460 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



men could do to check its progress. When the Walapai .were about to 

 engage in a great limit 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 Kingman, 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 Hock, 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. 



Regnard, 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 ( orbusier of a 

 great &quot;medicine&quot; ceremony of the Apache- Yuma at Gamp Verde, it is 

 stated that the principal officer was a &quot;toothless, gray-haired man.&quot; 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 1 ueblos of Xew 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 &quot;sacred disease&quot; morbus 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, 1H86, p. 334. 



