476 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



ing neither meat nor salt; he bathes frequently in the Gila River and 

 nearly the whole time keeps his head covered with a plaster of mud 

 and mesquite. 



&quot;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 lawful! fight hee hath killed a man.&quot; 



According to Padre Geronimo Boscana, the traditions of the Indians 

 of California show that they &quot;fed upon a kind of clay.&quot;- But this clay 

 was often plastered upon their heads u as a kind of ornament.&quot; These 

 were the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, who strongly resembled the 

 Mohave. After all, the &quot;mudheads&quot; of the Mohaveareno worse than 

 those people in India who still bedaub their heads with &quot;the holy 

 mud of the Ganges.&quot; Tip to this time the mud has been the blue 

 mud &quot; of the Colorado and other rivers, but when we find Herbert 

 Silencer mentioning that the heads of the Comanche are &quot; besmeared 

 with a dull red clay&quot; 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. ill, 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 RHOMHUS, 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. 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 PurrhaRjlib. 9, rap. 12, sec. 4. p. lf&amp;gt;55, edition of 1622. 

 Chinigcnmich, p. 253. 



