the Floridians buried their ordinary dead, 
but burned their medicine-men, whose incinerated bones they preserved 
and drank in water. 1 "After they [the medicine-men and women of 
the Dakota] nave f ur times run their career in human shape they are 
annihilated." 2 Schultze says that the medicine-men of the Sioux and 
the medicine-women also, after death "maybe transformed into wild 
beasts." 2 

Surgeon Smart shows that among other offices entrusted to the med- 
icine-men of the Apache was the reception of distinguished strangers. 3 
Long asserts that the medicine-men of the Otoe, Omaha, and others 
along the Missouri pretended to be able to converse with the fetus in 
utero and predict the sex. 4 Nothing of that kind has ever come under 
my notice. Adair says that the medicine-men of the Cherokee would 
not allow snakes to be killed. 5 The Apache will not let snakes be killed 
within the limits of the camp by one of their own people, but they will 
not only allow a stranger to kill them, but request him to do so. They 
made this request of me on three occasions. 

Several of the most influential medicine-men whom I have known 
were blind, among others old Na-ta-do tash, whose medicine hat fig- 
ures in these pages. Whether this blindness was the result of old 
age or due to the frenzy of dancing until exhausted in all seasons I am 
unable to conjecture. Schultze says of the shamans of Siberia : " This 
artificial frenzy has such a serious effect upon the body, and more par- 
ticularly the eyes, that many of the shamans become blind; a circum- 
stance which enhances the esteem in which they are held." 15 Some of 
the medicine-men of Peru went blind from overexertion in their dances, 
although Gomara assigns as a reason that it was from fear of the demon 
with whom they talked. " Y aim algunos se quiebran los ojos para 
semejante hablar [i. e., talk with the devil] ; y creo que lo hacian de 
miedo, porque todos ellos se atapan los ojos cuando hablan con el." 7 

Duubar tells us that the medicine-men of the Pawnee swallowed 
arrows and knives, and had also the trick of apparently killing a man 



1 Ternaux-Compans, vol. 7, p. 110. 
Schultze, Fetichism, Now York, 188. r >, ],. 4H. 
Smithsonian Report for 1867. 
Long's Expedition, Philadelphia, 1823, p. 238. 
Hiat. of the American Indians, p. 238. 
Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 52. 
Hisl. de las Indias, p. 232. 



BOUKKE.] REMEDIES AND MODE6 O* TREATMENT. 471 

and bringing him back to life. The same power was claimed by the 
medicine-men of the Zuui, and the story told me.by old Pedro Pino of 
the young men whom they used to kill and restore to life, will be found 
in "The Snake Dance of the Moquis." 

REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 

The materia medica of tlie Apache is at best limited and compre- 
hends scarcely anything more than roots, leaves, and other vegetable 
matter. In gathering these remedies they resort to no superstitious 
ceremonies that I have been able to detect, although I have not often 
seen -them collecting. They prefer incantation to pharmacy at all 
times, although the squaws of the Walapai living near old Camp 
Beale Springs in 1873, were extremely fond of castor oil, for which they 
would beg each day. 

The main reliance for nearly all disorders is the sweat bath, which is 
generally conducive of sound repose. All Indians know the benefit to be 
derived from relieving an overloaded stomach, and resort to the titil- 
lation of the fauces with a feather to induce nausea. 1 have seen the 
Zufii take great drafts of lukewarm water and then practice the above 
as a remedy in dyspepsia. 

When a pain has become localized and deep seated, the medicine- 
men resort to suction of the part affected, and raise blisters in that 
way. I was once asked by the Walapai chief, Sequauya, to look at 
his back and sides. He was covered with cicatrices due to such treat- 
ment, the medicine-men thinking thus to alleviate the progressive 
paralysis from which he had been long a suft'erer, and from which he 
shortly afterwards died. After a long march, 1 have seen Indians of 
different bands expose the small of the back uncovered to the fierce 
heat of a pile of embers to produce a rubefacient effect and stimulate 
what is known as a weak back. They drink freely of hot teas or in- 
fusions of herbs and grasses for the cure of chills. They are all dex- 
trous in the manufacture of splints out of willow twigs, and seem to 
meet with much success iu their treatment of gunshot wounds, which 
they do not dress as often as white practitioners, alleging that the 
latter, by so frequently removing the bandages, unduly irritate the 
wounds. I have known them to apply moxa, and I remember to have 
seen two deep scars upon the left hand of the great Apache chief Co- 
chise, due to this cause. 

It should not be forgotten that the world owes a large debt to the 
medicine-men of America, who first discovered the virtues of coca, sar- 
saparilla, jalap, cinchona, and guiacum. They understand the admin- 
istration of enemata, and have an apparatus made of the paunch of a 
sheep ami the hollow leg bone. 

Scarification is quite common, and is used for a singular purpose. 
The Apache scouts when tired were in the habit of sitting down and 
lashing their legs with bunches of nettles until the blood flowed. This, 
according to their belief, relieved the exhaustion. 



472 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

The medicine-men of the Ploridians, according to Vaca, sucked and 
blew on the patient, and put hot stones on his abdomen to take away 
pain; they also scarified, and they seemed to have used moxas. "Us 
caute'risent aussi avec le feu." ' 

The medicine-men of Hispaniola cured by suction, and when they had 
extracted a stone or other alleged cause of sickness it was preserved 
as a sacred relic, especially by the women, who looked upon it as 
of great aid in parturition. 2 Venegas speaks of a tube called the 
" chacuaco," formed out of a very hard black stone, used by the medi- 
cine-men of California in sucking such parts of the patient's body as 
were grievously afflicted with pains. In these tubes they sometimes 
placed lighted tobacco and blew down upon the part affected after the 
manner of a moxa, I suppose. 3 

The men of Pauuco were so addicted to drunkenness that we are 
told : " Lorsqu'ils sont fatigues de boire leur vin par la bouche, ils se 
couchent, e'leveut les jambes en 1'air, et s'en font introduire dans le 
fondement an inoyen d'uue cauule, taut que le corps pent en coutenir." 4 
The administration of wine in this manner may have been as a medi- 
cine, and the Aztecs of Panuco may have known that nutriment could 
be assimilated in this way. It shows at least that the Aztecs were 
acquainted with enemata. 

" Quando la enfermedad les parecia que teuia necesidad de evacua- 
cion, usaban del aiuda 6 clister [clyster], con cocimientos de lervas, i 
polvos, en Agua, i tomandola en la boca, con vn cauuto de hueso de 
pierna de Garga, la hechaban, i obraba copiosamente : i en esto pudo 
esta Gente ser industriada de la Cigueiia, que con su largo pico se cura, 
como escriven los Naturales." 5 Smith says that the medicine-men of 
the Araucanians u are well acquainted with the proper use of emetics, 
cathartics, and sudoriflcs. For the purpose of injection they make 
use of a bladder, as is still commonly practiced among the Chilenos." 6 - 
Oviedo says of the medicine-men: "Conogian muchas hiervas de que 
usaban y eran apropiadas a diversas enfermedades." 7 One of the most 
curious remedies presented in Bancroft's first volume is the iise of a 
poultice of mashed poison-ivy leaves as a remedy for ringworm by the 
Indians of Lower California. 

The Indians of Topia (in the Sierra Madre, near Sinaloa), were in the 
habit of scarifying their tired legs and aching temples. 8 The Arawaks, 
of Guiana, also scarified, according to Spencer. 9 The inhabitants of 



1 Temaux-Compans, vol. 7, pp. 114, 115. 

* Notes from Gomara, Hist, de las Indian, pp. 172-173. 

3 History of California, vol. 1, p. 97. 

4 Ternaux-Compans, vol. 10, p. 85. 

1 Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. 8, p. 188. 

6 Smith, Arancanians, p. 234. 

7 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 1, p. 779. 

8 Alegre. Historia de la CompaDIa de Jesus en Nueva-Espafia. vol. 1. p. 401. 
9 Desc. Sociology. 



BOURKK.] REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 473 

Kamchatka use enemata much in the same way as the Xavajo and 
Apache do. 1 They also use moxa made of a fungus. 2 

It has never been my good fortune to notice an example of trephining 
among our savage tribes, although I have seen a good many wounded, 
some of them in the head. Trephining has been practiced by the 
aborigines of America, and the whole subject as noted among the 
primitive peoples of all parts of the globe has been treated in a mono- 
graph by Dr. Robert Fletcher, IT. S. Army. 3 

Dr. Fordyce Grinnell, who was for some years attached to the 
Wichita Agency as resident physician, has published the results of his 
observations in a monograph, entitled "The healing art as practiced 
by the Indians of the Plains," in which he says: "Wet cupping is 
resorted to quite frequently. The surface is scarified by a sharp stone 
or knife, and a buffalo horn is used as the cupping glass. Cauterizing 
with red-hot irons is not infrequently employed." A cautery of u burning 
pith" was used by the Araucanians.* 

" It may be safely affirmed that a > majority of the nation | Choctawj 
prefer to receive the attentions of a white physician when one can be 
obtained. * * * When the doctor is called to his patient he com- 
mences operations by excluding all white men and all who disbelieve in 
the efficacy of his incantations." 6 " The [Apache] scouts seem to prefer 
their own medicine-men when seriously ill, and believe the weird sing- 
ing and praying around the couch is more effective than the medicine 
dealt out by our camp 'sawbones.'" 6 The promptness with which the 
American Indian recovers from severe wounds has been commented 
upon by many authorities. From my personal observation I could, 
were it necessary, adduce many examples. The natives of Australia 
seem to be endowed with the same recuperative powers. 7 

After all other means have failed the medicine- men of the Southwest 
devote themselves to making altars in the sand and clay near the couch 
of the dying, because, as Antonio Besias explained, this act was all the 
same as extreme unction. They portray the figures of various animals, 
and then take a pinch of the dust or ashes from each one and rub upon 
the person of the sick man as well as upon themselves. Similar altars 
or tracings were made by the medicine-men of Guatemala when they 
were casting the horoscope of a child and seeking to determine what 
was to be its medicine in life. This matter of sand altars has been fully 
treated by Matthews in the report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1883- 
'84, and there are several representations to be found in my Snake Dance 
of the Moquis. "Writing on sand" is a mode of divination among the 



1 Kniskenuiuikoff, History of Kanitchatka and the Kurilski Islands, Grieve's translation, p. 219. 

2 Ibid., p. 220. 

3 Contributions to Xortb American Ktbnology, vol. 5. 
1 Smitb, Araucanians, p. 233. 

5 Dr. Kelwin (i. Meek, Toner Collection, Library of Congress. 
Lic-iit. Pe'ttit in Jour. U. S. Mil. Serv. Instit., 1886, pp. 338-337 
' Smyth, Aboriginea of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 155. 



474 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Chinese.' Padre Boscana represents the "puplem'' or medicine-men 
of the Indians of California as making- or sketching "a most uncouth 
and ridiculous figure of an animal on the ground," and presumably of 
sands, clays, and other such materials. 2 

HAIR AND WIGS. 

The medicine-men of the Apache were, at least while young, extremely 
careful of their hair, and I have, often seen those who were very prop- 
erly proud of their long and glossy chevelure. Particularly do I recall 
to mind the " doctor " at San Carlos in 1885, who would never allow 
his flowing black tresses to be touched. But they do not roach their 
hair, as I have seen the Pawnee do; they do not add false hair to their 
own, as I have seen among the Crow of Montana and the Mohave of the 
Eio Colorado ; they do not apply plasters of mud as do their neighbors 
the Yuma, Cocopa, Mohave and Pima, and in such a manner as to 
convince spectators that the intent was ceremonial; and they do not 
use wigs in their dances. Wigs made of black wool may still be found 
occasionally among the Pueblos, but the Apache do not use them, and 
there is no reference to such a thing in their myths. 

It is to be understood that these paragraphs are not treating upon 
the superstitions concerning the human hair, as such, but simply of the 
employment of wigs, which would seem in former days among some of 
the tribes of the Southwest to have been made of human hair pre- 
sented by patients who had recovered from sickness or by mourners 
whose relatives had died. 3 Wigs with masks attached were worn by 
the Costa Ricans, according to Gabb. 4 

Some of the Apache- Yuma men wear long rolls of matted hair behind, 
which are the thickness of a finger, and two feet or more in length, and 
composed of old hair mixed with that growing on the head, or are in the 
form of a wig, made of hair that has been cut oft' when mourning the 
dead, to be worn on occasions of ceremony. 5 

Observations of the same kind have been made by Speke upon the 
customs of the people of Africa in his Nile, 6 concerning the Kidi people 
at the head of the Nile; by Cook, in Hawkesworth's Voyages, 7 speaking 
of Tahiti, and by Barcia, 8 speaking of Greenland. Sir Samuel Baker 
describes the peculiar wigs worn by the tribes on Lake Albert Nyanza, 

1 Dennys, Folk Lore of China, p. 57. 

1 " Chinigchinich " in Robinson's California, pp. 271, 272. 

8 The reader interested in this matter may find something bearing upon it in Diego Duran, lib. 1, cap. 
36, p. 387; Torquemada, Mon. Indiana, lib. 9, cap. 3; Venegas, History of California, vol. 1, p. 105; 
Gomara, Conq. de Mexico, p. 443; Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 8, p. 158; Maximilian of Wied, p. 431, and others; 
The "pelucas" mentioned of the Orinoco tribes by Padre Gnmilla would seem to be nothing more than 
feather head-dresses; p. 66. 

4 Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., Philadelphia, 1875, p. 503. 

s Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, Sept., 1880, p. 279. 

6 Source of the Nile, p. 507. 

' Vol. 2, p. 193. 

* Ensayo Cronologico, p. 139. 



BOURKK.J HATE AND WIGS MUDHEADS. 475 

formed of the owner's hair and contributions from all sources plastered 
with clay into a stiff mass. 1 

Melchior Diaz reported that the people of Cibola "eleveut dans leurs 
maisons des anunaux veins, grands comme des cbieiis d'Espagne. Us 
les toudent, ils en font des perruques de couleurs." This report was 
sent by the Viceroy Mendoza to the Emperor Charles V. Exactly what 
these domesticated animals were, it would be hard to say; they may 
possibly have been Rocky Mountain sheep, 2 though Mr. Gushing, who 
has studied the question somewhat extensively, is of the opinion that 
they may have been a variety of the llama. 

The Assinaboine used to wear false hair, and also had the custom of 
dividing their iiair into "joints" of an inch or more, marked by a sort 
of paste of red earth and glue; 3 The Mandan did the same. 4 In this 
they both resemble the Mohave of the Eio Colorado. "The Algonquins 
believed also in a malignant Manitou. * * * She wore a robe made 
of the hair of her victims, for she was the cause of death." 5 

The Apache, until within the lasf; twenty years, plucked out the eye- 
lashes and often the eyebrows, but only a few of them still persist in 
the practice. Kane says that the Winnebagoes "have the custom of 
pulling out their eyebrows." 6 Herrera says that among the signs by 
which the Tlascaltecs recognized their gods when they saw them in 
visions, were "vianle sin cejas, i sin pestaiias." 7 

MUDHEADS. 

Reference has been made to a ceremonial plastering of mud upon the 
heads of Indians. When General Crook was returning from his expe- 
dition into the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, in which expedition a few 
of the enemy had been killed, the scouts upon reaching the San Ber- 
nardino River made a free use of the sweat bath, with much singing 
and other formulas, the whole being part of the lustration which all 
warriors must undergo as soon as possible after being engaged in battle. 
The Apache proper did not apply mud to their heads, but the Apache- 
Yuma did. 

Capt. Grossman, V. S. Army," says of the Pima method of purifi- 
cation after killing an Apache, that the isolation of the warrior lasts 
for sixteen days, during which period no one speaks to him, not even 
the old woman who brings him his food. The first day he touches 
neither food nor drink, and he eats sparingly for the whole time, touch- 



1 Vor the Shamans of Kodiak, see Lisiansky, Voyage, London, 1814, p. 208; for the Mexicans, Padre 
Jose Acosta, Paris, 1600, cap. 28, p. 250; Society Islands., Malte-Brun, Univ. Geography, vol. 3, lib. 58, p. 
634, lioston, 1825. Sir Samuel liaker, The Albert 'Nyanza, vol. 1, i>. 211. 

2 Ternaux-Cotnpaus, vol. 9, p. 294. 

3 Catlin, North American Indians, London. 1845. vol. 1. p. 55. 

Ibid., p. 95. 

5 Parkman, Jesuits in North Amerir;i, i> ixxxiv. 

6 Wanderings of an Artist in N'orth America, p. 40. 

' I)ci-. >, lib. 6, [I. 161. 

11 Smithsonian Report for 1871. 



476 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

ing neither meat nor salt; he bathes frequently in the Gila Kiver and 
nearly the whole time keeps his head covered with a plaster of mud 
and mesquite. 

"The boyes [of the Massagueyes] of seven or eight yeeres weare clay 
fastned on the hayre of the head, and still renewed with new clay, 
weighing sometimes five or six pounds. Nor may they be free hereof 
till in warre or lawfull fight hee hath killed a man." ' 

According to Padre (ieronimo Boscana, the traditions of the Indians 
of California show that they "fed upon a kind of clay." 2 But this clay 
was often plastered upon their heads "as a kind of ornament." These 
were the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, who strongly resembled the 
Mohave. After all, the "mudhcads" of the Mohaveareuo worse than 
those people in India who still bedaub their heads with "the holy 
mud of the Ganges." Up to this time the mud has been the " bine 
mud " of the Colorado and other rivers, but when we find Herbert 
Spencer mentioning that the heads of the Comauche are " besmeared 
with a dull red clay" we may suspect that we have stumbled upon an 
analogue of the custom of the Aztec priests, who bedaubed their heads 
with the coagulating lifeblood of their human victims. We know that 
there has been such a substitution practiced among the Indians of the 
Pueblo of Jemez, who apply red ocher to the mouth of the stone 
mountain lion, in whose honor human blood was once freely shed. The 
practice of so many of the Plains tribes of painting the median line of 
the head with vermilion seems to be traceable back to a similar custom. 

SCALP SHIRTS. 

The shirt depicted on PI. in, made of buckskin and trimmed with 
human scalps, would seem to belong to the same category with the 
mantles made of votive hair, mentioned as being in use among the 
California tribe a little more than a century ago. It was presented to 
me by Little Big Man, who led me to believe that it had once belonged 
to the great chief of the Sioux, Crazy Horse, or had at least been worn 
by him. Of its symbolism I am unable to find the explanation. The 
colors yellow and blue would seem to represent the earth and water or 
sky, the feathers attached would refer to the birds, and the round circle 
on the breast is undoubtedly the sun. There is a cocoon affixed to one 
shoulder, the significance of which I do not know. 

THE RHOMBUS, OR BULL ROARER. 

The rhombus was first seen by me at the snake dance of the Tusayau, 
in the village of Walpi, Ariz., in the month of August, 1881. Pre- 
vious to that date I had heard of it vaguely, but had never been able to 
see it in actual use. The medicine-men twirled it rapidly, and with a 
uniform motion, about the head and from front to rear, and succeeded 

1 Purchas, lib. 9, cap. 12, sec. 4, p. 1555, edition of 1622. 
1 Chinigchinich, p. 253. 



RHOMBUS OR BULL ROARER, 



477 



in faithfully imitating tlie sound of a gust of raiii- laden wind. As ex- 
plained to me by one of the medicine-men, by making this sound they 
compelled the wind and rain to come to the aid of the crops. At a 
later date I found it in use among the Apache, and for the same pur- 
pose. The season near the San Carlos Agency during the year 1884 
had been unusually dry, and the crops were parched. The medicine- 
men arranged a procession, two of the features of which were the rhom- 
bus and a long handled cross, upon which various figures were depicted. 
Of the latter, I will speak at another time. 

Again, while examining certain ruins in the Verde Valley, in central 
Arizona, I found that the "Cliff Dwellers," as it has become customary 
to call the prehistoric inhabitants, 
had employed the same weapon 
of persuasion in their intercourse 
with their gods. 1 found the 
rhombus also among the Bio 
Grande Pueblo tribes and the 
Zufli. Dr. Washington Matthews 
has described it as existing among 
the Navajo and Maj. J. W. Pow- 
ell has observed it in use among 
the Utes of Nevada and Utah. 
As will be shown, its use in all 
parts of the world seems to have 
been as general as that of any 
sacred implement known to prim- 
itive man, not even excepting the 
sacred cords or rosaries discussed 
in this paper. Three forms of the 
rhombus have come under my 
own observation, each and all ap- 
parently connected in symbolism 
with the lightning. The first ter- 
minates in a triangular point, and 
the general shape is either that 
of a long, narrow, parallelogram, 
capped with an equilateral trian- 
gle, or else the whole figure is that 
of a slender isosceles triangle. Where the former shape was used, as at 
the Tusayan snake dance, the tracing of a snake or lightning in blue or 
yellow followed down the length of the rhombus and terminated in the 
small triangle, which did duty as the snake's head. The second pattern 
was found by Dr. Matthews among the Navajo, and by myself in the old 
cliff dwellings. The one which I found was somewhat decayed, and the 
extremity of the triangle was broken off. There was no vestige of paint- 
ing left. The second form was serrated on both edges to simulate the form 




Fio. 430. Rhombus of the Apache. 



478 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



of the snake or lightning. The third form, iu use among the- Apache, 
is an oblong of 7 or S inches in length, one and a quarter inches iu 
width by a quarter in thickness. One extremity, that through which 
the cord passes, is rounded to rudely represent a human head, and the 
whole bears a close resemblance to the drawings of schoolboys which 
are intended for the human figure. The Apache explained that the 
Hues on the front side of the rhombus were the entrails and those ou 
the rear side the hair of their wind god. The hair is of several colors, 
and represents the lightning. I did not ascertain positively that such 




FIG. 431. Rhombus of the Apache 

was the case, but was led to believe that the rhombus of the Apache 
was made by the medicine-men from wood, generally pine or fir, which 
had been struck by lightning on the mountain tops. Such wood is 
held in the highest estimation among them, and is used for the manu- 
facture of amulets of especial efficacy. The Apache name for the rhom- 
bus is tzi-ditindi, the "sounding wood." The identification of the 
rhombus or "bull roarer" of the ancient Greeks with that used by the 
Tusayan in their snake dance was first made by E. B. Tylor in the 
Saturday Eeview in a criticism upon "The Snake Dance of the Moquis 
of Arizona." 



BODRKE.] THE CROSS. 479 

The Kaffirs have the rhombus among their playthings : 

The nodiwu is a piece of wood about 6 or 8 inches long, aud an inch and a half 
or 2 inches wide, and an eighth or a quarter of an inch thick in the middle. 
Towards the edges it is beveled off, so that the surface is convex, or consists of two 
inclined planes. At one end it has a thong attached to it by which it is whirled 
rapidly round. * * * There is a kind of superstition connected with the nodiwu, 
that playing with it invites a gale of wind. Men will, on this account, often prevent 
boys from using it when they desire calm weather for any purpose. This supersti- 
tion is identical with that which prevents many sailors from whistling at sea. 1 

Of the Peruvians we are informed that " their belief was that there 
was a man in the sky with a sling and a stick, and that in. his power 
were the rain, the hail, the thunder, and all else that appertains to the 
regions of the air, where clouds are formed." 2 

The sacred twirler of the snake dance is found in Greece, America, 
Africa and New Zealand. It survives as a toy in England and the 
United States. 3 The same peculiar instrument has been noticed in the 
religious ceremonials of the Australians, especially in the initiatory 
rites of the " bora." It is called the " tirricoty." 4 The twirling of the 
tzi-ditindi in medicine or prayer corresponds to the revolution of the 
prayer wheel of the Lamas. 

THE CKOSS. 

The sign of the cross appears in many places in Apahe symbolism. 
The general subject of the connection of the cross with the religion of 
the aborigines of the American continent has been so fully traversed by 
previous authors that I do not care to add much more to the subject 
beyond saying that my own observation has assured me that it is re- 
lated to the cardinal points and the four winds, and is painted by warriors 
upon their moccasins upon going into a strange district in the hope of 
keeping them from getting on a wrong trail. 

In October, 1 884, I saw a procession of Apache men and women, led 
by the medicine-men bearing two crosses, made as follows: The verti- 
cal arm was 4 feet 10 inches long, and the transverse between 10 and 
12 inches, and each was made of slats about 1 inches wide, which looked 
as if they had been long in use. They were decorated with blue polka 
dots upon the unpainted surface. A blue snake meandered down the 
longer arm. There was a circle of small willow twigs at top ; next below 
that, a small zinc-cased mirror, a bell, and eagle feathers. Nosey, the 
Apache whom I induced to bring it to me after the ceremony, said that 
they carried it in honor of Guzanutli to induce her to send rain, at that 
time much needed for their crops. It is quite likely that this particu- 
lar case represents a composite iuea ; that the original beliefs of the 



' Theal, Kaffir Folk-lore, pp. 209-210. 

1 Clements R. Markham, Note on Garcilasso de la Vega, in Hakluyt SIM;., vol. 41, p. 183, quoting 
Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 4. 

1 Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, New York, 1885, chapter entitled " The bull roarer," pp. 29-44. 
4 Johu Fraser, The Aborigines of Australia; their Ethnic Position and Relations, pp. 181-162. 



480 MEDICINE-MEN OP THE APACHE. 

Apache have been modified to some extent by the crude ideas of the 
Mexican captives among them, who still remember much that was taught 
them in the churches of the hamlets in northern Mexico, from which 
they were kidnapped years ago; but, on the other hand, it is to be re- 
membered that the cross has always formed a part of the Apache sym- 
bolism ; that the snake does not belong to the Christian faith, and that 
it has never been allowed to appear upon the cross since the time of the 
Gnostics in the second and third centuries. Therefore, we must regard 
that as a Pagau symbol, and so must we regard the circle of willow 
twigs, which is exactly the same as the circle we have seen attached to 
the sacred cords for the cure of headache. 1 

The cross was found in full vogue as a religious emblem among the 
aborigines all over America. Father Le Clercq 2 speaks of its very gen- 
eral employment by the Gaspesiaus: "Us ont parmi eux, tout infldeles 
qu'ils soient, la Croix en singuliere veneration, qu'ils la portent figured 
sur leurs habits & sur leur chair; qu'ils la tiennent & la main dans 
tous leurs voi'ages, soft par nier, soit par terre; & qu'enfin ils la posent 
au dehors & au dedans de leurs Cabannes, comme la marque d'honneur 
qui les distingue des autres Nations du Canada." He narrates 3 that the 
Gaspe" tradition or myth was, that the whole tribe being ravaged by a 
plague, the medicine men had recourse to the Sun, who ordered them 
to make use of the cross in every extremity. 

Herrera relates that the followers of Hernandez de Cordoba found at 
Cape Catoche "uuos Adoratorios . . . i Graces pintadas que les 
causo gran admiracion." 4 He also says that Juan de Grijalva on the 
island of Cozumel found a number of oratories and temples, but one in 
particular was made in the form of a square tower, with four openings. 
Inside this tower was. a cross made of lime, which the natives rever- 
enced as the god of the rain; "una Cruz de Cal, de tres varas en alto, 
a la qual tenian por el Dios de la lluvia." 5 

NECKLACES OP HUMAN FINGERS. 

The necklace of human fingers, an illustration of which accompanies 
this text (PI. IV), belonged to the foremost of the medicine-men of a 
brave tribe the Cheyenne of Montana and Wyoming. They were the 
backbone of the hostility to the whites, and during the long and ardu- 
ous campaign conducted against them by the late Maj. Gen. George 
Crook, which terminated so successfully in the surrender of 4,500 of the 
allied Sioux and Cheyenne, at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, in 
the early spring of 1877, it was a noted fact that wherever a band of the 

1 "When the rain-maker of the Lenni Lennape would exert his power, he retired to some secluded 
spot and drew upon the earth the figure of a cross {its arms toward the cardinal points?), placed 
npon it a piece of tobacco, a gourd, a bit of some red stuff, and commenced to cry ahrid to the spirits 
of the rains. " Brintou, Myths of the New World, New York. 1868, p. 96 (after Loskiel). 

2 Pere Chrestien Le Clercq, Gaspesie, Paris, 1691, p. 170. 

8 Ibid., cap. x, pp. 172-199. 

4 Dec. 2, lib. 2, p. 48. 

'Ibid., p. 59. 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate IV. 




SvdcMttWMmUheCa N 



NECKLACE OF HUMAN FINGERS. 



BOURKK.] NECKLACES OF HUMAN FINGERS. 481 

Cheyenne was to be found there the fighting was most desperate. It 
is a matter now well established that the Cheyenne are an offshoot of 
the Aigouquian family, speaking a dialect closely resembling that of the 
Cree, of British America. 

It may interest some readers to listen to a few words descriptive of 
the manner in which such a ghastly relic of savagery came into my pos- 
session. On the morning of the 25th of November. 1876, the cavalry 
and Indian scouts (Sioux, Shoshoni, Arapaho, Pawnee, and a few of the 
Cheyenne themselves), of Gen. Crook's command, under the leadership 
of the late Brig. Gen. Ranald S. Mackenzie, then colonel of the Fourth 
Cavalry, surprised and destroyed the main village of the Cheyenne, on 
the headwaters of the Powder River, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wy- 
oming. The onslaught was irresistible, the destruction complete, and 
the discomfited savages were forced to flee from their beds, half naked 
and with nothing save their arms and ammunition. More than half of 
the great herd of ponies belonging to the savages were killed, captured, 
or so badly wounded as to be of no use to the owners. The cold became 
so intense that on the night after the fight eleven papooses froze to death 
in their mothers' arms, and the succeeding night, three others. This 
blow, the most grievous ever iuflicted upon the plains tribes, resulted 
in the surrender, first of the Cheyenne, and later on of the principal chief 
of the Sionx, the renowned Crazy Horse; after wlijch the Sioux troubles 
were minimized into the hunt for scattered bands. Undoubtedly, among 
the bitterest losses of valuable property suffered by the Cheyenne on 
this occasion were the two necklaces of human fingers which came into 
my possession, together with the small buckskin bag filled with the right 
hands of papooses belonging to the tribe of their deadly enemies, the 
Shoshoni. These were found in the village by one of our scouts Bap- 
tiste Pourrier, who, with Mr. Frank Gruard, was holding an important 
and responsible position in connection with the care of the great body 
of Indian scouts already spoken of. From these two gentlemen I after- 
wards obtained all the information that is here to be found regarding 
the Cheyenne necklace. 

The second necklace, consisting of four fingers, was buried, as Gen. 
Crook did not wish to have kept more than one specimen, and that only 
for scientific purposes. Accordingly, the necklace here depicted was 
sent first to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and 
later to the National Museum in Washington, where it was believed it 
could better fulfill its mission of educating students in a knowledge of 
the manners and customs of our aborigines. 

The buckskin bag, with the papooses' hands, was claimed by the 
Shoshoni scouts, who danced and wailed all night, and then burned the 
fearful evidence of the loss sustained by their people. 

The necklace is made of a round collar of buckskin, incrusted with 
the small blue and white beads purchased from the traders, these being 
arranged in alternate spaces of an inch or more in length. There are 
ETH :!1 



482 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

also attached numbers of the perforated wampum shell beads of native 
manufacture. Pendant from this collar are five medicine arrows, the 
exact nature of which, it was, of course, impossible to determine from 
the owner himself. Both Frank and Baptiste agreed that an arrow 
might become " medicine " either from having been shot into the person 
of the owner himself or into the body of an enemy, or even from having 
been picked up under peculiar circumstances. The owner, High Wolf or 
Tall Wolf, admitted as much after he had surrendered at the Eed Cloud 
Agency and had made every effort to obtain the return of his medicine, 
which was this necklace. 

The four medicine bags to be seen in the picture are worthy of atten- 
tion. They were carefully examined under a powerful glass by Dr. H. 
C. Yarrow, U. S. Army, in the city of Washington, and pronounced to 
be human scrota. The first of these contained a vegetable powder, 
somewhat decomposed, having a resemblance to hoddentin ; the second 
was filled with killikiunick; the third with small garnet-colored seeds 
like the chia in use among the Apache, and the fourth with a yellow, 
clayey-white vegetable matter not identified. The fifth, also, remained 
unidentified. 

Besides the above, there are artificial teeth, resembling those of the 
fossil animals abundant in the Bad Lands of South Dakota, but cut out 
of soft stone. 



The fingers eight altogether are the left-hand middle fingers of 
Indians of hostile tribes, killed by High Wolf. I obtained the list and 
could insert it here were it worth while to do so. The fingers have not 
been left in the natural state, but have been subjected to very careful 
and elaborate antiseptic treatment in order thoroughly to desiccate them. 
They were split longitudinally on the inner side and after the bone had 
been extracted the surface of the skin, both inside and out, received a 
treatment with a wash or paint of ocherous earth, the same as is used 
for the face. I was told that the bones were not replaced but that sticks 
were inserted to maintain the fingers in proper shape. 

Of the reason for making use of such a trophy or relic, there is not 
much to be said; even the savages know little and say less. From the 
best information that I have been able to gather, it would seem to be 
based partly upon a vainglorious desire to display the proofs of 
personal prowess, and partly upon the vague and ill defined, but deeply 
rooted, belief in the talismanic or " medicinal 1 ' potency possessed by all 
parts of the human body, especially after death. It was such a belief 
which impelled the Mandan, Aztecs, and others of the American tribes 
to preserve the skulls of their dead as well as (among the Aztecs) those 
of the victims sacrificed in honor of their gods. As has been shown in 
another place, the Zufii and others take care to offer food at stated 
periods to the scalps of their enemies. 

The use of necklaces of human fingers or of human teeth is to be 
found in many parts of the world, and besides the fingers themselves, 



BOL-KKE.] WAR TROPHIES. 483 

we find the whole arm, or in other cases only the nails. The Cheyenne 
did not always restrict themselves to fingers ; they generally made use 
of the whole hand, or the arm of the slaughtered enemy. In a colored 
picture drawn and painted by oue of themselves I have a representa- 
tion of a scalp dance, in which the squaws may be seen dressed in their 
best, earring the arms of enemies elevated on high poles and lances. 
There is no doubt in my mind that this custom of the Cheyenne of cut- 
ting off the arm or hand gave rise to their name in the sign language of 
the " Slashers," or " Wrist Cutters," much as the corresponding tribal 
peculiarity of the Dakota occasioned their name of the "Coupe Gorge" 
or "Throat Cutters." 

The necklace of human fingers is found among other tribes. A 
necklace of four human fingers was seen by the members of the Lewis 
and Clarke expedition among the Shoshoui at the headwaters of the 
Columbia, in the early years of the present century. Early in the 
spring of 1838 Henry Youle Hind refers to the allies of the Ojibwa on 
Ked River as having "two fingers severed from the hands of the unfor- 
tunate Sioux." 1 In Eastman's "Legends of the Sioux," we read of 
"Harpstliinah, one of the Sioux women, who wore as long as she could 
endure it, a necklace made of the hands and feet of Chippewah chil- 
dren." 3 We read that in New Zealand, "Several rows of human teeth, 
drawn on a thread, hung on their breasts." 3 Capt. Cook speaks of 
seeing fifteen human jaw bones attached to a semicircular board at 
the end of a long house on the island of Tahiti. " They appeared to be 
fresh, and there was not one of them that wanted a single tooth;" 4 and 
also, "the model of a canoe, about three feet long, to which were tied 
eight human jaw bones; we had already learnt that these were tro- 
phies of war." 5 Capt. Byron, K. N., saw in the Society Islands, in 1765, 
a chief who " had a string of human teeth about his waist, which was 
probably a trophy of his military prowess." 6 

" The wild Andamanese, who live only on the fruits of their forests and 
on fish, so far revere their .progenitors that they adorn their women 
and children with necklaces and such like, formed out of the finger and 
toe-nails of their ancestors." 7 

Bancroft says 8 that the Californians did not generally scalp, but they 
did cut off and keep the arms and legs of a slain enemy or, rather, the 
hands and feet and head. They also had the habit of plucking out 
and preserving the eyes. 

Kohl assures us that he has been informed that the Ojibwa will 
frequently cut fingers, arms, and limbs from their enemies and preserve 

1 Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition, vol. 2, p. 123. 

'New York, 1849, pp. x, xxix, 47. 

3 Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 1. pp. 219, 519. 

1 Hawkesworth, op. cit., vol. 2, p, 161. 

'Ibid., p. 257. 

Ibid., vol. 1, p. 113. 

7 Forloug, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, pp. 541, 542. 

Nat. Races, vol. 1, p. 380. 



484 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

these ghastly relics for use in their dances. Sometimes the warriors 
will become so excited that they will break off and swallow a finger. 1 

Tanner says of the Ojibwa: "Sometimes they use sacks of human 
skin to contain their medicines, and they fancy that something is thus 
added to their efficacy." z 

Of the savages of Virginia we read : " Mais d'antres portent pour 
plus glorieuse parure une main seiche de quelqu'un de leurs ennemis.":< 

Of the Algonkin we read: "II y en a qui out uue partie du bras et 
la main de quelque Hiroquois qn'ils out tue; cela est si bien vuide'e que 
les ongles resteut toutes entieres." 4 

The Mohawk "place their foe against a tree or stake and first 
tear all the nails from his fingers and run them on a string, which they 
wear the same as we do gold chains. It is considered to the honor of 
any chief who has vanquished or overcome his enemies if he bite off or 
cut off some of their members, as whole fingers." 5 

The Cenis (Asinai) of Texas, were seen by La Salle's expedition in 
1687-1690, torturing a captive squaw. "They then tore out her hair, 
and cut off her fingers.'"' 

In volume 2 of Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, in the plates of 
the Vatican manuscript, is to be seen a representation of an Aztec priest 
or other dignitary holding out in his hands two human arms. In plate 
76 of the same is a priest ottering up a human sacrifice, the virile member 
of the victim cut oft'. 

Teoyamaqui, the wife of Huitzlipochtli, the Aztec god of war, was 
depicted with a necklace of human hands. 7 Squier also says that 
Darga or Kali, the Hindu goddess, who corresponds very closely to her, 
was represented with "a necklace of skulls" and " a girdle of dissevered 
human hands." 

The Hindu goddess Kali was decorated with a necklace of human 
skulls. 8 In the Propaganda collection, given in Kingsborough, 9 are to 
be seen human arms and legs. 

"On the death of any of the great officers of state, the finger bones 
and hair are also preserved ; or if they have died shaven, as sometimes 
occurs, a bit of their mbfigii dress will be preserved in place of the hair." 1 " 
"Their families guard their tombs." 11 

The principal war fetiches of Uganda " consist of dead lizards, bits, 

. ' Kohl, Kitchi-gaini, pp. 345, 346. 
2 Tanner's Narrative, p. 372. 

"'John de Laet, lib. 3, cap. 18, p. 90, quoting Capt. John Smith. 
4 Le Jeune in Jesuit Relations, 16X1, vol.1, Quebec, 1858. 

Third Voyage of David Peter De Vries to New Amsterdam, in Trans. X. T. Hist. Soc., vol. 3, p. 91. 
'Oharlevoix. New France, New York, 1866, vol. 4, p. 105. 
'Squier. Serpent Symbol, p. 197. 

Cnlemau, Mythology of the Hindus. London, 1832, p. 03. 
Vol. 3. 

" Spt-ke, Source of the Nile. London, 1863, p. 500. 
Ibid. 



TROPHIES AND RELICS. 485 

of wood, hide, nails of dead people, claws of animals, and beaks of 
birds." Stanley saw them displayed before King Mtesa. 1 

" Some of the women in Gippsland wear round the neck human hands, 
which, Mr. Hull says, were beautifully prepared. He moreover informs 
me that they sometimes wear the parts of which the 'Lingam' and 
' Priapus' were the emblems." 3 " The Gippsland people keep the relics 
of the departed. They will cut off the, hands to keep as a remembrance, 
and these they will attach to the string that is tied round the neck." 3 

Smyth also relates that the women of some of the Australian tribes 
preserve "the hands of some defunct member of the tribe that of 
some friend of the woman's, or perhaps one belonging to a former hus- 
band. This she keeps as the only remembrance of one she once loved; 
and, though years may have passed, even now, w!:on she has nothing 
else to do, she will sit and moan over this relic of humanity. Some- 
times a mother will carry about with her the remains of a beloved child, 
whose death she mourns." 4 The Australians also use the skulls of their 
"nearest and dearest relatives" for drinking vessels; thus, a daughter 
would use her mother's skull, etc. 5 

"One of the most extraordinary of their laws is. that a widow, for 
every husband she marries after the first, is obliged to cut off a joint of 
a finger, which she presents to her husband on the wedding day, 
beginning at one of the little fingers.'" 1 

In the Army and Navy Journal, New York, June 23, 1888, is men- 
tioned a battle between the Crow of Montana and the Piegan, in which 
the former obtained some of the hands and feet of dead warriors of the 
first-named tribe and used them in their dances. 

Catlin shows that the young Sioux warriors, after going through the 
ordeal of the sun dance, placed the little finger of the left hand on the 
skull of a sacred buffalo and had it chopped off. 7 

"The sacrifices [of American Indians] at the fasts at puberty some- 
times consist of finger joints."" 

In Dodge's Wild Indians is represented (PL vi, 13) a Cheyenne neck- 
lace of the bones of the first joint of the human fingers, stripped of skin 
and flesh. I have never seen or heard of anything of the kind, although 
I have served with the Cheyenne a great deal and have spoken about 
their customs. My necklace is of human fingers mummified, not of 
bones. 

Fanny Kelly says of a Sioux chief: " He showed me a puzzle or 
game he had made from the finger bones of some of the victims that 

1 Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 327. 

9 Miles, Demigods and Da-mouia, in Jour. Ethnol. Sor.. London, vol. 3, p. 28, 1854. 

'Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 30. 

Ibid., p. 131. 

Ibid., p. 348. 

6 Peter Kolben, speaking of the Hottentots, in Knox, vol. 2, p. 304. 

'0-kee-pa. pp. 28-29. 

8 Frazer. Totemism, Edinburgh, 1H87, pp. ri4."i. r j: aiier Maximilian. 



486 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

had fallen beneath his own tomahawk. The bones had been freed from 
the flesh by boiling, and, being placed upon a string, were used for play- 
ing some kind of Indian game." ' 

Strabo recounts in his third book that the Lusitanians sacrificed 
prisoners and cut off their right hands to consecrate them to their gods. 

Dulaure says that the Germans attached the heads and the right 
hands of their human victims to sacred trees. 2 

Adoni-bezek cut off the thumbs and great toes of seventy kings of 
Syria. 3 

The necklace of human fingers is not a particle more horrible than the 
ornaments of human bones to be seen in the cemetery of the Capuchins 
hi Rome at the present day. 1 have personally known of two or three 
cases where American Indians cut their enemies limb from limb. The 
idea upon which the practice is based seems to be the analogue of the 
old English custom of sentencing a criminal to be "hanged, drawn, 
and quartered." 

Brand gives a detailed description of the "hand of glory," the pos- 
session of which was believed by the peasantry of Great Britain and 
France to enable a man to enter a house invisible to the occupants. It 
was made of the hand of an executed (hanged) murderer, carefully des- 
iccated and prepared with a great amount of superstitious mummery. 
With this holding a candle of " the fat of a hanged man " burglars felt 
perfectly secure while engaged in their predatory work. 4 The belief was 
that a candle placed in a dead man's hand will not be seen by any but 
those by whom it is used. Such a caudle introduced into a house kept 
those who were asleep from awakening. 

The superstition in regard to the " hand of glory" was widely diffused 
throughout France, Germany, Spain, and Great Britain. As late as 
the year 1831 it was used by Irish burglars in the county Meath. 

Dr. Frank Baker delivered before the Anthropological Society of 
Washington, D. (J., a lecture upon these superstitions as related to the 
" hand of glory," to which the student is respectfully referred. 5 

Au Aztec warrior always tried to procure the middle finger of the left 
hand of a woman who had died in childbirth. This he fastened to 
his shield as a talisman. 6 The great weapon of the Aztec witches was 
the left arm of a woman who had died in her first childbirth. 7 Pliny 
mentions " still-born infants cut up limb by limb for the most abomina- 
ble practices, not only by wid wives, but by harlots even as well!" 8 



1 Kelly, Narrative of Captivity, Cincinnati, 1871, ]>. 143. 

2 Differeus Cultea, vol. 1, p. 57. 

3 Judges, I, 7. 

1 Brand, Pop. Ant., London, 1882, vol. 3, p. 278. 

" American Anthropologist, Washington, D. C., January, 1888. 

6 Kiugsborough. vol. 8. p, 70. The Aztec believed that the woman who died in childbirth was equal 
to the warrior who died in battle and she went to the same heaven. The middle finger of the left 
hand is the finger used in the necklace of human fingers. 

7 Salmgun, ill Kiiigsborough. vol. 7. p. 147. 

"Pliny, Nut. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 20. Holland's tianslation 



BOUKKE.J NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH. 487 

The opinions entertained in Pliny's time descended to that of the 

Reformation 

Finger of birth-strangled babe, 
Ditck-deliver'd by a drab.' 

" Scrofula, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and throat diseases, 
they say, may be cured by the contact of the hand of a person who has 
been carried off by an early death ; " but, he goes on to say, any dead 
hand will do, "provided it is of the same sex as the patient and that the 
part affected is touched with the back of the left hand.'" A footnote 
adds that this superstition still prevails in England in regard to the 
hand of a man who has been hanged. 

The use of dead men's toes, fingers, spinal vertebra}, etc., in magical 
ceremonies, especially the fabrication of magical lamps and candles, is 
referred to by Frommann. 3 

Grimm is authority for the statement that in both France and Ger- 
many the belief was prevalent that the fingers of an unborn babe were 
"available for magic." 4 

In England witches were believed to " open graves for the purpose 
of taking out the joints of the fingers and toes of dead bodies . . . 
in order to prepare a powder for their magical purposes." 5 

Saint Athanase dit meme, que ces parties du corps humain [i.e., hands, 
feet, toes, fingers, etc.] 6toient adore"es comme des dieux particuliers." 6 

According to the sacred lore of the Brahmans " the Tirtha sacred to 
the Gods lies at the root of the little finger, that sacred to the Rishis in 
ttie middle of the fingers, that sacred to Men at the tips of the fingers, 
that sacred to Agui (fire) in the middle of the hand." 7 

In the Island of Ceylon "debauchees and desperate people often play 
away the ends of their fingers." 8 

Hone shows that " every joint of each finger was appropriated to 
some saint." 9 

NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH. 

A number of examples are to be found of the employment of neck- 
laces of human teeth. In my own experience I have never come across 
any specimens, and my belief is that among the Indians south of the 
Isthmus such things are to be found almost exclusively. I have found 
no reference to such ornamentation or "medicine" among the tribes of 
North America, but there are many to show the very general dissemina- 
tion of the custom in Africa and in the islands of the South Sea. 
Gomara says that the Indians of Santa Marta wore at their necks, like 

1 Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 4, scene I. 

Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 11. 

'Tractatus rte Fascinations, Nuremberg, 1(575, p. 681. 

'Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1073. 

8 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 10. 

Montfaucon, 1'Antiquite expliquee, vol. 2. liv. 4, cap. 6. p. 249. 

'VtoightAa, cap. 3, pars. 04-68, p. 25 (Sacred Books of the East, Oxford, 1H82, Max Muller's edition). 

Travels of Two Mohamnmians through India and China, in Piukerton's Voyafies, vol. 7, p. 218. 

Every -Day Book, vol. 2, col. 95. 



488 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

dentists, the teeth of the enemies they had killed iu battle. 1 Many of 
the Carib, we are told by a Spanish writer, ostentatiously wear neck- 
laces made of strings of the teeth of the enemies whom they have slain. 2 
Padre Fray Alonzo Fernandez says of the Carib: "Traen los dientes 
con los cabellos de los que mataron por collares, como liazian antigua- 
mentelos Scitas." 3 The people of New Granada "traen al cnello dien- 
tes de los qne matavan." 4 Picart says that the natives of New Granada 
and Cumana "portent au col les dents des ennemis qu'ils ont uiassa- 
crez." 5 The Spaniards found in the temple of the Itzaes, on the island of 
Peten, an idol made of "yesso," which is plaster, and in the head, which 
was shaped like the sun, were imbedded the teeth of the Castilians whom 
they had captured and killed. 6 

" They strung together the teeth of such of their enemies as they had 
slain in battle and wore them on their legs and arms as trophies of suc- 
cessful cruelty." 7 

Stanley says, referring to the natives of the Lower Congo country: 
"Their necklaces consisted of human, gorilla, and crocodile teeth, in 
such quantity, in many cases, that little or nothing could be seen of the 
neck." 8 

"The necklaces of human teeth which they [Uraugi and Rubuuga, of 
the Lower Congo] wore." 9 Again, "human teeth were popular orna- 
ments for the neck." 10 When a king dies they [the Waliuma, of the head of 
the Nile] cut out his lower jaw and preserve it covered with beads. 11 

Schweinfurth 12 speaks of having seen piles of "lower jawbones from 
which the teeth had been extracted to serve as ornaments for the neck" 
by the Monbuttoo of Africa. " A slaughtered foe was devoured from 
actual bloodthirstiness and hatred by the Niam Niams of Central 
Africa. . . . They make no secret of their savage craving, 
but ostentatiously string the teeth of their victims round their necks, 
adorning the stakes erected beside their dwellings for the habitation of 
the trophies with the skulls of the men they have devoured. Human 
fat is universally sold." 13 

1 "Traen los dientesal cuello (como sacamuelaa) por bravosidad." Gomara, Historiade las Indias, 
p. 201. 

2 " Los _Caberres y muchos Caribes, uaan por gala muchas sartas de dieutes y muelas de gente para 
dar a entender que sou muy valientes por los despojoa que alii ostentan ser do sus enemigos que mata- 
ron." Gumilla, Orinoco, Madrid, 1741, p. 65. 

s Padre Fray Alonzo Fernandez, Historia Eclesiaatica. Toledo, 1611, p. 17. 

Ibid., p. 161. 

8 Ceremonies et Coutumes, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 114. 

* u Formada la oara como de Sol, con rayos do Naear al rededor, y pernlada de lo mismo ; y en la boca 
embutidos ls dientes, quo quitaron a los Espanoles, que avian muerto.' 1 Villaguitierre, Hist, de la. 
Conquista dc la Proviucia de el Itza, Madrid, 1701, p. 500. (Itza seems to have been the country of the 
Lacandones.) 

7 Edwards, speaking of the Carib, quoted by Spencer, Desc. Sociology. The same custom i 
ascribed to the Tupinambi of Brazil. Ibid, quoting from Southey. 

8 Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 286. 

8 Ibid, p. 288. 

' Ibid., p. 290. 

11 Speke, Source of the Nile, London, 1803, p. 500. 

11 Heart of Africa, vol 2, p. 54. 

11 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 285. 



BUVKKE.] WAR TKOPHIES. 489 

The four front teeth were extracted by the men and women of the 
Latooka and other tribes of the White Nile, but no explanation is given 
of the custom.' 

lu Dahomey, strings of human teeth are worn.' 

Freycinet saw in Timor, Straits of Malacca, "a score of human jaw- 
bones, which we wished to purchase ; but all our offers were met by the 
word 'pamali,' meaning sacred." 3 

In one of the "morals" or temples entered by Kotzebue in 1818, on 
the Sandwich Islands, there were two great and ugly idols, one repre- 
senting a man, the other a woman. "The priests made me notice that 
both statues, which had their mouths wide open, were furnished with a 
row of human teeth." 4 

The Sandwich Islanders kept the jaw bones of their enemies as 
trophies. 5 King Tamaahmaah had a "spitbox which was set round 
with human teeth, and had belonged to several of his predecessors." 6 

Among some of the Australian tribes the women wear about their 
necks the teeth which have been knocked out of the mouths of the boys 
at a certain age. 7 This custom of the Australians does not obtain among 
the North American tribes, by whom the teeth, as they fall out, are 
carefully hidden or buried under some tree or rock. At least, I have 
been so informed by several persons, among others by Chato, one of 
the principal men of the Chiricahua Apache. 

Molina speaks of the customs of the Araucauians, who, after torturing 
their captives to death, made war flutes out of their bones and used the 
skulls for drinking vessels. 8 The Abipones of Paraguay make the bones 
of their enemies into musical instruments. 9 

The preceding practice is strictly in line with the "medicinal" and 
"magical" values attached in Europe to human teeth, human skin, etc. 
The curious reader may find much on this subject in the works of Froni- 
111:111 ii, Beckherius, Etmuller, Samuel Augustus Flemming, and others 
of the seventeenth century, where it will be shown that the ideas of the 
people of Europe of that period were only in name superior to those of 
the savages of America, the islands of the South Seas, and of Central 
Africa. In my work upon " The Scatalogic Eites of all Nations " I have 
treated this matter more in extenso, but what is here adduced will be 
sufficient for the present article. 

The skin of Ziska, the Bohemian reformer, was made into a "medicine 
drum" by his followers. 

1 Sir Samuel Baker, The Albert N'yanza, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 154 et seq. 

* Burton, Mission to Gelele, vol. 1, p. 135 et seq. 

* Voyage Round the World, London, 1823, pp. 209, 210. 

1 Kotzebue, Voyage, London. 1821, vol. 2, p. 202. See also Villaguitlerre. cited above. 
*Capt. Cook's First Voyage, in Piukerton's Voyages. London. 1812, vol. 11. pp. 513. 515. 

Campbell, Voyage Round the World, N. T., 1819, p. 153. 
'Frazer, Totemism, Edinburgh, 1887, p. 28. 

Historia de Chile, Madrid, 1795. vol. 2, p. 8U. 
"Spencer, Dcsc. Sociology. 



490 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

THE SCRATCH STICK. 

When Gen. Crook's expedition against the Chiricahua Apache 
reached the heart of the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, it was my good 
fortune to find on the ground in Geronimo's rancheria two insignificant 
looking articles of personal equipment, to which I learned the Apache 
attached the greatest importance. One of these was a very small piece 
of hard wood, cedar, or pine, about two and a half to three inches long 
and half a finger in thickness, and the other a small section of the cane 
indigenous to the Southwest and of about the same dimensions. The 
first was the scratch stick and the second the drinking reed. 

The rule enjoined among the Apache is that for the first four times 
one of their young men goes out on the warpath he must refrain from 
scratching his head with his fingers or letting water touch his lips. 
How to keep this vow and at the same time avoid unnecessary personal 
discomfort and suffering is the story told by these petty fragments from 
the Apache's ritual. He does not scratch his head with his fingers; he 
makes use of this scratch stick. He will not let water touch his lips, 
but sucks it into his throat through this tiny tube. A long leather cord 
attached both stick and reed to the warrior's belt and to each other. 
This was all the information I was able to obtain of a definite character. 
Whether these things had to be prepared by the medicine-men or by 
the young warrior himself; with what ceremonial, if any, they had to 
be manufactured, and under what circumstances of time and place, I 
was unable to ascertain to my own satisfaction, and therefore will 
not extend my remarks or burden the student's patience with inco- 
herent statements from sources not absolutely reliable. That the use 
of the scratch stick and the drinking reed was once very general in 
America and elsewhere, and that it was not altogether dissociated from 
ritualistic or ceremonial ideas, may be gathered from the citations 
appended. 

In her chapter entitled "Preparatory ceremony of the young war- 
rior" Mrs. Emerson says: "He does not touch his ears or head with 
his hand," explaining in a foot note, "the head was sometimes made a 
sacrificial offering to the sun." 1 Tanner relates that the young Ojibwa 
warrior for the "three first times" that he accompanies a war party 
"must never scratch his head or any other part of his body with his 
fingers, but if he is compelled to scratch he must use a small stick." 2 
Kohl states that the Ojibwa, while on the warpath, "will never sit down 
in the shade of a tree or scratch their heads ; at least, not with their 
fingers. The warriors, however, are permitted to scratch themselves 
with a piece of wood or a comb." 3 Mackenzie states regarding the 
Indians whom he met on the Columbia, in 52 38', N. lat., "instead of a 



1 Indian Myths, Boston, 1884, p. 256. 
2 Tauner'n Narrative, p. 122. 
3 Kitchi-tfami, p. IH4. 



BOUHKE.] THE SCRATCH STICK. 491 

comb they [the men] have a small stick hanging by a string from one 
of the locks [of hair], which they employ to alleviate any itching or irri- 
tation in the head." 1 

The Tliukit of British North America use these scratchers made 
of basalt or other stone. 

"The pipe stem carrier (i. e., the carrier of the sacred or 'medicine' 
pipe) of the Crees, of British North America, dares not scratch his own 
head, without compromising his own dignity, without the intervention 
of a stick, which he always carries for that purpose." 2 

Bancroft 3 quotes Walker as saying that " a Pima never touches his 
skin with his nails, but always with a small stick for that purpose, 
which he renews every fourth day and wears in his hair." 

As part of the ceremony of "initiating youth into manhood" among 
the Creeks, the young neophyte " during the twelve moons is 
also forbidden to pick his ears or scratch his head with his fingers, but 
must use a small splinter to perform these operations." 4 The Apache- 
Yuma men carry in their hair "a slender stick or bone about 8 inches 
long, which serves them as a comb." 5 

The idea that these scratch sticks replace combs is an erroneous one; 
Indians make combs in a peculiar way of separate pieces of wood, and 
they are also very fond of brushing their long locks with the coarse 
brushes, which they make of sacatou or other grass. 

"One other regulation, mentioned by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint; 
the interesting father may not scratch himself with his finger nails, but 
may use for this purpose a splinter, especially provided, from the mid- 
rib of a cokerite palm." b 

When a Greenlander is about to enter into conversation with the 
spirits "no one must stir, not so much as to scratch his head." 7 

In the New Hebrides most of the natives "wear a thin stick or reed, 
about 9 inches long, in their hair, with which they occasionally disturb 
the vermin that abound in their heads." 8 

Alarcon, describing the tribes met on the Bio Colorado, in 1541, says: 
" They weare certaine pieces of Deeres bones fastened to their armes, 
wherewith they strike off the sweate." 9 

In German folk-lore there are many references to the practice in 
which the giants indulged frequently in scratching themselves, some- 
times as a signal to each other. Just what significance to attach to 
these stories I can not presume to say, as Grimm merely relates the fact 
without comment. 10 

' Voyages, p. 323. 

'Kane, Wanderings of an Artist in North America, p. 399.' 

Native Kaces, vol. 1. p. 553. 

'Hawkins, quoted by Gatscliet, Migration Legend of the Creeks, Philadelphia, 1884, vol. 1, p. 185. 

6 Corbusier, in Americac Antiquarian, September, 1886, p. 279. 

6 Everard F. im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, p. 218. 

'Crantz, History of Greenland, London. 1767, vol. 1, pp. 210-211. 

"Forster, Voyage Hound the World, vol. 2, pp. 275. 288. 

Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508. 

'"Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 2, p. 544. 



492 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Of the Abyssinians, Bruce says : " Their hair is short and curled like 
that of a negro's in the west part of Africa, but this is done by art not 
by nature, each man having a wooden stick with which he lays hold of 
the lock and twists it round like a screw till it curls in the form he de 
sires." J In a foot note, he adds: " I apprehend this is the same instru- 
ment used by the ancients, and censured by the prophets, which in our 
translation is rendered crisping-pins." 

Possibly the constant use of the scratch stick in countries without 
wood suggested that it should be carried in the hair, and hence it 
would originate the fashion of wearing the hair crimped round it, and 
after a while it would itself be used as a crimpiug-pin. 

Thus far, the suggestion of a religious or ceremonial idea attaching 
to the custom of scratching has not been apparent, unless we bear in 
mind that the warrior setting out on the warpath never neglects to sur- 
round himself with all the safeguards which the most potent incanta- 
tions and "medicine" of every kind can supply. But Herbert Spencer 
tells us in two places that the Creeks attach the idea of a ceremonial 
observance to the custom. He says that "the warriors have a ceremony 
of scratching each other as a sign of friendship ;" 2 and again, "scratch- 
ing is practiced among young warriors as a ceremony or token of friend- 
ship. When they have exchanged promises of inviolable attachment, 
they proceed to scratch each other before they part." 3 

Dr. J. Hampden Porter remarks that this ceremonial scratching may 
be a "survival" of the blood covenant, and that in earlier times the 
young warriors, instead of merely scratching each other's arms, may 
have cut the flesh and exchanged the blood. The idea seems to be a 
very sensible one. 

Father Alegre describes a ceremonial scratching which may have 
been superseded by the scratch stick, to which the medicine-men of 
certain tribes subjected the young men before they set out on the war- 
path. Among the Pima and Opata the medicine-men drew from their 
quivers the claws of eagles, and with these gashed the young man along 
the arms from the shoulders to the wrists. 4 

This last paragraph suggests so strongly certain of the practices at 
the sun dance of the tribes farther to the north that it may be well to 
compare it with the other allusions in this paper to that dance. 

It will be noticed that the use of the scratch-stick, at least among 
the tribes of America, seems to be confined to the male sex; but the 
information is supplied by Mr. Henshaw, of the Bureau of Ethnology, 
that the Indians of Santa Barbara, Gal., made their maidens at the 



1 Travels to discover the source of the Nile in the years 1768, etc.. Dublin. 1791. vol. 3. p. 410. 

1 Desc. Sociology. 

I Ibid., quoting Schoolcraft. 

4 "Saca de su carcax algunos pies y imas de aguila secos y endurecidoB, con los cuales, comienza 
sivinrlc desde los hombros hasta las mniiccas." Historia de la Compafiia de Jesus en Xneva Espafia, 
Mezico,1842, vol. 2, pp. 218, 219. 



BOUBKE.] THE DRINKING REED. 493 

time of attaining womanhood wear pendant from the neck a scratcher 
of abalone shell, which they had to use for an indefinite period when 
the scalp became irritable. 

Prof. Otis T. Mason, of the National Museum, informs me that there 
is a superstition in Virginia to the effect that a young woman euciente 
for the first time must, under no circumstances, scratch her head with 
her fingers, at least while uncovered; she must either put on gloves or 
use a small stick. 

The Parsi have a festival at which they serve a peculiar cake or bread 
called "draona," which is marked by scratches from the finger nails of 
the woman who has baked it. ' 

No stress has been laid upon the appearance in all parts of the world 
of " back scratchers" or " scratch my backs," made of ivory, bone, or 
wood, and which were used for toilet purposes to remove irritation from 
between the shoulder blades or along the spine where the hand itself 
could not reach. They are to the present day in use among the Chinese 
and Japanese, were once to be found among the Romans and other 
nations of Europe, and instances of their occasional employment until 
a very recent date might be supplied. 

THE DRINKING REED. 

Exactly what origin to ascribe to the drinking reed is now an im- 
possibility, neither is it probable that the explanations which the 
inedicine-men might choose to make would have the slightest value in 
dispelling the gloom which surrounds the subject. That the earliest 
conditions of the Apache tribe found them without many of the com- 
forts which have for generations been necessaries, and obliged to 
resort to all sorts of expedients in cooking, carrying, or serving their 
food is the most plausible presumption, but it is submitted merely as a 
presumption and in no sense as a fact. It can readily be shown that 
in a not very remote past the Apache and other tribes were compelled 
to use bladders and reeds for carrying water, or for conveying water, 
broth, and other liquid food to the lips. The conservative nature of 
man in all that involves his religion would supply whatever might be 
needed to make the use of such reeds obligatory in ceremonial observ- 
ances wherein there might be the slightest suggestion of religious im- 
pulse. We can readily imagine that among a people not well provided 
with forks and spoons, which are known to have been of a much later 
introduction than knives, there would be a very decided danger of 
burning the lips with broth, or of taking into the mouth much earthy 
and vegetable matter or ice from springs and streams at which men 
or women might wish to drink, so the use of the drinking reed would 
obviate no small amount of danger and discomfort. 



1 Shayast la-shdyast, cap. 3, par. 32, p. 284 (Max Miiller edition, Oxford, 1880). When the "drAn" has 
been marked with three rows of llnger-iiail scratches it is called a "frasast." 




494 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Water was carried m reeds by the Dyaks of Borneo, according to 
Bock. 1 The manner in which the natives of the New Hebrides and 
other islands of the South Pacific Ocean carry water in bamboo joints 
recalls the Zuni method of preserving the sacred water of the ocean in 
hollow reeds. 2 

Mr. P. H. Cashing shows that 
"so far as language indicates the 
character of the earliest water 
vessels which to any extent met 
the requirements of the Zulu an- 
cestry, they were tubes of wood 
or sections of canes." 3 Long af- 
ter these reeds had disappeared 
from common use, the priests still 
persisted in their use for carry- 
ing the water for the sacred cer- 
emonies. The mother of the king 

tto.48Z.-Ihe scratch stick and drln f U g anda S a to Speke "a 

beautifully-worked pombe suck- 
ing-pipe." 4 For ordinary purposes these people have " drinking gourds." 
In Ujiji, Cameron saw an old chief sucking pomb6, the native beer, 
through a reed; 5 and, later on in his narrative, we learn that the reed 
is generally used for the purposes of drinking. " The Malabars reck- 
oned it insolent to touch the vessel with their lips when drinking." 6 
They made use of vessels with a spout, which were no more and no 
less than the small hollow-handled soup ladles of the Zuni and Tusa- 
yan, through which they sipped their hot broth. 

In an ancient grave excavated not far from Salem, Massachusetts, in 
1873, were found five skeletons, one of which was supposed to be that 
of the chief Nanephasemet, who was killed in 1605 or 1606. He was 
the king of Namkeak. On the breast of this skeleton were discovered 
"several small copper tubes .... from 4 to 8 inches in length, and 
from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, made of copper 
rolled up, with the edges lapped." 7 

Alarcon relates that the tribes seen on the Rio Colorado by him in 
1541, wore on one arm "certain small pipes of cane." But the object 
or purpose of wearing these is not indicated. 8 

The natives of the Friendly Islands carried in their ears little cylin- 
ders of reed, although we learn that these were "filled with a red solid 

1 Head-Hunters of Borneo, London, 1881, p. 139. 

'See, for the New Hebrides, Forster, Voyage Bound the World, vol. 2. p. 255. 

3 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1882-'83, p. 482. 

4 Speke, Source of the Nile, London, 1863, pp. 306, 310. 
Cameron, Across Africa. London, 1877, vol. 1, p. 276. 

De Gama's Discovery of the East Indies, in Knox. Voyages. London, 1767, vol, 2, p. 324. 

* Andrew K. Ober, in the Salem Gazette, Salem, Mass. 

"Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508; also, Teruaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 9. pp. 307,308. 



BOUKKE.J THE DRINKING REED. 495 

substance." l Among the Xarriuyeri of Australia, when youiig men are 
to be initiated into the rank of warriors, during tlie ceremonies "they 
are allowed to drink water, but only by sucking it up through a reed." 2 
Admiral von Wrangel says of the Tchuktchi of Siberia: "They suck 
their broth through a small tube of reindeer bone," which " each indi- 
vidual carries about with him.'' :) Padre Sahagun says that the human 
victim whom the Aztecs offered up in sacrifice was not allowed to 
touch water with his lips, but had to suck it through a reed." 4 

"The Mexicans had a forty-days' fast in memory of one of their sacred 
persons who was tempted forty days on a mountain. He drinks through 
a reed. He is called the Morning Star." 5 The Mexicans, according to 
Fray Diego Duran, placed before the statues of their dead bowls of 
"vino," with "rosas," tobacco (this seems to be the proper translation 
of the word "humazos," smokes), and a reed called the "drinker of the 
sun,'' through which the spirit could imbibe. 6 

" The suction pipes of steatite," mentioned by Schoolcraft, as found in 
the mounds, may have been the equivalents of our drinking reeds, and 
made of steatite to be the more readily preserved in the ritual of which 
they formed part. 

Copper cylinders 1J inches long and f of an inch in diameter were found 
in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley by Squier and Davis. The 
conjecture that they had been used "for ornaments" does not seem 
warranted. 7 

We should not forget that there was a semideification of the reed 
itself by the Aztec in their assignment of it to a place in their calendar 
under the name of " acatl." 8 

Mrs. Ellen Eussell Emerson speaks of the custom the warriors of the 
northern tribes had which suggests that she had heard of the drinking 
reed without exactly understanding what it meant. She says that warriors- 
carry bowls of birch bark "from one side of which the warrior drinks 
in going to battle from the other, on his return. These bowls are not 
carried home, but left on the prairie, or suspended from trees within a, 
day's journey of his village." 9 

Among the Brahmans practices based upon somewhat similar ideas 
are to be found: every morning, upon rising, "ils prennent trois fois de 
1'eau dans la main, & en jettent trois fois dans leur bouche, eVitant d'y 
toucher avec la main." 10 

1 Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 1, p. 435. 
1 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1. p. 68. 

3 English edition, New York, 1842, p. 271. 

4 Kingsboroiigh, vol. 6, p. 100. 

'Godfrey lliggins, Anacalypsis, vol. 2, book 1. rap. 4. sec. 9, p. 31. 

6 Y ponia delaute mi canutogrande y queso [grueso!] para- con qne bebiese: este canuto llamaban 
' liclx-dero del Sol." Diego Duran, vol. 1, cap. 38, p. 386. 

7 Smithsonian Contributions, vol. 1. p. 151. 

"The reed, which is the proper meaning of the word "acatl.'' is the hieroglyphic of the element 
water. Veytia, quoted by Thomas, in 3rd Ann. Rep.. Bu. Eth.. 1881-1882, p. 42 et seq. 

"Indian Myths, Boston, 1884. p. 260. 

'"Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes Kelijrieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde. Amsterdam. 1736, 
vol.6, part 2. p. 103 



496 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

The fundamental reason upou which the use of the drinking reed is 
based is that the warrior or devotee shall not let water touch his lips. 
It is strange to find among the regulations with regard to taking water 
by the warrior caste: " He shall not sip water while walking, standing, 
lying down, or bending forward." ' 

The Dharma-sutra, traditionally connected with the Rishi-Vasishtha, 
of the Seventh Mandala of the Rig- Veda, is a relic of a Vedic school of 
the highest antiquity. Its seat was in the present northwestern prov- 
inces of India, and, like the Dharmasastra of Gautama, it is the sole 
surviving record from this source. 2 

There was another service performed by reeds or tubes in the domestic 
economy of nations around the north pole. As the Apache are derived 
from an Arctic ancestry it does not seem amiss to allude to it. Lord 
Lonsdale, in describing the capture of a whale which he witnessed, says 
that the Eskimo women "first of all gathered up the harpoons and 
then pulled out all the spears. As each spear was withdrawn a blow- 
pipe was pushed into the wound and the men blew into it, after which 
the opening was tied up. When every wound had been treated in this 
manner the whale resembled a great windbag and floated high in the 
water." 

In the National Museum at Washington, I). (J., there are many pipes 
made of the bones of birds, which were used by the limit as drinking 
tubes when water had to be taken into the mouth from holes cut in the 
ice. These drinking tubes seem to be directly related to our subject, 
although they may also have been used as Lonsdale describes the pipes 
for blowing the dead whale full of air. Another point to be mentioned 
is that the eagle pipe kept in the mouth of the young warrior undergo- 
ing the torture of the sun dance among the Sioux and other tribes on 
the plains is apparently connected with the "bebedero del Sol'' of the 
peoples to the south. J 

The use of this drinking reed, shown to have been once so intimately 
associated with human sacrifice, may have disappeared upon the intro- 
duction of labrets, which seem, in certain cases at least, to be associated 
with the memory of enemies killed in battle, which would be only 
another form of human sacrifice. This suggestion is advanced with 
some misgivings, and only as a hypothesis to assist in determining for 
what purpose labrets and drinking tubes have been employed. The 
Apache have discontinued the use of the labret, which still is to be 
found among their congeners along the Lower Yukon, but not among 
those living along the lower river.* According to Ball the custom was 
probably adopted from the limit; he also shows that whenever labrets 
are worn in a tribe they are worn by both sexes, and that the women 
assume them at the first appearance of the catamcnia. 



1 \VmUliUa, cap. 3. pars. 26-30, pp. 20-21. Sacred Hooks of the East. Oxford, 1SS2, vol. 14, edition of 
Max Miiller. 
'Ibid. 

3 Dit'^o Purlin, lor. cit. 

4 See Dall, Masks and Labrcts, p. 151 . 



BotTBKE.] LABRETS. 497 

" This is to be noted, that how mauy men these Savages [Brazilians] 
doe kill, so many holes they will have in their visage, beginning first in 
their nether lippe, then in their cheekes, thirdly, in both their eye-browes, 
and lastly in their eares." l 

Cabeza de Vaca speaks of the Indians near Malhado Island, " They 
likewise have the nether lippe bored, and within the same they carrie a 
piece of thin Cane about halfe a finger thicke." 2 Herrera relates very 
nearly the same of the men of "Florida": "Traian una tetilla oradada, 
metido por el agujero un pedago de Caua, i el labio baxero tambien 
agujereado, con otra cana en el." 3 But Herrera probably obtained his 
data from the narrative of Vaca. 

In looking into this matter of labrets as connected or suspected as 
being in some way connected with the drinking reed, we should not 
expect to find the labret adhering very closely to the primitive form, 
because the labret, coming to be i egarded more and more as an orna- 
ment, would allow greater and greater play to the fancy of the wearer 
or manufacturer, much the same as the crosses now worn by ladies, 
purely as matter of decoration, have become so thoroughly examples of 
dexterity in filagree work as to have lost the original form and signifi- 
cance as a declaration of faith. But it is a subject of surprise to find 
that the earlier writers persistently allude to the labrets in the lips of 
the Mexican deities, which probably were most tenacious of primitive 
forms, as being shaped like little reeds " cafiutillos." 

Herrera says of Tescatlipoca : " Que era el Dios de la Penitencia, i 
de los Jubileos . . . Tenia Careillo de Oro, i Plata en el labio baxo, 
con un canutillo cristalino, de un geme de largo." 4 The high priest, 
he says, was called topilgin, and in sacrificing human victims he wore 
" debaxo del labio, junto al medio de la barba, una pieca conio canutillo, 
de una piedra agtil." 5 

Father Acosta also speaks of the tube (canon) of crystal worn by 
Tezcatlipoca in the lower lip: " En la leure d'embas un petit canon de 
crystal, de la longueur d'un xeme ou demy pied." 6 

Speaking of Quetzalcoatl Clavigero says: ''From the under lip 
hung a crystal tube."' From Diego Duran's account of this "bezote" 
or labret it must have been hollow, as he says it contained a feather : 
''En el labio bajo tenia un bezote de un veril cristalino y en el estaba 
metida una pluina verde y otras veces azul." 8 

In the Popul Vuh is to be found a myth which gives an account of 
the origin of labrets. It relates that two night watchers over the flowers 



'Peter Carder, an Kuglishman captive amon<; the Brazilians. 1578-1586. in Pnrchaa, vol. 4, lib. 6, 
cap. 5. p. 1189. 

"Piirchas, vol. 4, lib. 8. cap. 1. see. 2, p. 1508. 
Dec. 4, lib. 4, p. 69. 
Dec.3, lib. 2, p. 67. 
Ibid., p. 70. 

8 Hi8toiroNaturellodes Inrtes, Paris, 1600, lib. 5, rap, 9, p. 224. 
'History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 6. 
Duran, op. cit., vol. 3, cap. 4. p. 211. 
9 ETH 32 



498 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

in the garden of Xibalba had in some manner proved derelict in duty, 
and had their lips split as a punishment. 1 

In Paraguay a tribe called the Chiriguanes, " se percent la levre 
infifirieure & ils y attachent un petit Cilindre d'etain ou d'argent, on de 
Resine transparente. Ce pre"tendu ornement s'appelle Tembeta." 1 



1 Brasseur de Bourbonrg's translation, cap. 12, p. 175. 

2 Picart, C6remonies et Cofttumes Riligieuses de tous lea Peuples du Moudf. AtiiHtvrdani, 1743, 
vol. 8, p. 287. 



CHAPTER II. 

HODDENTIN, THE POLLEN OF THE TULE, THE SACRIFICIAL 
POWDER OF THE APACHE; WITH REMARKS UPON SACRED 
POWDERS AND BREAD OFFERINGS IN GENERAL. 

"Trifles not infrequently lead to important results. In every walk of 
science a trifle disregarded by incurious thousands has repaid the 
inquisitiveness of a single observer with unhoped-for knowledge." ' 

The taciturnity of the Apache in regard to all that concerns their 
religious ideas is a very marked feature of their character; probably no 
tribe with which our people have come in contact has succeeded more 
thoroughly in preserving from profane inquiry a complete knowledge 
of matters relating to their beliefs and ceremonials. How much of this 
ignorance is to be attributed to interpreters upon whom reliance has 
necessarily been placed, and how much to the indisposition of the 
Apache to reveal anything concerning himself, it would be fruitless to 
inquire, but, in my own experience, when I first went among them in 
New Mexico and Arizona twenty-three years ago, I was foolish enough 
to depend greatly upon the Mexican captives who had lived among 
the Apache since boyhood, and who might be supposed to know exactly 
what explanation to give of every ceremony in which the Apache might 
engage. Nearly every one of these captives, or escaped captives, had 
married among the Apache, and had raised families of half-breed 
children, and several of them had become more Apache than the Apache 
themselves. Yet I was time and again assured by several of these in- 
terpreters that the Apache had no religion, and even after I had made 
some progress in my investigations, at every turn I was met by the 
most contradictory statements, due to the interpreter's desire to inject 
his own views and not to give a frank exposition of those submitted by 
the Apache. Thus, an Apache god would be transmuted into either a 
"santo" or a "diablo," according to the personal bias of the Mexican 
who happened to be assisting me. " Assanutlije" assumed the disguise 
of " Maria Santissima," while ceremonies especially sacred and benefi- 
cent in the eyes of the savages were stigmatized as u brujeria" and 
" hechiceria " (witchcraft) in open defiance of the fact that the Apache 
have as much horror and dread of witches as the more enlightened of 
their brethren who in past ages suffered from their machinations in 



' Deane, Serpent Worship, London, 1833, p. 410. 



500 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE Al'ACHK. 




Flo. 433. Bag containing hoddeutin. 



Europe and America. The interpreters bad no intention to'deceive; 
they were simply unable to disengage themselves from their own preju- 
dices and their ow ignorance; they could not, and they would not, 

credit the existence of any such thing as 
religion, save and excepting that taught 
them at their mothers' knees in the petty 
hamlets of Sonora and of which they still 
preserved hazy and distorted recollec- 
tions. One of the first things to be noticed 
among the Apache, in this connection, 
was the very general appearance of little 
bags of buckskin, sometimes ornamented, 
sometimes plain, which were ordinarily 
attached to the belts of the warriors, and 
of which they seemed to be especially 
careful. 1 

What follows in this chapter was not 
learned in an hour or a day, but after a 
long course of examination and a com- 
parison of statements extracted from dif- 
ferent authorities. 
The bags spoken of revealed when opened a quantity of yellow colored 
flour or powder, resembling cornmeal, to which the Apache gave the 
name of " hoddeutin," or " hadntin," the meaning of which word is " the 
powder or pollen of the tule," a variety of the cat-tail rush, growing in 
all the little ponds and cienegas of the Southwest. 

I made it the touchstone of friendship that every scout or other 
Apache who wished for a favor at my hands should relate something 
concerning his religious belief. I did not care much what topic he se- 
lected; it might be myths, clan laws, war customs, medicine anything 
he pleased, but it had to be something and it had to be accurate. 
Hoddentin having first attracted my attention, I very naturally made 
many of my first inquiries about it, and, while neglecting no opportunity 
for independent observation, drew about me the most responsible men 
and women, heard what each had to say, carefully compared and con- 
trasted it with the statements of the others, and now give the result. 

I noticed that in the dances for the benefit of the sick the medicine- 
men in the intervals between chants applied this yellow powder to the 
forehead of the patient, then in form of a cross upon his breast, then in 
a circle around his couch, then upon the heads of the chanters and of 
sympathizing friends, and lastly upon their own heads and into their 
own mouths. There is a considerable difference in method, as medi- 
cine-men allow themselves great latitude, or a large "personal equa- 



'Tho medicine sack or bag of the Apache, containing their ' hoddentin," closely resembles the 
tv bullic " of the Itomana in which ''On y niettait den preservatifs contre les inalcnees." Musee de 
Naples, London, 1836, p. 4. Copy shown me by Mr. Spofford, of the Library of Congress. 



nornKE.1 HODDENTIN. 501 

tion," in all their dealings with the supernatural. No Apache would, 
if it could be avoided, go on the warpath without a bag of this precious 
powder somewhere upon his person, generally, as I have said, attached 
to his ammunition belt. Whenever one was wounded, hurt, or taken 
sick while on a scout, the medicine-man of the party would walk in 
front of the horse or mule ridden by the patient and scatter at intervals 
little pinches of hoddentin, that his path might be made easier. As 
was said to me : " When we Apache go on the warpath, hunt, or plant, 
we always throw a pinch of hoddentin to the sun, saying ' with the 
favor of the sun, or permission of the sun, I am going out to fight, 
hunt, or plant,' as the case may be, ' and I want the sun to help me.' " 

I have noticed that the Apache, when worn out with inarching, put 
a pinch of hoddentin on their tongues as a restorative. 

"Hoddentin is eaten by sick people as a remedy.'" 

" Before starting out on the warpath, they take a pinch of hoddeutiu, 
throw it to the sun, and also put a pinch on their tongues and one on 
the crown of the head. . . . When they return, they hold a 
dance, and on the morning of that day throw pinches of hoddentin to 
the rising sun, and then to the east, south, west, and north, to the four 
winds." 2 

I am unable to assert that hoddentin is used in any way at the 
birth of a child ; but I know that as late as 1886 there was not a babe 
upon the San Carlos reservation, no matter how tender its age, that did 
not have a small bag of hoddentin attached to its neck or dangling 
from its cradle. Neither can I assert anything about its use at time of 
marriage, because, among the Apache, marriage is by purchase, and 
attended with little, if any, ceremony. But when an Apache girl at- 
tains the age of puberty, among other ceremonies performed upon her, 
they throw hoddentin to the sun and strew it about her and drop on 
her head flour of the pinon, which flour is called by the Chiricahua 
Apache " nostchi," and by the Sierra Blanca Apache " ope"." 3 

" Upon attaining the age of puberty, girls fast one whole day, pray, 
and throw hoddentin to the sun." 4 When an Apache dies, if a medi- 
cine-man be near, hoddentin is sprinkled upon the corpse. The Apache 
buried in the clefts of rocks, but the Apache-Mohave cremated. " Be- 
fore lighting the fire the medicine-men of the Apache-Mohave put hod- 
dentin on the dead person's breast in the form of a cross, on the fore- 
head, shoulders, and scattered a little about." 5 

The very first thing an Apache does in the morning is to blow a little 
pinch of hoddentin to the dawn. The Apache worship both dawn 
and darkness, as well as the sun, moon, and several of the planets. 

1 Information of Tze-go-juni. 
'Information of Concepcion. 

3 See notes, a few payee farther on, from Kohl; also thi^e from Godfrey Higgins. The word "ope" 
suggests the name the Tusuyan have for themselves, Opi, or Opika, " bread people." 
4 Information of T/.e-go-juni. 
6 Information of Mike Burns. 



502 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

" When the suii rises we cast a pinch of hoddentin toward him, and 
we do the same thing to the moon, but not to the stars, saying ' Gun- 
ju-le, chigo-ua-ay, si-chi-zi, gnu-ju-le, iuzayu, ijanale,' meaning 'Be good, 
O Sun, be good.' 'Dawn, long time let me live'; or, 'Don't let ine die 
for a long time,' and at night, 'Guu-ju-le, chil-jilt, si-chi-zi, gun-ju-le, 
inzayu, ijanale,' meaning 'He good, O Night; Twilight, be good; do .not 
let me die." "In going on a hunt an Apache throws hoddeutiu and 
says 'Guu-ju-le, chigo-na-ay, cha-ut-si, ping, kladitza,' meaning 'Be 
good, O Sun, make me succeed deer to kill.'" 1 

The name of the full moon in the Apache language is " klego-na-ay," 
but the crescent moon is called "tzontzose" and hoddentin is always 
offered to it. 8 

"Hoddentin is thrown to the sun, moon (at times), the morning star, 
and occasionally to the wagon." 3 " The Apache offer much hoddeutin 
to ' Na-u-kuzze,' the Great Bear." 4 "Our custom is to throw a very 
small pinch of hoddentin at dawn to the rising sun." 5 "The women of 
the Chiricahua throw no hoddentin to the moon, but pray to it, saying: 
" Gun-ju-le, klego-na-ay," (be good, O Moon). 6 

When the Apache plant corn the medicine-men bury eagle-plume 
sticks in the fields, scatter hoddentin, and sing. When the corn is 
partially grown they scatter pinches of hoddentiii over it. 7 

The "eagle-plume sticks" mentioned in the preceding paragraph sug- 
gests the "ke-thawn" mentioned by Matthews in "The Mountain 
Chant." 8 

"When a person is very sick the Apache make a great lire, place the 
patient near it, and dance in a circle around him and the fire, at the 
same time singing and sprinkling him with hoddentiii in the form of a 
cross on head, breast, arms, and legs." 9 

In November, 1885, while at the San Carlos agency, I had an inter- 
view with Nantadotash, an old blind medicine-man of the Akaiie or 
Willow gens, who had with him a very valuable medicine-hat which he 
refused to sell, and only with great reluctance permitted me to touch. 
Taking advantage of his infirmity, I soon had a picture drawn in my 
notebook, and the text added giving the symbolism of all the orna- 
mentation attached. Upon discovering this, the old man became much 
excited, and insisted upon putting a pinch of hoddentin iipou the draw- 
ing, and then recited a prayer, which I afterwards succeeded in getting 
verbatim. After the prayer was finished, the old man arose and 
marked with hoddentin the breast of his wife, of Moses, of Antonio, 



1 Information of Mickey Free. 

2 Information of Alchise, Mike, iind others. 

3 Information of Francesca and other captive Chiricalma squaws. 
4 Information of Moses Henderson. 

B Information of Chato. 

fi Information of Tze-go-jnni. 

7 In formal ion of Most's Henderson and other Apaehe jit San Cailos. 

'liureaii of Ethnology, Report fur 1883-'84. 

'Information of Francesca and others. 



HODDENTIN. 



503 



of other Apache present, aud then of myself, putting a large pinch 
over my heart and upon each shoulder, and then placed the rest upon 
his own tongue. He explained that I had taken the "life" out of his 
medicine hat, and, notwithstanding the poAvers of his medicine, returned 
in less than a month with a demand for $30 as damages. His hat 
never was the same after I drew it. My suggestion that the applica- 
tion of a little soap might wash away the clots of grease, soot, and 
earth adhering to the hat, and restore its pristine efficacy were received 
with the scorn due to the sneers of the scoffer. 

"In time of much lightning, the Apache throw hoddentin and say: 
'Gun-jii-le, ittindi,' be good, Lightning." 1 





FIG. 434. Nan-ta-do-tash's medicine bat. 

Tzit-jizinde, "the Man who likes Everybody," who said he belonged 
to the Inoschujochin Manzauita or Bearberry clan showed me how 
to pray with hoddentin in time of lightning or storm or danger of any 
kind. Taking a small pinch in his fingers, he held it out at arm's 
length, standing up, and repeated his prayer, and then blew his breath 
hard. I was once with a party of Apache while a comet was visible. I 
called their attention to it, but they did not seem to care. On the 
other hand, Antonio told nie that the "biggest dance" the Apache 
ever had was during the time that "the stars all fell out of the sky" 
(1833). 

"The only act of a religious character which I observed . . . was 
shortly after crossing the river they fi. e., the American officers] were 



' Information of Tze-go-juni. 



504 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

met by a small party of the Indians, one of whom chalked a cross on 
the breast of each, with a yellow earth, which he carried in a satchel at 
his belt. Previous to doing so he muttered some words very solemnly 
with his hands uplifted and eyes thrown upwards. Again, on arriving 
at the camp of the people, the chief and others in greeting them took 
a similar vow, touching thereafter the yellow chalked cross. Sonora 
may have furnished them with some of their notions of a Deity." 1 

" The yellow earth," seen by Dr. Smart was, undoubtedly, hoddentin, 
carried in a medicine bag at the belt of a medicine-man. Some years 
ago I went out with Al. Seiber and a small party of Apache to examine 
three of their "sacred caves" in the Sierra Final and Sierra Ancha. No 
better opportunity could have been presented for noting what they did. 
The very last thing at night they intoned a " medicine" song, and at early 
dawn they were up to throw a pinch of hoddentin to the east. 

Moses and John, two of the Apache mentioned above, requested per- 
mission to go off in the mountains after deer and bear, supposed to be 
plentiful in the higher altitudes. Before leaving camp, Moses blew a 
pinch of hoddeutin toward the sun, repeating his prayer for success, 
and ending it with a sharp, snappy "ek," as if to call attention. In 
one of the sacred caves visited on this trip, the Apache medicine-men 
assembled for the purpose of holding their snake dance. This I have 
never seen among the Apache, but that they celebrate it and that it is 
fully the equal of the repulsive rite which I have witnessed and noted 
among the Tusayau 2 1 am fully assured. I may make reference to some 
of its features in the chapter upon animal worship and ophic rites. 

From a multiplicity of statements, the following are taken : Concep- 
cion had seen the snake dance over on the Carrizo, near Camp Apache; 
the medicine-men threw hoddentin upon the snakes. He said: "After 
getting through with the snake, the medicine-man suffered it to glide 
off, covered with the hoddentin, thrown by admiring devotees." 

Mike Burns had no remembrance of seeing hoddentin thrown to the 
sun. He had seen it thrown to the snake, "in a kind of worship." 

Nott and Antonio stated that "when they find that a snake has 
wriggled across the trail, especially the trail to be followed by a war 
party, they throw hoddentin upon the trail." Nott took a pinch of 
hoddeutin, showed how to throw it upon the snake, and repeated the 
prayer, which I recorded. 

Corbusier instances a remedy in use among the Tonto Apache. This 
consisted in applying a rattlesnake to the head or other part suffering 
from pain. He continues : "After a time the medicine-man rested the 
snake on the ground again, and, still retaining his hold of it with his 
right hand, put a pinch of yellow pollen into its mouth with his left, 
and rubbed some along its belly." 3 

' Smart, in Smithsonian Report for 1867, p. 419. 
2 Snako Dance of Moquis of Arizona, New York, 1884. 

s ln ttie third volume of Kingsborongh, on plate 17 (Aztec pic-tnre In-longing to M. Pejernavy, Pesth, 
Hungary), an Aztec, probahly a priest, is shown offering food to a snake, which eats it out of his hand. 



BOURKK.] 



HODDENTIN. 505 



He then held his hand out to a man, who took a pinch of the powder 
and rubbed it on the crown of a boy's head. Yellow pollen treated in 
this manner is a common remedy for headache, and may frequently be 
seen on the crowns of the heads of men and boys." 1 

Hoddentin is used in the same manner as a remedy for headache among 
the San Carlos Apache, but the medicine-men apply a snake to the 
person of a patient only when their "diagnosis" has satisfied them that 
he has been guilty of some uukinclness to a snake, such as stepping 
upon it, in which case they pretend that they can cure the man by 
applying to the part affected the portion of the reptile's body upon 
which he trampled. 

The, Apache state that when their medicine-men go out to catch snakes 
for their snake dance, they recite a prayer and lay their left hand, in 
which is some hoddentin, at the opening of the snake's den, through 
which the reptile must crawl, and, after a short time the snake will 
come out and allow himself to be handled. 

Hoddentin is also offered to other animals, especially the bear, of 
which the Apache, like their congeners the Navajo, stand in great awe 
and reverence. When a bear is killed, the dance which is held becomes 
frenzied; the skin is donned by all the men, and much hoddentin is 
thrown, if it can be obtained. One of these dances which I saw in the 
Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, lasted all night, without a moment's 
cessation in the singing and prancing of the participants. 

A great deal of hoddentin is offered to the "ka-chu" (great or jack 
rabbit). 2 

The Apache medicine-man, Nakay-do-klunni, called by the whites 
" Bobbydokliuny," exercised great influence over his people at Camp 
Apache, in 1881. He boasted of his power to raise the dead, and pre- 
dicted that the whites should soon be driven from the land. He also 
drilled the savages in a peculiar dance, the like of which had never been 
seen among them. The participants, men and women, arranged them- 
selves in files, facing a common center, like the spokes of a wheel, and 
while thus dancing hoddentin was thrown upon them in profusion. 
This prophet or "doctor" was killed in the engagement in the Cibicu 
canyon, August 30, 1881. 

In a description of the "altars" made by the medicine-men of the 
Apache- Ynma at or near Camp Verde, Arizona, it is shown that this 
sacred powder is freely used. Figures were drawn upon the ground 
to represent the deities of the tribe, and the medicine-men dropped on 
all, except three -of them, a pinch of yellow powder (hoddentin) which 
was taken from a small buckskin bag. This powder was put upon the 
head, chest, or other part of the body of the patient. 

Surgeon Corbusier, U. S. Army, 3 says that the ceremony just described 
was " a most sacred one and entered into for the purpose of averting the 

i Corbusicr, iu American Antiquarian, November, 1881, pp. 330-37. 

"Information of Moses Henderson. 

3 American Vutiquarian, Sept. and Nov.. 1886. 



506 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

diseases with which the Apache at Camp Verde had been afflicted the 
summer previous." 

I am not sure that the Apache- Yuma have not borrowed the use of 
hoddentin from the Apache. My reason for expressing- this opinion is 
that I have never seen an Apache without a little bag of hoddentin 
when it was possible for him to get it, whereas I have never seen an 
Apache- Yuma with it except when he was about to start out on the 
warpath. The " altars" referred to uy Corbusier are made also by the 
Apache, Navajo, Zuiii, and Tusayan. Those of the Apache, as might be 
inferred from their nomadic state, were the crudest ; those of the Navajo, 
Zuiii, and Tusayan display a wonderful degree of artistic excellence. 
The altars of the Kavajo have been described and illustrated by Dr. 
Washington Matthews, 1 and those of the Tusayan by myself. 2 

Moses Henderson, wishing me to have a profitable interview with his 
father, who was a great snake doctor among the Apache, told me that 
when he brought him to see me I should draw two lines across each 
other on his right foot, and at their junction place a bead of the chal- 
chihuitl, the cross to be drawn with hoddentin. The old man would 
then tell me all he knew. 

The Apache, I learned, at times offer hodden tin to fire, an example 
of pyrodulia for which I had been on the lookout, knowing that the 
Navajo have fire dances, the Zuni the Feast of the Li f ttle God of Fire, 
and the, Apache themselves are not ignorant of the fire dance. 

Hoddentin seems to be used to strengthen all solemn compacts and 
to bind faith. I had great trouble with a very bright medicine-man 
named JTa-a-cha, who obstinately refused to let me look at the contents 
of a phylactery which he constantly wore until I let him know that I, too, 
was a medicine-man of eminence. The room in which we had our con - 
versation was the quarters of the post surgeon, at that time absent on 
scout. The chimney piece was loaded with bottles containing all kinds 
of drugs and medicines. I remarked carelessly to Na-a-cha that if he 
doubted my powers I would gladly bum a hole through his tongue with 
a drop of fluid from the vial marked " Acid, nitric," but he concluded 
that my word was sufficient, and after the door was locked to secure us 
from intrusion he consented to let me open and examine the phylactery 
and make a sketch of its contents. To guard against all possible 
trouble, he put a pinch of hoddentin on each of my shoulders, on the 
crown of my head, and on my chest and back. The same performance 
was gone through with in his own case. He explained that hoddeutin 
was good for men to eat, that it was good medicine for the bear, and 
that the bear liked to eat it. I thought that herein might be one clew 
to the reason why the Apache used it as a medicine. The bear loves 
the tule swamp, from which, in days primeval, he sallied out to attack 
the squaws and children gathering the tule powder or tule bulb. Poorly 



1 Ann. Rep. Bu. Eth., 1883-'84. 

2 Snako T>auce of the Moquia. 



BOUHKE.] THE KUNQUE OF THE ZUNI. 507 

armed, as they then were, the Apache must have had great trouble in 
resisting him; hence they hope to appease him by offering a sacrifice 
acceptable to his palate. If acceptable to the chief animal god, as the 
bear seems to have been, as he certainly was the most dangerous, then 
it would have been also acceptable to the minor deities like the puma, 
snake, eagle, etc., and, by an easy transition, to the sun, moon, and 
other celestial powers. This opinion did not last long, as will be shown. 
From its constant association with all sacrifices and all acts of worship, 
hoddentin would naturally become itself sanctified and an object of 
worship, just as rattles, drums, standards, holy grails, etc., in differ- 
ent parts of the world have become fetichistic. I was not in the least 
surprised when I heard Moses. Henderson reciting a prayer, part of 
which ran thus: "Hoddentin eshkin, bi hoddentin ashi" ("Hoddentin 
child, you hoddentin I offer"), and to learn that it was a personification 
of hoddentiu. 

The fact that the myths of the Apache relate that Assanut-li-je 
spilled hoddentin over the surface of the sky to make the Milky Way 
may be looked upon as an inchoate form of a calendar, just as the 
Aztecs transferred to their calendar the reed, rabbit, etc. 

So constant is the appearance of hoddentin in ceremonies of a reli- 
gious nature among the Apache that the expression " hoddentin 
schlawn" (plenty of hoddentin) has come to mean that a particular per- 
formance or place is sacred. Yet, strange to say, this sacred pollen of 
the tule is gathered without any special ceremony; at least, I noticed 
none when I saw it gathered, although I should not fail to record that 
at the time of which I speak the Apache and the Apache- Yuma were 
returning from an arduous campaign, in which blood had been shed, 
and everything they did the bathing in the sweat lodges and the sing- 
ing of the Apache and the plastering of mud upon their heads by the 
Apache- Yuma had a reference to the lustration or purgation necessary 
under such circumstances. Not only men but women may gather the 
pollen. When the tule is not within reach our cat-tail rush is used. 
Thus, the Chiricahua, confined at Fort Pickens, Florida, gathered the 
pollen of the cat-tail rush, some of which was given me by one of the 
women who gathered it. 

Before making an examination into the meaning to be attached to the 
use of hoddentiu, it is well to determine whether or not such a powder 
or anything analogous to it is to be found among the tribes adjacent. 

THE " KUNQUE " OF THE ZUNI AND OTHERS. 

The term "kunque " as it appears in this chapter is oneof convenience 
only. Each pueblo, or rather each set of pueblos, has its own name in 
its own language, as, for example, the people of Laguna and Acoma, 
who employ it in all their ceremonies as freely as do the Zuni, call 
it in their tongue "hiuawa." In every pueblo which I visited and 
1 visited them all, from Oraibi of Tusayan, on the extreme west, to 



508 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Picuris, on the extreme east; from Taos, in the far north, to Isleta del 
Sur, in Texas I came upon this kunque, and generally in such quan- 
tities and so openly exposed and so freely used that I was both aston- 
ished and gratified ; astonished that after centuries of contact with the 
Caucasian the natives should still adhere with such tenacity to the 
ideas of a religion supposed to have been extirpated, and gratified to 
discover a lever which I could employ in prying into the meaning of 
other usages and ceremonials. 

Behind the main door in the houses at Santa .Clara, San Ildefonso, 
Picuris, Laguna, Acoma, San Felipe, Jemez, and other towns, there is a 
niche containing a bowl or saucer filled with this sacred meal, of which the 
good housewife is careful to throw a pinch to the sun at early dawn and 
to the twilight at eventide. In every ceremony among the Pueblos natu- 
rally enough, more particularly among those who have been li ving farthest 
from the Mexicans, the lavish scattering of sacred meal is the marked 
feature of the occasion. At the snake dance of the Tusayan, in 1881, 
the altars were surrounded with baskets of pottery and with flat 
plaques of reeds, which were heaped high with kunque. When the 
procession moved out from under the arcade and began to make the 
round of the sacred stone the air was white with meal, and in my imag- 
ination I could see that it was a procession of Druids circling about a 
" sacred stone " in Ireland previous to the coming of St. Patrick. When 
the priests threw the snakes down upon the ground it was within a 
circle traced with kunque, and soon the snakes were covered with the 
same meal flung upon them by the squaws. There was only one scalp 
left among the Tusayan in 1881, but there were several among the Zuui, 
and one or two each at Acoma and Laguna. In every one of these 
towns kunque was offered to the scalps. 

At the feast of the Little God of Fire among the Zuni, in 1881, my 
personal notes relate that " the moment the head of the procession 
touched the knoll upon which the pueblo is built the mass of people 
began throwing kunque upon the Little God and those with him as well 
as on the ground in front of, beside, and behind them. This kunque 
was contained in sacred basket-shaped bowls of earthenware. The 
spectators kept the air fairly misty with clouds of the sacred kunque. 
This procession passed around the boundaries of the pueblo of Zuni, 
stopping at eight holes in the ground for the purpose of enacting a cer- 
emonial of consecration suggestive of the 'terrniualia' of the Romans. 
They visited each of the holes, which were 18 inches deep and 12 inches 
square, with a sandstone slab to serve as a cover. Each hole was filled 
with kunque and sacrificial plumes. * * * 'Every morning of the year, 
when the sky is clear, at the rising of Lucerofthe morning star], at the 
crowing of the cock, we throw corn flour [kunque] to the sun. I am never 
without my bag of kunque ; here it is [drawing it from his belt]. Every 
Zuni has one. We offer it to the suu for good rain and good crops."" 



1 Interview with Pedro Pino. 



USES OF KUNQUE. 509 

Subsequently Pedro went on to describe in detail a phallic dance and 
ceremony, in which there was a sort of divination. The young maiden 
who made the lucky guess was richly rewarded, while her less fortunate 
companions were presented with a handful of kunque, which they kept 
duringtheensuingyear. This dance is called " ky'aklu," and is independ- 
ent of the great phallic dance occurring in the month of December. 
Pedro also stated that until very recently the Zuili were in the habit of 
celebrating a fire dance at Noche Buena (Christmas). There were four 
piles of wood gathered for the occasion, and upon each the medicine- 
men threw kunque in profusion. This dance, as Pedro described it, 
closely resembled one mentioned by Landa in his Cosas de Yucatan. 
High up on the vertical face of the precipice of Tiiaiyalana there is a 
phallic shrine of the Zuiii to which I climbed with Mr. Frank Cushing. 
We found that the place had been visited by young brides who were 
desirous of becoming mothers. The offerings in every case included 
kuuque. 

In the account given in the National Tribune, Washington, District of 
Columbia, May 20, 1886, of the mode of life of the Zuiii woman Wehwa 
while in the national capital, and while engaged in the kirmes, we read: 

She also strewed sacred com meal along on her way to the theater to bring good 
luck to her and the other dancers. ' * * She has gone from her comfortable room 
to pray in the street at daylight every morning, whatever the weather has been. * 
* * At such times she strews corn meal all around her until the front-door steps 
and the sidewalk are much daubed with dough. Hut this is not the corn meal in 
common use in the United States, but is sacred meal ground in Zufii with sacred 
stones. 1 

So long a time has elapsed since any of the Pueblos have been on the 
warpath that no man can describe their actual war customs except from 
the dramatic ceremonial of their dances or from the stories told him by 
the " old men." The following from an eyewitness will therefore be of 
interest: "Before the Pueblos reached the heights they were ordered to 
scale they halted on the way to receive from their chiefs some medicine 
from the medicine bags which eah of them carried about his person. 
This they rubbed upon their heart, as they said, to make it big and 
brave, and they also rubbed it upon other parts of their bodies and 
upon their rides for the same purpose." 2 

The constant use of kunque by the different Pueblo tribes has been 
noticed from the first days of European contact. In the relation of 
Don Antonio de Espejo (1583) we are told that upon the approach of 
the Spaniards to the town of Zaguato, lying 28 leagues west of Zuiii, 
" a great multitude of Indians came forth to meete them, and among the 
rest their Ca9iques, with so great demonstration of joy and gladnes, 



1 Kunq nc haa added to the cornmeal the meal of two varieties of corn, blue and yellow, a small quantity 
of pulverized sea shells, and some sand, and when possible a fragment of the blue stone called " chalchi- 
huitl." In grinding the meal on the metates thn squaws are stimulated by the medicine-men who 
keep up a constant singing and drumming. 

'Simpson, Expedition to the Navajo Country, in Senate Doc. 64, 31st Coug., 1st sess., 1849-'50, p. 95- 



510 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

that they cast much raeale of Mai/ upon the ground for the horses to 
tread upon." ' 

I am under the impression that the ruins of this village are those near 
the ranch of Mr. Thomas V. Keain, at Ream's Canyon, Arizona, called 
by the Navajo " Talla-hogandi," meaning " singing house," in reference 
to the Spanish mission which formerly existed there. This village is, 
as I have hitherto shown, the ruin of the early pueblo of Awatubi. 

In his poem descriptive of the conquest of New Mexico, entitled 
"Nueva Mejico," Alcala de Henares, 1610, Villagra uses the following 
language : 2 

Passando a Moliofe, Zibola, y Zimi, 

Por cuias nobles tierras dcscubrimos, 

Una gran tropa de, Indios quo venia, 

Con eantidad harina que esparcian, 

Sobre la gente toda muy apriessa, 

Y entrando assi en los pueblos las mugeres 

Dierou en arrojarnos tanta della, 

Que dimos en tomarles los costales, 

De doude resultd tener con ellas, 

Unas carnestolendas bien reiiidas. 

It is gratifying to observe that the Spanish writer in the remote wilds 
of America struck upon an important fact in ethnology : that the throw- 
ing of "harina" or flour by the people of Tusayan (Mohoce or Moqui), 
Cibola, and Zuui (observe the odd separation of "Zibola" from either 
Moqui or Zufli) was identical with the "carnestolendas" of Spain, in 
which, on Shrove Tuesday, the women and girls cover all the men they 
meet with flour. The men are not at all backward in returning the 
compliment, and the streets are at times filled with the farinaceous dust. 

"Harina de maiz azul" is used by Mexicans in their religious cere- 
monies, especially those connected with the water deities. 3 The Pe- 
ruvians, when they bathed and sacrificed to cure themselves of sickness, 
" untandose primero con Harina de Maiz, i con otras cosas, con muchas, 
i diversas ceremonias, i lo mismo hacen en los Bafios." 4 The kunque of 
the Peruvians very closely resembled that of the Zuni. We read that 
it was a compound of different-colored maize ground up with sea shells. 5 
The Peruvians had a Priapic idol called Hua-can-qui, of which we 
read: u On offre a cette idole une corbeille orne'e de plumes de diverses 
couleurs et remplie d'herbes odorife'raiites; on y met aussi de la/<mne 
de miii s que 1'on reuouvelle tous les mois, et les femmes se laveut la 

1 Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 470. " Eehavan mucha harina <le maiz por el saelo para que la piaasseu 
los caballos." Padre Fray Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, De las Cosas de Chino, etc., Madrid, 1586, p. 172. 
See also the Kelacion of Padre Fray Alonso Fernandez, Historia Eclesiastica de Nuestros Tiempos, 
Toledo, 1611. pp. 15, 16. 

> P. 162. 

Diego Duran, vol. 2, cap. 49, pp. 506, 507. 

Hurrera, dec. 5., lib. 4, cap. 5, p. 92. 

Padre CnristDv.il de Molina, Fables and Rites of the Tncas, translated by Markham in Ilakluyt Soc. 
Trans . vol. 48. p. 63, London, 1873. 



BOITKKE.] SACRED MEAL. 511 

figure avec celle que 1'on ote, en aocompagnant cette ablution de plu- 
sieurs ce're'inonies superstitieuses." ' 

The tribes seen on the Rio Colorado in 1540 by Alarcon " carry also 
certaine little long bagges about an hand broade tyed to their left arine, 
which serve thein also instead of brasers for their bowes, full of the 
powder of a certaine herbe, whereof they make a certaine beverage^ 
We are at a loss to know what this powder was, unless hoddentin. The 
Indians came down to receive the son of the sun, as Alarcon led them to 
believe him to be, in full gala attire, and no doubt neglected nothing 
that would add to their safety. 

" Us mirent dans leur bouche du ma'is et d'autres sentences, et les 
lancerent vers inoi en disant que c'etait la maniere dont ils faisaient les 
sacrifices au soleil." 3 

Kohl speaks of seeing inside the medicine wigwam, during the great 
medicine ceremonies of the Ojibwa, "a snow-white powder." 4 In an 
address delivered by Dr. W. J. Hoffman before the Anthropological 
Society of Washington, D. C., May 3, 1888, upon the symbolism of the 
Mide', Jes'sakkid, and Wabeno of the Ojibwa of Minnesota, he stated 
in reply to a question from me that he had not been able to find any of 
the "snow-white powder" alluded to by Kohl in Kitchi-gami. 5 

In Yucatan, when children were baptized, one of the ceremonies 
was that the chac, or priest in charge, should give the youngster a 
pinch of corn meal, which the boy threw in the fire. These chacs were 
priests of the god who presided over baptism and over hunting. 6 

At the coronation of their kings the Aztecs had a sacred unction, 
and a holy water, drawn from a sacred spring, and "about his neck is 
tied a small gourd, containing a certain powder, which is esteemed a 
strong preservative against disease, sorcery, and treason." 7 

''At the entrance to one of the narrow defiles of the Cordilleras 
. . . a large mass of rock with small cavities upon its surface, into 
which the Indians, when about to enter the pass, generally deposit a 
few glass beads, a handful of meal, or some other propitiatory offering to 
the 'genius' supposed to preside over the spot and rule the storm." 

Again, "on receiving a plate of broth, an Indian, before eating, spills 
a little upon the ground; he scatters broadcast a few pinches of the 
meal that is given him, and pours out a libation before raising the 
wine cup to his lips, as acts of thanksgiving for the blessings he 
receives." 8 

When Capt. John Smith was captured by the Pamunkey tribe of Vir- 

1 Montesinos, pp. 161, 162, in Ternaux-Compans, vol. 17, M6moires sur 1'ancien Perou. 

2 Relation of the voyage of Don Fernando Alarcon, in Hakluyt Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508. 

3 Alaroon in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 9, p. 330. See also in Hakluyt Voyages, vol. 3, p. 516. 
Kitchi-gami. London, 1860, p. 51. 

'See also on the subject Acosta, Hist. Naturelle des Indes, lib. 5, cap. 19, p. 241. 
'Lauda, Cosas de Yucatan, Paris, 1864, page 148. 

7 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 2, p. 145. Sue also Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 
2, p. 128. 
Smith, Araucanians, 1855, pp. 274-275. 



512 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

ginia in 1607 lie was taken to " a long bouse," where, on the morning fol- 
lowing " a great grim fellow" came skipping in, " all painted over with 
coale, mingled with oyle. With most strange gestures and passions he 
began his invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of rneale." 
This priest was followed by six others, who " with their rattles began 
a song, which ended, the chiefe priest layd downe five wheat comes." 
This ceremony was apparently continued during the day and repeated 
on the following two days. ' Oapt. Smith's reception by the medicine- 
men of the Virginians is described by Picart.^ These mediciue-meu are 
called "pretres," and we are informed that they sang "des chants 
niagiques." The grains of wheat ("grains de ble") were "rangez cinq 
a cinq." 

Gomara tells us that in the religious festivals of Nicaragua there 
were used certain "taleguillas con polvos," but he does not tell what 
these " polvos " were ; he only says that when the priests sacrifice them- 
selves they cured the wounds, " curan las heridas con polvo de herbas 
6 carbon." 3 

While the Baron de Graft'enreid was a prisoner in the hands of the 
Tuscarora, on the Neuse River, in 1711, the conjurer or high priest 
("the priests are generally magicians and even conjure up the devil") 
"made two white rounds, whether of flour or white sand, I do not 
know, just in front of us." 4 

Lafitau says of one of the medicine women of America : " Elle com- 
ineiiya d'abord par preparer uu espace de terrain qu'elle netoya bien & 
qu'elle couvrit de farine, ou de cendre tres-bien blutt/'e (je ne me souviens 
pas exactement laquelle des deux)." 5 

In a description of the ceremonial connected with the first appear- 
ance of the catamenia in a Navajo squaw, there is no reference to a use 
of anything like hoddentm, unless it may be the corn which was ground 
into meal for a grand feast, presided over by a medicine-man. 6 

When a woman is grinding corn or cooking, and frequently when 
any of the Navajo, male or female, are eating, a handful of corn meal is 
put in the fire as an ottering (to the sun). 7 

The Pueblos of New Mexico are described as ottering sacrifices of food 
to their idols. " Los Indies del Norte tie-nan multitud de Idolos, en 
pequenos Adoratorios, donde los pouen de coiner." ' 

Maj. Backus, U. S. Army, describes certain ceremonies which he saw 
performed by the Navajo at a sacred spring near Fort Defiance, Ari- 
zona, which seems to have once been a geyser : 

1 Smith, True Travels, Adventures and Observations, Richmond, 1819, vol. 1, p. 161. 

2 Ceremonies et Codtunies, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 74. 

3 Historia de las Iiidias, p. 284. 

"Colonial Records of North Carolina, 1886, vol. 1. p. into. 

5 Mceurs des Sauvages, Paris, 1724, vol. 1, p. 386. 

6 Personal notes of May 26. 1881 ; conversation with Chi ami Damon at Fort Defiance. Xaviijo Agency, 
Arizona. 

' Ibid. 

* Hniria, Enwayo Cronologico, p. 160. 



BOURKE.] SACRED POWDER. 513 

I once visited it with three other persons and an Indian doctor, who carried with 
him live small bags, each containing some vegetable or mineral substance, all differing 
in color. At the spring each bag was opened and a small quantity of its contents was 
put into the right hand of each person present. Each visitor, in succession, was then 
required to kneel down by the spring side, to place his closed hand in the water up 
to his elbow, and after a brief interval to open his hand and let fall its contents 
into the spring. The hand was then slowly withdrawn and each one was then per- 
mitted to drink and retire. ' 

Columbus iu his fourth voyage touched the mainland, going down 
near Brazil. He says: 

In Cariay and the neighboring country there are great enchanters of a very fearful 
character. They would have given the world to prevent my remaining there an hour. 
When I arrived they sent me immediately two girls very showily dressed; the eld- 
est could not be more than eleven years of age and the other seven, and both exhib- 
ited BO much immodesty that more could not be expected from public women. They 
carried concealed about them a magic powder. s 

The expedition of La Salle noticed, among the Indians on the Missis- 
sippi, the Natchez, and others, "todos los dias, que se detuvieren en aquel 
Pueblo, ponia la Cacica, enciina de la Sepultura de Marie [i. e., a French- 
man who had been drowned], una Cestilla lleua de Espigas de Maiz, 
tostado." 3 

"He showed me, as a special favor, that which give him his power 
a bag with some reddish powder in it. He allowed me to handle it and 
smell this mysterious stuff, and pointed out two little dolls or images, 
which, he said, gave him authority over the souls of others; it was for 
their support that flour and water were placed in small birch-rind 
saucers in front.' 1 4 

On page 286, narrative of the Jeannette Arctic expedition, Dr. New- 
comb says : " One day, soon after New Year's, 1 was out walking with one 
of the Indians. Noticing the new moon, he stopped, faced it, and, 
blowing out his breath, he spoke to it, invoking success in hunting. The 
moon, he said, was 'Tyuuue,' or ruler of deers, bears, seals, and walrus." 
The ceremony herein described I have no doubt was analogous in 
every respect to hoddentin-throwiug. As the Indians mentioned were 
undoubtedly Tinueh, my surmise seems all the more reasonable. 5 

Tanner relates that among the Ojibwa the two best hunters of the 
band had "each a little leather sack of medicine, consisting of certain 
roots pounded line and mixed with red paint, to be applied to the little 
images or figures of the animals we wish to kill." 

"In the parish of Walsingham, in Surrey, there is or was a custom 
which seems to refer to the rites performed in honor of Pomona. Early 
in the spring the boys go round to the several orchards in the parish 



' Schoolcraft, lud. Tribes, vol. 4, p. 213. 

'' Columbus Letters, in Hakluyt Soc. Works. London, 1847, vol 2, p. 192. 
J Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, p. 279. 

4 The medicine-men of the Swampy Cree*. as described in Bishop of Kuperl's Laud's works, quoted 
Ijy Henry Youle Hind, Canadian Exploring Expedition, vol. 1, p. 113. 

6 Personal notes, November 22. 1885, at Baker's ranch, summit of the Sierra Ancha, Arizona. 
6 Tanner's Narrative, p. 174. 

9 ETH 33 



514 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

and whip the apple trees. . . . The good \voman gives them 
some meal." ' 

Among the rustics of Great Britain down to a very recent period 
there were in use certain "love powders," the composition of which is 
not known, a small quantity of which had to be sprinkled upon the 
food of the one beloved. 2 

Attached to the necklace of human fingers before described, cap- 
tured from one of the chief medicine-men of the Cheyenne Indians, is a 
bag containing a powder very closely resembling hoddentin, if not hod- 
dentin itself. 

It is said that the Asinai made sacrifice to the scalps of their ene- 
mies, as did the Zuiii as late as 1881. "Ofrecen a las calaveras pinole 
molido y de otras cosas comestibles." :! 

Perrot says the Indians of Canada had large medicine bags, which 
he calls "pindikossan," which, among other things, contained "des 
racines ou des poudres pour leur servir de me'decines." 4 

In an article on the myth of Manibozho, by Squier, in American His- 
torical Magazine Eeview, 1848, may be found an account of the adven- 
tures of two young heroes, one of whom is transferred to the lit of 
gods. He commissioned his comrade to bring him offerings of a white 
wolf, a polecat, some pounded maize, and eagles' tails. 

Laplanders sprinkle cow and calf with flour. 5 

Cameron met an old chief ou the shores of Lake Tanganyika, of whom 
he says: "His forehead and hair were daubed with vermilion, yellow, 
and white powder, the pollen of flowers." G 

In the incantations made by the medicine-men of Africa, near the 
head of the Congo, to preserve his expedition from fire, Cameron saw 
the sacrifice of a goat and a hen, and among other features a use of 
powdered bark closely resembling hoddentin: "Scraping the bark off 
the roots and sticks, they placed it in the wooden bowl and reduced it 
to powder." The head medicine-man soon after " took up a handful of 
the powdered bark and blew some toward the sun and the remainder 
in the opposite direction." 7 

The magic powder, called " uganga," used as the great weapon of 
divination of the mgaiiga, or medicine-men of some of the African tribes, 
as mentioned by Speke, 8 must be identical with the powder spoken of by 
Cameron. 

Near the village of Kapeka, Cameron was traveling with a caravan 

1 Blount, Tenures of Land ami Customs of Manors, London, 1874, p. 355. 

2 Brand, Popular Antiquities, London, 1882, vol. 3, pp. 307 et seq. 
s Cronica Serafica, p. 434. 

4 Nicolas Perrot, Mceurs, Coustumes et Kelligion des sauvages de 1'Amerique Soptentrionale (Ed. 
of Rev. P. J. Tailhan, S.J.,) Leipzig, 1864. Perrot wasa coureur debois, interpreter, aud donueof the 
Jesuit missions among the Ottawa, Sioux, Iowa, etc., from 1665 to 1701. 

Leems', Account of Danish Lapland, in Pinkerton's Voyages, London. 1814, vol. 1, p. 484. 

6 Across Africa, London, 1877, vol. 1, p. 277. 

' Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 118, 120. 

" Source of the Nile, London, 1861. introd., p. xxi. 



BOVHKK.] SACRED POWDER. 515 

in which the principal man was a half-breed Portuguese named Alvez. 
"On Alvez making his entry he was mobbed by women, who shrieked 
and yelled in honor of the event and pelted him with flour." This was 
Alvez's own home and all this was a sign of welcome. 1 

Speke describes a young chief wearing on his forehead "antelope 
horns, stuffed with magic powder to keep off the evil eye." 2 

After describing an idol, in the form of a man, in a small temple on 
the Lower Congo, Stanley says : "The people appear to have considera- 
ble faith in a whitewash of cassava meal, with which they had sprinkled 
the fences, posts, and lintels of doors." 3 

"According to Consul Hutchinson (in his interesting work 'Impres- 
sions of Western Africa'), the Botikaimon [a medicine-man], previous to 
the ceremony of coronation, retires into a deep cavern, and there, through 
the intermediary of a 'rukaruka' (snake demon), consults the demon 
Maon. He brings back to the king the message he receives, sprinkles 
him with a yellow powder called 'tsheoka,' and puts upon his head the 
hat his father wore." 4 In a note, it is stated that: "Tsheoka is a vege- 
table product^ obtained, according to Hutchinson, by collecting a creamy 
coat that is found on the waters at the mouth of some small rivers, 
evaporating the water, and forming a chalky mass of the residue." 5 
Schultze says 6 that the Congo negroes "appease the hurricane" by 
"casting meal into the air." 

The voudoo ceremonies of the negroes of New Orleans, which would 
seem to have been transplanted from Africa, include a sprinkling of the 
congregation with a meal which has been blessed by the head medicine- 
man or conjurer. 

At the feast of Huli, at the vernal equinox (our April fool's day), the 
Hindu throw a purple powder (abir) upon each other with much sport- 
ive pleasantry. A writer in " Asiatick Researches " 7 says they have the 
idea of representing the return of spring, which the Romans called 
"purple." 

During the month of Phalgoonu, there is a festival in honor of Krishna, 
when the " Hindus spend the night in singing and dancing and wander- 
ing about the streets besmeared with the dolu (a red) powder, in the 
daytime carrying a quantity of the same powder about with them, 
which, with much noise and rejoicing, they throw over the different 
passengers they may meet in their rambles. Music, dancing, fireworks, 
singing, and many obscenities take place on this occasion." 8 

On pages 434-435 of my work, " Scatalogic Rites of all Nations," are 
to be found extracts from various authorities in regarn to the Hindu 

1 Cameron, Across Africa, London, 1877, vol. 2, p. 201. 

* Source of the Nile, London, 1863, pp. 130, 259. 

3 Bark Continent, vol. 2, p. 200. 

4 Schnltze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 53. 

5 Ibid., footnote, page 53. 

6 Ibid., p. 67. 

7 Asiatick Researches, Calcutta, 1805, voL 8, p. 78. 

Coleman, Mythology of the Hindus, London, 18:i2, p. 44. 



516 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

feast of Holi or Hulica, in which this statement occurs : "Troops of meii 
and women, wreathed with flowers and drunk with bang, crowd the 
streets, carrying sacks full of bright-red vegetable powder. With this 
they assail the passers-by, covering them with clouds of dust, which 
soon dyes their clothes a startling color." 

"Red powder (gulal) is a sign of a bad design of an adulterous char- 
acter. During the Holi holidays, the Maharaj throws gulal on the 
breasts of female and male devotees." ' 

" In India, the devotees throw red powder on one another at the fes- 
tival of the Huli, or vernal equinox. This red powder, the Hindoos 
say, is the imitation of the pollen of plants, the principle of fructifica- 
tion, the flower of the plant." 2 

The women of the East Indies (Brahmins), on the 18th of January, 
celebrate a feast in honor of the goddess Parvati : "Leur but est d'ob- 
tenir une longue vie pour leurs maris, & qu'elles ne deviennent jainais 
veuves. Elles font une Image de Parvati avec de la fa line de riz & du 
grain rouge qu'elles y melent; elles Foment d'habits & de fleurs & apres 
1'avoir ainsi servie pendant neuf jours, elles la portent le dixieme dans 
uii Palenquin hors de la Ville. Une foule de femmes mariees la suivent, 
on la jette ensuite dans un des etangs sacrez, ou on la laisse, & chacune 
s'en retourne chez elle." 3 

Speaking of the methods in use among the Lamas for curing disease, 
Eev. James Gilmour says : "Throwing about small pinches of millet seed 
is a usual part of such a service." 4 

Dr. W. W. Rockliill described to me a Tibetan festival, which in- 
cludes a procession of the God of Mercy, in which procession there are 
masked priests, holding blacksnake whips in their hands, and carrying 
bags of flour which they throw upon the people. 

The use of these sacred powders during so many different religious 
festivals and ceremonies would seem to resemble closely that made by 
the Apache of hoddentin and the employment of knnque by the Zufii 
and others ; and from Asia it would seem that practices very similar 
in character found their way into Europe. Of the Spanish witches it 
is related : 

When they entered people's houses they threw a powder on the faces of the inmates, 
who were thrown thereby into so deep a slumber that nothing could wake them, until 

the witches were gone Sometimes they threw these powders on the 

fruits of the field and produced hail which destroyed them. On these occasions the 
demon accompanied them in the form of a husbandman, and when they threw the 

powders they said : 

"Polvos, polvos, 
Pierda se tado, 
Quedeu los nnestros, 
Y abrasense otro8." s 



1 History of the Sect of the Maharajahs, quoted by iDiuan, Ancient Faiths, etc., vol. 1, p. 303. 
3 Higgina, Anacalypsis, vol. 1, p. 261. 

3 Picart. Ceremonies et Coutumes, etc., vol. 0, part 2, p. 119. 

4 Amoug the Mongols, London, 1883, p. 179. 

* Wright, Sorcery and Magic, London, 1851, vol. 1. p. 346. 



BOURKE.] USE OF POLLEN. 517 

Higgins says : " The flour of wheat was the sacrifice offered to the 
Xpr,:; or Ceres in the Eft^Aptaria^ ' 

What relation these powders have had to the "carnestolendas" of 
the Spanish and Portuguese, already alluded to, and the throwing of 
"confetti" by the Italians, which is a modification, it would be hard to 
say. Some relation would appear to be suggested. 

USE OF POLLEN BY THE ISRAELITES AND EGYPTIANS. 

There are some suggestions of a former use of pollen among the 
Israelites and Egyptians. 

Manna, which we are assured was at one time a source of food to 
the Hebrews, was afterward retained as an offering in the temples. 
Forlong, however, denies that it ever could have entered into general 
consumption. He says: 

Manna, as food, is an absurdity, but we have the well-known produce of the desert 

oak or ash Fraxinus An omer of this was precious, and in this 

quantity, at the spring season, not difficult to get; it was a specially fit tribute to 
be " laid up" before any Phallic Jah, as it was the pollen of the tree of Jove and of 
Life, and in this sense the tribe lived spiritually on such "spiritual manna" as this 
god supplied or was supplied with. 1 

The detestation in which the bean was held by the high-caste people 
of Egypt does not demonstrate that the bean was not an article of food 
to a large part of the population, any more than the equal detestation 
of the occupation of swineherd would prove that none of the poor 
made use of swine's flesh. The priesthood of Egypt were evidently 
exerting themselves to stamp out the use of a food once very common 
among their people, and to supersede it with wheat or some other 
cereal. They held a man accursed who in passing through a field 
planted with beans had his clothing soiled with their pollen. Speke 
must have encountered a survival of this idea when he observed in 
equatorial Africa, near the sources of the Nile, and among people whose 
features proclaimed their Abyssinian origin, the very same aversion. 
He was unable to buy food, simply because he and some of his followers 
had eaten "the bean called maharague." Such a man, the natives 
believed, " if he tasted the products of their cows, would destroy their 
cattle." 3 

One other point should be dwelt upon in describing the kunque of 
the Zufii, Tusayan, and other Pueblos. It is placed upon one of the 
sacred flat baskets and packed down in such a manner that it takes 
the form of one of the old-fashioned elongated cylindro-conical cheeses. 
It should be noted also that by something more than a coincidence this 
form was adhered to by the peoples farther to the south when they ar- 
ranged their sacred meal upon baskets. 

At the festival of the god Teutleco the Aztecs made "de harina de 

1 Aaaalyp8is, vol. 2, p. 244. 

'Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 161. 

'Source of the Nile, London, 180.!, pp. 205, 208. 



518 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

inaiz un montecillo mny tupido de la forma de un queso." ' This closely 
resembles the corn meal heaps seen at the snake dance of the Tusayan. 

The Znfii, in preparing kunque or sacred meal for their religions 
festivals, invariably made it in the form of a pyramid resting upon one 
of their flat baskets. It then bore a striking resemblance to the pyra- 
mids or phalli which the Egyptians offered to their deities, and which 
Forlong thinks must have been "just such Lingham-like sweet-bread 
as we still see in Indian Sivaic temples." 2 Again, "the orthodox His- 
lop, in his Two Babylons, tells us that 'bouns,' buns, or bread offered 
to the gods from the most ancient times were similar to our l hotcross' 
buns of Good Friday, that . . . the buns known by that identical 
name were used in the worship of the Queen of Heaven, the goddess 
Easter (Ishtar or Astarti) as early as the days of Kekrops, the founder 
of Athens, 1500 years B. C." 3 

Forloug 4 quotes Capt. Wilford in Asiatick Researches, vol. 8, p. 365, as 
follows : 

When the people of Syracuse were sacrificing to goddesses, they offered cakes 
called mulloi, shaped like the female organ; and Dulare tells us that the male organ 
was similarly symbolised in pyramidal cakes at Easter by the pious Christians of 
Saiutogne, near Rochelle, and handed about from house to house; that even in his 
day the festival of Palm .Sunday was called La Fete den Pinnes, showing that this fete 
was held to bo on account of both organs, although, of course, principally because 
the day was sacred to the palm, this ancient tree Phallus. . . . We may believe 
that the Jewish cakes and show bread were also emblematic. 

Mr. Frank H. Gushing informs me that there is an annual feast among 
the Zufii in which are to be seen cakes answering essentially to the 
preceding description. 

HODDENTIN A PREHISTORIC FOOD. 

The peculiar manner in which the medicine-men of the Apache use the 
hoddentin (that is, by putting a pinch upon their own tongues) ; the fact 
that men and women make use of it in the same way, as a restorative when 
exhausted ; its appearance in myth in connection with Assanutlije, the 
goddess who supplied the Apache and 2favajo with so many material 
benefits, all combine to awaken the suspicion that in hoddentin we 
have stumbled upon a prehistoric food now reserved for sacrificial pur- 
poses only. That the underlying idea of sacrifice is a food offered to 
some god is a proposition in which Herbert Spencer and W. Robertson 
Smith concur. In my opinion, this definition is incomplete; a perfect 
sacrifice is that in which a prehistoric food is offered to a god, and, 
although in the family oblations of everyday life we meet with the 
food of the present generation, it would not be difficult to show that 
where the whole community unites in a function of exceptional impor- 

1 Sahagun, vol. 2, in Kingsborough, vol. , p. 29. 
'Forlong, Rivers (if Life, vol. 1, p. 184. 
3 Ibid., pp. 185, 180. 
Ibid., p. 186. 



BOUBKE.J HODDENTIN A PREHISTORIC FOOD. 519 

taiice the propitiation of the deities will be effected by foods whose use 
has long since faded away from the memory of the laity. 

The sacred feast of stewed puppy and wild turnips forms a promi- 
nent part of the sun dance of the Sioux, and had its parallel in a colla- 
tion of boiled puppy (catullus), of which the highest civic and ecclesias- 
tical dignitaries of pagan Rome partook at stated intervals. 

The reversion of the Apache to the food of his ancestors the hod- 
dentin as a religious offering has its analogue in the unleavened bread 
and other obsolete farinaceous products which the ceremonial of more 
enlightened races has preserved from oblivion. Careful consideration 
of the narrative of Cabeza de Vaca sustains this conclusion. In the 
western portion of his wanderings we learn that for from thirty to forty 
days he and his comrades passed through tribes which for one-third 
of the year had to live on " the powder of straw" (on the powder of 
bledos), and that afterwards the Spaniards came among people who 
raised corn. At that time, Vaca, whether we believe that he ascended 
the Rio Concho or kept on up the Rio Grande, was in a region where 
he would certainly have encountered the ancestors of our Apache tribe 
and their brothers the Navajo. The following is Herrera's account of 
that part of Vaca's wanderings: "Padeciendo mucha hambre en 
treinta i quatro Joruadas, pasando por uua Gente que la tercera parte 
del Aiio comen polvos de paja, i los huvieron de comer, por haver llegado 
en tal ocasion." ' 

This powder (polvo) of paja or grass might at first sight seem to be 
grass seeds ; but why not say " flour," as on other occasions ? The phrase 
is an obscure one, but not more obscure than the description of the 
whole journey. In the earlier writings of the Spaniards there is am- 
biguity because the new arrivals endeavored to apply the names of their 
own plants and animals to all that they saw in the western continent. 
Neither Castaneda nor Cabeza de Vaca makes mention of hod- 
dentin, but Vaca does say that when he had almost ended his journey: 
"La cote ne possede pas de mais; on n'y mange que de la poudre de 
paille de blette." " Blette" is the same as the Spanish ''bledos." 2 "Nous 
parvinmes chez une peuplade qni, pendant le tiers de 1'annee, ne vit que 
de poudre de paille." "We met with a people, who the third part of 
the yeere eate no other thing save the powder of straw." 3 

Davis, who seems to have followed Herrera, says : " These Indians 
lived one-third of the year on the powder of a certain straw . 
. . . After leaving this people they again arrived in a country of per- 
manent habitations, where they found an abundance of maize. 
The inhabitants gave them maize both in grain and flour. 4 

The Tusayau Indians were formerly in the habit of adding a trifle of 



1 Dec. 6, lib. 1, p. 9. 

2 Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 7, pp. 242, 250. 

' Relation of Caheza <li- Vaca. in I'urchas, vol. 4, lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 4, p. 1524. 
4 Conquest of New Mexico, p. 100. 



520 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

chopped straw to their bread, but more as our own bakers would use 
bran than as a regular article of diet. 

Barcia ' makes no allusion to anything resemblinghoddentin or " polvos 
de bledos" in his brief account of Vaca's journey. But Buckingham 
Smith, in his excellent translation of Vaca's narrative, renders "polvos 
de paja " thus : " It was probably the seed of grass which they ate. I 
am told by a distinguished explorer that the Indians to the west col- 
lect it of different kinds and from the powder make bread, some of which 
is quite palatable." And for " polvos de bledos": "The only explana- 
tion I can offer for these words is little satisfactory. It was the prac- 
tice of the Indians of both New Spain and New Mexico to beat the ear 
of young maize, while in the milk, to a thin paste, hang it in festoons in 
the sun, and, being thus dried, was preserved for winter use." 

This explanation is very unsatisfactory. Would not Vaca have 
known it was corn and have said so? On the contrary, he remarks in 
that very line in Smith's own translation: " There is no maize on the 
coast." 

The appearance of all kinds of grass seeds in the food of nearly all 
the aborigines of our southwestern territory is a fact well known, but 
what is to be demonstrated is the extensive use of the " powder" of the 
tule or cat-tail rush. Down to our d'ay, the Apache have used not only 
the seeds of various grasses, but the bulb of the wild hyacinth and the 
bulb of the tule. The former can be eaten either raw or cooked, but 
the tule bulb is always roasted between hot stones. The taste of the 
hyacinth bulb is somewhat like that of raw chestnuts. That of the 
roasted tule bulb is sweet and not at all disagreeable. 2 

Father Jacob Baegert 3 enumerates among the foods of the Indians of 
southern California "the roots of the common reed" (i. e., of the tule). 

Father Alegre, speaking of the tribes living near the Lagnna San 
Pedro, 4 in latitude 28 north two hundred leagues north of the City of 
Mexico says that they make their bread of the root, which is very 
frequent in their lakes, and which is like the plant called the "anea" 
or rush in Spain. "Formau el pan de una raiz muy frecuente en sus 
lagunas, semejante a las que llamau aneas en Espafia." 6 

The Indians of the Atlantic Slope made bread of the bulb of a plant 
which Capt. John Smith 6 says " grew like a flag in marshes." It was 
roasted and made into loaves called "tuckahoe." 7 

Kalm, in his Travels in North America, 8 says of the tuckahoe: 

It grows in several swamps and marshes mid is commonly plentiful. The hogs 
greedily dig up its roots with their noses in such places, and the Indians of Carolina 
likewise gather it in their rambles in the woods, dry it in the sun, grind, and make 



1 Ensayo Cronologico, pp. 12 et seq. 

*Seo also on this point Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, November, 1886. 

3 Rau's translation in Smithsonian Ann. Rep., 1863, p. 364. 

* Probably the Lake of Parras. 

'Historia de la Oompaiiia de Jeans en Nueva-Kspafia. vol. 1, p. 284. 

History of Virginia. 

'Sec also article by J. Howard (lore, Smithsonian Report, 1881. 

Pinkerton, Voyages, London, 1814, vol. 13, p. 468. 



BOURKE.] THE YIAUHTLI OF THE AZTECS. 521 

bread of it. Whilst the root is fresh it is harsh and acrid, bat, being dried, it loses 
the greater part of its acrimony. To judge by these qualities, the tuokahoe may 
very likely be the Arum virgiiiiaiinm. 

The Shoshoni and Bannock of Idaho and Montana eat the tule bulb. 1 

Something analogous to hoddentin is mentioned by the chronicler of 
Drake's voyage along the California coast about A. D. 1540. Speak- 
ing of the decorations of the chiefs of the Indians seen near where San 
Francisco now stands, he says another mark of distinction was u a cer- 
tain dowue, which groweth up in the countrey upon an herbe much like 
our lectuce, which exceeds any other downe in the world for flnenesse 
and beeing layed upon their cawles, by no winds can be removed. Of 
such estimation is this herbe amongst them that the downe thereof is 
not lawfull to be worue, but of such persons as are about the king, 

. . . and the seeds are not used but onely in sacrifice to their 
gods." 2 

Mr. Gushing informs me that hoddeutin is mentioned as a food in the 
myths of the Zufii under the name of oneya, from oellu, " food." 

In Kaintchatka the people dig and cook the bulbs of the Kamtehatka 
lily, which seems to be some sort of a tuber very similar to that of the 
tule. 

" Bread is now made of rye, which the Kamtchadals raise and grind 
for themselves; but previous to the settlement of the country by the . 
Russians the only native substitute for bread was a sort of baked paste, 
consisting chiefly of the grated tubers of the purple Kamtchatkan lily." 3 

HODDENTIN THE YIAUHTLI OP THE AZTECS. 

There would seem to be the best of reason for an identification of 
hoddentin with the ' yiauhtli " which Sahagun and Torquemada tell 
us was thrown by the Aztecs in the faces of victims preparatory to sac- 
rificing them to the God of Fire, but the explanation given by those 
authors is not at all satisfactory. The Aztecs did not care much whether 
the victim suffered or not; he was sprinkled with this sacred powder 
because he had assumed a sacred character. 

Padre Sahagun 4 says that the Aztecs, when about to offer human 
sacrifice, threw "a powder named 'yiauhtli' on the faces of those whom 
they were about to sacrifice, that they might become deprived of sensa- 
tion and not suffer much pain in dying." 

In sacrificing slaves to the God of Fire, the Aztec priests " tomaban 
ciertos polvos de una semilla, llamada Yauhtli, ypolvoreaban las caras 



'Personal notes, Aprils, 1881. 

* Drake, World Encompassed, pp. 124-126, quoted by H. H. Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 1, pp. 387-388. 
(This chaplain stated 30 many things ignorantly that nothing is more probable than that he attempted 
to describe, without seeing it, the plant from which the Indians told him that hoddentin (or downe) 
was obtained. The principal chief or '' king '' would, on such an awe-inspiring occasion as meeting 
with strange Europeans, naturally want to cover himself and followers with all the hoddentin the 
country afforded.) 

1 Kennau, Tent Life in Siberia, p. 66. 

4 Quoted by Kingsborough, vol. 6. p. 100. 



522 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

con ellas, para que perdiesen el sentido, y no sintiesen tauto la nmerte 
cruel, que las daban." 1 

Guautli, generally spelled "yuautli," one of the foods paid toMonte- 
zutna as tribute, may have been tule pollen. Gallatin says : "1 can not 
discover what is meant by the guautli. It is interpreted as being semilla 
de Bledo; but I am not aware of any other native grain than maize 
having been, before the introduction of European cereales, an article 
of food of such general use, as the quantity mentioned seems to indi- 
cate." 2 

Among the articles which the king of Atzapotzalco compelled the 
Aztecs to raise for tribute is mentioned " ahuauhtli ( que es coiuo 
bledos)." 3 

"BLEDOS" OF ANCIENT WRITERS ITS MEANING. 

Lafltau 4 gives a description of the Iroquois mode of preparing for 
the warpath. He says that the Iroquois and Huron called war 
" n'ondoutagette " and "gaskeuragette." "Le terme Ondouta signitie 
le duvet qu'on tire de 1'epy des Itoseaux de Marais & signific aussi la 
plante toute entiere, dont Us se serveut pourfaire les nattes sur qnoi il.s 
couchent, de sorte qu'il y a apparence qu'ils avoieut affect^ ce terme 
pour la Guerre, parce que chaque Guerrier portoit avec soy sa natte 
dans ces sortes d'expeditions." 

This does not seem to be the correct explanation. Rather, it was 
because they undoubtedly made some sacrificial meal of this "duvet," 
or pollen, and used it as much as the Apache do hoddentiu, their 
sacred meal made of the pollen of the tule, which is surely a species 
of " roseaux de marais." 

The great scarcity of corn among the people passed while en route 
to Cibola is commented upon in an account of Coronado'-s expedition 
to Cibola, in Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos, relatives al descu- 
brimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones Espafiolas de 
America y Oceania. 6 

We are also informed 6 that the people of Cibola offered to their idols 
" polbos amarillos de flores." 

Castaneda speaks of the people beyond Chichilticale making a bread 
of the mesquite which kept good for a whole year. He seems to have 
been well informed regarding the vegetable foods of the tribes passed 
through by Coronado's expedition. 7 

That the " blettes" or " bledos" did not mean the same as grass is a 
certainty after we have examined the old writers, who each and all 



1 Torquemada. Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 10, cap. 22, ]i. 274. 

"Callalin, iu Trans. Am. Ethuol. Soc., vol. 1, pp. 117-118. 

s Vetancurt, TeatroMi'xicano, vol. 1, p. 271. 

4 Mo?urs des Salivates, vol. 2, pp. 194. l!t">. 

''Madrid, 1870. vol. 14. p. 320. 

'Ibid. 

7 Teruaiix-ConipaUH. Voyages, vol. 9, p. 159. 



BOfKKE.] TZOALLI. 523 

show that the bledos meant, a definite kind of plant, although exactly 
what this plant was they fail to inform us. It can not be intended for 
the sunflower, which is mentioned distinctly by a number of writers as 
an article of diet among the Indians of the Southwest. 1 

TZOALLI. 

An examination of the Spanish writers who most carefully transmit- 
ted their observations upon the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs and 
other nations in Mexico and South America brings out two most inter- 
esting features in this connection. The first is that there were 
commemorative feasts of prehistoric foods, and the second that one or 
more of these foods has played an important part in the religion of 
tribes farther north. The first of these foods is the " tzoalli," which was 
the same as " bledos," which latter would seem beyond question to have 
been hoddentin or yiauhtli. Brasseur de Bourbourg's definition sim- 
ply states that the tzoalli was a compound of leguminous grains pecul- 
iar to Mexico and eaten in different ways: "Le Tzohualli e"tait un 
compose de graines le"gtunineuses particulieres an Mexique, qu'on man- 
geait de diverses manieres." 2 

In the month called Tepeilhuitl the A/tecs made^nakes of twigs and 
covered them with dough of bledos (a kind of grain or hay seed). 
Upon these they placed figures, representing mountains, but shaped 
like young children/' This month was the thirteenth on the Mexican 
calendar, which began on our February 1. This would put it Octo- 
ber 1, or thereabout. 

Squier cites Torquemada's description of the sacrifices called Ecato- 
tontin, offered to the mountains by the Mexicans. In these they made 
figures of serpents and children and covered them with u dough," 
named by them tzoalli, composed of the seeds of bledos. 4 

A dramatic representation strongly resembling those described in 
the two preceding paragraphs was noted among the Tusayan of Ari- 
zona by Mr. Taylor, a missionary, in 1881, and has been mentioned at 
length in The Snake Dance of the Moquis. Clavigero relates that 
the Mexican priests " all eat a certain kind of gruel which they call 



Torquemada relates that the Mexicans once each year made an idol 
or statue of Tluitzlipotchli of many grains and the seeds of bledos and 
other vegetables which they kneaded with the blood of boys who were 
sacrified for the purpose. " Juntaban muchos granos y semilla de 



1 Among others consult Cronica Seraflca y Apostolica of Espinosa, Mexico, 1746, p. 419, speaking 
of the Asinai of Texas in 1700: " Siembran tambien cantidad do Gyrasoles quo se dan muy corpu- 
lentos y la nor niny grande que en el centro tienen la semilla como de pifiones y de ella mixturada con 
el niiiiz luu-en un hollo que es de mucho sabor y sustancia." 

'Brasseur do Bourbourg, nist. Nations Civilisees, quoted by Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 3, p. 421. 

3 Satiiigmi, in book 7, Kingsborougli, p. 71. 

4 Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 193, quoting TorqiicinadH, lib. 7, cap. 8. 

'History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 79. See the additional note from Clavigero. which 
would seem to show that this etzalli was related to the espadana or rush. 



524 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Bledos, y otras legumbres, y molianlas con inucha devocion, y recato, y 
deellas amasaban, y formaban la dicha Estatua, del tamafio yestatura 
de im Horabre. P]l licor, con que se resolbian y desleian aquellas harinas 
era sangre de Nmos, que para este flu se sacriticabau." ] 

It is remarkable the word "maiz " does not occur in this paragraph. 
Huitzlipotchli being the God of War, it was natural that the ritual 
devoted to his service should conserve some, if not all, of the foods, 
grains, and seeds used by the Mexicans when on the warpath in the 
earliest days of their history; and that this food should be made into a 
dough with the blood of children sacrificed as a preliminary to success 
is also perfectly in accordance with all that we know of the mode of 
reasoning of this and other primitive peoples. Torquemada goes on to 
say that this statue was carried in solemn procession to the temple 
and idol of Huitzlipotchli and there adorned with precious jewels 
(chalchihuitl), embedded in the soft mass. Afterward it was carried to 
the temple of the god Paynalton, preceded by a priest carrying a 
snake in the manner that the priests in Spain carried the cross in the 
processions of the church. " Con una Culebra mui grande, y 
gruesa en las manos, tortuosa, y con muchas bueltas, que iba delante, 
levantada en alto, ainanera de Cruz, en nuestras Procesiones."^ This 
dough idol, he says, was afterwards broken into " migajas " (crumbs) 
and distributed among the males only, boys as well as men, and by 
them eaten after the manner of communion ; " este era su manera de 
comunion." 3 Herrera, speaking of this same idol of Vitzliputzli, as he 
calls him, says it was made by the young women of the temple, of the 
flour of bledos and of toasted maize, with honey, and that the eyes 
were of green, white, or blue beads, and the teeth of grains of corn. 
After the feast was over, the idol was broken up and distributed to the 
faithful, " a manera de couiuuion." " Las Doncellas recogidas en. el 
templo, dos Dias antes de la Fiesta, amasabau harina de Bledos, i de 
Maiz tostado, con miel, y de la masa haciau un Idolo grande, con los 
ojos de cuentas grandes, verdes, acules, 6 blancas ; i por dientes granos 
de maiz. 4 

H. H. Bancroft speaks of the festival in honor of Huitzilopochtli, 
"the festival of the wafer or cake." He says: "They made a cake of 
the meal of bledos, which is called tzoalli," which was afterward divided 
in a sort of communion. 6 Diego Duran remarks that at this feast the 
chief priest carried an idol of dough called "tzoally," which is made of 
the seeds of bledos and corn made into a mass with honey. 6 "Tin 
ydolo de masa, de una masa que Hainan tzoally, la cual se hace de 
semilla de bledos y maiz amasado con miel." This shows that 



1 Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 6, cap. 38, p. 71. 
'Ibid., p. 72. 
Ibid., p. 73. 

4 Dec. 3, lib. 2, pp. 71, 72. 

5 Native Races, vol. 3, p. 323. 

6 Diego Duran, vol. 3, p. 187. 



BOUBKE.] DOUGH IDOLS. 525 

"bledos" and "maiz" were different tilings. 1 A few lines farther on 
Duran tells us that this cake, or bread, was made by the nuns of the 
temple, "las mozas del recogimiento de este templo," and that they 
ground up a great quantity of the seed of bledos, which they call 
hnanhtly, together with toasted maize. " Molian inucha cantidad de 
seinilla de bledos que ellos llaman huauhtly juntameute con inaiz 
tostado." 2 He then shows that the "honey" (iniel) spoken of by the 
other writers was the thick juice of the maguey. " Despues de inolido, 
amasabanlo con miel negra de los magueis." 

Acosta describes a Mexican feast, held in our mouth of May, in which 
appeared an idol called Huitzlipotchli, made of "mays rosty," "se- 
rnence de blettes," aud "amassoient avec du miel." 3 

In the above citations it will be seen that huanhtly or yuauhtli and 
tzoally were one and the same. We also find some of the earliest if not 
the very earliest references to the American popped corn. 

That the Mexicans should have had such festivals or feasts in honor 
of their god of battles is no more extraordinary than that in our own 
country all military reunions make it a point to revert to the " hard 
tack " issued during the campaigns in Virginia and Tennessee. Many 
other references to the constant use as a food, or at least as a sacrificial 
food, of the bledos might be supplied if needed. Thus Diego Duran 
devotes the twelfth chapter of his third book to an obscure account of 
a festival among the Tepanecs, in which appeared animal gods made 
of " masa de semilla de bledos," which were afterwards broken 1 and 
eaten. 

Torquemada speaks of such idols employed in the worship of snakes 
and mountains. 4 In still another place this authority tells us that sim- 
ilar figures were made and eaten by bride and groom at the Aztec 
marriage ceremony. 5 

The ceremonial manner in which these seeds were ground recalls the 
fact that the Zuiii regard the stones used for grindiugkuuque as sacred 
and will not employ them for any other purpose. 

Idols made of dough much after the fashion of the Aztecs are to be 
found among the Mongols. Meignan speaks of seeing " an idol, quite 
open to the sky and to the desert, representing the deity of travelers. 
It was made of compressed bread, covered over with some bituminous 
substance, and perched on a horse of the same material, and held in its 
hand a lance in Don Quixote attitude. Its horrible features were sur- 
mounted with a shaggy tuft of natural hair. A great number of offer- 
ings of all kinds were scattered on the ground all around. Five or six 
images, formed also of bread, were bending in an attitude of prayer 
before the deity." 6 



I See notes already given from Buckingham Smith's translation of Vaca. 

1 Diego Duran. vol. 3, p. 195. 

'Jose Acosta, Hist, des Indes, ed. of Paris, 1600, liv. 5, cap. 24, p. 250. 

4 Monarchia Indiana, lib. 10, cap. 33. 

"Ibid., lib. 6, cap. 48. 

"From Paris to Pekin, London. 1885, pp.312, 313. 



526 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Dr. Edwin James, the editor of Tanner's Narrative, 1 cites the " Calica 
Puran " to show that medicinal images are employed by the people of 
the East Indies when revenge is sought upon an enemy; " water must 
be sprinkled on the meal or earthen victim which represents the sacri- 
flcer's enemy." 

In those parts of India where human sacrifice had been abolished, a 
substitutive ceremony was practiced " by forming a human figure of 
flour-paste, or clay, which they carry into the temples, and there cut 
off its head or mutilate it, in various ways, in presence of the idols." 2 

Gomara describes the festival in honor of the Mexican God of Fire, 
called " Xocothuecl," when an idol was used made of every kind of 
seed and was then enwrapped in sacred blankets to keep it from break- 
ing. u Hacian aquella noche uu idolo de toda suerte de semillas, en- 
volviaulo en mantas benditas, y liabanlo, porque no se deshiciese." 3 

These blessed blankets are also to be seen at the Zuiii feast of the 
Little God of Fire, which occurs in the month of December. It is a 
curious thing that the blessed blankets of the Zuiii are decorated with 
the butterfly, which appeared upon the royal robes of Montezuma. 

What other seeds were used in the fabrication of these idols is not 
very essential to our purpose, but it may be pointed out that one of 
them was the seed of the " ageujo," which was the " chenopodium " or 
" artemisia," known to us as the " sagebrush." 

Of the Mexicans we learn from a trustworthy author: "Tambien 
usaban alguna inanera de comnnion 6 recepcion del sacramento, y es 
que haciau unos idolitos chiquitos de semilla de bledos 6 cenizos, 6 de 
otras yerbas, y ellos mismos se los recibian, como cuerpo 6 memoria 
de sus dioses." 4 

Mendieta wrote his Historia Eclesiastica Indiana in 1596, "al 
tiempo que esto escribo (que es por Abril del ano de noventa y seis)" 6 
and again, 6 " al tiempo que yo esto escribo." 

The Mexicans, in the month of November, had a festival in honor of 
Tezcatlipuca. "Hacian unos bollos de masa de maiz y semejante de 
agenjos, aunque sou de otra suerte que los de aca, y echabanlos a cocer 
en ollas con agua sola. Entre tanto que hervian y se cocian los bollos, 
tanian los muchachos un atabal . . . . y despu6s comianselos con 
gran devociou." 1 

Gomara's statement, that while these cakes of maize arid wormwood 
seed were cooking the young men were beating on drums, would find 
its parallel in any account that might be written of the behavior of the 
Zuni, while preparing for their sacred feasts. The squaws grind the 

1 New York, 1830, p. 191. 

'Dnboig, People of India, Londou, 1817, p. 490. 

3 Gomara, Historia de Hejico, p. 445. 

Mendieta, Hist. Eclesiastica Ind.. p. 108. 

Ibid., p. 402. 

Ibid., p. 515. 

'Gomara, Historia de Mejico, p. 446. 



BOI-RKE.] TULE MATS. 527 

meal to be used ou these occasions to the accompaniment of singing by 
the medicine-men and mnch drumming by a baud of assistants selected 
from among the young men and boys. 

Mr. Francis La Fleche, a nearly full-blood Omaha Indian, read be- 
fore the Anthropological Society of Washington, B.C., in 1888, a paper 
descriptive of the funeral customs of his people, in which he related that 
when an Indian was supposed to be threatened with death the medi- 
cine-men would go in a lodge sweat-bath with him and sing, and at the 
same time " pronouncing certain incantations and sprinkling the body 
of the client with the powder of the artemisia, supposed to be the food 
of the ghosts." 1 

To say that a certain powder is the food of the ghosts of a tribe is to 
say indirectly that the same powder was once the food of the tribe's 
ancestors. 

The Peruvians seem to have made use of the same kind of sacrificial 
cakes kneaded with the blood of the human victim. We are told that 
in the month of January no strangers were allowed to enter the city of 
Cuzco, and that there was then a distribution of corn cakes made with 
the blood of the victim, which were to be eaten as a mark of alliance 
with the Inca. "Les daban unos Bollos de Mafz, con saiigre de el 
sacrificio, que comian, en senal de confederaciou con el Inga." 2 

Balboa says that the Peruvians had a festival intended to signalize 
the arrival of their young men at manhood, in which occurred a sort of 
communion consisting of bread kneaded by the young virgins of the 
sun with the blood of victims. This same kind of communion was also 
noted at another festival occurring in our month of September of each 
year. ("Unfestin compose de pain petri par les jeunes vierges du 
Soleil avecle sang des victimes." 3 ) There were other ceremonial usages 
among the Aztecs, in which the tule rush itself, " espadana," was 
employed, as at childbirth, marriage, the festivals in honor of Tlaloc, 
and in the rough games played by boys. It is possible that from being 
a prehistoric food the pollen of the tule, or the plant which furnished 
it, became associated with the idea of sustenance, fertility, reproduction, 
and therefore very properly formed part of the ritual necessary in wed- 
dings or connected with the earliest hours of a child's life, much as rice 
has been used so freely in other parts of the world. 4 

Among the Aztecs the newly born babe was laid upon fresh green tule 
rushes, with great ceremony, while its name was given to it. 4 

Gomara says that the mats used in the marriage ceremonies of the 
Aztecs were made of tules. "Esteras verdes de espadanas." 5 

"They both sat down upon a new and curiously wrought mat, which 
was spread in the middle of the chamber close to the tire." The mar- 
riage bed was made "of mats of rushes, covered with small sheets, 

1 From the account of lecture appearing in the Evening Star, Washington, D. C., May 19 1888. 

2 Herrera, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 5, p. 92. 

3 Balboa, Histoirc du Perou, in Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 15, pp. 124 and 127. 

4 See the explanatory text to the Codex Melidoza. in Kingsborough, vol. 5, p. 90, et seq. 

"Historia de M6iico, i>. 439. 



528 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

with certain feathers, and a geui of chalchihnitl in the middle of 
them." ' 

The third festival of Tlaloc was celebrated in the sixth month, which 
would about correspond to our 6th of June. 2 But there was another 
festival in honor of the Tlaloc, which seems very hard to understand. 
A full description is given by Bancroft. ' J To celebrate this it was incum- 
bent upon the priests to cut and carry to the temples bundles of the 
tiile, which were woven into a sacred mat, after which there was a cere- 
monial procession to a tule swamp in which all bathed. 

The A/tecs, like the Apache, had myths showing that they sprang 
originally from a reed swamp. There was ail Aztec god, Napatecutli, 
who was the god of the tule and of the mat-makers. 4 This rush was 
also strewn as part of several of their religious ceremonies. 

Fosbrooke 5 has this to say about certain ceremoniesin connection with 
the churches in Europe: "At certain seasons the Choir was strewed with 
hay, at others with sand. On Easter sabbath with ivy-leaves; at other 
times with rushes." He shows that hay was used at Christmas and 
the vigil of All Saints, at Pentecost, Atliel wold's Day, Assumption of 
the Blessed Virgin, and Ascension, etc. 

The Mexican populace played a game closely resembling our "blind 
man's buff" in their seventeenth month, which was called Tititl and 
corresponded to the winter solstice. In this game, called " nechichiqua- 
vilo," men and boys ran through the streets hitting every one whom 
they met with small bags or nets ("taleguillas 6 redecillas") filled with 
tule powder or fine paper ("llenas de flor de las espadanas 6 de algunos 
papeles rotos")." 

The same thing is narrated by other early Spanish writers upon 
Mexico. 

In the myths of Guatemala it is related that there were several dis- 
tinct generations of men. The first were made of wood, without heart 
or brains, with worm-eaten feet and hands. The second generation 
was an improvement upon this, and the women are represented as made 
of tule. " Las mugeres fueroii hechas de corazon de espadaiia." 7 

Picart, enumerating the tree gods of the Komans, says that they had 
deified "les Eoseaux pour les Eivieres." 8 

GENERAL USE OF THE POWDER AMONG INDIANS. 

This very general dissemination among the Indians of the American 
continent of the sacred use of the powder of the tule, of images, idols, 
or sacrificial cakes made of such prehistoric foods, certainly suggests 

1 Clavigero, History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 101. 
* "They strewed the temple in a curious way with rushes." Ibid., p. 78. 
"Native Races, vol. 3, pp. 334-343. 
4 Sahagun, in Kingsborough, vol. 7. p. 16. 
'British Monachisra, London, 1817, p. 289. 
Kingsborough, vol. 7, p. 83, from Sahaguu. 
'Xinienez, Guatemala, Translated by Scberzer, p. 13. 
Ceremonies ct Coutumes, etc., vol. 1, p. 27. 



BOUEKE.] GENERAL SACRED USE OF POWDER. 529 

that the Apache aiid the Aztecs, among whom they seem to have been 
most freely used ou ceremonial occasions, were invaders in the country 
they respectively occupied, comparatively recent in their arrival among 
the contiguous tribes like the Zuiii and Tusayan who on corresponding 
occasions offered to their gods a cultivated food like corn. The Tlas- 
caltec were known in Mexico as the " bread people," possibly because 
they had been acquainted with the cultivation of the cereals long before 
the Aztecs. Similarly, there was a differentiation of the Apache from 
the sedentary Pueblos. The Apache were known to all the villages of 
the Pueblos as a " corn-buying tribe," as will presently be shown. It 
is true that in isolated cases and in widely separated sections the 
Apache have for nearly two centuries been a corn-planting people, be- 
cause we find accounts in the Spanish chronicles of the discovery and 
destruction by their military expeditions of '' trojes" or magazines of 
Apache corn near the San Francisco (or Verde) River, in the present 
Territory of Arizona, as early as the middle of the last century. But 
the general practice of the tribe was to purchase its bread or meal from 
the Pueblos at such times as hostilities were not an obstacle to free 
trade. There was this difference to be noted between the Apache and 
the Aztecs: The latter had been long enough in the valley of Anahuac 
to learn and adopt many new foods, as we learn from Duran, who relates 
that at their festivals in honor of Tezcatlipoca, or those made in pur 
suance of some vow, the woman cooked an astonishing variety of bread, 
just as, at the festivals of the Zuni, Tusayan, and other Pueblos in our 
own time, thirty different kinds of preparations of corn may be found. 1 
I was personally informed by old Indians in the pueblos along the Bio 
Grande that they had been in the habit of trading with the Apache 
and Comauche of the Staked Plains of Texas until within very recent 
years; in fact, I remember seeing such a party of Pueblos on its return 
from Texas in 1869, as it reached Fort Craig, New Mexico, where I was 
then stationed. I bought a buffalo robe from them. The principal 
article of sale on the side of the Pueblos was cornmeal. The Zuiii also 
carried on this mixed trade and hunting, as I was informed by the old 
chief Pedro Pino and others. The Tusayan denied that they had ever 
traded with the Apache so far to the east as the buffalo country, but 
asserted that the Comanche hart once sent a large body of their people 
over to Walpi to trade with the Tusayan, among whom they remained 
for two years. There was one buffalo robe among the Tusayan at their 
snake dance in 1881, possibly obtained from the Ute to the north of 
them. 

The trade carried ou by the "buffalo" Indians with the Pueblos was 
noticed by Don Juan de Onate as early as 1599. He describes them as 
"dressed in skins, which they also carried into the settled provinces to 
sell, and brought back in return cornmeal." 2 



1 " Tautu diterencia <h> man,jare.s y (le generow <le pan qiie era rosa estrafia." Diego Durau, vol.3 
cap. 4, p. 219. 

2 Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 273. 

<) ETH .'54 



530 MEDICINE-MEN OP THE APACHE. 

Gregg 1 speaks of the "Coinanckeros" or Mexicans and Pueblos who 
ventured out on the plains to trade with the Oomanche, the principal 
article of traffic being bread. Whipple 2 refers to this trade as carried 
on with all the nomadic tribes of the Llano Estacado, one of which we 
know to have been the eastern division of the Apache. The principal 
article bartered with the wild tribes was flour, i. e., cornmeal. 

In another place he tells us of " Pueblo Indians from Santo Domingo, 
with flour and bread to barter with the Kai-6-was and Gomanches for 
buffalo robes and horses." 3 Again, Mexicans were seen with flour, 
bread, and tobacco, "bound for Comancne land to trade. We had no 
previous idea of the extent of this Indian trade." 4 Only one other 
reference to this intertribal commerce will be introduced. 

Vetancurt 5 mentions that the Franciscan friars, between 1630 and 
1680, had erected a magnificent "temple" to "Our Lady of the Angels 
of Porciuncula," and that the walls were so thick that offices were 
established in their concavities. On each side of this temple, which 
was erected in the pueblo of Pecos (situated at or near the head of the 
Pecos River, about 30 miles southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 
the eastern rim of the Llano Estacado), were three towers. At the foot 
of the hill was a plain about one league in circumference, to which the 
Apache resorted for trade. These were the Apache living on the 
plains of Texas. They brought with them buffalo robes, deer skins 
and other things to exchange for corn. They came with their dog- 
trains loaded, and there were more than five hundred traders arriving 
each year. 

Observe that here we have the first and only reference to the use of 
dog trains by the Apache who in every other case make their women 
carry all plunder in baskets on their backs. In this same extract from 
Vetancurt there is a valuable remark about Quivira: "Este es el paso 
para los reinos de la Quivira." 

ANALOGUES OF HODDENTIN. 

In the citation from the Spanish poet Villagra, already given, the sug- 
gestion occurs that some relationship existed between the powder scat- 
tered so freely during the Spanish "carnestolendas" and the "kunque" 
thrown by the people of Tusayau upon the Spaniards and their horses 
when the Spaniards first entered that country. This analogy is a very 
striking one, even though the Spaniards have long since lost all idea 
of the meaning of the practice which they still follow. It is to be 
noted, however, that one of the occasions when this flour is most freely 

'Commerce of the Prairies, vol. 2, p. 54. 

2 Pacific E. E. Report, 1856, vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 34. 

Fbid., p. 34. 

4 Ibid. , p. 38. 

6 Los Apaches traian pielea dp. cibolas, gamuzan y otras cosas, a hacer cainbio por maiz." " Venian 
con mis recuaa de perron cargados mas de quinientos mercaderes cada afio." Teatro Mexieano, 
vol. 3, p. 323. 



BOUHKK.J ANALOGUES OF HODDENTIN. 531 

used is the Eve of All Saints (Hallowe'en), when the ghosts or ances- 
tors of the community were to be the recipients of every attention. 1 

In the East, the use of the reddish or purple powder called the " gu- 
lal" is widely prevalent, but it is used at the feast of Huli, which occurs 
at the time of the vernal equinox. 

There seems to have been used in Japan in very ancient days a pow- 
der identical with the lioddentin, and, like it, credited with the power 
to cure and rejuvenate. 

In the mythical period, from the most ancient times to about B. G. 
L'OO, being the period of the so-called pure Japanese " medicine," it is 
related that Ona-muchi-no-mikoko gave these directions to a hare which 
had been flayed by a crocodile: "Go quickly now to the river mouth, 
wash thy body with fresh water, then take the pollen of the sedges and 
spread it about, and roll about upon it; whereupon thy body will cer- 
tainly be restored to its original state.'" 

There is no indication that in the above case the " pollen of the sedges" 
had ever occupied a place in the list of foods. It would appear that its 
magical effects were strictly dependent upon the fact that it was recog- 
nized as the reproductive agent in the life of the plant. 

No allusion has yet been made to the hoddentin of the Navajo, who 
are the brothers of the Apache. Surgeon Matthews 3 has referred to 
J t under the name of tqa-di-tin', or ta-di-tin', "the pollen, especially 
the pollen of corn." 

This appears to me to be a very interesting case of a compromise be- 
tween the religious ideas of two entirely different systems or sects. The 
Navajo, as now known to us, are the offspring of the original Apache 
or Tinneh invaders and the refugees from the Bio Grande and Zufii 
Pueblos, who fled to the fierce and cruel Apache to seek safety from the 
fiercer and more cruel Spanish. 

The Apache, we have shown, offer up in sacrifice their traditional 
food, the pollen of the tule. The Zuiii, as we have also shown, offer up 
their traditional food, the meal of corn, to which there have since been 
addeil sea shells and other components with a symbolical significance. 
The Navajo, the progeny of both, naturally seek to effect a com- 
bination or compromise of the two systems and make use of the 
pollen of the corn. Kohl narrates an Ojibwa legend to the effect that 
their god Menaboju, returning from the warpath, painted his face with 
"pleasant yellow stripes ... of the yellow foam that covers the 
water in spring," and he adds that this is "probably the yellow pollen 
that falls fromt he pine." He quotes 4 another legend of the magic, red 



' In burlesque survivals the use of flour prevails not only all over Latin Europe, but all such portions 
of America as are now or have been under Spanish or Portuguese domination. The breaking of egg- 
shells over the heads of gentlemen upon entering a Mexican ballroom is one manifestation of it For- 
merly the shell was filled with flour. 

1 Dr. W. Norton Whitney. Notes from the History of Medical Progress in Japan, Yokohama, 1885, 
p. 248. 

3 The prayer of a Navajo Shaman, in American Anthropologist, vol. 1, No. 2, 1888, p. 169. 

* Kitchi-gami, pp. 416, 423, 424. 



532 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

powder for curing' diseases once given by the snake spirit of the waters 
to an Ojibwa. 

Godfrey Higgins ' has this to say of the use of polleu by the ancients 
which he recognizes as connected with the principle of fertility : 



a, the sweet smell, means also a flower, that is Pushpa or Pushto. This was 
the language of the followers of the Phasah or the Lamb it was the language of 
the Flower, of the Natzir, of the Flos-floris of Flora, of the Arouma, and of the 
flour of Ceres, or the Eucharistia. It was the language of the pollen, the pollen of 
plants, the principle of generation, of the Pole or Phallus. 

Again he says: 

Buddha was a flower, because as flour or polleu he was the principle of fructi- 
fication or generation. He was flour because flour was the fine or valuable part of 
the plant of Ceres, or wheat, the pollen which, I am told, in this plant, and in this 
plant alone, renews itself when destroyed. When the flour, pollen, is killed, it grows 
again several times. This ia a very beautiful type or symbol of the resurrection. 
On this account the flour of wheat was the sacrifice offered to the X/ir/f or Ceres in 
the EvycapiaTia. In this pollen we have the name of pall or pallium and of Pallas, in 
the first language meaning wisdom .... When the devotee ate the bread he ate 
the pollen, and thus ate the body of the God of generation; hence might come tran- 
substautiation. 

Lupton, 2 iii 1660, describes a "powder of the flowers [pollen?] of elder, 
gathered on a midsummer day," which was taken to restore lost youth. 
Brand, it may be as well to say, traces back the custom of throwing 
flour into the faces of women and others on the streets at Shrovetide, 
in Minorca and elsewhere, to the time of the Eomans. 3 

In writing the description of the Snake Dance of the Moquis of Ar- 
izona, I ventured to advance the surmise that the corn flour with 
which the sacred snakes were covered, and with which the air was 
whitened, would be found upon investigation to be closely related to 
the crithoinancy or divination by grains of the cereals, as practiced 
among the ancient Greeks. Crithoinancy, strictly speaking, meant a 
divination by grains of corn. The expression which I should have em- 
ployed was alphitomancy, a divination " by meal, flower, or branne." 4 
But both methods of divination have been noticed among tiie aborig- 
ines of America. 

In Peru the medicine-men were divided into classes, as were those of 
ancient Egypt. These medicine-men "made the various means of divi- 
nation specialities." Some of them predicted by "the shapes of grains 
of maize taken at random." 5 In Guatemala grains of corn or of chile 
were used indiscriminately, and in Guazacualco the medicine- women 
used grains of frijoles or black beans. In Guatemala they had what 
they called "ahquij." "Bste modo de adivinar se llama ahquij, malol- 



1 Anacalypsis, London, 1836, vol. 2, pp. 242-244. 

'Brand, Pop. Antiq., vol. 3, p. 285. 

3 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 69. 

Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 329 et seq. 

6 Brinton, Myths of the New World, New York, 1868, pp. 278, 279. 



BOURKK.I CEREMONIAL USE OF DOWN OF BIRDS. 533 

tzite, malol-ixim, esto es: el que adivina por el sol, 6 por granos de 
maiz 6 chile." ' 

In Guazacualco the medicine- women "hechaban suertes con granos de 
Frisoles, a manera de Dados, i hacian sus invocacioues, porque eran 
Hechiceros : i si el Dado decia bien, prosegnian en la cura, diciendo 
que sanaria: i si mal, no bolvian al enfermo." 2 

Herrera in the preceding paragraph recognizes the close similarity 
between this sacred ceremony of casting lots or divining, and the more 
orthodox method of gambling, pure and simple, which has in every case 
been derived from a sacred origin. 

"Les Hachus [one class of Peruvian priests] consultaient 1'avenir au 
moyen de grains de ma'is ou des excrements des animaux." 3 

The Mexicans " para saber si los enfermos habian de niorir, 6 sanar 
de la enfermedad que tenian, echaban un puiiado de maiz lo mas grneso 
que podian haber, y lanzabanlo siete 6 ocho veces, como lanzan los dados 
los que losjuegan, y si algun grano quedaba euhiesto, decian que era 
senal de muerte." 4 , 

Father Brebosuf relates that at the Huron feast of the dead, which 
occurred every 8 or 10 years and which he saw at Ossossane, " a few 
grains of Indian corn were thrown by the women upon the sacred 
relics." 5 

THE DOWN OP BIRDS IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES. 

No exhaustive and accurate examination of the subject of hodden tin 
could be made without bringing the investigator face to face with the 
curious analogue of " down " throwing and sprinkling which seemingly 
obtains with tribes which at some period of their history have been 
compelled to rely upon birds as a main component of their diet. Ex- 
amples of this are to be met with on both sides of the Pacific as well 
as in remote Australia, and were the matter more fully examined there 
is no doubt that some other identifications might be made in very 
unexpected quarters. The down used by the Tchuktchi on occasions 
of ceremony had a suggestion of religion about it. 6 " On leaving the 
shore, they sung and danced. One who stood at the head of the boat 
was employed in plucking out the feathers of a bird's skin and blowing 
them in the air." 

In LangsdorflPs Travels 7 we learn that some of the dancers of the 
Koluschan of Sitka have their heads powdered with the small down 
feathers of the white-headed eagle and ornamented with ermine; also, 
that the hair and bodies of the Indians at the mission of Saint Joseph, 
New California, were powdered with down feathers." 

1 Ximenez, Guatemala, p. 177. 

a Herrera, dec. 4. lib. !), cap. 8, p. 188. 

3 Balboa, Hist. dn Peroti, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 15, p. 29. 

4 Mcmlii'ta. Hist. Iv-lcsiastica Ind., p. 110. 

5 Henry Voule Hind, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exped., vol. 2, pp. 165, 166. 

6 Lisiansky, Voyago Round tlie World, London, 1814, pp. 153,221, 223. 

7 London, 1814, pt. 2. pi. in. p. 113. 
" Ibid., pi. IV. pp. 104. IBS. 



534 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

The Indians from the North Pacific coast seen visiting the mission 
of San Francisco, by Kotzebue in 1816, " had their long disordered 
hair covered with down." ' 

Bancroft says of the Nootka of the northwest coast of British 
America: "the hair is powdered plentifully with white feathers, which 
are regarded as the crowning ornament for manly dignity in all these 
regions." 2 

The bird's down used by the Haida of British Nortli America in 
their dances seems very closely related to hoddentin. They not only 
put it upon their own persons, but " delight to communicate it to their 
partners in bowing," and also " blow it into the air at regular intervals 
through a painted tube." They also scattered down as a sign of wel- 
come to the first European navigators. 3 

In all these dances, ceremonial visits, and receptions of strangers the 
religious element can be discerned more or less plainly. The Indians 
west of the Mississippi with whom Father Hennepin was a prisoner in 
1680, and who appear to have been a branch of the Sionx (Issati or 
Santee and Nadouessan), had a grand dance to signalize the killing 
of a bear. On this occasion, which was participated in by the " prin- 
cipaux chefs et guerriers," we learn that there was this to be noted in 
their dress : " ayant meme leurs cheveux frottez d'huile d'ours & parse- 
mez de plumes, rouges & blanches & les tetes chargers de duvet 
d'oiseanx." 4 

" Swan's and bustard's down " was used by the Accancess [i. e., the 
Arkansas of the Siouan stock] in their religious ceremonies. 5 

Of the war dress of the members of the Five Nations M-e learn from 
an early writer: "Their heads [previously denuded of all hair except 
that of the crown] are painted red down to the eye- brows and sprinkled 
over with white down." 6 

The Indians of Virginia at their war dances painted themselves to 
make them more terrible : " Pour se rendre plus terriblee, ils sement 
des plumes, du duvet, ou du poil de quelque bete sur la peinture toute 
fraiche." 7 Down was also used by the medicine-men of the Carib. 8 
The down of birds was used in much the same way by the tribes of 
Cumana, a district of South America not far from the mouth of the 
Orinoco, in the present territory of Venezuela; 9 by the Tupinambis, of 
Brazil, who covered the bodies of their victims with it; "' by the Ohirib- 

1 Voyage, vol. 1, p. 282. 
'Native Races, vol. 1, p. 179. 
"Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 170, 171. 

4 Pere Louis Hennepin, Voyage, et<!., Amsterdam, 1714, pp. 339-240. Ibid., translated by B. F. 
French, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, pt. 1, 1846. 

* Jontel's Journal, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, tr. by B. F. French, pp. 181, 1846. 
*Maj. Rogers, Account of North America, in Knox's Voyages, vol. 2, London, 1767, p. 167. 
'Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumos Religieuses, etc., Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 77. 
"Ibid., p. 89. 

"John DeLaet, lib. 18, cap. 4 ; Gomara, Hist, de las Iiidias, p. 203 ; 1'udrti (iiiinilla. Orinoco, pp. 68, 96. 
iIIaus Staden, in Ternaux-Coinpans, Voyages, vol. 3, pp. 269,299. 



BOURKE.] HAIR POWDER. 535 

chi, of South America, 1 and by the tribes of the Isthmus of Darien. 2 
This down has also been used by some of the Australians in their 
sacred dances. 3 " The hair, or rather the wool upon their heads, was 
very abundantly powdered with white powder. . . . They powder 
not only their heads, but their beards too." 4 

In China " there is a widespread superstition that the feathers of birds, 
after undergoing certain incantations, are thrown up into the air, and 
being carried away by the wind work blight and destruction wherever 
they alight." 

The down of birds seems not to have been unknown in Europe. To 
this day it is poured upon the heads of the bride and groom in wed- 
dings among the Russian peasantry. 5 

This leads up to the inquiry whether or not the application of tar 
and feathers to the person may not at an early period have been an 
act of religious significance, perverted into a ridiculous and infamous 
punishment by a conquering and unrelenting hostile sect. The sub- 
ject certainly seems to have awakened the curiosity of the learned 
Buckle, whose remarks may as well be given. 

Richard, during his stay in Normandy (1189), made some singular 
laws for regulating the conduct of the pilgrims in their passage by 
sea. "A robber, convicted of theft, shall be shaved in the manner 
of :i champion; and boiling pitch poured upon his head, and the 
feathers of a pillow shaken over his head to distinguish him; and be 
landed at the first port where the ships shall stop." 6 

The circumstances mentioned in the text respecting tarring and 
feathering is a fine subject for comment by the searchers into popular 
antiquities.' 1 

HAIR POWDER. 

Speaking of the " duvet" or down, with which many American savage 
tribes deck themselves, Picart observes very justly: "Get ornementest 
bizare, mais dans le fond 1'est il beaucoup plus que cette poudre d'or 
dont les Anciens, se poudroient la tete, ou que cette poudre compose'e 
d'amidon avec laquelle nos petits maitres modernes affectent de blan- 
chir leurs cheveux ou leurs perruques!" 8 

Picart does not say, and perhaps it would not be wise for us to sur- 
mise, that these modes of powdering had a religious origin. 

The custom of powdering the hair seems to be a savage " survival;" 
at least, it is still to be found among the Friendly Islanders, among 

1 Peter Martyr, in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. 5, p. 460. 
'Bancroft, Nat. Races of the Pacific Slope, vol. 1, p. 750. 

3 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 73; vol. 2, p. 302. See also Carteret's description of the 
natives of the Queen Charlotte Islands, visited by him in 1767. 

4 Hawkesworth, Voyages, vol. 1, p. 379. 

5 Perry S. Heath, A Hoosier in Russia, New York, 1888, p. 114. 

6 Fosbrooke, British Monachism, p. 442. 

7 See works cited in Buckle's Common place Book, vol. 2, of " Works," London, 1872, p. 47. 
Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes Eeligieusea, vol. 6, p. 20. 



536 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

whom it was observed by Forster. ' These islanders used a white lime 
powder, also one of blue and another of orange made of turmeric. 

The Sandwich Islanders plastered their hair over " with a kind of 
lime made from burnt shells," 2 and Dillon speaks of the Friendly 
Islanders using lime, as Forster has already informed us. 3 The Hot- 
tentots made a lavish use of the medicinal powder of thebuchu, which 
they plastered on their heads, threw to their sacred animals, and used 
liberally at their funerals. 4 Kolben dispels all doubt by saying: 
"These powderings are religious formalities." He also alludes to the 
use, in much the same manner, of ashes by the same people. s 

The use of ashes also occurs among the Zuni, the Apache (at times), 
and the Abipone of Paraguay. Ashes are also "thrown in the way of 
a whirlwind to appease it." 6 

In the Witches' Sabbath, in Germany, "it was said that the witches 
burned a he goat, and divided its ashes among themselves." 7 

In all the above cases, as well as in that of the use of ashes in the 
Christian churches, it is possible that the origin of the custom might 
be traced back either to a desire to share in the burnt offering or else 
in that of preserving some of the incinerated dust of the dead friend or 
relative for whom the tribe or clan was in mourning. Ashes in the 
Christian church were not confined to Lent alone; they "were worn 
four times a year, as in the beginning of Lent." 8 

Tuphramancy or divination by ashes was one of the methods of fore- 
cast in use among the priests of pagan liome. 9 

In Northumberland the custom prevailed of making bonfires on the 
hills on St. Peter's day. -'They made encroachments, on these oc- 
casions, upon the bonfires of the neighbouring towns, of which they took 
away some of the ashes by force : This they called ' carrying off the 
flower (probably the flour) of the wake.' 10 Moresin thinks this a ves- 
tige of the ancient Cerealia." 

The mourning at Iddah, in Guinea, consists in smearing the forehead 
" with wood ashes and clay water, which is allowed to dry on. They 
likewise powder their hair with wood ashes." " 



1 Voyage Round the World, London, 1777, pp. 482,463. 

"Archibald Campbell. Voyage Round the World, N. T., 1819, p. 136. 

3 Voyage of La Perouse, London, 1829, vol. 2, p. 275. 

4 Petr Kolbeu's Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, in Knox's Voyage and Travels, London. 1767, 
yol. 2, pp. 391, 395, 406, 407. 

'Ibid., p. 406. 

Spencer, Dese. Sociology, art. " Abipoues." 

'Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, London, 1872, vol. 1, p. 423. 

Fosbrooke, British Monachism. p. 83. 

'Gaule, Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 185, quoted in Brand. Popular Antiquities, 
vol. 3, pp. 329 et seq. 

"Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 337, 338. 

"Laird and Oldfleld's Kxpedition into the Interior of Africa, quoted in Buckle's Commonplace 
Book, p. 466. 



BOUEKE.] CEREMONIAL DUST. 537 

DUST FROM CHURCHES ITS USB. 

The last ceremonial powder to be described is dust from the ground, 
as amoug some of the Australians who smear their heads with pipe- 
clay as a sigu of mourning. 1 

The French writers mention among the ceremonies of the Natchez 
one in which the Great Sun "gathered dust, which he threw back over 
his head, and turned successively to the four quarters of the world in 
repeating the same act of throwing dust." 2 

Mention is made of " an old woman who acted as beadle" of a church, 
who " once brought to the bedside of a dying person some of the sweep- 
ings from the floor of the altar, to ease and short jn a very lingering 
death." 3 

Altar dust was a very ancient remedy for disease. Frommann says 
that, of the four tablets found in a temple of Esculapius, one bore this 
inscription: "Lucio affecto lateris dolore; veniret et ex ara tollerit 
cinerem et una cum vino coinisceret et poueret supra latus ; et con- 
valuit," etc. 4 

It seems then that the mediseval use of altar dust traces back to the 
Roman use of altar ashes. 

So hard is it to eradicate from the minds of savages ideas which have 
become ingrafted upon their nature that we need not be surprised to 
read in the Jesuit relations of affairs in Canada (1696-1702) that, at 
the Mission of Saint Francis, where the Indians venerated the memory 
of a saintly woman of their own race, Catheraine Tagikoo-ita, " pour 
guerir les malades que les reinedes ordinaires ne smilagent point, on 
avale dans 1'eau ou dans uu bouillon un peu de la poussiere de son 
tombeau." 

A few persons are to be found who endeavor to collect the dust from 
the feet of one hundred thousand Brahmins. One way of collecting this 
dust is by spreading a cloth before the door of a house where a great 
multitude of Brahmins are assembled at a feast, and, as each Brahmin 
comes out, he shakes the dust from his feet as he treads upon this cloth. 
Many miraculous cures are declared to have been performed upon per- 
sons using this dust. 5 

A widow among the Armenian devil-worshipers is required "to strew 
dust on her head and to smear her face with clay." 6 

CLAY-EATINa. 

The eating of clay would appear to have once prevailed all over the 
world. In places the custom has degenerated into ceremonial or is to 

'Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 2, p. 273. 
2 Gayarre, Louisiana, 1851, p. 308. 

3 Notes and Queries, 4th ser., vol. 8. p. 505. 

4 Tractatus de Fasciuatione, Nuremberg, 1675, 197. 

Soutliey, quoting Ward, in Buckle's Common place Book. London, 1849, 2d ser.. ]>. 521. 
6 \orth American, October 27, 1888. 



538 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

be found only in myths. The Aztec devotee picked up a pinch of clay 
in the temple of Tezcatlipoca and ate it with the greatest reverence. 1 

Sahagun is quoted by Squier * as saying that the Mexicans swore by 
the sun and "by our sovereign mother, the Earth," and ate a piece of 
earth. 

But the use of clay by the Mexicans was not merely a matter of cer- 
emony; clay seems to have been an edible in quite common use. 

Edibleearth was sold openly in themarkets of Mexico; " yaun tierra," 
says Gomara in the list of foods given by him. 3 

The eating of clay was forbidden to Mexican women during preg- 
nancy. 

Diego Duran describes the ceremonial eating of clay in the temples 
of Mexico; "Llego el dedo al suelo, y cogiendo tierra en el lo metio en 
la boca; a la cual ceremonia llamaban comer tierra santa." 4 And again 
he says that in their sacrifices the Mexican nobles ate earth from the 
feet of the idols. " Comian tierradela que estaba a los pies del Ydolo." 5 
But the Mexicans did not limit themselves to a ceremonial clay-eating 
alone. Thomas Gage relates that " they ate a kind of earth, for at one 
season in the yeer they had nets of mayle, with the which they raked up 
a certaine dust that is bred upon the water of the Lake of Mexico, and 
that is kneaded together like unto oas of the sea." 6 

Diego Duran 7 mentions the ceremonial clay-eating at the feast of 
Tezcatlipoca agreeing with the note already taken from Kingsborough. 

There is reference to clay-eating in one of the myths given in the 
Popol-Vuh. The Quiche deities Hunahpu and Xbalanque", desiring to 
overcome the god Cabrakau, fed him upon roasted birds, but they took 
care to rub one of the birds with " tizate" and to put white powder 
around it. The circle of white powder was, no doubt, a circle of hod- 
dentin or something analogous thereto, intended to prevent any bale- 
ful influence being exercised by Cabrakan. " Mais ils frotterent 1'un 
des oiseaux avec du tlzate et lui mirent de la poussiere blanche it 1'en- 
tour." " 

In a footnote the word " tizate " is explained to be a very friable 
whitish earth, used in polishing metals, making cement, etc. : " Terre 
blanchatre fort friable, et dont ils se servent pour polir les mtStaux, 
faire du ciment, etc." 

Oabeza de Vaca says that the Indians of Florida ate clay "de la 
terre." 9 He says also 10 that the natives offered him many ruesquite 
beans, which they ate mixed with earth " mele avec de la terre." " 

'Kingsborough, vol. 5, p. 198. 
1 Serpent Symbols, p. 55. 
3 Hist, de Me.jico p. 348. 
*Lib. 2, cap. 47, p. 490. 

8 Lib. 1, cap. 18, p. 208. 

New Survey of the West Indies, London. 1648, p. 51. 

'Op. cit., vol. 3, cap. 4. 

Popol-Vuh (Brasseur de Bourbourg), p. 65. 

9 Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 7, p. 143. 
"Ibid., p. 202. 

"Purchas, vol.4, lib. 8. cap. 1, p. 1519; also, Davis. Conquest of New Mexico, p. 84. 



BOI-KKK.] EARTH-EATING. 539 

The Jaguaces of Florida ate earth (tierra). 1 

At the trial of Vasco Pocallo de Figueroa, in Santiago de Cuba, in 
1522, " for cruelty to the natives," he sought to make it appear that the 
Indians ate clay as a means of suicide: "el abuso de los Indies en 
comer tierra . . . seguian matandose de intento comiendo tierra." 2 

The Muiscas had in their language the word "jipetera," a "disease 
from eating dirt." 3 Whether the word " dirt" as here employed means 
filth, or eaj'th and clay, is not plain ; it probably means clay and earth. 

Yenegas asserts that the Indians of California ate earth. The tra- 
ditions of the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, California, and vicinity 
show that "they had fed upon a kind of clay," which they "often used 
upon their heads by way of ornament." 4 

The Tatu Indians of California mix "red earth into their acorn bread 
. . . to make the bread sweet and make it go further." 5 

Long 6 relates that when the young warrior of the Oto or Omaha 
tribes goes out on his first fast he "rubs his person over with a whitish 
clay," but he does not state that he ate it. 

Sir John Franklin 7 relates that the banks of the Mackenzie River in 
British North America contain layers of a kind of unctuous mud, prob- 
ably similar to that found near the Orinoco, which the Tinueh Indians 
" use occasionally as food during seasons of famine, and even at other 
times chew as an amusement. ... It has a milky taste and the 
flavour is not disagreeable." 

Father de Smet 8 says of the Athapascan : " Many wandering families 
of the Carrier tribe . . . have their teeth worn to the gums by the 
earth and sand they swallow with their nourishment." This does not 
seem to have been intentionally eaten. 

"Some of the Siberian tribes, when they travel, carry a small bag of 
their native earth, the taste of which they suppose will preserve them 
from all the evils of a foreign sky." 9 

We are informed that the Tuuguses of Siberia eat a clay called " rock 
marrow," which they mix with marrow. "Near the Ural Mountains, 
powdered gypsum, commonly called ' rock meal,' is sometimes mixed 
with bread, but its effects are pernicious." 10 

"The Jukabiri of northeastern Siberia have an earth of sweetish and 
rather astringent taste," to which they " ascribe a variety of sanatory 
properties." u 



1 Ciomara, Hist, de las Indias, p. 182. 

1 Buckingham Smith, Coleccion <le Varios Documentos para la Historia de 1'lorida, Londun, 1857, 
vol. 1, p. 46. 

Bullatnt, Researches in South America, London. 1860, p. 63. 

4 Boscana, Clmiigcliinieh. pp. 245,253. 

'Powers, Coiitrib. to X. A. Ethnol., vol. 3, )i. 140. 

* Long's Expedition, vol. 1, p. 240. 

'Second Expedition to the Polar Sea, p. 19. 

Oregon Missions, p. 192. 

'Gmelin, quoted by Southey, in Common place Book, 1st ser., London, 1849, p. 239. 
'"Maltc-Brun. Univ. Geog., Philadelphia, 1827, vol. 1, lib. 37, p. 483. 
" Von Wrangel, Polar Expedition, New York, 1842, p. 188. 



540 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

There is nothing in the records relating to Victoria respecting the 
use of any earth for the purpose of appeasing hunger, but Grey men- 
tions that one kind of earth, pounded and mixed with the root of the 
Mene (a species of Haemadorum), is eaten by the natives of West Aus- 
tralia. ' 

The Apache and Navajo branches of the Athapascan family are not 
unacquainted with the use of clay as a comestible, although among the 
former it is now scarcely ever used and among the latter used only as 
a condiment to relieve the bitterness of the taste of the wild potato; in 
the same manner it is known to both the Zufii and Tusayan. 

Wallace says that eating dirt was " a very common and destructive 
habit among Indians and half-breeds in the houses of the whites. 2 

"Los apassionados a comer tierra son los Indios Otomacos." 3 

" The earth which is eaten by the Ottomacs [of the Rio Orinoco] is 
fat and unctuous." 4 

Waitz 5 cites Heusinger as saying that the Ottomacs of the Rio Ori- 
.noco eat large quantities of a fatty clay. 

Clay was eaten by the Brazilians generally. 6 

The Eomans had a dish called " alica" or " frumenta," made of the 
grain zea mixed with chalk from the hills at Puteoli, near Naples. 7 

According to the myths of the Cingalese, their Brahmins once " fed 
on it [earth] for the space of 60,000 years." 8 

PKBHISTORIO FOODS USED IN COVENANTS. 

It has been shown that the Apache, on several occasions, as when 
going out to meet strangers, entering into solemn agreements, etc., 
made iise of the hoddeutin. A similar use of food, generally prehistoric, 
can be noted in other regions of the world. 

It was a kind of superstitious trial used among the Saxons to purge 
themselves of any accusation by taking a piece of barley bread and eat- 
ing it with solemn oaths and execrations that it might prove poisonous 
or their last morsel if what they asserted or denied was not true. 9 
Those pieces of bread were first execrated by the priest, from which he 
infers that at a still earlier day sacramental bread may have been xised 
for the same purpose. 

At Rome, in the time of Cicero and Horace, a master who suspected 
that his slaves had robbed him conducted them before a priest. They 
were each obliged to eat a cake over which the priest had " pronounced 
some magical words (carmine infectum)." 1 " 

'Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. xxxiv. 
2 Travels on the Amazon, p, 311. 

3 GumiIla, Orinoco, Madrid, 1741, p. 102; the Giiama*, also, ibid., pp. 102 and 108. 
Malte-Bnui, Univ. Geog., Phila., 1827, vol.3, lib. 87, p. 323. 
"Anthropology, vol. 1, p. 116. 
6 Spencer. Desc. Sociology. 
' Pliny, Nat. History, lib. 18, cap. 29. 
Asiatick Researches, Calcutta, 1801, vol. 7. p. 440. 

9 Blount, Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors. London. 1874, p. 2233. 
'"Salverte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. 2, p. 140. 



BOUBKE.] SACRED BREADS AND CAKES. 541 

The people living on the. coast of Coramaudel have an ordeal con- 
sisting in the chewing of unboiled rice. No harm will attach to him 
who tells the truth, but the perjurer is threatened with condign pun- 
ishment in this world and in that to come. 1 Bread is bitten when the 
Ostaaks of Siberia take a solemn oath, such as one of fealty to the Czar. 2 

SACRED BREADS AND CAKES. 

Since the employment of hoddentiu, or tnle pollen, as a sacred com- 
memorative food would seem to have been fairly demonstrated, before 
closing this section I wish to add a few paragraphs upon the very gen- 
eral existence of ritualistic farinaceous foods in all parts of the world. 
They can be detected most frequently in the ceremonial reversion to a 
grain or seed which has passed or is passing out of everyday use in 
some particular form given to the cake or bread or some circumstance 
of time, place, and mode of manufacture and consumption which stamps 
it as a " survival.'' So deeply impressed was Grimm 3 with the wide hori 
zon spreading around the consideration of this topic that he observed : 
"Our knowledge of heathen antiquities will gain both by the study of 
these drinking usages which have lasted into later t.imes and also of 
the shapes given to baked meats, which either retained the actual forms 
of ancient idols or were accompanied by sacrificial observances. A 
history of German cakes and bread rolls might contain some unexpected 
disclosures. . . . Even the shape of cakes is a reminiscence of the 
sacrifices of heathenism." 

The first bread or cake to be mentioned in this part of the subject is 
the pancake, still so frequently used on the evening of Shrove Tuesday. 
In antiquity it can be traced back before the Reformation, before the 
Crusades were dreamed of, before the Barbarians had subverted Eome, 
before Rome itself had fairly taken shape. 

There seems to have been a very decided religious significance in the 
preparation of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. In Leicestershire, "On 
Shrove Tuesday a bell rings at noon, which is meant as a signal for the 
people to begin frying their pancakes." 4 

" The Norman Cri*pellcc (Du Gauge) are evidently taken from the 
FornacaUa, on the 18th of February, in memory of the method of mak- 
ing bread, before the Goddess For MIX invented ovens." 5 

Under " CrispellsB," Du Cange says : " Rustici apud Normannos vocaut 
Grespes, ova pauca mixta cum farina, et in sartagine frixa," and says 
that they are "ex herba, farina et oleo." 6 These same Crispellae are to 
be seen on the Rio Grande during Ghristmas week. 

In the Greek Church and throughout Russia there is to the present 
time a " pancake feast" at Shrovetide. 7 

1 Voyage of Capt. Amasa Delano, Boston, 1847, p. 230. Compare with the ordeal of Scotch couspir 
ators, who ate a fragment of barley bread together. 

"ftatitliier do la IVynmie, Voyages cle Pallas. Paris, 179:1. vol.4, p. 75. 

"Teutonic Mytlmlojiy. vol. 1, p. 63. 

' Maraiilay quiitcd in lintnd. Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 85. 

5 Koshrooke, British Mnniirhisni. p. 83. 

6 Du Cange, ftlossarimn. articles " Crispelhe " and " Crespellse." 

'Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 88. 



542 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

At one time a custom prevailed of going about from one friend's 
house to another, masked, and committing every conceivable prank. 
"Then the people feasted on blinnies a pancake similar to the English 
crumpet." l 

In the pancake we have most probably the earliest form of farina- 
ceous food known to the nations which derived their civilization from 
the basin of the Mediterranean. Among these nations wheat has been 
in use from a time far beyond the remotest historical period, and to ac- 
count for its introduction myth has been invoked; but this wheat was 
cooked without leaven, or was fried in a pan, after the style of the tor- 
tilla still used in Spanish-speaking countries, or of the pancake common 
among ourselves. Pliny 2 says that there were no bakers known in 
Rome until nearly six hundred years after the foundation of the city, 
in the days of the war with Persia; but he perhaps meant the public 
bakers authorized by law. The use of wheat and the art of baking 
bread, as we understand it to-day, were practically unknown to the na- 
tions of northern Europe until within the recent historical period. 3 



'Heath, A Hoosier in Kussia, p. 109. 

a Nat. Hist., lib. 18, cap. 28. 

3 Wheat, which is now the bread corn of twelve European nations and is fast supplanting maize in 
America and several inferior grains in India, was no doubt widely grown in the prehistoric world' 
The Chinese cultivated it 2700 B. 0. as a gift direct from Heaven; the Egyptians attributed its origin 
to Isis and the Greeks to Ceres. A classic account of the distribution of wheat over the primeval 
world shows that Ceres, having taught her favorite Triptolemua agriculture and the art of bread- 
making, gave him her chariot, a celestial vehicle which he used in useful travels for the purpose of 
distributing corn to all nations. 

Ancient monuments show that the cultivation of wheat had been established in Egypt before the 
invasion of the shepherds, and there is evidence that more productive varieties of wheat have taken 
the place of one, at least, of the ancient sorts. Innumerable varieties exist of common wheat. Colonel 
Le Couteur, of Jersey, cultivated 150 varieties : Mr. Darwin mentions a French gentleman who had col- 
lected 322 varieties, and the great firm of French weed merchants, Vilmorin-Andrieux et C ie , cultivate 
about twice as many in their trial ground near Paris. In their recent work on Les meilleurs b!6s 
M. Henry L. de Vilmorin has described sixty-eight varieties of best wheat, which he has classed into 
seven groups, though these groups can hardly be called distinct species, since M, Henry L. de Vilmorin 
has crossbred throe of them, Triticum vulgare, Triticum turgidum and Triticum durum, and has found 
the offspring fertile. 

Three small-grained varieties of common wheat were cultivated by the first lake dwellers of Switzer- 
land (time of Trojan war), as well as by the less ancient lake .dwellers of western Switzerland and 
of Italy, by the people of Hungary in the stone age, and by the Egyptians, on evidence of a brick of a 
pyramid in which a grain was embedded and to which the date of 3359 H. C. has been assigned. 

The existence ofnames lor wheat in the most ancient languages confirms thisevidenceof the antiqu- 
ity of its culture in all the more temperate parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but it seems improbable 
that wheat has ever been found growing persistently in a wild state, although the fact has often been 
asserted by poets, travelers, and historians. In the Odyssey, for example, we are told that wheat grew 
in Sicily without the aid of man, but a blind poet could not have seen this himself, and a botanical 
fact can hardly be accepted from a writer whose own existence has been contested. Diodoriis repeats 
the tradition that Osiris found wheat and barley growing promiscuously in Palestine, but neither this 
nor other discoveries of persistent wild wheat seem to us to be credible, seeing that wheat does not 
appear to be endowed with a power of persistency except under culture. Edinburgh Keview. 
* The origin of baking precedes the period of history and is involved in the obscurity of the early 
ages of the human race. Excavations made in Switzerland gave evidence that the art of making bread 
was practiced by our prehistoric ancestors as early as the stone period. From the shape of loaves it is 
thought that no ovens were used at that time, but the dough was rolled into small round cakes and 
laid on hot stones, being covered with glowing ashes. Bread is mentioned in the book of Genesis, 
where Abraham, wishing to entertain three angels, offered to " fetch a morsel of bread." liaking in 
again referred to where Sarah has instructions to ''make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, 
knead it and make cakes upon the hearth." Lot entertained two angels by giving them unleavened 



BOUBKE.] UNLEAVENED BREAD. 543 

Nothing would be more iu consonance \vith the mode of reasoning of 
a primitive people than that, at certain designated festivals, there should 
be a recurrence to the earlier forms of food, a reversion to an earlier 
mode of life, as a sort of propitiation of the gods or goddesses who 
had cared for the nation in its infancy and to secure the continuance of 
their beneficent offices. Primitive man was never so certain of the 
power of the gods of the era of his own greatest development that he 
could rely upon it implicitly and exclusively and ignore the deities who 
had helped him to stand upon his feet. Hence, the recurrence to pan- 
cakes, to unleavened breads of all kinds, among various peoples. This 
view of the subject was made plain to me while among the Zulu In- 
dians. Mr. Frank H. Gushing showed me that the women, when bak- 
ing the "loaves" of bread, were always careful to place in the adobe 
ovens a tortilla with each batch of the newer kind, and no doubt for 
the reason just given. 

UNLEAVENED BREAD. 

The unleavened bread of the earliest period of Jewish history has 
come down to our own times in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, still 
observed by the Hebrews in all parts of the world, in the bread used in 
the eucharistic sacrifice by so large a portion of the Christian world, 
and apparently in some of the usages connected with the half-under- 
stood fast known as the " Ember Days." Brand quotes from an old 
work in regard to the Ember Days: "They were so called 'because 
that our elder fathers wolde on these days ete no brede but cakes made 
under ashes.'" 1 

The sacred cake or " draona " of the Parsi " is a small round pancake 
or wafer of unleavened bread, about the size of the palm of the hand. 
It is made of wheaten flour and water, with a little clarified butter, and 
is flexible." 2 A variety of the "draona," called a " frasast," is marked 
with the finger nail and set aside for the guardian spirits of the de- 
parted. 3 

Cakes and salt were used in religious rites by the ancients. The 
Jews probably adopted their appropriation from the Egyptians. 4 " Dur- 



bread. The mere mention of unleavened bread shows that there were two kinds of bread made even at 
that time. 

The art of baking was carried on to a high perfection among the Egyptians, who are said to have 
baked cakes in many fantastic shapes, using several kinds of flour. The Romans took up the art of 
baking, and public bakeries were numerous on the streets of Kome. In England the business of the 
baker was considered to be one so closely affecting the interests of the public that in 1266 an act of 
Parliament was passed regulating the price to he charged for bread. This regulation continued in 
operation until 1822 in London and until 183G in the rest of the country. The art of making bread has 
not yet reached some countries in Europe and Asia. In the rural parts of Sweden no bread is made, 
but rye cakes arc baked twice a year and are as hard as flint. It is less than a century ago that bread 
was used in Scotland, the Scotch people of every class living on barley bannocks and oaten cakes. 
Chicago News. 

'Pop. Antiq., vol. 1. p. %. 

* Shayast la-ShayasI, par. 32, note 6, pp. 283, 284 (Max Muller's ed., Oxford, 1880). 

'Ibid., p. 315, notes. 

* ' 'And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of 
fine flour " cLevit., II, 4) ; "With all thine offerings thou shaltofter salt " (Ibid., 13) Brand, Pop. Ant., 
vol. 2, p. 82. 



544 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

ing- all the Passover week 14th to 21st Nisau, i. e., during this week's 
iiuxm Shemites fast, only eating unleavened bread, and most dili- 
gently not without reason cleansing their houses." " And especially 
had all leavened matter to be removed, for the new leaveuer had now 
arisen, and prayers with curses were offered up against any portions 
which might have escaped observation. The law of their fierce Jahveh 
was that, whoever during all this festival tasted leavened bread, 'that 
soul should be cut off,' which Godwyn mollifies by urging that this only 
meant the offender should die without children; which was still a 
pretty considerable punishment for eating a piece of bread!" 1 

"The great day of Pentecost is the 6th of Sivan, or, say, the 22(1 
of May, 1874. From the first barley two loaves were then made, 'the 
offering of which was the distinguishing rite of the day of Pentecost."' 

On St. Bridget's Eve every farmer's wife in Ireland makes a cake, 
called bairinbreac; the neighbors are invited, the madder of ale and 
the pipe go round, and the evening concludes with mirth and festivity. 3 
Vallencey identifies this as the same kind of offering that was made to 
Ceres, and to "the queen of heaven, to whom the Jewish women burnt 
incense, poured out drink offerings, and made cakes for her with their 
own hands." 4 

THE HOT ('BOSS BUNS OF GOOD FRIDAY. 

The belief prevailed that these would not mold like ordinary bread. 5 
"In several counties [in England] a small loaf of bread is annually 
baked on the morning of Good Friday and then put by till the same 
anniversary in the ensuing year. This bread is not intended to be 
eaten, but to be used as a medicine, and the mode of administering it is 
by grating a small portion of it into water and forming a sort of panada. 
It is believed to be good for many disorders, but particularly for a diar- 
rhoea, for which it is considered a sovereign remedy. Some years ago 
a cottager lamented that her poor neighbour must certainly die of this 
complaint, because she had already given her two doses of Good Friday 
bread without any benefit. No information could be obtained from the 
doctress respecting her nostrum, but that she had heard old folks say 
that it was a good thing and that she always made it." 6 

Brand quotes a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine who shows that 
they were "formerly, at least, unleavened," p. 150. They "are con- 
stantly marked with the form of the cross." " It is an old belief that 
the observance of the custom of eating buns on Good Friday protects 
the house from fire, and several other virtues are attributed to these 
buns," p. 150. " Hutchinsou, in his History of Northumberland, follow- 



1 Forlong, Eivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 441. 

2 Ibid., p. 447. 

3 Brand, Pop. Antiq., vol. 1, pp. :i45, 346, quotiiig (leu. Valleucey's Essay on the Antiquity of the 
Irish Language. 

1 Ibid., p. 345. 
5 Ibid., p. 154. 
" Ibid., pp. 155, 156. 



BOUBKE.] CEREMONIAL CAKE AND BREAD. 545 

iiig Bryant's Analysis, derives the Good Friday bun from the sacred 
cakes which were ottered at the Arkite Temples, styled Bonn, and pre- 
sented every seventh day," p. 155. A very interesting dissertation 
upon these sacred cakes as used by the Greeks, Egyptians, and Jews 
in the time of their idolatry, is to be found in Brand's work, pp. 155- 
156.' 

Practices analogous to those referred to are to be noted among the 
Pueblo Indians. They offer not only the kuuque, but bread also in their 
sacrifices. 

In the sacred rabbit hunt of the Zuiii, which occurs four times a year 
and is carried on for the purpose of procuring meat for the sacred eagles 
confined in cages, a great tire was made on the crest of a hill, into 
which were thrown piles of bread crusts and in the smoke of which the 
boomerangs or rabbit sticks were held while the hunter recited in an 
audible tone and with downcast head the prayers prescribed for the 
occasion. One of the early Spanish writers informs us that the women 
of the pueblo of Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, offered bread on 
bended knees to their idols and then preserved it for the remainder of 
the year, and the house which did not have a supply of such blessed 
bread was regarded as unfortunate and exposed to danger. 2 

A prehistoric farinaceous food of the Romans survives in our bride- 
cake or wedding cake. It is well understood that among the Romans 
there were three kinds of marriage: that called "coemptio," that called 
"concnbitu" or "usu," and the highest form of all, known as "confar- 
ratio," from the fact that bride and groom ate together of a kind of 
cake or bread made of the prehistoric flour, the " far." We have pre- 
served the custom of having bridecake, which is still served with many 
superstitious ceremonies: "it must be cut by the bride herself; it must 
be broken in pieces (formerly these pieces were cast over the heads of 
the bridesmaids), and, after being passed through a wedding ring a cer- 
tain number of times, it must be placed under the pillow of the anxious 
maiden to serve as a basis for her dreams." 3 

Exactly what this prehistoric food was it is now an impossibility to 
determine with exactness. Torquemada shows that long after the Ro- 
mans had obtained the use of wheat they persisted in the sacrificial use 
of the " nola isla," " farro," and " escanda," forms of wild grain once 
roasted and ground and made into bread by their forefathers. 4 A simi- 
lar usage prevailed among the Greeks. Pliny speaks of " the bearded 
red wheat, named in Latin 'far,'" and tells us that rye was called 
"secale" or "farrago." 5 The radical "far" is still to be found all over 



1 See aleo "Buns" in Inman> Ancient I'aiths. 

* ; Ofrwrian el pan al idolo, bincados do rodillas. Bendezianlo los sacerdotes, y repartian como pan 
bendito, con lo qual se acabaua la Hesta. fJuardauan aqucl pan todo el afio, tenieudo por desdicbada, y 
sugeta a muchos peligmn la casa que sin el estaua." Padre Fray Alonso Fernandez (Dominican). 
Historia Eclesiastica do Nueatnm Tiempos, Toledo, 1611, p. 18. 

'Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 100 et seq., quoting Blount, Moffet, and Moresin. 

4 Tonjuoraada, Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 7, cap. 9, p. 100. 

5 Nat. Hist., lib. xviii, caps 10 et seq. and 39. 
<) ETH 35 



546 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Europe in the word for flour, " farina," " fariue," or " harina," while it is 
also possible that it may be detected in the ever-to-be-honored name of 
Farragut. ' 

In the eight marriage rites described by Baudhayaua, the initiatory 
oblation in the fourth (that in which the father gives his daughter 
away) consists of " parched grain." This rite is one of the four which 
are lawful for a Brahman. The parched grain to be used would seem 
to be either sesamum or barley, although this is not clear. Vasish^a 
says, chapter 27, concerning secret penances: "He who . . . uses 
barley (for his food) becomes pure." 2 

The pages of Brand 3 are tilled with references to various forms of 
cake which seem properly to be included under this chapter. In Eng- 
land there formerly prevailed the custom of preparing " soul cakes" for 
distribution among visitors to the family on that day and to bands 
of waifs or singers, who expected them as a dole for praying and sing- 
ing in the interests of the souls of the dead friends and relatives of the 
family. On the island of St. Kilda the soul cake was " a large cake in 
the form of a triangle, furrowed round, and which was to be all eaten 
that night." 4 In Lancashire and Hertfordshire the cake was made of 
oatmeal, but in many other parts it was a " seed cake" 5 and in War- 
wickshire, " at the end of barley and beau seed time, there is a custom 
there to give the plowmen froise, a species of thick pancake." "All- 
soul cakes" were distributed at time of All Souls' Day. 

In England and Scotland the old custom 7 was to have a funeral feast, 
which all friends and relations were expected to attend. Wine, cur- 
rant cake, meat, and other refreshments, varying according to the for- 
tune of the family, were served liberally. The bread given out was 
called " arvil-bread." There is no special reason for believing that 
this could be called a hoddentin custom, except that the writer himself 
calls attention to the fact that in the earlier times the bread was in the 
form of "wafers." 8 

The Eomans had a college of priests called the " Fratres Arvales," 
nine, or, as some say, twelve in number, to whose care were committed 
the sacrifices in honor of Ceres at the old limits of the city, to propitiate 
that goddess and induce her to bestow fertility upon the fields. These 

<"Var (from the Hebrew word var. frvmentum) Grain. It not only means a particular kind of grain, 
between wheat and barley, less nourishing than the former, but more so than the latter, according to 
Vossius ; but it means bread corn, grain of any kind. 2Etius gives this application to any kind of 
frumentaceous grain, decorticated, cleansed from the husks, and afterwards bruised and dried." 
London Medical Dictionary, Bartholomew Parr, M. D., Philadelphia. 1820, article "Far". 

"AdormAthor was the most sacred wheat, without beard, offered at adoration of gods. In Latin 
Adorea was a present of such after a victory, and Ad-oro is ' I adore,' from oro, ' I pray to. 1 " Forlong, 
Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 473, footnote, speaking of both Greeks and Romans. 

' Sacred Books of the East, edition of Max Miiller, vol. 14, pp. 131, 205. 

'Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 391 et seq., article " Allhallflw even." 

Ibid., p. 391. 

"Ibid., p. 392. 

6 Ibid., p.B93. 

' Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 237 et seq. 

Ibid., p. 244. 



BOCKKE.] CEREMONIAL CAKES. 547 

ceremonies, which are believed by the editor of Bohn's Strabo to sur- 
vive in the Rogation Day processions of the Roman Catholic Church, 
recall the notes already taken upon the subject of the Arval bread of 
the Scotch.' The sacrifices themselves were designated ''Ambarva" 
and " Ambarvalia." 

In Scotland and England it was customary for bands of singers to go 
from door to door on New Year's Eve, singing and receiving reward. 
In the latter country " cheese and oaten cakes, which are called farlft, 
are distributed on this occasion among the cryers." In the former 
country " there was a custom of distributing sweet cakes and a particu- 
lar kind of sugared bread." 2 

A fine kind of wheat bread called " wassail-bread" formed an impor- 
tant feature of the entertainment on New Year's Day in old England. 3 

Among love divinations may be reckoned the dumb cake, so called 
because it was to be made without speaking, and afterwards the parties 
were to go backward up the stairs to bed and put the cake under 
their pillows, when they were to dream of their lovers. 4 

References to the beal-tine ceremonies of Ireland and Scotland, in 
which oatmeal gruel figured as a dish, or cakes made of oatmeal and 
carraway seeds, may be found in Brand, Pop. Autiq., vol. 1, p. 226; in 
Blouut, Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors, London, 1874, p. 131 ; 
and in Pennant's Tour in Scotland, in Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. 3, 
p. 49. In "A Charm for Bewitched Land" we find the mode of making 
a cake or loaf with holy water. 

The mince pie and plum pudding of Christmas are evidently ancient 
preparations, and it is not unlikely that the shape of the former, which, 
prior to the Reformation, was that of a child's cradle, had a reminiscence 
of the sacrifice of babies at the time of the winter solstice. Grimm has 
taught that where human sacrifice had been abolished the figure of a 
coffin or a cradle was still used as a symbol. 

There is a wide field of information to be gleaned in the investigation 
of the subject of bean foods at certain periods or festivals of the year, 
and upon this point I have some notes and memoranda, but, as my 
present remarks are limited to prehistoric farinaceous foods, I do not 
wish to add to the bulk of the present chapter. 5 

"Kostia boiled rice and plums is the only thing partaken of on 
Christmas Eve." " 



1 Strabo, Geography, Bohn's edition, London, 1854, vol. 1, pp. 341, 342. footnote. 

2 Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 460. 

3 Ibid., p. 7. 

1 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, pp. 3, 180. On the same page: "Dumb cake, a species of dreaming 
bread prepared by unmarried females with ingredients traditionally suggested in witching doggerel. 
When baked, it is cut into three divisions; a part of each to be eaten and the remainder put under 
the pillow. When the clock strikes twelve, each votary must go to bed backwards and keep a pro- 
found silence, whatever may appear." 

* A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1783, inquires: " May not the minced pye, ft com- 
pound of the choicest productions of the East, have in view the offerings made by the wise men who 
came from afar to worship, bringing spices, et." Quoted in Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 526. The mince 
pie was before the Reformation made in the form of a crib, to represent the manger in which the holy 
child lay in the stable. Ibid., p. 178. 

6 Heath, A Hoosicr in Russia, p. 109. 



548 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

GALENA. 

At times one may find in the " medicine " of the more prominent and 
influential of the chiefs and medicine-men of the Apache little sacks 
which, when opened, are found to contain pounded galena; this they 
tell me is a " great medicine," fully equal to hoddentin, but more diffi- 
cult to obtain. It is used precisely as hoddentiu is used ; that is, both 
as a face paint and as a powder to be thrown to the sun or other ele- 
ments to be propitiated. The Apache are reluctant to part with it, 
and from living Apache I have never obtained more than one small 
sack of it. 

No one seems to understand the reason for its employment. Mr. 
William M. Beebe has suggested that perhaps the fact that galena 
always crystallizes in cubes, and that it would thus seem to have a 
mysterious connection with the cardinal points to which all nomadic 
peoples pay great attention as being invested with the power of keep- 
ing wanderers from going astray, would not be without influence upon 
the minds of the medicine-men, who are quick to detect and to profit by 
all false analogies. The conjecture appears to me to be a most plausi- 
ble one, but I can submit it only as a conjecture, for no explanation of the 
kind was received from any of the Indians. All that I can say is that 
whenever procurable it was always used by the Apache on occasions 
of unusual importance and solemnity and presented as a round disk 
painted in the center of the forehead. 

The significance of all these markings of the face among savage and 
half-civilized nations is a subject deserving of the most careful research ; 
like the sectarial marks of the Hindus, all, or nearly all, the marks 
made upon the faces of American Indians have a meaning beyond the 
ornamental or the grotesque. 

Galena was observed in use among the tribes seen by (Jabeza de Vaca. 
"Us nous donnerent beaucoup de bourses, contenant des sachets de mar- 
cassites et d'antirnoine en poudre." ("Taleguillas de margaxita y de 
alcohol niolido.") 1 This word "margaxita" means iron pyrites. The 
Encyclopaedia Britannica says that the Peruvians used it for " amulets ;" 
so also did the Apache. What Vaca took for antimony was pounded 
galena no doubt. He was by this time in or near the Kocky Mountains. 2 

On the northwest coast of America we read of the natives : "One, 
however, as he came near, took out from his bosom some iron or lead- 
colored micaceous earth and drew marks with it across his cheeks in 
the shape of two pears, stuffed his nostrils with grass, and thrust thin 
pieces of bone through the cartilage of his nose." 3 

It is more than probable that some of the face-painting with " black 
earth," "ground charcoal," etc., to which reference is made by the early 
writers, may have been galena, which substance makes a deep-black 



' Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 7, p. 220. 

2 See also Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 90. 

William Coxe, Russian Discoveries between Asiaand America, London, 1803, p. 57, quoting Steller. 



BOURKE.] GALENA. 549 

mark. The natives would be likely to make use of their most sacred 
powder upon first meeting with mysterious strangers like Vaca and his 
companions. So, when the expedition of La Salle reached the mouth of 
the Ohio, in 1680, the Indians are described as fasting and making 
superstitious sacrifices; among other things, they marked themselves 
with "black earth" and with "ground charcoal." "Se daban con 
Tierra Negra o Carbon molido.'' 1 

From an expression in Burton, I am led to suspect that the applica- 
tion of kohl or antimony to the eyes of Arabian beauty is not alto- 
gether for ornament. " There are many kinds of kohl used in medicine 
and magic." 2 

('orbusier.says of the Apache- Yuma: u Galena and burnt mescal are 
used on their faces, the former to denote auger or as war paint, being 
spread all over the face, except the chin and nose, which are painted 
red." 3 

In Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, London, 1832, page 105, may 
be found a brief chapter upon the subject of the sectarial marks of the 
Hindus. With these we may fairly compare the marks which the 
Apache, on ceremonial occasions, make upon cheeks and forehead. 
The adherents of the Hrahminical sects, before entering a temple, must 
mark themselves upon the forehead with the tiluk. Among the Vish- 
nuites, this is a longitudinal vermilion line. The Seevites use several 
parallel lines in saffron. 4 Maurice adds that the Hindus place the tiluk 
upon their idols in twelve places. 5 "Among the Kaffir the warriors 
are rendered invulnerable by means of a black cross on their foreheads 
and black stripes on the cheeks, both painted by the Inyanga, or 
fetich priest." e 

A piece of galena weighing 7 pounds was found in a mound near 
Naples, Illinois. 7 Occasionally with the bones of the dead are noticed 
small cubes of galena; and in our collection is a ball of this ore, weigh- 
ing a pound and two ounces, which was taken from a mound, and which 
probably did service, enveloped in raw hide, as some form of weapon. 8 
(lalena was much prized by the former inhabitants of North America. 
" The frequent occurrence of galena on the altars of the sacrificial 
mounds proves, at any rate, that the ancient inhabitants attributed a 
peculiar value to it, deeming it worthy to be offered as a sacrificial gift." 9 
See also Squier and Davis. 10 



1 liarcia, Ensayo Croiiologieo, Madrid, 1723. 

2 Arabian .Nights, Burton's edition, vol. 8, p. 10, footnote. 
"American Antiquarian, September, 188(5, p. 281. 

4 Manrire, Indian Antiquities, London. 1801, vol. f>, pp. 82 and 83. 

6 Ibid., vol.5, p. 85. 

"SHmltzo, Fetithism, N. Y., 1885, p. 32. 

'Paper by Dr. Jonn G. Henderson on "Aboriginal remains near Naples. 111.," Smith. Kept., 1882. 

" J. F. Snyder, ''Indian remaii-8 in Cass County, Illinois," Smith. Kept.. 1881. p. 575. 

Man. in fan. Kept., j872, p. 356. 

10 "Am-ieut monuments of the Mississippi Valley," in Smith.souian Contributions, vol. 1, p. 1(10. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE IZZE-KLOTH OR MEDICINE CORD OF THE APACHE. 

There is probably no more mysterious or interesting portion of the 
religious or " medicinal " equipment of the Apache Indian, whether he 
be medicine-man or simply a member of the laity, than the " izze- 
kloth" or medicine cord, illustrations of which accompany this text. 
Less, perhaps, is known concerning it than any other article upon 
which he relies in his distress. 

I regret very much to say that I am unable to afford the slightest 
clew to the meaning of any of the parts or appendages of the cords 
which I have seen or which I have procured. Some excuse for this is to 
be found in the fact that the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred 
that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or 
talk about them. I made particular effort to cultivate the most 
friendly and, when possible, intimate relations with such of the Apache 
and other medicine-men as seemed to offer the best chance for obtain- 
ing information in regard to this and other matters, but I am compelled 
to say with no success at all. 




FIG. 435. Single-strand medicine cord (Zuni). 

I did advance so far in my schemes that Na-a cha, a prominent medi- 
cine-man of the Tonto Apache, promised to let me have his cord, but as 
an eruption of hostility on the part of the tribe called me away from the 
San Carlos Agency, the opportunity was lost. Ramon, one of the prin- 

550 



MEDICINE CORDS. 



551 



cipal medicine-men of the Chiricahua Apache, made me the same 
promise concerning the cord which he wore and which figures in these 
plates. It was, unfortunately, sent me by mail, and, although the best 
in the series and really one of the best I have ever been fortunate 
enough to see on either living or dead, it was not accompanied by a 
description of the symbolism of the different articles attached. Eamon 
also gave me the head-dress which he wore in the spirit or ghost 
dance, and explained everything thereon, and I am satisfied that he 
would also, while in the same frame of mind, have given me all the in- 
formation in his power in regard to the sacred or medicine cord as well, 
had I been near him. 

There are some things belonging to these cords which I understand 
from having had them explained at other times, but there are others 
about which I am in extreme doubt and ignorance. There are four 
specimens of medicine cords represented and it is worth while to 
observe that they were used as one, two, three, and four strand cords, 
but .whether this fact means that they belonged to medicine-men or to 
warriors of different degrees I did 
not learn nor do I venture to con- 
jecture. 

The single -strand medicine 
cord with the thirteen olivella 
shells belonged to a Zuiii chief, 
one of the priests of the sacred 
order of the bow, upon whose 
wrist it was worn as a sign of his 
exalted rank in the tribe. I ob- 
tained it as a proof of his sincer- 
est friendship and with injunc- 
tions to say nothing about it to 
his own people, but no explana- 
tion was made at the moment of 
the signification of the wristlet or 
cord itself or of the reason for 
using the olivella shells of that 
particular number or for placing 
them as they were placed. 

One of the four-strand cords 
was obtained from Ramon and is 
the most beautiful and the most 
valuable of the lot. Eamon 
called my attention to the im- 
portant fact that it was com- 
posed of four strands and that originally each had been stained a dif- 
ferent color. These colors were probably yellow, blue, white, and black, 
although the only ones still discernible at this time are the yellow and 
the blue. 




Km. 4.'J6. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache). 



552 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



The three-strand cord was sent to me at Washington by my old 
friend, Al. Seiber, a scout who has been living among the Apache for 
twenty-five years. No explanation accompanied it and it was probably 
procured from the body of some dead warrior during one of the innu- 
merable scouts and skirmishes which Seiber has had with this warlike 
race during his long term of service against them. The two strand 
cord was obtained by myself so long ago that the circumstances con- 
nected with it have escaped my memory. These cords, in their perfec- 
tion, are decorated with beads and shells strung along at intervals, 
with pieces of the sacred green chalchihuitl, which has had such a 

mysterious ascendancy over the 
minds of the American Indians 
A/tec, Peruvian, Quiche, as well 
as the more savage tribes, like the 
Apache and Navajo; with petrified 
wood, rock crystal, eagle down, 
claws of the hawk or eaglet, claws 
of the bear, rattle of the rattle- 
snake, buckskin bags of hodden- 
tin, circles of buckskin in which 
are inclosed pieces of twigs and 
branches of trees which have been 
struck by lightning, small frag- 
ments of the abalone shell from 
the Pacific coast, and much other 
sacred paraphernalia of a similar 
kind. 

That the use of these cords was 
reserved for the most sacred and 
important occasions, I soon 
learned; they were not to be seen 
on occasions of no moment, but 
the dances for war, medicine, and 
summoning the spirits at once 
brought them out, and every medi- 
cine-man of any consequence would 
appear with one hanging from his 
right shoulder over his left hip. 
Only the chief medicine-men can make them, and after being made 
and before being assumed by the new owner they must be sprinkled 
Ramon told me, with "heap hoddentin," a term meaning that there is 
a great deal of attendant ceremony of a religious character. 

These cords will protect a man while on the warpath, and many of 
the Apache believe firmly that a bullet will have no effect upon the 
warrior wearing one of them. This is not their only virtue by any 
means; the wearer can tell who has stolen ponies or other property 




FIG. 437. Three-strand medicine cord (Apache). 



BOl-RKE.] 



MEDICINE CORDS. 



553 



from him or from his friends, can help the crops, and cure the sick. If 
the circle attached to one of these cords (see Fig. 436) is placed 
upon the head it will at once relieve any ache, while the cross attached 
to another (see Fig. 439) prevents the wearer from going astray, no 
matter where he may be; in other words, it has some connection with 
cross-trails and the four cardinal points to which the Apache pay the 
strictest attention. The Apache assured me that these cords were not 
mnemonic and that the beads, feathers, knots, etc., attached to them 
were not for the purpose of recalling to mind some duty to be performed 
or prayer to be recited. 




Fio. 4:w. Two-strjiiiil medicin 



ord ( 



I was at first inclined to associate these cords with the quipus of the 
Peruvians, and also with the wampum of the aborigines of the Atlantic 
coast, and investigation only confirms this first suspicion. It is true 
that both the wampum and the quipu seem to have advanced from 
their primitive position as "medicine" and attained, ethnologically 
speaking, the higher plane of a medium for facilitating exchange or dis- 
seminating information, and for that reason their incorporation in this 
chapter might be objected to by the hypercritical ; but a careful perusal 



554 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



of all the notes upon the subject can not fail to convince the reader that 
the use of just such medicine cords prevailed all over the world, under 
one form or another, and has survived to our own times. 

First, let me say a word about rosaries, the invention of which has 
been attributed to St. Dominick, in Spain, and to St. Bridget, in Ireland. 
Neither of these saints had anything to do with the invention or intro- 
duction of the rosary, although each in his or her own province may 
have adapted to new and better uses a cord already in general service 
among all the peoples of Europe. The rosary, as such, was in general 
use in parts of the world long before the time of Christ. Again, the 




FIG. 439 Four-strand medicine cord (Apache). 

cords of the various religious orders were looked upon as medicine 
cords and employed in that manner by the ignorant peasantry. 

In this chapter I will insert notes showing the use of such cords by 
other tribes, and follow with descriptions of the uses to which the cords 
of St. Francis and others were put, and with references to the rosaries 
of different races or different creeds ; finally, I will remark upon the 
superstitions connected with cords, belts, and strings, knotted or un- 
kuotted, madeof serpent skin, human skin, or human hair. The strangest 
thing about it all is that observers have, with scarcely an exceptiou, 
contented themselves with noting the existence of such cords without 
making the slightest effort to determine why they were used. 



BOCHKE.] MEDICINE CORDS. 555 

There are certain cords with medicine bags attached to be seen in the 
figures of medicine men in the drawings of the sacred altars given by 
Matthews in his account of the Navajo medicine-men. 

Gushing also has noted the existence of such cords in Zuni, and there 
is no doubt that some at least of the so-called "fishing lines" found in 
the Kio Verde cliff dwellings in Arizona were used for the same pur- 
poses. 

Describing the tribes met on the Rio Colorado, in 1540-1541, Alarcon 
says : " Likewise on the brawne of their armes they weare a streit string, 
which they wind so often about that it becommeth as broad as one's 
hand." 1 It must be remembered that the Indians thought that Alarcon 
was a god, that they offered sacrifice to him, and that they wore all 
the "medicine" they possessed. 

In 1680, the Pueblos, under the leadership of Pope, of the pueblo of San 
Juan, were successful in their attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke. 
He made them believe that he was in league with the spirits, and "that 
they directed him to make a rope of the palm leaf and tie in it a number 
of knots to represent the number of days before the rebellion was to 
take place; that he must send this rope to all the Pueblos in the king- 
dom, when each should signify its approval of. and union with, the con- 
spiracy by untying one of the knots." 2 

I suspect that this may have been an izze-kloth. We know nothing 
about this rebellion excepting what has been derived through Spanish 
sources; the conquerors despised the natives, and, with a very few 
notable exceptions among the Franciscans, made no effort to study 
their peculiarities. The discontent of the natives was aggravated by 
this fact; they saw their idols pulled down, their ceremonial chambers 
closed, their dances prohibited, and numbers of their people tried and 
executed for witchcraft. 3 Fray Geronimo de Zarate Saltneron was a 
striking example of the good to be effected by missionaries who are not 
above studying their people; he acquired a complete mastery of the 
language of the pueblo of Jemez, " and preached to the inhabitants in 
their native tongue." He is represented as exercising great influence 
over the people of Jemez, Sia, Santa Ana, and Acoma. In this rebel- 
lion of 1080 the Pueblos expected to be joined by the Apache. 4 

The izze-kloth of the Apache seems to have had its prototype in the 
sacred string of beans with which Tecumseh's brother, the Shawiiee 
prophet, traveled among the Indian tribes, inciting them to war. Every 
young warrior who agreed to go upon the warpath touched this "sacred 
string of beans" in token of his solemn pledge. 5 

Tanner says in the narrative of his captivity among the Ojibwa: "He 
[the medicine-man] then gave me a small hoop of wood to wear on my 



1 Relation of the Voyage of Don Feriiando Alarcon, in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508. 

2 Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 288. 
Davis, ibid., pp. 280, 284, 285. 

* Ibid., pp. 277, 292. 

s Catlin, North American Indians. London, 1845, vol. 2, p. 117. 



556 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

head like a cap. On one-half of this hoop was marked the figure of a 
snake, whose office, as the chief told me, was to take care of the water." ' 
The "small hoop of wood" of which Tanner speaks, to be worn on the 
head, seems to be analogous to the small hoop attached to the izze-kloth, 
to be worn or applied in cases of headache (Fig. 436). Reference to 
something very much like the izze-klotli is made by Harmon as in use 
among the Carriers of British North America. He says: " The lads, as 
soon as they come to the age of puberty, tie cords, wound with swan's- 
down, around each leg a little below the knee, which they wear during 
one year, and then they are considered as men." 2 Catlin speaks of 
"mystery-beads" in use among the Mandan. 3 "The negro suspends 
all about his person cords with most complicated knots." 4 

The female inhabitants of Alaska, TJnalaska, and the Fox Islands 
were represented by the Russian explorers of 17(58 (Captain Krenitzin) 
to "wear chequered strings around the arms and legs." 5 These cords 
bear a striking resemblance to the "wresting cords" of the peasantry 
of Europe. Some of the Australians preserve the hair of a dead man. 
" It is spun into a cord and fastened around the head of a warrior." 6 
" A cord of opossum hair around the neck, the ends drooping down on 
the back and fastened to the belt," is one of the parts of the costume 
assumed by those attaining manhood in the initiation ceremonies of the 
Australians. 1 Again, on pages 72 and 74, he calls it "the belt of man- 
hood." "The use of amulets was common among the Greeks and 
Romans, whose amulets were principally formed of gems, crowns of 
pearls, necklaces of coral, shells, etc." 8 

When I first saw the medicine cords of the Apache, it occurred to 
me that perhaps in some way they might be an inheritance from the 
Franciscans, who, two centuries ago, had endeavored to plant mis- 
sions among the Apache, and did succeed in doing something for the 
Navajo part of the tribe. I therefore examined the most convenient 
authorities and learned that the cord of 8. Frangois, like the cord of St. 
Augustine and the cord of St. Monica, was itself a medicine cord, rep- 
resenting a descent from a condition of thought perfectly parallel to 
that which has given birth to the izze-kloth. Thus Picart tells us: 
"On appelle Cordon de S. Francois la grosse corde qui sert de ceinture 
aux Religieux qui vivent sous la Regie de ce Saint. . . . Cette corde 
ceint le corps du Moine, & pend a peu pres jusqu'aux pieds. Bile lui sert 
de discipline, & pour cet efiet, elle est arm6e do distance en distance de 
fort gros iio3uds. . . . La Corde de S. Frangois a souvent gueri les 
malades, facilit^ les accouchemens, fortifie la sante', procur6 lignee & fait 

1 Tanner's Narrative, p. 188. 

1 Journal, p. 289. 

3 North American Indians, London, 1815, vol. 1, p. 135. 

Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 32, quoting Bastian. 

Coxe, Russian Discoveries between America and Asia. London, 1803, p. 254. 

8 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, pp. xxix, 112. 

' Ibid., vol. 1, p. 68. 

Pettigrew, Medical Superstitions, Philadelphia, 1844, pp. B7.72, 74. 



BOUKKK.] GIRDLES AND CORDS. 557 

uiie infinite d'autres miracles edifiaus." ' This author says of the gir- 
dle of St. Augustine "Elle est de cuir," and adds that the Augustin- 
ians have a book which treats of the origin of their order, in which 
occur these words : " II est probable que nos premiers Peres, qui vivoient 
sous la Loi de nature, ctaut habilles de peau devoient porter une 
Ceinture de meme e'tofte.'" This last assumption is perfectly plausible. 
For my part it has always seemed to me that monasticism is of very 
ancient origin, antedating Christianity and representing the most con- 
servative element in the religious part of human nature. It clings 
obstinately to primitive ideas with which would naturally be associated 
primitive costume. The girdle of St. Monica had five knots. " The 
monks [of the Levant] use a girdle with twelve knots, to shew that they 
are followers of the twelve apostles." 3 Among the " sovereign remedies 
for the headache" is mentioned "the belt of St. Guthlac." 4 Buckle 
refers to the fact that English women in labor wore " blessed girdles." 
He thinks that they may have been Thomas Aquinas's girdles. 5 

And good Saynt Frances gyrdle, 
With the hamlet of a hyrdle, 
Are wholsom for the pyppe. 6 

Some older charms are to be found in Bale's Interlude concerning the 
Laws of Nature, Moses, and Christ, 4to, 1562. Idolatry says: 

For lampes and for bottes 

Take me Sayiit Wilfride's kuottes. 7 

The " girdle of St. Bridget," mentioned by Moouey 8 and by other 
writers, through which the sick were passed by their friends, was 
simply a u survival " of the " Cunni Diaboli " still to be found in the 
East Indies. This " girdle of St. Bridget " was made of straw and in 
the form of a collar. 

The custom prevailing in Catholic countries of being buried in the 
habits of the monastic orders, of which we know that the cord was a 
prominent feature, especially in those of St. Francis or St. Dominick, 
is alluded to by Brand. 9 This custom seems to have been founded 
upon a prior superstitious use of magical cords which were, till a com- 
paratively recent period, buried with the dead. The Roman Catholic 
church anathematized those ''qui s'imaginent faire plaisiraux morts ou 
leur mettant entre les mains, ou en jettant sur leurs fosses, ou dans 
leurs tombeaux de petites cordes uouees de plusieurs noeuds, & d'autres 



'Ceremonies et Cofttumes Religieuses, Amsterdam, 1739, vol. 2, pp. 28, 29. 

8 Ibid., p. 29. 

3 Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 2, book 2, p. 77. 

4 Pettigrew, Medical Superstitions, Philadelphia, 1844. p. 61. See also Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 93. 

'Citations, Common place Book, p. 395, London, 1872. 

'Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, pp. 310, 311. 

'Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 310. 

Holiday Customs of Ireland, pp. 381 etseq. 

'Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 325. 



558 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

semblables, ce qui est expressement condamne par le Synode de Ferrare 
en 1612." ' Evidently the desire was to be buried with cords or amulets 
which in life they dared not wear. 

We may infer that cords and other articles of monastic raiment can 
be traced back to a most remote ancestry by reading the views of God- 
frey Higgins, in Anacalypsis, to the effect that there was a tradition 
maintained among the Carmelites that their order had been established 
by the prophet Elisha and that Jesus Christ himself had been one of 
its members. Massingberd, speaking of the first arrival of the Car- 
melites in England (about A. D. 1215), says: "They professed to be 
newly arrived in Italy, driven out by the Saracens from the Holy Land, 
where they had remained on Mount Carniel from the time of Elisha 
the prophet. They assert that ' the sons of the prophets ' had con- 
tinued on Mount Carmel as a poor brotherhood till the time of Christ, 
soon after which they were miraculously converted, and that the Virgin 
Mary joined their order and gave them a precious vestment called a 
scapular." 2 

ANALOGUES TO BE FOUND AMONG THE AZTECS, PERUVIANS. AND 

OTHERS. 

According to the different authorities cited below, it will be seen that 
the Aztec priests were in the habit of consulting Fate by casting upon 
the ground a handful of cords tied together; if the cords remained 
bunched together, the sign was that the patient was to die, but if they 
stretched out, then it was apparent that the patient was soon to stretch 
out his legs and recover. Mendieta says : " Tenian unos cordeles, hecho 
de ellos un manojo como llavero donde las mujeres traen colgadas las 
Haves, lanzabanlos en el suelo, y si quedaban revueltos, decian que era 
serial de muerte. Y si alguno 6 algunos salian extendidos, tenianlo por 
senal de vida, diciendo : que ya comenzaba el enfermo a extender los pie's 
y las manos." 3 Diego Duran speaks of the Mexican priests casting lots 
with knotted cords, "con nudillos de hilo echabau suertes." 4 When 
the army of Cortes advanced into the interior of Mexico, his soldiers 
found a forest of pine in which the trees were interlaced with certain 
cords and papers which the wizards had placed there, telling the Tlas- 
caltecs that they would restrain the advance of the strangers and 
deprive them of all strength : 

Hallaron un Pinar mui espeso, lleno de hilos i papeles, que enredaban los Arboles, 
i atravesaban el caniino, de que mucho se rieron los Castellanos; i dixeron graciosos 
donnires, quando luego supieron que los Hechiceros havian dado a eutender a los 
Tlascaltecas que con aquellos hilos, i papeles havian de tener a los Castellanos, i qui- 
tarles sus fuercas. 6 

1 Picart, Ceremonies et Coutnmes, etc., vol. 10, p. 56. 

' Massingberd, The English Reformation, London, 1857, p. 1D5. 

3 Mendieta, p. 110. 

4 Vol. 3, cap. 5, p. 234. 

Herrera, dec. 2. lib. 6, p. 141. 



BOURKE.] CEREMONIAL CORDS. 559 

Padre Sahaguu speaks of the Aztec priests who cast lots with little 
cords knotted together: "Que liechan stiertes con unas cordezuelas quo 
atan niias con otros quo llamau Mecatlapouhque." ' Some such method 
of divining by casting cords must have existed among the Lettons, as 
we are informed by Grimm. 2 "Among the Lettons, the bride on her 
way to church, must throw a bunch of colored threads and a coin into 
every ditch and pond she sees." 3 

In the religious ceremonies of the Peruvians vague mention is made of 
"a very long cable," " woven in four colours, black, white, red, and yel- 
low." 4 The Inca wore a " llautu." " This was a red fringe in the fashion 
of a border, which he wore across his forehead from one temple to the 
other. The prince, who was heir apparent, wore a yellow fringe, which 
was smaller than that of his father." 5 In another place, Garcilaso says : 
" It was of many colours, about a finger in width and a little less in 
thickness. They twisted this fringe three or four times around the 
head and let it hang after the manner of agarlaud." 6 " The Ynca made 
them believe that they were granted by order of the Sun, according to the 
merits of each tribe, and for this reason they valued them exceedingly." 7 
The investiture was attended with imposing ceremonies. "When the 
Grounds of the Sun were to be tilled [by the. Peruvians], the principal 
men went about the task wearing white cords stretched across the 
shoulders after the manner of ministers of the altar " 8 is the vague 
description to be gathered from Herrer'a. 

Knotted cords were in use among the Carib; "ce qui revient aux 
QuipposdesPeruviens." 9 The accompanying citation from Montfaucon 
would seem to show that among the Romans were to be found sacred 
baldrics in use by the war priests; such baldrics are to be seen also 
among the American aborigines, and correspond very closely to the 
medicine cords. Montfaucon describes the Saliens, who among the 
Komans were the priests of Mars, the god of war; these priests in 
the month of March had a festival which was probably nothing but a 
war dance, as that month would be most favorable in that climate for 
getting ready to attack their neighbors and enemies. He says that these 
Saliens "sont vetus de robes de diverses couleurs, ceiuts de baudriers 
d'airain." These would seem to have been a sort of medicine cord with 
plates of brass affixed which would rattle when shaken by the dancer. 10 

1 Kingsborougli, vol. 7, chap. 4. 

Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1233. 

' Ibid. 

* Fables and Ritas of the Incas, Padre Christoval de Molina (Cuzco. 1570-1584), transl. by elements 
R. Markham, Hakluyt Society trans., vol. 48, London, 1873, p. 48. 

s The common people wore a black "llautn." See Garcilaso, Cornell tarioM, Markham's transl., llak. 
Soc., vol. 41, pp. 88, 89. 

"Ibid., p. 85. 

7 Ibid., p. 89. 

"" Quaudo van il wombrar las Tierras del Sol, van solos los Principales & trabajar, i van con inaignias 
blaucas, i en las cspaldas unos Cordones tendidos blancos, & modo de Ministros del Altar." Herrera, 
dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 6, pp. 94-95. 

Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes, etc., Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 92. 

i* 1 Moutfaucon, L'antiquite expliquee, tome 2, pt. 1, p. 33. 



560 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Captain Cook found that the men of the tribes seen in Australia 
wore " bracelets of small cord, wound two or three times about the 
upper part of their arm. 1 

" Whilst their [the Congo natives'] children are young, these people 
bind them about with certain superstitious cords made by the wizards, 
who, likewise, teach them to utter a kind of spell while they are bind- 
ing them." 2 Father Merolla adds that sometimes as many as four of 
these cords are worn. 

Bosman remarks upon the negroes of the Gold Coast as follows : " The 
child is no sooner born than the priest (here called Feticheer or Cousoe) 
is sent for, who binds a parcel of ropes and coral and other trash about 
the head, body, arms, and legs of the infant; after which he exorcises, 
according to their accustomed manner, by which they believe it is 
armed against all sickness and ill accidents." 3 

In the picture of a native of Uzinza, Speke shows us a man wearing 
a cord from the right shoulder to the left hip. 4 

In the picture of Lunga Mandi's son, in Cameron's Across Africa, 5 
that young chief is represented as wearing a cord across his body from 
his right shoulder to the left side. 

On the Lower Congo, at Stanley Pool, Stanley met a young chief: 
"From his shoulders depended a long cloth of check pattern, while over 
one shoulder was a belt, to which was attached a queer medley of small 
gourds containing snuff and various charms, which he called his Inkisi."" 
This no doubt was a medicine cord. "According to the custom, which 
seems to belong to all Africa, as a sign of grief the Dinka wear a cord 
round the neck." 7 "The Mateb, or baptismal cord, is de rigueur, and 
worn when nothing else is. It formed the only clothing of the young at 
Seramba, but was frequently added to with amulets, sure safeguards 
against sorcery." 8 The Abyssinian Christians wear a blue cord as a sign 
of having been baptized, and "baptism and the blue cord are, in the 
Abyssinian mind, inseparable." 9 "The cord, 10 or mateb, without which 
nobody can be really said in Abyssinia to be respectable." " It further 
resembles the Apache medicine cord, inasmuch as it is "a blue cord 
around the neck." t2 The baptismal cords are made of "blue floss silk." " 

THE MAGIC WIND KNOTTED CORDS OF THE LAPPS AND OTHERS. 

"The navigators of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have 
related many wonderful stories about the magic of the Finns or Finno 

' Hawkosworth, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 229. 

"Voyage to Congo, in Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. 16, p. 237. 

3 Pinkerton, Voyages, vol. 16, p. 388. 

'Speke, Source of the Nile, London, 1863, p. 125. 

'London, 1877. vol. 2, p. 131. 

6 Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 330. 

' Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, London, 1873, vol. 1, p. 154. 

8 Winstanley, Abyssinia, vol. 2, p. 68. 

"This cord is worn about the neck. Ibid., p. 257. 
'"Ibid., vol. 1, ]>. 235. 
" Ibid., vol. 2, i>. 132. 
"Ibid, p. 165. 
"Ibid, p. 292. 



ROSARIES AND OTHER CORDS. 561 

Lappes, who sold wind contained in a cord with three knots. If tlie 
first were untied, the wind became favourable, if the second, still more 
so, but, if the third were loosed, a tempest was the inevitable conse- 
quence.' 11 The selling of wind knots was ascribed not only to the 
Laps and Finns, but to the inhabitants of Greenland also. 2 "The 
northern shipmasters are such dupes to the delusions of these impos- 
tors that they often purchase of them, a magic cord which contains a 
number of knots, by opening of which, according to the magician's di- 
rections, they expect to gain any wind they want." 3 "They [Lapland 
witches] further confessed, that while they fastened three knots on a 
linen towel in the name of the devil, and had spit on them, &c., they 
called the name of him they doomed to destruction." They also 
claimed that, "by some fatal contrivance they could bring on men dis- 
orders," . . . as "by spitting three times on a knife and anoint- 
ing the victims with that spittle." 4 

Scheft'er describes the Laplanders as having a cord tied with knots 
for the raising of the wind; Brand says the same of the Finlanders, of 
Norway, of the priestesses of the island of Sena, on the coast of Gaul, 
in the time of the Emperor Claudius, the "witches" of the Isle of Man, 
tc. 5 

Macbeth, speaking to the witches, says: 

Though you untie the winds, and let them fight 
Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 
Confound and swallow navigation up. 6 

ROSARIES AND OTHER MNEMONIC CORDS. 

The rosary being confessedly an aid to memory, it will be proper to 
include it in a chapter descriptive of the different forms of mnemonic 
cords which have been noticed in various parts of the world. The use 
of the rosary is not confined to Eoman Catholics; it is in service among 
Mahometans, Tibetans, and Persians. 7 Picart mentions "chaplets" 
among the Chinese and Japanese which very strongly suggest the izze- 
kloth. 8 

Father Gre"billon, in his account of Tartary, alludes several times to 
the importance attached by the Chinese and Tartars to the privilege of 
being allowed to touch the "string of beads" worn by certain Lamas 
met on the journey, which corresponds very closely to the rosaries 
of the Koman Catholics. 9 



'Malte-Brun, Universal Geography, vol. 4, p. 259, Phila., 1832. 

2 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 2. p. 040. 

'Nightingale, quoted in Madden, Shrines and Sepulchres, vol. 1, pp. 557, 558. 

'Leems, Account of Danish Lapland, in Pinkerton, Voyages, London, 1808, vol. 1, p. 471. 

'Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 5. See also John Scheffer, Lapland, Oxford, 1674, p. 58. 

'Act IV, scene 1. 

T Benjamin, Persia, London, 1877, p. 99. 

'Ceremonies et Coutumes, vol. 7, p. 320. 

9 Du Haldc, History of China, London, 1736, vol. 4, pp. 244. 245, and elsewhere. 

9 ETH 3G 



562 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

" Mr. Astle informs us that the first Chinese letters were knots on 
cords." ' 

Speaking of the ancient Japanese, the Chinese chronicles relate: 
''They have no writing, but merely cut certain marks upon wood and 
make knots in cord." 2 In the very earliest myths of the Chinese we 
read of "knotted cords, which they used instead of characters, and to 
instruct their children." 3 Malte-Brun calls attention to the fact that 
" the hieroglyphics and little cords in use amongst the ancient Chinese 
recal in a striking manner the figured writing of the Mexicans and 
the Quipos of Peru." 4 "Bach combination [of the quipu] had, how- 
ever, a fixed ideographic value in a certain branch of knowledge, and 
thus the quipu differed essentially from the Catholic rosary, the Jewish 
phylactery, or the knotted strings of the natives of North America and 
Siberia, to all of which it has at times been compared." 5 

E. B. Tylor differs in opinion from Brinton. According to Tylor, 
"the quipu is a near relation of the rosary and the wampum-string." 6 

The use of knotted cords by natives of the Caroline Islands, as a 
means of preserving a record of time, is noted by Kotzebue in several 
places. For instance: " Kadu kept his journal by moons, for which he 
made a knot in a string." 7 

During the years of my service with the late Maj. Gen. Crook in the 
Southwest, I was surprised to discover that the Apache scouts kept 
records of the time of their absence on campaign. There were several 
methods in vogue, the best being that of colored beads, which were 
strang on a string, six white ones to represent the days of the week 
and one black or other color to stand for Sundays. This method gave 
rise to some confusion, because the Indians had been told that there 
were four weeks, or Sundays ("Domingos"), in each "Luna," or moon, 
and yet they soon found that their own method ef determining time by 
the appearance of the crescent moon was much the more satisfactory. 
Among the Zuiii I have seen little tally sticks with the marks for the 
days and months incised on the narrow edges, and among the Apache 
another method of indicating the flight of time by marking on a piece 
of paper along a horizontal line a number of circles or of straight lines 
across the horizontal datum line to represent the full days which had 
passed, a heavy straight line for each Sunday, and a small crescent for 
the beginning of each month. 

Farther to the south, in the Mexican state of Sonora, I was shown, 
some twenty years ago, a piece of buckskin, upon which certain Opata 
or Yaqui Indians I forget exactly which tribe, but it matters very 

'Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 2, p. 218. 

2 Vining;, An Inglorious Columbus, p. 635. 

Du Halde, History of China, London, 1736, vol. 1, p. 270. 

1 Univ. Geog., vol. 3, book 75, p. 144, Phila., 1832. 

8 Brinton, Myths of the New World, N. T., 1868, p. 15. 

'Early History of Mankind, London, 1870, p. 156. 

'Voyages, vol. 3. p. 102. 



BOUKKE.) SACRED CORDS. 563 

little, as they are both industrious and honest had kept account of 
the days of their labor. There was a horizontal datum line, as before, 
with complete circles to indicate full days and half circles to indicate 
half days, a long heavy black line for Sundays and holidays, and a 
crescent moon for each new month. These accounts had to be drawn 
up by the overseer or superintendent of the rancho at which the Indi- 
ans were employed before the latter left for home each night. 

THE SACKED CORDS OF THE PARSIS AND BRAHMANS. 

I have already apologized for my own ignorance in regard to the 
origin and symbolical signification of the izze-kloth of the Apache, 
and I have now to do the same thing for the writers who have referred 
to the use by the religious of India of the sacred cords with which, un- 
der various names, the young man of the Parsis or Brahmans is invested 
upon attaining the requisite age. No two accounts seem to agree and, 
as I have never been in India and cannot presume to decide where so 
many differ, it is best that I should lay before my readers the exact 
language of the authorities which seem to be entitled to greatest con- 
sideration. 

"A sacred thread girdle (kfistik), should it be made of silk, 'is not 
proper; the hair of a hairy goat and a hairy camel is proper, and from 
other hairy creatures it is proper among the lowly." ' 

Every Parsi wears "a triple coil" of a "white cotton girdle, " which 
serves to remind him of the "three precepts of his morality 'good 
thoughts,' 'good words.' 'good deeds.'" 2 

Williams describes the sacred girdle of the Parsis as made " of seventy- 
two interwoven woollen threads, to denote the seventy-two chapters of 
the Yasna, but has the appearance of a long flat cord of pure white wool, 
which is wound round the body in three coils." The Parsi must take 
off this kustl five times daily and replace it with appropriate prayers. 
It must be wound round the body three times and tied in two peculiar 
knots, the secret of which is known only to the Parsis. 3 

According to Picart, the " sudra," or sacred cord of the Parsis, has 
four knots, each of which represents a precept. 4 

Marco Polo, in speaking of the Brahmans of India, says: "They are 
known by a cotton thread, which they wear over the shoulders, tied 
under the arm, crossing the breast." 5 

Picart described the sacred cord of the Brahmans, which he calls the 
Dsandhem, as made in three colors, each color of nine threads of cotton, 
which only the Brahmans have the right to make. It is to be worn after 
the manner of a scarf from the left shoulder to the right side. It must 
be worn through life, and, as it will wear out, new ones are provided at 

1 Shayast la-Shayast, cap. 4, pp. 285, 286. In Sacred Books of the East, Max Miiller's edition, vol. 5. 

2 Monier Williams, Modern India, p. 56. 

3 Ibid., pp. 179, 180. 

4 Ceremonies et Cofltumes, vol. 7, p. 28. 

* Marco Polo, Travels, in Pinkerton's Vojages, vol. 7, p. 163. 



564 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

a feast during the month of August. 1 The Braliman " about the age of 
seven or nine ... is invested with ' the triple cord,' and a badge 
which hangs from his left shoulder." 2 

The CJpavita or sacred cord, wound round the shoulders of the Brah- 
mans, is mentioned in the Hibbert Lectures on the Origin and Growth 
of Religion. " Primarily, the sacred cord was the distinguishing mark of 
caste among the Aryan inhabitants. It consisted for the Brahmans of 
three cotton threads ; for the Kshatriyas or warriors of three hempen 
threads; and for the Vaisyas or artisans and tradesmen of woollen 
threads." 3 

"All coiling roots and fantastic shrubs represent the serpent and are 
recognized as such all over India. In Bengal we find at the present 
day the fantastically growing Euphorbia antiquorum regularly wor- 
shipped, as the representative of the serpent god. The sacred thread, 
worn alike by Hindoo and Zoroastrian, is the symbol of that old faith; 
the Brahman twines it round his body and occasion ally around the ueck 

of the sacred bull, the Lingam, and its altar With the 

orthodox, the serpent thread should reach down to its closely allied 
faith, although this Ophite thread idea is now no more known to Hin- 
doos than the origin of arks, altars, candles, spires, and our church 
fleur-de-lis to Jews and Christians." 4 

General Forlong alludes to the thigh as the symbol of phallic worship. "The ser- 
pent on head denoted Holiness, Wisdom, and Power, as it does when placed on gods 
and great ones of the East still ; but the Hindoo and Zoroastrian very early adopted 
a symbolic thread instead of the ophite deity, and the throwing of this over the 
head is also a very sacred rite, which consecrates the man-child to his God ; this I 
should perhaps have earlier described, and will do so now. The adoption of the 
Poita or sacred thread, called also the Zenar, and from the most ancient pro-historic 
times by these two great Bactro-Aryan families, points to a period when both had 
the same faith, and that faith the, Serpent. The Investiture is the Confirmation 
or second birth of the Hindoo boy ; until which lie can not, of course, be married. 
After the worship of the heavenly stone the Saligrama, the youth or child takes a 
branch of the Vilwa tree in his right hand, and a mystic cloth-bag in the left, when 
a Poita is formed of three fibres of the Sooroo tree (for the first cord must always 
be made of the genuine living fibres of an orthodox tree), and this is hung to the boy's 
left shoulder; he then raises the Vilwa branch over his right shoulder, and so stands 
for some time, a complete figure of the old faiths in Tree and Serpent, until the priest 
offers up various prayers and incantations to Soorya, Savitri or Sot, the Eternal God. 
The Sooroo-Poita is then removed as not durable enough, and the permanent thread 
is put over the neck. It also is formed of three threads, each 96 cubits or 48 yards 
long, folded and twisted together until only so long that, when thrown over the 
left shoulder, it extends half-way down the right thigh, or a little less ; for the ob- 
ject appears to be to unite the Caput, Sol, or Seat of intellect with that of passion, 
and so form a perfect man. 5 

All Parsis wear the sacred thread of serpent and phallic extraction, and the in- 
vestiture of this is a solemn and essential rite with both sects [i. e., the Hindus and 



1 Picart, C6remouies ct Coutumes, etc., vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 09. 

* Malte Bran, Univ. Geog., vol. 2, lib. 50, p. 235, Philadelphia, 1832. 

3 Dr. J. L. August Von Eye, The history of culture, in Iconographic Encyc., Philadelphia, 1886, vol. 2, 
p. 169. 

4 Furlong. Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 120. 
6 Ibid., pp. 240-241. 



KOL-RKE.] CORDS OF THE BRAHMANS. 565 

Parsis], showing their joint Aryan origin in high Asia, for the thread is of the very 
highest antiquity. The Parsi does not, however, wear his thread across the shoulder, 
and knows nothing of the all-bnt- forgotten origin of its required length. He wears 
it next to his skin, tied carefully round the waist, and used to tie it round his right 
arm, as is still the custom with some classes of Brahmins who have lost purity of 
caste by intermarriage with lower classe.i. 1 

At the baptism or investiture of the thread, which takes the place of the Christian 
confirmation ceremony, but between the ages of 7 and 9, Fire and Water are the 
great sanctifying elements, and are the essentials. The fire is kindled from the 
droppings of the sacred cow, then sprinkled over with holy water and blessed ; and 
when so consecrated by the priest it is called " Holy Fire."' 2 

"The Brahmans. the Rajas, and the Merchants, distinguish themselves 
from the various casts of Sudras by a narrow belt of thread, which they 
always wear suspended from the left shoulder to the opposite haunch 
like a sash." 3 But, as Dubois speaks of the division of all the tribes 
into "Eight-hand and Left-hand," a distinction which Col email 4 ex- 
plains as consisting in doing exactly contrariwise of each other, it is 
not a very violent assumption to imagine that both the present and a 
former method of wearing the izze-kloth, akin to that now followed by 
the Apache, may once have obtained in India. The sectaries of the 
two Hands are bitterly antagonistic and often indulge in fierce quarrels, 
ending in bloodshed. 5 

" All the Brahmans wear a Cord over the shoulder, consisting of three 
black twists of cotton, each of them formed of several smaller threads. 
. . . The three threads are not twisted together, but separate from 
one another, and hang from the left shoulder to the right haunch. 
When a Brahman marries, he mounts nine threads instead of three." 
Children were invested with these sacred cords at the age of from 7 
to 9. The cords had to be made and put on with much ceremony, and 
only Brahmans could make them. According to Dubois, the material 
was cotton ; he does not allude to buckskin. 6 

Coleman 7 gives a detailed description of the manner in which the 
sacred thread of the Brahmans is made : 

The sacred thread must be made by a Brahman. It consists of three strings, each 
ninety-six hands (forty-eight yards), which are twisted together : it is then folded 
into three and again twisted; these are a second time folded into the same number 
and tied at each end in knots. It is worn over the left shoulder (next the skin, ex- 
tending half way down the right thigh), by the Brahmaus, Retries and Vaisya castes. 
The first are usually invested with it at eight years of age, the second at eleven, and 
the Vaisya at twelve. . . . The Hindus of the Sutra caste do not receive the 
poita. 

The ceremony of investiture comprehends prayer, sacrifice, fasting, 
etc., and the wearing of a preliminary poita "of three threads, made of 
the libers of the suru, to which a piece of deer's skin is fastened." 8 
This piece of buckskin was added no doubt in order to let the neophyte 



1 Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 328. * Mythology of the Hindus, pp. 9, 10, 11. 

Ibid., p. 323. e Ibid., p. 92. 

3 Dnbois. People of India, p. 9. ' Ibid., p. 155. 

4 Mythology of the Hindus. Ibid., pp. 135, 154, 155. 



566 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

know that once buckskin formed an important part of the garment. 
The Brahmans use three cords, while the Apache employ four; on this 
subject we shall have more to learn when we take up the subject of 
numbers. 

Maurice says that the " sacred cord of India," which he calls the 
zennar, is " a cord of three threads in memory and honor of the three 
great deities of Hindostan." ' It " can be woven by no profane hand ; the 
Brahmin alone can twine the hallowed threads that compose it and it 
is done by him with the utmost solemnity, and with the addition of 
many mystic rites." 2 It corresponds closely to the izze-kloth ; the Apache 
do not want people to touch these cords. The zennar "being put 
upon the left shoulder passes to the right side and hangs down as low 
as the fingers can reach." 3 The izze-kloth of the Apache, when pos- 
sible, is made of twisted antelope skin ; they have no cord of hemp ; 
but when the zennar is "put on for the first time, it is accompanied 
with a piece of the skin of an antelope, three fingers in breadth, but 
shorter than the zennar." 4 

On p. 128 of Viuing's An Inglorious Columbus, there is a figure of 
worshipers offering gifts to Buddha; from Buddha's left shoulder to 
his right hip there passes what appears to be a cord, much like the 
izze-kloth of the Apache. 

Examples of the use of such cords are to be found elsewhere. 

In the conjuration of one of the shamans, " They took a small line 
made of deers' skins of four fathoms long, and with a small knot the 
priest made it fast about his neck and under his left arm, and gave it 
unto two men standing on both sides of him, which held the ends to- 
gether!" 5 It is difficult to say whether this was a cord used on the 
present occasion only or worn constantly by the shaman. In either 
case the cord was " medicine." 

Hagennaar relates that he " saw men wearing ropes with knots in 
them, flung over their shoulders, whose eyes turned round in tlieir 
heads, and who were called Jammaboos, signifying as much as conju- 
rors or exorcists." 6 

The Mahometans believe that at the day of judgment Jesus Christ 
and Mahomet are to meet outside of Jerusalem holding a tightly- 
stretched cord between them upon which all souls must walk. This 
may or may not preserve a trace of a former use of such a cord in their 
" medicine," but it is well to refer to it. 7 

1 Maurice, Indian Antiquities, London, 1801, vol. 5, p. 205. 

2 Ibid., vol. 4, p. 375, where a description of the mode of weaving and twining is given. 

3 Ibid., p. 376. 

* Ibid., vol. 5, p. 206. 

6 Notes of Eichard Johnson, Voyages of Sir Hugh Willoughby and others to the northern part of 
Russia and Siberia, Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. 1, p. 03. 
6 Caron's account of Japan in Pinkertou's Voyages, vol. 7. p. 631. 
' Eev. Father Dandiui's Voyage to Mount Libanus, in Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. 10, p. 286. 



BOUBKE.] SACRED CORDS. 567 

The sacred thread and garment which were worn by all the perfect 
among the Cathari, and the use of which by both Zends and Brahinans 
shows that its origin is to be traced back to a pre-historic period. 1 

" No religious rite can be performed by a (child) before he has been 
girt with the sacred girdle, since he is on a level with a Sudra before 
his (new) birth from the Veda." 2 

In explaining the rules of external purification that is, purification 
in which water is the medium Baudhayana says : 3 

The sacrificial thread (shall be made) of Kusa grass, or cotton, (and consist) of 
thrice three strings. 

(It shall hang down) to the navel. 

(In putting it on) he shall raise the right arm, lower the left, and lower the head. 

The contrary (is done at sacrifices) to the manes. 

(If the thread is) suspended around the neck (it is called) nivita. 

(If it is) suspended below (the navel, it is called) adhopavlta. 

A former use of sacred cords would seem to be suggested in the con- 
stant appearance of the belief in the mystical properties and the power 
for good or evil of the knots which constitute the characteristic append- 
age of these cords. This belief has been confined to no race or people; 
it springs up in the literature of the whole world and survives with a 
pertinacity which is remarkable among the peasantry of Europe and 
among many in both America and Europe who would not hesitate to 
express resentment were they to be included among the illiterate. 

The powers of these knots were recognized especially iu strengthening 
or defeating love, as aiding women in labor, and in other ways which 
prove them to be cousins-german to the magic knots with which the 
medicine-men of the Lapps and other nations along the shores of the 
Baltic were supposed to be able to raise or allay the tempest. " One of 
the torments with which witchcraft worried men was the Knot by which 
a man was withheld so that he could not work his will with a woman. 
It was called in the Latin of the times Nodus and Obligamentum, and 
appears in the glossaries, translated by the Saxons into lyb, drug." 
"To make a 'ligatura ' is pronounced ' detestable' by Theodorus, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, in 668. The knot is still known in France, and 
Nouer 1'aiguillette is a resort of ill-will." Then is given the adventure 
of Hrut, prince of Iceland, and his bride Gunuhilld, princess of Nor- 
way, by whom a "knot" was duly tied to preserve his fidelity during 
his absence. 4 "Traces of this philosophy are to be found elsewhere," 
(references are given from Pliny and Galens in regard to "nod"). 5 
" A knot among the ancient northern nations seems to have been the 
symbol of love, faith, aud friendship, pointing out the indissoluble tie 
of affection and duty. Thus the ancient Eunic inscriptions, as we 
gather from Hickes's Thesaurus, are in the form of a knot. Hence, 

1 Henry Charles Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, vol. 1, p. 92, New York, 1888. 
1 Huller, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 14, VasishWia, cap. 2, par 6. 
' Ibid., Baudhayana, prasna 1, adhyaya 5, kandika 8, pars. 5-10, p. 165. 
4 Saxon Leechdoms, vol. 1, pp. xli-xliii. 
fi Ibid., p. xliii. 



568 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

among the northern English and Scots, who still retain, in a great 
measure, the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious 
kind of a knot, a mutual present between the lover and his mistress, 
which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore 
called a true-love knot : a name which is not derived, as one would 
naturally suppose it to be, from the words 'true' and 'love,' but formed 
from the Danish verb Trulofa, fidem do, I plight my troth, or faith. 
. . . Hence, evidently, the bride favors or the top-knots at marriages, 
which have been considered as emblems of the ties of duty and affec- 
tion between the bride and her spouse, have been derived." ' 

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, 2 says "the true-lover's knot 
is much magnified, and still retained in presents of love among us ; 
which, though in all points it doth not make out, had, perhaps, its 
original from Nodus Herculauus, or that which was called Hercules, his 
knot resembling the snaky complications in the caduceus or rod of Hermes 
and in which form the zone or woolen girdle of the bride was fastened, 
as Turnebus observes in his Adversaria." Brand shows 3 that the 
true-lover's knot had to be tied three times. Another species of knot divi- 
nation is given in the Connoisseur, No. 56 : " Whenever I go to lye in 
a strange bed, I always tye my garter nine times round the bed-post, 
and knit nine knots in it, and say to myself: ' this knot I knit, this 
knot I tye, to see my love as he goes by,' etc. There was also a sugges- 
tion of color symbolism in the true-lover's knot, blue being generally 
accepted as the most appropriate tint. I find among the illiterate Mex- 
ican population of the lower Itio Grande a firm belief in the power pos- 
sessed by a lock of hair tied into knots to retain a maiden's affections. 

" I find it stated that headache may be alleviated by tying a woman's 
fillet round the head. 4 To arrest incontinence of urine, the extremities 
of the generative organs should be tied with a thread of linen or 
papyrus, and a binding passed round the middle of the thigh. 5 It is 
quite surprising how much more speedily wounds will heal if they are 
bound up and tied with a Hercules' knot; indeed, it is said that if the 
girdle which we wear every day is tied with* a knot of this description, 
it will be productive of certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been 
the first to discover the fact." 6 " Healing girdles were already known 
to Marcellus." 7 

"In our times 'tis a common thing, saitli Erastus in his book de 
Lamiis, for witches to take upon them the making of these philters, to 
force men and women to love and hate whom they will; to cause tem- 
pests, diseases, &c., by charms, spels, characters, knots." 8 



> Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 108, 109. 

a Browne, Religio Medici, p. 392. 

3 Brand, op. cit., p. 110. 

1 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 22. 

5 Ibid., lib. 28, cap. 17. 

Ibid. 

7 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1169. 

8 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy. London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 91 ; vol. 2, pp. 288, 290. 



BOURKE.] MAGICAL CORDS AND KNOTS. 569 

Burton ' alludes to the "inchanted girdle of Venus, in which, saith 
Natales Comes, . . .all witchcraft to enforce love was contained." 

The first general council of Milan, in 1565, prohibited the use of what 
were called phylacteries, ligatures, and reliquaries (of heathen origin) 
which people all over Europe were in the habit of wearing at neck or 
on arms or knees. 2 

" King James 3 enumerates thus : ' Such kiude of charmes as ... 
staying married folkes to have naturally adoe with each other, by knit- 
ting so many knots upon a point at the time of their marriage.'" 4 

" Tying the point was another fascination, illustrations of which may 
be found in Reginald Scott's Discourse Concerning Devils and Spirits, 
p. 71; in the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 225; and in the British 
Apollo, vol. 2, No. 35, 1709. In the old play of The Witch of Edmonton, 
1658 Young Banks says, ' Ungirt, unbless'd, says the proverb.'" 5 

Frommanu speaks of the frequent appearance of knots in witchcraft, 
but, beyond alluding to the " Nodus Cassioticus" of a certain people 
near Pelusia, who seem, like the Laplanders, to have made a business 
of fabricating and selling magic knots, he adds nothing to our stock of 
information on the subject. He seems to regard the knot of Hercules 
and the Gordiau knot as magical knots. 6 

Bogle mentions the adoration of the Grand Lama (Teshu Larna). 
The Lama's servants " put a bit of silk with a knot upon it, tied, or 
supposed to be tied, with the Lama's own hands, about the necks of the 
votaries." 7 

A girdle of Venus, " possessing qualities not to be described," was 
enumerated among the articles exhibited at a rustic wedding in England. 8 

In 1519, Torralva, the Spanish magician, was given by his guardian 
spirit, Zequiel, a " stick full of knots," with the injunction, " shut your 
eyes and fear nothing ; take this in your hand, and no harm will happen 
to you." 9 Here the idea evidently was that the power resided in the 
knots. 

"Immediately before the celebration of the marriage ceremony [in 
Perthshire, Scotland] every knot about the bride and bridegroom (gar- 
ters, shoe-strings, strings of petticoats, &c.), is carefully loosened." 10 

"The precaution of loosening every knot about the new-joined pair is 
strictly observed [in Scotland], for fear of the penalty denounced in the 
former volumes. It must be remarked that the custom is observed even 
in France, nouer Paiguillette being a common phrase for disappoint- 
ments of this nature." 11 

1 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 91 ; vol. 2, p. 290. 

2 Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes, etc., vol. 10, pp. 69-73. 

3 Daemonology, p. 100. 

4 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 299. 
'Ibid., p. 170. 

Trommann, Tractatus de Fasclnatione, Nuremberg, 1675, ]>. 731. 
* Markham, Bogle's mission to Tibet, London, 1876, p. 85. 
Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 149. 

9 Thomas Wright, Sorcery and Magic, London, 1851, vol. 2, p. 10. 

10 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 143. 

" Pennant, in Pinki'rton, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 382. 



570 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

In some parts of Germany " a bride will tie a string of flax around her 
left leg, in the belief that she will thereby enjoy the full blessing of the 
married state." 1 

"There was formerly a custom in the north of England, which will be 
thought to have bordered very closely upon indecency . . . for the 
young men present at a wedding to strive, immediately after the cere- 
mony, who could first pluck oif the bride's garters from h er legs. This was 
done before the very altar . . . I have sometimes thought this a frag- 
ment of the ancient ceremony of loosening the virgin zone, or girdle, a 
custom that needs no explanation." " It is the custom in Normandy for 
the bride to bestow her garter on some young man as a favour, or some- 
times it is taken from her . . . I am of opinion that the origin of 
the Order of the Garter is to be traced to this nuptial custom, anciently 
common to both court and country." 2 

Grimm quotes from Hincmar of Eheims to show the antiquity of the 
use for both good and bad purposes of "ligatures," " cum filulis colorum 
multipliciuni." 3 

To undo the effects of a " ligature," the following was in high repute: 
"Si quern voles per noctem cum fcemina coire non posse, pistillum cor- 
onaturn sub lecto illius pone." 4 But a pestle crowned with flowers could 
be nothing more or less than a phallus, and, therefore, an offering to 
the god Priapus. 

" Owing to a supposed connection which the witches knew between 
the relations of husband and wife and the mysterious knots, the bride- 
groom, formerly in Scotland and to the present day in Ireland, presents 
himself occasionally, and in rural districts, before the clergyman, with 
all knots and fastenings on his dress loosened, and the bride, imme- 
diately after the ceremony is perfoimed, retires to be undressed, and so 
rid of her knots." 5 

USE OP COEDS AND KNOTS AND GIRDLES IN PARTURITION. 

Folk medicine in all regions is still relying upon the potency of mys- 
tical cords and girdles to facilitate labor. The following are a few of 
the many examples which might be presented : 

Delivery was facilitated if the man by whom the woman has con- 
ceived unties his girdle, and, after tying it round her, unties it, saying: 
"I have tied it and I will untie it," and then takes his departure. 6 

"Henry, in his History of Britain, vol. 1, p. 459, tells us that ' amongst 
the ancient Britons, when a birth was attended with any difficulty, they 
put certain girdles made for that purpose about the women in labour 
which they imagined gave immediate and effectual relief. Such girdles 
were kept with care till very lately in many families in the Highlands 

1 Hoffman, quoting Friend, in Jonr. Am. Folk Lore, 1888, p. 134. 

2 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, pp. 127 et seq. 

3 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1174. He also speaks of the " nouer 1'aignillette, ibid., p. 1175. 

*Saxon Leechdoms, vol. 1, p. xliv. 

Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186. 

Pliuy, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 9. 



BOCBKE.] CORDS USED IN PARTURITION. 571 

of Scotland. They were impressed with several mystical figures ; and 
the ceremony of binding them about the woman's waist was accom- 
panied with words and gestures, which showed the custom to have 
been of great antiquity, and to have come originally from the Druids.'" ' 

" But my girdle shall serve as a riding knit, and a fig for all the 
witches in Christendom." 2 The use of girdles in labor must be ancient. 

"Ut mulier concipiat, homo vir si solvat semicinctum suuin et earn 
pra3cingat." 3 " Certurn est quod partum mirabiliter facilirent, sive instar 
cinguli circumdentur corpori." These girdles were believed to aid labor 
and cure dropsy and urinary troubles. 4 

"The following customs of childbirth are noticed in the Traite" des 
Superstitions of M. Thiers, vol. 1, p. 320 : ' Lors qu'une femme est preste 
d'accoucher, prendre sa ceinture, aller a 1'Eglise, Her la cloche avec cette 
ceinture et la fake sonner trois coups afin que cette femme accouche 
heureusement. Martin de Aries, Archidiacre de Pampelonne (Tract, 
de Superstition) asseure que cette superstition est fort en usage dans 
tout son pays.'" 5 

In the next two examples there is to be found corroboratiou of the 
views advanced by Forloug that these cords (granting that the princi- 
ple upon which they all rest is the same) had originally some relation 
to ophic rites. Brand adds from Levinus Lemnius : "Let the woman 
that travels with her child (is in her labour) be girded with the skin 
that a serpent or a snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered." 6 
A serpent's skin was tied as a belt about a woman in childbirth." Inde 
puerperal circa collum aut corporem apposito, victoriam in puerperii 
conflictu habuerunt, citissimeque liberate fuerunt." 7 

The following examples, illustrative of the foregoing, are taken from 
Flemming : The skins of human corpses were drawn off, preferably by 
cobblers, tanned, and made into girdles, called "Cingula" or Chiroth- 
ecfe, which were bound on the left thigh of a woman in labor to expe- 
dite delivery. The efficacy of these was highly extolled, although 
some writers recommended a recourse to tiger's skin for the purposes 
indicated. This "caro humano" was euphemistically styled " mummy" 
or "mumia" by VonHelmout and others of the early pharmacists, when 
treating of it as an internal medicament. 

There was a " Cingulum excorio humano" bound round patients during 
epileptic attacks, convulsions, childbirth, etc., and another kind of belt de- 
scribed as "ex cute humana conficiunt," and used in contraction of the 
nerves and rheumatism of the j oiuts, 8 also bound round the body in cramp. 9 

1 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 67. 
'Ibid., p. 170. 

3 Sextus Placitns, De Meilicamentis ex Animalibus, Lyons, 1537, pages not numbered, article " de 
Puello et Puellffi Virgine." 

4 Etmiiller, Opera Omnia, Lyons, 1690, vol. 2, p. 279, Schroderii Dilncidati Zoologia. 
6 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 68, footnote. 

6 Ibid., p. 67. 

' Paracelsus, Chimrgia Minora, in Opera Omnia, Geneva, 1662, vol. 2, p. 70. 

Ibid., p. 174. 

9 Becklierius, Medicus Microcosmus, London, 1660, p. 174. 



572 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

"The girdle was an essential article of dress, and early ages ascribe 
to it other magic influences : e. g., Thor's divine strength lay in his girdle." l 
In speaking of the belief in lycautrophy he says: "The common belief 
among us is that the transformation is effected by tying a strap round 
the body; this girth is only three fingers broad, and is cut out of 
human skin." 2 Scrofulous tumors were cured by tying them with a 
linen thread which had choked a viper to death. 3 "Filum rubrum se- 
raceum [silk] cum quo strangulata fuit vipera si circumdatur collo an- 
gina laborantes, eundem curare dicitur propter idem strangulationis et 
sufibcationis." 4 

" Quidain commendant tanquam specificum, ad Anginam fllum pur. 
pureum cum quo strangulata fuit vipera, si collo circumdetur." 5 

"MEDIDAS," "MEASURING COEDS," "WRESTING THREADS," ETC. 

Black says: 6 "On the banks of the Ale and the Teviot the women 
have still a custom of wearing round their necks blue woollen threads or 
cords till they wean their children, doing this for the purpose of avert- 
ing ephemeral fevers. These cords are handed down from mother to 
daughter, and esteemed in proportion to their antiquity. Probably 
these cords had originally received some blessing." 

Black's surmise is well founded. These cords were, no doubt, the same 
as the ' ' medidas " or measurements of the holy images of Spain and other 
parts of Continental Europe. " The ribands or serpent symbols [of 
Our Lady of Montserrat] are of silk, and exactly the span of the Vir- 
gin's head, and on them is printed ' medida de la cabeza de Nuestra 
Senora Maria Santisima de Montserrat,^ i. e., exact head measurement 
of Our Lady of Montserrat." 7 

These same " medidas " may be found in full vogue in the outlying 
districts of Mexico to-day. Twenty years ago I saw them at the 
" funcion" of San Francisco, in the little town of Magdalena, in So- 
nora. I watched carefully to see exactly what the women did and ob- 
served that the statue of St. Francis (which, for greater convenience, 
was exposed outside of the church, where the devout could reach it 
without disturbing the congregation within) was measured from head 
to foot with pieces of ribbon, which were then wrapped up and packed 
away. In reply to my queries, I learned that the "medida" of the 
head was a specific for headache, that of the waist for all troubles in 
the abdominal region, those of the legs, arms, and other parts for the 
ailments peculiar to each of them respectively. This was in a commu- 
nity almost, if not absolutely, Roman Catholic; but in the thoroughly 
Protestant neighborhood of Carlisle, Pa., the same superstition exists 

1 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1094, footnote. 

* Ibid., p. 1096. 

* Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 30, cap. 12. 

4 Etmilller, Opera Omnia, Lyons, 1690, vol. 2, pp.282, 283, Schroderii Dilucidati Zoologia. 

Ibid., p. 278a. 

6 Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 113. 

' Forlong, Kivers of Life, London, 1883, vol. 2, i>. 313. 



BOUKKE.] 



MEDICAL USE OF CORDS. 573 



in full vigor, as I know personally. Three years ago my second 
child was suffering from the troubles incident to retarded dentition and 
had to he taken to the mountains at Holly Springs, within sight of 
Carlisle. I was begged and implored by the women living in the place 
to have the child taken to " a wise woman" to be "measured," and was 
assured that some of the most intelligent people in that part of the 
country were firm believers in the superstition. When I declined to 
lend countenance to such nonsense I was looked upon as a brutal and 
unnatural parent, caring little for the welfare of his offspring. 

<' In John Bale's Comedye concernynge thre Lawes, 1538 . . . 
Hypocrysy is introduced, mentioning the following charms against bar- 
renness : 

And as for Lyons, there is the length of our Lorde 

In a great pyller. She that will with a coorde 
Be fast hound to it, and fafce soclie cliaiince as fall 
Shall sure have chylde, for within it is hollowe all." ' 

When a person in Shetland has received a sprain " it is customary to 
apply to an individual practiced in casting the ' wrested thread.' 
This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine, knots, 
and tied round a sprained leg or arm." It is applied by the medicine- 
man with the usual amount of gibberish and incantation. 2 These 
"wresting or wrested threads" are also to be found among Germans, 
Norwegians, Swedes, and Flemings. 3 

Grimm quotes from Chambers's Fireside Stories, Edinburgh, 1842, 
p. 37 : " During the time the operator is putting the thread round the 
afflicted limb he says, but in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by 
the bystanders, nor even by the person operated upon : " The Lord rade, 
and the foal slade; he lighted, and he righted, set joint to joint, bone to 
bone, and sinew to sinew. Heal in the Holy Ghost's name! " 4 

" Eily McGarvey, a Donegal wise woman, employs a green thread in 
her work. She measures her patient three times round the waist with 
a ribbon, to the outer edge of which is fastened a green thread. . . . 
She next hands the patient nine leaves of ' heart fever grass.' or dande- 
lion, gathered by herself, directing him to eat three leaves on successive 
mornings." 5 

Miss Edna Dean Proctor, the poet, told me, June 9, 1887, that some 
years ago, while visiting relations in Illinois, she met a woman who, 
having been ill for a long time, had despaired of recovery, and in hope 
of amelioration had consulted a man pretending to occult powers, who 
prescribed that she wear next the skin a certain knotted red cord which 
he gave her. 

On a previous page the views of Forlong have been presented, show- 
ing that there were reasons for believing that the sacred cords of the 

1 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 69. 

2 Notes and Queries, 1st series, vol. 4, p. 500. 

3 See also Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 79. 

4 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1233. 
Black, Folk-Medicine, London. 1883. p. 114. 



574 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

East Indies could be traced back to an ophic origin, and it has also 
been shown that, until the present day, among the peasantry of Europe, 
there has obtained the practice of making girdles of snake skin which 
have been employed for the cure of disease and as an assistance in 
childbirth. The snake itself, while still alive, as has been shown, is 
applied to the person of the patient by the medicine-men of the Amer- 
ican Indians. 

In connection with the remarks taken from Forlong's Eivers of Life 
on this subject, I should like to call attention to the fact that the long 
knotted blacksnake whip of the wagoners of Europe and America, 
which, when not in use, is worn across the body from shoulder to hip, 
has been identified as related to snake worship. 

There is another view to take of the origin of these sacred cords 
which it is fair to submit before passing final judgment. The izze-kloth 
may have been in early times a cord for tying captives who were taken 
in war, and as these captives were offered up in sacrifice to the gods of 
war and others they were looked upon as sacred, and all used in con- 
nection with them would gradually take on a sacred character. The 
same kind of cords seem to have been used in the chase. This would 
explain a great deal of the superstition connected with the whole sub- 
ject of "hangman's rope" bringing luck, curing disease, and averting 
trouble of all sorts, a superstition more widely disseminated and going 
back to more ancient times than most people would imagine. One of 
the tribes of New Granada, "quando iban a la Guerra llevaban Cor- 
deles para atar a los Presos." J This recalls that the Apache them- 
selves used to throw lariats from ambush upon travelers, and that the 
Thugs who served the goddess Bhowani, in India, strangled with cords, 
afterwards with handkerchiefs. The Spaniards in Peru, under Jorge 
Robledo, going toward the Rio Magdalena, in 1542, found a large body 
of savages "que llevaban Cordeles, para atar a los Castellanos, i sus 
Pedernales, para despedayarlos, i Ollas para cocerlos." 2 The Austral- 
ians carried to war a cord, called "Nerum," about 2 feet 6 inches 
long, made of kangaroo hair, used for strangling an enemy. 3 

The easiest method of taking the hyena "is for the hunter to tie his 
girdle with seven knots, and to make as many knots in the whip with 
which he guides his horse." 4 Maj. W. Cornwallis Harris 5 describes a 
search made for a lost camel. A man was detailed to search for the 
animal and provided with the following charm to aid him in his 
search : " The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had been fet- 
tered was rolled betwixt his (the Ras el Kafilah's) hands, and sundry 
cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged 

1 Herrera, dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 1, p. 171. 
' Ibid., dec. 7, lib. 4, cap. 5, p. 70. 

3 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 351. See also previous references to the use of such cords 
by the Australians. 
1 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 27. 
8 Highlands of Ethiopia, vol. 1, p. 247. 



BOURKE.] 



MAGICAL CORDS. 575 



by the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each 
spell, it was finally delivered over to the Dankali about to be sent on 
the quest." Stanley describes the "lords of the cord" at the court of 
Mtesa, king of Uganda, but they seem to be provost officers and exe- 
cutioners merely. 1 " In cases of quartan fever they take a fragment of 
a nail from a cross, or else a piece of a halter that has been used for 
crucifixion, and after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the patient's 
neck, taking care, the moment he has recovered, to conceal it in some 
hole to which the light of the sun can not penetrate." 2 There is a wide- 
spread and deeply rooted belief that a rope which has hanged a man, 
either as a felon or suicide, possesses talismanic powers. 3 Jean Bap- 
tiste Thiers 4 says: "II y a des gens assez fons pour s'imaginer qu'ils 
seront heureux an jeu . . . pourvu qu'ils ay ent sur enx un morceau 
de corde de pendu." Brand says: "I remember once to have seen, at 
Newcastle upon Tyne, after a person executed had been cut down, men 
climb upon the gallows and contend for that part of the rope which 
remained, and which they wished to preserve for some lucky purpose or 
other. I have lately made the important discovery that it is reckoned 
a cure for the headache." 5 "A halter with which one had been hanged 
was regarded within recent times in England as a cure for headache if 
tied round the head." 6 

In the long list of articles employed by the ancients for the purpose 
of developing affection or hatred between persons of opposite sex, 
Burtou mentions "funis strangulati hominis." 7 "A remarkable super- 
stition still prevails among the lowest of our vulgar, that a man may 
lawfully sell his wife to another, provided he deliver her over with a 
halter about her neck. It is painful to observe that instances of this 
frequently occur in our newspapers." " While discussing this branch 
of the subject, it might be well to peruse what has already been 
inserted under the head of the uses to which were put the threads 
which had strangled vipers and other serpents. 

UNCLASSIFIED SUPERSTITIONS UPON THIS SUBJECT. 

In conclusion, I wish to present some of the instances occurring in my 
studies which apparently have a claim to be included in a treatise upon 
the subject of sacred cords and knots. These examples are presented 
without comment, as they are, to all intents and purposes, ''survivals," 
which have long ago lost their true significance. Attention is in- 
vited to the fact that the very same use seems to be made by the 

1 Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 398. 

2 Pliny, Nat, Hist..lib. 28, cap. 11. 

a Notes and Queries, 4th series, vol. 5, pp. 295, 390. 

4 Traite des Superstitions, tome 1, chap. 3, paragraph 3. 

* Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 276. 

6 Black, Folk-Medicine, p. W,. 

' Anat my of Melancholy, v,,l. 2, pp. 288, 200. 

Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2 p. 107. 



576 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

Irish of hair cords as we have already seen has been made by the 
Australians. 

The Jewish garment with knots at the corners would appear to have 
been a prehistoric garment preserved in religious ceremonial; it would 
seem to be very much like the short blanket cloak, with tufts or knots 
at the four corners, .still made by and in use among the Zuiii, Navajo, 
Tusayan, and Eio Grande Pueblos. But magic knots were by no means 
unknown to Jews, Assyrians, or other nations of Syria and Mesopo- 
tamia. 

"In Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, we 
read : About children's necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St. 
John's Gospel, a crooked nail of a horseshoe, or a piece of a wolve's 
skin, and both the sucking child and nurse were girt with girdles finely 
plaited with woman's hair." ' 

Gainsford, in his Glory of England, speaking of the Irish, p. 150, 
says: "They use incantations and spells, wearing girdles of woman's 
haire, and locks of their lover's." 

Cainden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish, says that 
" they are observed to present their lovers with bracelets of women's 
hair, whether in reference to Venus' cestus or not, I know not." 2 
This idea of a resemblance between the girdle of Venus and the use of 
the maiden's hair may be worth consideration; on the same page Brand 
quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher: 

Bracelets of our lovers' hair, 
Which they on our arms shall twist, 

and garters of the women were generally worn by lovers. 3 

"Chaque habit qu'ils [the Jews] portent doit avoir quatre pands, & a 
chacun un cordon pendant en forme de houppe, qu'ils nommeut Zizit. 
Ce cordon est ordinairement dehuit flls de laine fitee exprivs pour cela, 
avec cinqnceuds chacun, qui occupent la moitie de la longueur. Cequi 
n'est pas noue etant efile acheve de faire uue espece de houppe, qu'ils 
se fassent, dit la Loi, des cordons aux pands de leurs habits." 4 
The following is from Black: 5 

When Manluk [Assyrian god] wishes to comfort a dying man his father Hea 
says: "Go 

Take a woman's linen kerchief! 

Bind it round thy left hand: loose it from the left hand! 

Knot it with seven knots: do so twice: 

Sprinkle it with bright wine : 

Bind it round the head of the sick man : 

Bind it round his hands and feet, like manacles and fetters. 

Sit round on his bed : 

Sprinkle holy water over him. 

He shall hear the voice of Hea. 

Davkina shall protect him ! 

And Marduk, Eldest Son of heaven, shall find him a happy habitation." 

' Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2. p. 78. Picart, Ceremonies et Cofttumes, etc., vol. 1, p. 41. 

* Ibid., p. 91. Folk -Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186. 

3 Ibid., p. 93. 



BOUBKE.] MAGICAL COEDS AND KNOTS. 577 

A variant of the same formula is to be found in Francois Lenormant's 
Chaldean Magic. 1 Lenormant speaks of the Chaldean use of "magic 
knots, the efficacy of which was so firmly believed in even up to the 
middle ages." 

Again, he says that magic cords, with knots, were " still very common 
among the Nabathean sorcerers of the Lower Euphrates," in the four- 
teenth century, and in his opinion the use of these was derived from 
the ancient Chaldeans. In still another place he speaks of the "magic 
knots" used by Finnish conjurors in curing diseases. 

" The Jewish phylactery was tied in a knot, but more generally knots 
are found in use to bring about some enchantment or disenchantment. 
Thus in an ancient Babylonian charm we have 

' Merodach, the sou of Hea, the prince, with his holy ha mis cuts the knots. 
That is to say, he takes off the evil influence of the knots. So, 
too, witches sought in Scotland to compass evil by tying knots. 
Witches, it was thought, could supply themselves with the milk of 
any neighbor's cows if they had a small quantity of hair from the tail 
of each of the animals. The hair they would twist into a rope and then 
a knot would be tied on the rope for every cow which had contributed 
hair. Under the clothes of a witch who was burned at St. Andrews, in 
1572, was discovered 'a white claith, like a collore craig, with stringis, 
wheron was moiiy knottis vpon the stringis of the said collore craig.' 
When this was taken from her, with a prescience then wrongly inter- 
preted, she said: 'Now I have no hope of myself.' 'Belyke scho 
thought,' runs the cotemporary account, 'scho suld not have died, 
that being vpon her,' but probably she meant that to be discovered 
with such an article in her possession was equivalent to the sentence of 
death. So lately as the beginning of the last century, two persons 
were sentenced to capital punishment for stealing a charm of knots, 
made by a woman as a device against the welfare of Spaldiug of 
Ashintilly." 2 

"Charmed belts are commonly worn in Lancashire for the cure of 
rheumatism. Elsewhere, a cord round the loins is worn to ward off 
toothache. Is it possible that there is any connection between this 
belt and the cord which in Burmah is hung round the neck of a 
possessed person while he is being thrashed to drive out the spirit 
which troubles him? Theoretically the thrashing is given to the 
spirit, and not to the man, but to prevent the spirit escaping too soon 
a charmed cord is hung round the possessed person's neck. When the 
spirit has been sufficiently humbled and has declared its name it may 
be allowed to escape, if the doctor does not prefer to trample on the 
patient's stomach till he fancies he has killed the demon." 3 

" The numerous notices in the folklore of all countries of magic stones, 
holy girdles, and other nurses' specials, attest the common sympathy of 
the human race." 4 



1 P. 41. ' Ibid., (after Tylor) pp. 176, 177. 

2 Black, Folk-Mediciuo, p. 186. Ibid,, p. 178. 
9 ETH 37 



578 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

This is from Brand: 1 "Devonshire cure for warts. Take a piece of 
twine, tie in it as many knots as you have warts, touch each wart with 
a knot, and then throw the twine behind your back into some place 
where it may soon decay a pond or a hole in the earth ; but tell no one 
what you have done. When the twine is decayed your warts will dis- 
appear without any pain or trouble, being in fact charmed away." 

" In our time, the anodyne necklace, which consists of beads turned 
out of the root of the white Bryony, and which is hung round the necks 
of infants, in order to assist their teething, and to ward off the con- 
vulsions sometimes incident to that processes an amulet." 2 

" Eowan, ash, and red thread," a Scotch rhyme goes, " keep the devils 
frae their speed." 3 

For the cure of scrofula, grass was selected. From one, two, or three 
stems, as many as nine joints must be removed, which must then be 
wrapped in black wool, with the grease in it. The person who gathers 
them must do so fasting, and must then go, in the same state, to the 
patient's house while he is from home. When the patient comes iu, 
the other must say to him three times, " I come fasting to bring a 
remedy to a fasting man," and must then attach the amulet to his 
person, repeating the same ceremony three consecutive days. 4 

Forloug says: "On the 2d [of May], fearing evil spirits and witches, 
Scotch farmers used to tie red thread upon their wives as well as their 
cows, saying these prevented miscarriages and preserved the milk." 5 

In Scotland "they hope to preserve the milk of their cows, and their 
wives from miscarriage, by tying threads about them." 6 

Brand gives a remedy for epilepsy:. "If, in the month of October, 
a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the elder, and cut the 
cane that is betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these 
pieces, being bound in a piece of linneu, be iu a thread so hung about 
the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the sword-formed 
cartilage." 7 

Black says: 8 " To cure warts a common remedy is to tie as many 
knots on a hair as there are warts and throw the hair away. Six knots 
of elderwood are used iu a Yorkshire incantation to ascertain if beasts 
are dying from witchcraft. Marcellus commended for sore eyes that a 
man should tie as many knots in un wrought flax as there are letters in 
his name, pronouncing each letter as he worked; this he was to tie 
round his neck. In the Orkneys, the blue thread was used for an evil 
purpose because such a colour savored of Popery and priests; in the 
northern counties it was used because a remembrance of its once pre- 



' Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 276. 

2 Salverte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. ], p. 195. 

s Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 197. 

4 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 24, cap. 118. 

5 Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 451. 

6 Pennant, quoted by Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 54. 
' Ibid., p. 285. 

8 Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186. 



BOUBKE.] MEDICAL USE OF MAGICAL CORDS. 579 

eminent value still survived in the minds of those who wore it, uncon- 
sciously, though still actively, influencing their thoughts. In perhaps 
the same way we respect the virtue of red threads, because, as Con- 
way puts it, ' red is sacred in one direction as symbolising the blood 
of Christ.'" 1 

" To cure ague [Hampshire, England] string nine or eleven snails on 
a thread, the patient saying, as each is threaded, ' Here I leave my 
ague.' When all are threaded they should be frizzled over a fire, and 
as the snails disappear so will the ague." 2 

Dr. Joseph Lanzoni scoffed at the idea that a red-silk thread could 
avail in erysipelas ; "Nequefilum sericum chermisiimm parti aft'ectae 
circumligatum erysipelata fugat." The word " chermesinum " is not 
given in Aius worth's Latin- English Dictionary, but it so closely re- 
sembles the Spanish " carmesi " that I have made bold to render it as 
" red " or " scarlet." 3 

" Red thread is symbolical of lightning," and is consequently laid on 
churns in Ireland " to prevent the milk from being bewitched and yield- 
ing no butter." " In Aberdeenshire it is a common practice with the 
housewife to tie a piece of red worsted thread round the cows' tails 
before turning them out for the first time in the season to grass. It 
secured the cattle from the evil-eye, elf-shots, and other dangers." 4 "It 
[blue] is the sky color and the Druid's sacred colour. 5 "In 1635, a man 
in the Orkney Islands was, we are led to believe, utterly ruined by nine 
knots cast on a blue thread and given to his sister." 

"In a curious old book, 12mo., 1554, entitled A Short Description of 
Antichrist, is this passage: 'I note all their Popishe traditions of con- 
nrmacion of yonge children with oyntiug of oyle and creame, and with 
a ragge knitte about the necke of the younge babe.' " 6 

A New England charm for an obstinate ague. "The patient in 
this case is to take a string made of woolen yarn, of three colors, and 
to go by himself to an apple-tree; there he is to tie his left hand loosely 
with the right to the tree by the tri-colored string, then to slip his hand 
out of the knot and run into the house without looking behind him." 7 

The dust "in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied up in a linen 
cloth with a red string, and attached to the body," 8 was one of the reme- 
dies for fevers. Another cure for fever : " Some inclose a caterpillar in 
a piece of linen, with a thread passed three times round it, and tie as 
many knots, repeating at each knot why it is that the patient performs 
that operation." 9 

" To prevent nose-bleeding people are told to this day to wear a skein 
of scarlet silk thread round the neck, tied with nine knots down the 
front; if the patient is a man, the silk being put on and the knots tied 

1 Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, i>. 113. 5 Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 112. 

2 Ibid., p. 57. 6 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 86. 
* Ephemeridum Pbysico-medicarum, Leipzig, Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 38. 

1694. vol. 1, p. 49. Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 30, cap. 20. 

' Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 112. ' Ibid. 



580 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

by a woman; and if the patient is a woman, then these good services 
being rendered by a man." ' 

A cord with nine knots in it, tied round the neck of a child suffering 
from whooping cough, was esteemed a sovereign remedy in Worcester, 
England, half a century ago. 

Again, references will be found to the superstitious use of " liga 
tures" down to a comparatively recent period, and " I remember it was 
a custom in the north of England for boys that swam to wear an eel's 
skin about their naked leg to prevent the cramp." 2 

THE MEDICINE HAT. 

The medicine hat of the old and blind Apache medicine-man, Nan- 
ta do-tash, was an antique affair of buckskin, much begrimed with soot 
and soiled by long use. Nevertheless, it gave life and strength to him 
who wore it, enabled the owner to peer into the future, to tell who had 
stolen ponies from other people, to foresee the approach of an enemy, 
and to aid in the cure of the sick. This was its owner's own statement 
in conversation with me, but it Avould seem that the power residing in 
the helmet or hat was not very permanent, because when the old man 
discovered from his wife that I had made a rude drawing of it he 
became extremely excited and said that such a delineation would 
destroy all the life of the hat. His fears were allayed by presents of 
money and tobacco, as well as by some cakes and other food. As a 
measure of precaution, he insisted upon sprinkling pinches of hoddentin 
over myself, the hat, and the drawing of it, at the same time muttering 
various half -articulate prayers. He returned a mouth afterwards and 
demanded the sum of $30 for damage done to the hat by the drawing, 
since which time it has ceased to " work " when needed. 

This same old man gave me an explanation of all the symbolism 
depicted upon the hat and a great deal of valuable information in 
regard to the profession of medicine-men, their specialization, the 
prayers they recited, etc. The material of the hat, as already stated, 
was buckskin. How that was obtained I can not assert positively, but 
from an incident occurring under my personal observation in the Sierra 
Madre in Mexico in 1883, where our Indian scouts and the medicine- 
men with them surrounded a nearly grown fawn and tried to capture 
it alive, as well as from other circumstances too long to be here inserted, 
I am of the opinion that the buckskin to be used for sacred purposes 
among the Apache must, whenever possible, be that of a strangled 
animal, as is the case, according to Dr. Matthews, among the Navajo. 

The body of Nau-ta-do-tash's cap (Pig. 434, p. 503) was uupainted, but 
the figures upon it were in two colors, a brownish yellow and an earthy 
blue, resembling a dirty Prussian blue. The ornamentation was of the 
downy feathers and black-tipped plumes of the eagle, pieces of abaloue 
shell, and chalchihuitl, and a snake's rattle on the apex. 

'Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 111. 
"Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, pp. 28S, 324. 



BOl'RKE.] 



THE MEDICINE HAT. 



581 



Nan-ta-do-tash explained that the characters oil the medicine hat 
meant: A, clouds; B, rainbow; C, hail; E, morning star ; F, the God of 
Wind, with his lungs; G, the black " kau"; H, great stars or suns. 

"Kan" is the name given to their principal gods. The appearance 
of the kan himself and of the tail of the hat suggest the centipede, an 
important animal god of the Apache. The old man said that the figures 
represented the powers to which he appealed for aid in his "medicine'' 
and the kan upon whom he (tailed for help. There were other doctors 
with other medicines, but he used none but those of which he was going 
to speak to me. 




FIG. 440. Apache war bonnet. 

When an Apache or other medicine-man is in full regalia he ceases 
to be a man, but becomes, or tries to make his followers believe that he 
has become, the power he represents. I once heard this asserted in a 
very striking way while I was with a party of Apache young men who 
had led me to one of the sacred caves of their people, in which we came 
across a great quantity of ritualistic paraphernalia of all sorts. 

"We used to stand down here," they said, " and look up to the top 
of the mountain and see the kan come down." This is precisely what 
the people living farther to the south told the early Spanish missiona- 
ries. 



582 



MEDICINE-MEN OP THE APACHE. 



The Mexicans were wont to cry out "Here come our gods!" upon 
seeing their priests masked and disguised, and especially when they 
had donned the skins of the women offered up in sacrifice. 1 

The headdresses worn by the gods of the American Indians and the 
priests or medicine-men who served them were persistently called " mi- 
ters" by the early Spanish writers. Thus Quetzalcoatl wore "en la 
cabea una Mitra de papel puntiaguda." 2 When Father Felician Lopez 
went to preach to the Indians of Florida, in 1697, among other matters 
of record is one to the effect that "the chief medicine man called him- 
self bishop." 3 Possibly this title was assumed because the medicine- 
men wore "miters." 

Duran goes further than his fellows. In the headdress used at the 
spirit dances he recognizes the tiara. He says that the Mexican priests 
at the feast of Tezcatlipoca wore "en las cabezas tiaras hechas de ba- 
rillas." 4 The ghost dance headdress illustrated in this paper (Fig. 441) is 
known to the Chiricahua Apache as the "ich-te," a contraction from 
"chas-a-i-wit-te," according to Ramon, the old medicine- man from whom 




FIG. 441. Ghost-dance headdress. 

I obtained it. He explained all the symbolism connected with it. The 
round piece of tin in the center is the sun ; the irregular arch under- 
neath it is the rainbow. Stars and lightning are depicted on the side 
slats and under them ; the parallelograms with serrated edges are 
clouds; the pendant green sticks are rain drops; there are snakes and 
snake heads on both horizontal and vertical slats, the heads in the 
former case being representative of hail. 

There are feathers of the eagle to conciliate that powerful bird, tur- 
key feathers to appeal to the mountain spirits, and white gull feathers 
for the spirits of the water. There are also small pieces of nacreous 
shells and one or two fragments of the " duklij," or chalchihuitl, with- 
out which no medicine-man would feel competent to discharge Ids func- 
tions. 

The spirit dance itself is called " cha-ja-la." I have seen this dance a 
number of times, but will confine my description to one seen at Fort 

1 This fact is stated by Torquemada, Moiiarchia Indiana, lib. 10, cap. 33, and by Goinara, Hist, of the 
Conq. of Mexi(H), p. 446; see also Diego Duran, lib. 1, cap. 20, p. 226. 
* Herrera, dec. 3, lib. 2, p. 67. 

3 John Gihuary Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 472. 
1 Diego Duran, vol. 3, cap. 4, p. 217. 



BOUKKE.] THE APACHE SPIRIT DANCE. 583 

Marion (St. Augustine, Fla.), in 1887, when the Chiricahua Apache were 
confined there as prisoners ; although the accompanying figure repre- 
sents a ghost dance headdress seen among the Apache in the winter of 
1885. A great many of the band had been suffering from sickness of 
one kind or another and twenty-three of the children had died; as a 
consequence, the medicine-men were having the Cha-ja-la, which is en- 
tered into only upon the most solemn occasions, such as the setting out 
of a war party, the appearance of an epidemic, or something else of like 
portent. On the terreplein of the northwest bastion, Ramon, the old 
medicine-man, was violently beating upon a drum, which, as usual, had 
been improvised of a soaped rag drawn tightly over the mouth of an iron 
kettle holding a little water. 

Although acting as master of ceremonies, Eamon was not painted or 
decorated in any way. Three other medicine-men were having the fin- 
ishing touches put to their bodily decoration. They had an under-coat- 
ing of greenish brown, and on each arm a yellow snake, the head to- 
ward the shoulder blade. The snake on the arm of one of the party 
was double-headed, or rather had a head at each extremity. 

Eacli had insignia in yellow on back and breast, but no two were exactly 
alike. One had on his breast a yellow bear, 4 inches long by 3 inches 
high, and on his back a kau of the same color and dimensions. A sec- 
ond had the same pattern of bear on his breast, but a zigzag for light- 
ning on his back. The third had the zigzag on both back and breast. 
All wore kilts and moccasins. 

While the painting was going on Ramon thumped and sang with vigor 
to insure the medicinal potency of the pigments and the designs to 
which they were applied. Each held, one in each hand, two wands or 
swords of lathlike proportions, ornamented with suake-lightuing in blue. 

The medicine-meii emitted a peculiar whistling noise and bent slowly 
to the right, then to the left, then frontward, then backward, until the 
head in each case was level with the waist. Quickly they spun round 
in full circle on the left foot ; back again in a reverse circle to the right ; 
then they charged around the little group of tents in that bastion, mak- 
ing cuts and thrusts with their wands to drive the maleficent spirits 
away. 

It recalled to my mind the old myths of the angel with the flaming 
sword guarding the entrance to Eden, or of St. Michael chasing the dis- 
comfited Lucifer down into the depths of Hell. 

These preliminaries occupied a few moments only; at the end of that 
time the medicine-men advanced to where a squaw was holding up to 
them a little baby sick in its cradle. The mother remained kneeling 
while the medicine-men frantically struck at, upon, around, and over the 
cradle with their wooden weapons. 

The baby was held so as successively to occupy each of the cardinal 
points and face each point directly opposite ; first on the east side, fac- 
ing the west; then the north side, facing the south ; then the west side, 



584 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

facing the east; then the south side, facing the north, and back to the 
original position. While at each position, each of the medicine-men in 
succession, after making all the passes and gestures described, seized 
the cradle in his hands, pressed it to his breast, and afterwards lifted it 
up to the sky, next to the earth, and lastly to the four cardinal points, 
all the time prancing, whistling, and snorting, the mother and her squaw 
friends adding to the dismal din by piercing shrieks and ululations. 

That ended the ceremonies for that night so far as the baby person- 
ally was concerned, but the medicine-men retired down to the parade 
and resumed their saltation, swinging, bending, and spinning with such 
violence that they resembled, in a faint way perhaps, the Dervishes of 
the East. The understanding was that the dance had to be kept up as 
long as there was any fuel unconsumed of the large pile provided; any 
other course would entail bad luck. It was continued for four nights, 
the colors and the symbols upon the bodies varying from night to night. 
Among the modes of exorcism enumerated by Burton, we find " cutting 
the air with swords." ' Picart speaks of the u fleches ou les baguettes 
dont les Arabes Idoliltres se servoieut pour deviner par le sort." He 
says that the diviner " teuoit a la main" these arrows, which certainly 
suggest the swords or wands of the Apache medicine-men in the spirit 
dance. 2 

There were four medicine-men, three of whom were dancing and in 
conference with the spirits, and the fourth of whom was general superin- 
tendent of the whole dance, and the authority to whom the first three 
reported the result of their interviews with the ghostly powers. 

The mask and headdress of the first of the dancers, who seemed to 
be the leading one, was so elaborate that in the hurry and meager light 
supplied by the flickering fires it could not be portrayed. It was very 
much like that of number three, but so fully covered with the plumage 
of the eagle, hawk, and, apparently, the owl, that it "was difficult to as- 
sert this positively. Each of these medicine-men had pieces of red flan- 
nel tied to his elbows and a stick about four feet long in each hand. 
Number one's mask was spotted black and white and shaped in front 
like the snout of a mountain lion. His back was painted with large 
arrowheads in brown and white, which recalled the protecting arrows 
tightly bound to the backs of Zufii fetiches. Number two had on his 
back a figure in white ending between the shoulders in a cross. Num- 
ber three's back was simply whitened with clay. 

All these headdresses were made of slats of the Spanish bayonet, un- 
painted, excepting that on number two was a figure in black, which 
could not be made out, and that the horizontal crosspieces on number 
three were painted blue. 

The dominos or masks were of blackened buckskin, for the two 
fastened around the neck by garters or sashes ; the neckpiece of num- 
ber three was painted red ; the eyes seemed to be glass knobs or brass 

1 Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 337. 

'Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes, etc., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. 5, p. 50. 



BOURKE.] THE GHOST DANCE HEADDRESS. 585 

buttons. These three dancers were naked to the waist, and wore beau- 
tiful kilts of fringed buckskin bound on with sashes, and moccasins 
reaching to the knees. In this guise they jumped into the center of the 
great circle of spectators and singers and began running about the fire 
shrieking and muttering, encouraged by the shouts and the singing, and 
by the drumming and incantation of the chorus which no\v swelled forth 
at full lung power. 

THE SPIRIT OB GHOST DANCE HEADDRESS. 

As the volume of music swelled and the cries of the on-lookers became 
fiercer, the dancers were encouraged to the enthusiasm of frenzy. They 
darted about the circle, going through the motions of looking for an 
enemy, all the while muttering, mumbling, and singing, jumping, sway- 
ing, and whirling like the dancing Dervishes of Arabia. 

Their actions, at times, bore a very considerable resemblance to the 
movements of the Zufii Shalako at the Feast of Fire. Klashidn told 
me that the orchestra was singing to the four willow branches planted 
near them. This would indicate a vestige of tree worship, such as is to 
be noticed also at the sun dance of the Sioux. 

At intervals, the three dancers would dart out of the ring and disap- 
pear in the darkness, to consult with the spirits or with other medicine- 
men seated a considerable distance from the throng. Three several times 
they appeared and disappeared, always dancing, running, and whirling 
about with increased energy. Having attained the degree of mental or 
spiritual exaltation necessary for communion with the spirits, they took 
their departure and kept away for at least half an hour, the orchestra 
duri ng their absence rendering a mournful refrain, monotonous as afuneral 
dirge. My patience became exhausted and I turned to go to my quar- 
ters. A thrill of excited expectancy ran through the throng of Indians, 
and I saw that they were looking aiixiously at the returning medicine- 
men. All the orchestra now stood up, their leader (the principal medi- 
cine-man) slightly in advance, holding a branch of cedar in his left 
hand. The first advanced and bending low his head murmured some 
words of unknown import with which the chief seemed to be greatly 
pleased. Then the chief, taking his stand in front of the orchestra on 
the east side of the grove or cluster of trees, awaited the final cere- 
mony, which was as follows : The three dancers in file and in proper 
order advanced and receded three times ; then they embraced the chief 
in such a manner that the sticks or wands held in their hands came 
behind his neck, after which they mumbled and muttered a jumble of 
sounds which I can not reproduce, but which sounded for all the world 
like the chant of the "hooter" at the Zuni Feast of Fire. They then 
pranced or danced through the grove three times. This was repeated 
for each point of the compass, the chief medicine-man, with the orches- 
tra, taking a position successively on the east, south, west, and north 
and the three dancers advancing, receding, and embracing as at first. 



586 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



This terminated the "medicine" ceremonies of the evening, the glad 
shouts of the Apache testifying that the incantations of their spiritual 
leaders or their necromancy, whichever it was, promised a successful 




Fig. 442. Apache kan or gods. (Drawn by Apache.) 

campaign. These dancers were, I believe, dressed up to represent their 
gods or kau, but not content with representing them aspired to be mis- 
taken for them. 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate V. 




APACHE MEDICINE HAT USED IN GHOST DANCE. 




O 
\ 



BOURKE.] AMULETS. 587 

AMULETS AND TALISMANS. 
THE "TZI-DALTAI." 

TheApache, both meuaud women, wear amulets, called tzi-daltai,made 
of lightning-riven wood, generally pine or cedar or fir from the mountain 
tops, which are highly valued and are not to be sold. These are shaved 
very thin and rudely cut in the 
semblance of the human form. 
They are in fact the duplicates, on 
a small scale, of the rhombus, al- 
ready described. Like the rhom- 
bus, they are decorated with in- 
cised lines representing the light- 
ning. Very often these are to be 
found attached to the necks of 
children or to their cradles. Gen- Fl - *-Tzi.daitai amniet (Apache). 

erally these amulets are of small size. Below will be found figures of 
those which I was permitted to examine and depict in their actual size. 
They are all unpainted. The amulet represented was obtained from a 
Chiricahua Apache captive. Deguele, an Apache of the Klukaydakaydn 
clan, consented to exhibit a kau, or god, which he carried about his 
person. He said I could have it for three ponies. It was made of a 
flat piece of lath, unpainted, of the size here given, having drawn upon 
it this figure in yellow, with a narrow black band, excepting the three 
snake heads, a, b, and c, which were black with white eyes ; a was a 
yellow line and c a black line; flat pearl buttons were fastened at m and 
Tc, respectively and small eagle-down feathers at fc on each side of the 
idol. The rear of the tablet, amulet, or idol, as one may be pleased to 
call it, was almost an exact reproduction of the front. 

The owner of this inestimable treasure assured me that he prayed to 
it at alltiineswhen in trouble, that he could learn from it where hisponies 
were when stolen and which was the right direction to travel when lost, 
and that when drought had parched his crops this would never fail to 
bring rain in abundance to revive and strengthen them. The symbol- 
ism is the rain cloud and the serpent lightning, the rainbow, rain drops, 
and the cross of the four winds. 

These small amulets are also to be found inclosed in the phylacteries 
(Fig. 447) which the medicine-men wear suspended from their necks or 
waists. 

Sir Walter Scott, who was a very good witness in all that related to 
prehistoric customs and -' survivals" among the Celtic Scots, may be 
introduced at this point : 

A heap of wither'd boughs was piled 
Of juniper and rowan wild, 
Mingled with shivers from the oak, 
Rent by the lightning's recent stroke. 1 
1 Lady of the Lake, canto 3, stanza 4, Sir Rhodcrick Dim, summoning Clan Alpine against the king. 



588 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



CHALCHIHUITL. 

The articles of dress depicted in this paper are believed to repre- 
sent all those which exclusively belong to the office of the Apache 
"diyi" or " izze-nantan." Of late years it can not be said that every 
medicine-man has all these articles, but most of them will be found in 
the possession of the man in full practice. 

No matter what the medicine-man may lack, he will, if it be possible, 
provide himself with some of the impure malachite known to the whites 
of the Southwest as turquoise. In the malachite veins the latter stone 





Front view. Rear view. 

FlO. 444. Ti.i-daltai amulet (Apache). 

is sometimes found and is often of good quality, but the difference be- 
tween the two is apparent upon the slightest examination. The color of 
the malachite is a pea green, that of the turquoise a pale sky blue. The 
chemical composition of the former is a carbonate of copper, mixed with 
earthy impurities ; that of the latter, a phosphate of alumina, colored 
with the oxide of copper. The use of this malachite was widespread. 
Under the name of chalchihuitl or chalchihuite, it appears with fre- 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate VI. 




APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT. 



CHALCHIHUITL. 



589 



quency in the old Spanish writings, as we shall presently see, and 
was in all places and by all tribes possessing it revered in much 
the same manner as by the 
Apache. The Apache call it 
duklij., " blue (or green) stone," 
these two colors not being differ- 
entiated in their language. A 
small bead of this mineral affixed 
to a gun or bow made the weapon 
shoot accurately. It had also 
some relation to the bringing of 
rain, and could be found by the 
man who would go to the end of a 
rainbow, after a storm, and hunt 
diligently in the damp earth. It 
was the Apache medicine-man's 
badge of office, his medical di- 
ploma, so to speak, and without 
it he could not in olden times ex- 
ercise his medical functions. 
In the curious commerce of the 





Front view. Rear view. 

FIG. 445. Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache). 

Indian tribes, some possessed articles of greater worth than those belong- 
ing to their neighbors. In the southwest the red paint sold by the 
tribes living in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was held in higher 

repute than any other, and the green 
stone to be purchased from the Eio Grande 
Pueblos always was in great demand, as it 
is to this day. Vetancurt ] speaks of the 
Apache, between the years 1C30 and 1G80, 
coming to the pueblo of Pecos to trade 
for "chalchihuites." John de Laet speaks 
of "petites pierres verdes" worn in the 
lower lip by the Brazilians. 2 

Among the Mexicans the chalchihnitl 
seems to have been the distinguishing 
mark or badge of the priesthood. Duran, 
in speaking of the consecration of a sacri- 
ficial stone in Mexico by Montezuma the 
elder, and his assistant or coadjutor, Tla- 
caclel, says: "Echaronse a las espaldas 
unas olletas [I do not know what this 
FIG. 446.-T Z i-<iaitai amulet (Apache). word meaus ] hechas de piedras verdes 

muy ricas, donde signincaban que no solamente eran Reyes, pero jun- 
taineute Sacerdotes." 3 
Among the tribes in Central America, a chalchihuitl was placed in 

' Teatro Mexicano, vol. 3, p. 323. Lib. 14, cap. 4,uncl lib. 16, cap. 16. "Lib. 1. cap. 23, pp. 251-252. 




590 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 

the mouths of the dying to receive their souls: "que era para que 
recibiese su auima." ' 

One of the Mexican myths of the birth of Quetzalcoatl narrates that 
his mother, Chimalma, while sweeping, found a chalchihuitl, swallowed 
it, and became pregnant: "Andando barriendo la dicha Chimalma 
hal!6 un chalchihuitl, (que es una pedrezuela verde) y que la trago y 
de esto se empreno, y que asi parioal dicho Quet/alcoatl." 2 The same 
author tells us that the chalchihuitl (which he calls " pedrezuela 
verde") are mentioned in the earliest myths of the Mexicans. 3 

In South America the emerald seems to have taken the place of the 
chalchihuitl. Bollaert 4 makes frequent mention of the use of the emerald 
by the natives of Ecuador and Peru, "a drilled emerald, such as the 
Incas wore;" "large emeralds, emblematic of their [the Incas'] sov- 
ereignty." 

From Torquemada we learn that the Mexicans adorned their idols 
with the chalchihuitl, and also that they buried a chalchihuitl with their 
dead, saying that it was the dead man's heart. 5 

"Whenever rain comes the Indians [Pima and Maricopa] resort to 
these old houses [ruins] to look for trinkets of shells, and a peculiar 
green stone." 6 The idols which the people of Yucatan gave to Juan de 
Grijalva in 1518 were covered with these stones, "cubierta de pedre- 
cicas." 7 Among the lirst presents made to Cortes in Tabasco were 
"unas turquesas de poco valor." 8 The fact that the Mexicans buried a 
"gem "with the bodies of their dead is mentioned by Squier, but he 
says it was when the body was cremated. 9 

The people of Cibola are said to have offered in sacrifice to their 
fountains "algunas tnrquesas que las tienen, aunque mines." 10 

" Turquesas " were given to the Spaniards under Coronado by the 
people of the pueblo of Acoma." 

" The Mexicans were accustomed to say that at one time all men have 
been stones, and that at last they would all return to stones; and, act- 
ing literally on this conviction, they interred with the bones of the dead 
a small green stone, which was called the principle of life." 12 

The great value set upon the chalchihuitl by the Aztecs is alluded 
to by Bernal Diaz, who was with the expedition of Grijalva to Yucatan 



1 Ximenez, Hist. Orig. Indies, ]>. 211. 

' Mendieta, p. 83. 

"Ibid., p. 78. 

4 Researches in South America, p. 83. 

' Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 13, cap. 45, and elsewhere. 

6 Emory, Eeconnoissance, p. 88. 

'Gomara, Historia de la Couqnista de Mejico, Veytia's edition, p. 299. 

Ibid., p. 310. 

"Smithsonian Contributions, "Ancient monuments of New Yolk," vol. 2. 

10 Buckingham Smith, Relacion do la Jornada de Corouado a Cibola, Coleccion dc Doeumentos para la 
Historia de Florida, London, 1857, vol. 1, p. 148. 
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 150. 
" Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 253. 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate VII. 







APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT. 



BOUBKE.] 



PHYLACTERIES. 591 



before be joined that of Cortes to Mexico. 1 Diaz says that Montezuma 
sent to Charles V, as a present "a few chalchihuis of such enormous 
value that I would not consent to give them to any one save to such a 
powerful emperor as yours." 2 These stones were put "in the mouth of 
the distinguished chiefs who died." 3 

Torquemada 4 repeats the Aztec myth already given from Mendieta. 
He says that in 1537 Fray Antonio de Ciudad-Rodrigo, provincial of 
the Franciscans, sent friars of his order to various parts of the Indian 
country; iu 1538 he sent them to the north, to a country where they 
heard of a tribe of people wearing clothes and having many turquoises. 5 
The Aztec priesthood adopted green as the sacred color. The cere- 
mony of their consecration ended thus: "puis on Fhabillait tout en 
vert." 6 

Maximilian, Prince of Wied, saw some of the Piegans of northwest- 
ern Montana "hang round their necks a green stone, often of various 
shapes." He describes it as " a compact talc or steatite which is found 
in the Rocky Mountains." 7 
> \ 

PHYLACTERIES. 

The term phylactery, as herein employed, means any piece of buck- 
skin or other material upon which are inscribed certain characters or 
symbols of a religious or "medicine" nature, which slip or phylactery 
is to be worn attached to the person seeking to be benefited by it, and 
this phylactery differs from the amulet or talisman in being concealed 
from the scrutiny of the profane and kept as secret as possible, This 
phylactery, itself " medicine," may be employed to enwrap other " med- 
icine" and thus augment its own potentiality. Indians in general 
object to having their "medicine" scrutinized and touched; in this 
there is a wide margin of individual opinion ; but in regard to phylac- 
teries there is none that I have been able to discover, and the rule may 
be given as antagonistic to the display of these sacred "relics," as my 
Mexican captive interpreter persisted in calling them. 

The first phylactery which it was my good fortune to be allowed to 
examine was one worn by Ta-ul-tzu-je, of the Kaytzentin gens. It was 
tightly rolled iu at least half a mile of orange-colored saddlers' silk, 
obtained from some of the cavalry posts. After being duly uncovered, 
it was found to be a small piece of buckskin two inches square, upon 
which were drawn red and yellow crooked lines which the Apache said 
represented the red and yellow snake. Inside were a piece of green 
chalchihuitl and a small cross of lightning-riven twig (pine) and two 
very small perforated shells. The cross was called " intchi-dijin," the 
black wind. 

A second phylactery which I was also allowed to untie and examine 

1 London. 1844, vol. 1, pp. 26, 29, 36, 93. ' Ibid., lib. 19, cap. 22. pp. 357-358. 

2 Ibid., p. 278. Ternaux-Compana, vol. 10, p. 240. 

3 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 389. London, 1843, p. 248. 

4 Monarclua Indiana, lib. 6, cap. 45, p. 80. 



592 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



belonged to Na-a-cha and consisted of a piece of buckskin of the same 
size as the other, but either on account of age or for some other reason 
no characters could be discerned upon it. It, however, enwrapped a 
tiny bag of hoddentin, which, in its turn, held a small but very clear 
crystal of quartz and four feathers of eagle down. Na-a-cha took care 
to explain very earnestly that this phylactery contained not merely the 
"medicine" or power of the crystal, the hoddentin, and the itza-chu, 
or eagle, but also of the shoz-dijiji, or black bear, the shoz-lekay, or 



fled* 



fled. 




FIG. 447. Phylacteries. 

white bear, the shoz-litzogue, or yellow bear, and the klij-litzogue or 
yellow snake, though just in what manner he could not explain. 

It would take up too much time and space to describe the manner 
in which it was necessary for me to proceed in order to obtain merely 
a glimpse of these and other phylacteries, all of the same general 
type; how I had to make it evident that I was myself possessed of great 
" medicine " power and able to give presents of great " medicine " value, 



BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate VIII. 







APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT. 



BoritKK.] 



MEDICINE SHIRTS AND SASHES. 



593 



as was the case. I had obtained from cliff dwellings, sacred caves, and 
other places beads of talc, of chalchihuitl, and of shell, pieces of crys- 
tal and other things, sacred in the eyes of the Apache, and these I was 
compelled to barter for the information here given. 

The medicine shirts of the Apaches, several of which are here repre- 
sented, do not require an extended description. The symbolism is 
different for each one, but may be generalized as typical of the sun, 
moon, stars, rainbow, lightning, snake, clouds, rain, hail, tarantula, 
centipede, snake, and some one or more of the "kan" or gods. 

The medicine sashes follow closely in pattern the medicine shirts, 
being smaller in size only, but with the same symbolic decoration. 
Similar ornamentation will be found upon the amulets (ditzi), made of 
lightning-struck pine or other Avood. All of these are warranted, among 
other virtues, to screen the wearer from the arrows, lances, or bullets 
of the enemy. In this they strongly resemble the salves and other 
means by which people in Europe sought to obtain " magical impene- 
trability." The last writer to give receipts for making such salves, 
etc., that I can recall, was Etmiiller, who wrote in the early years of 
the seventeenth century. 




FIG. 448. Apache medicine sash. 

Such as the reader can imagine the medicine-man to be from this 
description of his paraphernalia, such he has been since the white man 
first landed in America. Never desirous of winning proselytes to his 
own ideas, he has held on to those ideas with a tenacity never sus- 
pected until purposely investigated. The first of the Spanish writers 
seem to have employed the native terms for the medicine-men, and we 
come across them as cemis or zemis, bohiti, pachuaei, and others; but 
soon they were recognized as the emissaries of Satan and the preachers 
of witchcraft, and henceforth they appear in the documents as " hechi- 
cheros" and "bruios" almost exclusively. "Tienan los Apaches pro- 
fetas 6 adivinos que gozan de la mas alta estimacion. Esos adivinos 
pratican la medicina lamas rudimental, laaplicacion de algunas yerbas y 
esto acompanado de ceremonias y cantos supersticiosos." ' Pimentel 
seems to have derived his information from Cordero, a Spanish officer 
who had served against the Apache at various times between 1770 and 
1795, and seemed to understand them well. 

"There was no class of persons who so widely and deeply influenced 
the culture and shaped the destiny of the Indian tribes as their priests. 
In attempting to gain a true conception of the race's capacities and 



1 rinieiiti-l. I.i-iijiuns Inili^i-nas <!< Mexico, vol. :i, pp. 498. 499. 



9 ETH- 



594 MEDICINE MEN OF THE APACHE. 

history there is no one element of their social life which demands closer 
attention than the power of these teachers. . . . However much 
we may deplore the use they made of their skill, we must estimate it 
fairly and grant it its due weight in measuring the influence of the re- 
ligious sentiment on the history of man." ' 

"Like Old Men of the Sea, they have clung to the neck of their 
nations, throttling all attempts at progress, binding them to the 
thraldom of superstition and profligacy, dragging them down to 
wretchedness and death. Christianity and civilization meet in them 
their most determined, most implacable foes." 2 

In spite of all the zeal and vigilance of the Spanish friars, supported 
by military power, the Indians of Bogota clung to their idolatry. 
Padre Simon cites several instances and says tersely: "De manera 
que no lo hay del Indio que parece mas Cristiano y ladino, de que no 
tenga idolos a quien adore, como nos lo dice cada dia la experiencia." 
(So that there is no Indian, no matter how well educated he may appear 
in our language and the Christian doctrine, who has not idols which 
he adores, as experience teaches us every day.) 3 

"The Indian doctor relied far more on magic than on natiiral reme- 
dies. Dreams, beating of the drum, songs, magic feasts and dances, 
and howling to frighten the female demon from the patient, were his 
ordinary methods of cure." 4 

In a very rare work by Padre Jose de Arriaga, published in Lima, 
1621, it is shown that the Indians among whom this priest was sent on 
a special tour of investigation were still practicing their old idolatrous 
rites in secret. This work may be found quoted in Montesinos, M^rnoires 
sur 1'Ancien Pe~rou, in Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 17; the title of 
Arriaga's work is Extirpacion de la Idolatria de los Indios del Peru. 
Arriaga also states that the functions of the priesthood were exercised 
by both sexes. 

It will only be after we have thoroughly routed the medicine-men 
from their intrenchments and made them an object of ridicule that we 
can hope to bend and train the mind of our Indian wards in the direc- 
tion of civilization. In my own opinion, the reduction of the medicine- 
men will effect more for the savages than the giving of land in severalty 
or instruction in the schools at Carlisle and Hampton;' rather, the 
latter should be conducted with this great object mainly in view : to 
let pupils insensibly absorb such knowledge as may soonest and most 
completely convince them of the impotency of the charlatans who hold 
the tribes in bondage. 

Teach the scholars at Carlisle and Hampton some of the wonders 
of electricity, magnetism, chemistry, the spectroscope, magic lantern, 

1 Brinton,Mtb.8 of the New World, pp. 285, 286. 

2 Ibid., p. 264. 

3 Kingsborough. vol. 8. sup., p. 240. 
4 Parkraan, Jesuits, introduction, p. Ixxxiv. 



BOI-RKE.] HOW TO DISCREDIT THE MEDICINE MAN. 595 

ventriloquism, music, and then, when they return to their own people, 
each will despise the fraud of the medicine-men and be a focus of grow- 
ing antagonism to their pretensions. Teach them to love their own 
people and uot to despise them; but impress upon each one that he is 
to return as a missionary of civilization. Let them see that the world 
is free to the civilized, that law is li berty. 



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