456 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



other ordeals, &quot;drink fearfully large drafts of tobacco juice, mixed 

 with water.&quot; The medicine-men of Guiana are called peaiman. 



I have never seen tobacco juice drank by medicine-men or others, 

 but I remember seeing Shu7ica-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 legerdeinaiiuand 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 Tuscan, 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 &amp;gt;the human victim at the moment of sacrifice, he says: 



Los nouibres de los cinco eran Chachalmeca, que en nuestra Leugua quiere tanto 

 decircomo Levita 6 miuistro de cosa divina 6 sagrada. Eraesta dignidad entreellos 

 muy supreina y en mucha tenida, la cual seheredaba de hijos a padres como cosa de 

 mayorazgo, sucediendo los hijos & 1cm Padres en aquclla sangrienta Diguidad ondemo- 

 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. Sonthey 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 &quot;Pretty- mouth,&quot; 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. 



3 Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 384. 



