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THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.
THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.
BY JOHN G. BOURKE, Captain, Third Cavalry, U. S. Army. CONTENTS. ILLUSTRATIONS. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. Washington, D. C. , February 27, 1891 . Sir: Herewith I have the honor to submit a paper upon the paraphernalia 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
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MEDICINE-WOMEN.
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 grandchildren, 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 determin
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REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT.
REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT.
The materia medica of the Apache is at best limited and comprehends 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 r
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HAIR AND WIGS.
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 properly 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 Rio Colorado; t
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MUDHEADS.
MUDHEADS.
Reference has been made to a ceremonial plastering of mud upon the heads of Indians. When General Crook was returning from his expedition into the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, in which expedition a few of the enemy had been killed, the scouts upon reaching the San Bernardino 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
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SCALP SHIRTS.
SCALP SHIRTS.
The shirt depicted on Pl. III , 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 wo
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THE RHOMBUS, OR BULL ROARER.
THE RHOMBUS, OR BULL ROARER.
The rhombus was first seen by me at the snake dance of the Tusayan, in the village of Walpi, Ariz., in the month of August, 1881. Previous 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 in faithfully imitating the sound of a gust of rain-laden wind. As explained to me by one of the medicine-men, by making this sound they compelled the wind
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THE CROSS.
THE CROSS.
The sign of the cross appears in many places in Apache 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 related 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 t
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NECKLACES OF HUMAN FINGERS.
NECKLACES OF HUMAN FINGERS.
The necklace of human fingers, an illustration of which accompanies this text (Pl. 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 arduous 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 1
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NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH.
NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH.
A number of examples are to be found of the employment of necklaces 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 dissemination of the custom in Africa and in the islands of the South Sea. Gomara says that the Indians o
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THE SCRATCH STICK.
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 t
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THE DRINKING REED.
THE DRINKING REED.
Exactly what origin to ascribe to the drinking reed is now an impossibility, neither is it probable that the explanations which the medicine-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 comforts 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 p
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THE "KUNQUE" OF THE ZUÑI AND OTHERS.
THE "KUNQUE" OF THE ZUÑI AND OTHERS.
The term "kunque" as it appears in this chapter is one of 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 Zuñi, call it in their tongue "hinawa." In every pueblo which I visited—and I visited them all, from Oraibi of Tusayan, on the extreme west, to Picuris, on the extreme east; from Taos, in the far north, to Isleta del Sur, in Texas—I ca
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USE OF POLLEN BY THE ISRAELITES AND EGYPTIANS.
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 diff
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HODDENTIN A PREHISTORIC FOOD.
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 Navajo 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 purposes only. Th
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HODDENTIN THE YIAUHTLI OF THE AZTECS.
HODDENTIN THE YIAUHTLI OF 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 sacrificing 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 [345] says that the Aztecs, whe
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"BLEDOS" OF ANCIENT WRITERS—ITS MEANING.
"BLEDOS" OF ANCIENT WRITERS—ITS MEANING.
Lafitau [349] gives a description of the Iroquois mode of preparing for the warpath. He says that the Iroquois and Huron called war "n'ondoutagette" and "gaskenragette." " Le terme Ondouta signifie le duvet qu'on tire de l'épy des Roseaux de Marais & signifie aussi la plante toute entiere, dont ils se servent pour faire les nattes sur quoi ils couchent, de sorte qu'il y a apparence qu'ils avoient affecté ce terme pour la Guerre, parce que chaque Guerrier portoit avec soy sa natte dans ce
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TZOALLI.
TZOALLI.
An examination of the Spanish writers who most carefully transmitted their observations upon the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs and other nations in Mexico and South America brings out two most interesting 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
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GENERAL USE OF THE POWDER AMONG INDIANS.
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 that the Apache and the Aztecs, among whom they seem to have been most freely used on ceremonial occasions, were invaders in the country they respectively occupied, comparatively recent in their arrival among the contiguous tribes like the Zuñi and Tusayan who on corresponding occasions o
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ANALOGUES OF HODDENTIN.
ANALOGUES OF HODDENTIN.
In the citation from the Spanish poet Villagrá, already given, the suggestion occurs that some relationship existed between the powder scattered so freely during the Spanish "carnestolendas" and the "kunque" thrown by the people of Tusayan 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,
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THE DOWN OF BIRDS IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES.
THE DOWN OF BIRDS IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES.
No exhaustive and accurate examination of the subject of hoddentin 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. Examples 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
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HAIR POWDER.
HAIR POWDER.
Speaking of the "duvet" or down, with which many American savage tribes deck themselves, Picart observes very justly: " Cet ornement est bizare, mais dans le fond l'est il beaucoup plus que cette poudre d'or dont les Anciens, se poudroient la tête, ou que cette poudre composée d'amidon avec laquelle nos petits maitres modernes affectent de blanchir leurs cheveux ou leurs perruques? " [431] Picart does not say, and perhaps it would not be wise for us to surmise, that these modes of powdering had
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DUST FROM CHURCHES—ITS USE.
DUST FROM CHURCHES—ITS USE.
The last ceremonial powder to be described is dust from the ground, as among some of the Australians who smear their heads with pipe-clay as a sign of mourning. [443] 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." [444] Mention is made of "an old woman who acted as beadle" of a church, who "once brough
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CLAY-EATING.
CLAY-EATING.
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 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. [449] Sahagun is quoted by Squier [450] 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 ceremony;
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PREHISTORIC FOODS USED IN COVENANTS.
PREHISTORIC 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 use of the hoddentin. 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 eating it with solemn oaths and execrations that it might prove poisonous or their last morsel if what they asserte
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SACRED BREADS AND CAKES.
SACRED BREADS AND CAKES.
Since the employment of hoddentin, or tule pollen, as a sacred commemorative food would seem to have been fairly demonstrated, before closing this section I wish to add a few paragraphs upon the very general 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,
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UNLEAVENED BREAD.
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-understood 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 o
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THE HOT CROSS BUNS OF GOOD FRIDAY.
THE HOT CROSS BUNS OF GOOD FRIDAY.
The belief prevailed that these would not mold like ordinary bread. [499] "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 diarrhœa,
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GALENA.
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 difficult to obtain. It is used precisely as hoddentin is used; that is, both as a face paint and as a powder to be thrown to the sun or other elements to be propitiated. The Apache are reluctant to part with it, and from living Ap
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ANALOGUES TO BE FOUND AMONG THE AZTECS, PERUVIANS, AND OTHERS.
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 llav
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THE MAGIC WIND KNOTTED CORDS OF THE LAPPS AND OTHERS.
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 Lappes , who sold wind contained in a cord with three knots. If the first were untied, the wind became favourable, if the second, still more so, but, if the third were loosed, a tempest was the inevitable consequence." [583] The selling of wind knots was ascribed not only to the Lapps and Finns, but to the inhabitants of Greenland also. [584] "The northern shipmast
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ROSARIES AND OTHER MNEMONIC CORDS.
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 Roman Catholics; it is in service among Mahometans, Tibetans, and Persians. [589] Picart mentions "chaplets" among the Chinese and Japanese which very strongly suggest the izze-kloth. [590] Father Grébillon, in his account of Tartary, alludes several times to
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THE SACRED CORDS OF THE PARSIS AND BRAHMANS.
THE SACRED 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, under 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
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USE OF CORDS AND KNOTS AND GIRDLES IN PARTURITION.
USE OF CORDS AND KNOTS AND GIRDLES IN PARTURITION.
Folk medicine in all regions is still relying upon the potency of mystical 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 conceived 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. [653] "Henry, in his History of Britain, vol. 1, p. 459, tells us that 'amongst the ancient Britons, when a bi
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"MEDIDAS," "MEASURING CORDS," "WRESTING THREADS," ETC.
"MEDIDAS," "MEASURING CORDS," "WRESTING THREADS," ETC.
Black says: [668] "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 averting 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 o
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UNCLASSIFIED SUPERSTITIONS UPON THIS SUBJECT.
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 invited to the fact that the very same use seems to be made by the Irish of hair cords as we have already seen has been made by the Australians. The Jewis
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THE MEDICINE HAT.
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 would seem that the power residing in the helmet o
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THE SPIRIT OR GHOST DANCE HEADDRESS.
THE SPIRIT OR 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, swaying, and whirling like the dancing Dervishes of Arabia. Their actions, at times, bore a very considerable resemblance to the movements of the Zuñi Shálako at the Feast of Fire. Klashidu told me that the orchestra was singi
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AMULETS AND TALISMANS.
AMULETS AND TALISMANS.
The Apache, both men and 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, already described. Like the rhombus, they are decorated with incised lines representing the lightning. Very often these are to be found attached to the necks
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PHYLACTERIES.
PHYLACTERIES.
The term phylactery, as herein employed, means any piece of buckskin 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 "medicine" and thus
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Acosta, José. Histoire naturelle et moralle des Indes, tant Orientalles qu'Occidentalles.... Composée en Castillian par Joseph Acosta, & traduit en François par Robert Regnault Cauxois. Paris: 1600. Adair, James. History of the American Indians. London: 1775. Adventure and Beagle. Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle . Vols. I-III. London: 1839. Alegre, Francisco Javier. Historia de la compañía de Jesus en Nueva-España. Vols. I-III. Mexico: 1841-
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