478 



MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



of the snake or lightning. The third form, in use among the Apache, 

 is an oblong of 7 or S inches in length, one and a quarter inches in 

 width by a quarter in thickness. One extremity, that through which 

 the cord passes, is rounded to rudely represent a human head, arid the 

 whole bears a close resemblance to the drawings of schoolboys which 

 are intended for the human figure. The Apache explained that the 

 lines on the front side of the rhombus were the entrajjs and those on 

 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. Rliombus 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 &quot;sounding wood.&quot; The identification of the. 

 rhombus or &quot;bull roarer&quot; of the ancient Greeks with that used by the 

 Tusayan in their snake dance was first made by E. B. Tylor in the 

 Saturday Review in a criticism upon &quot;The Snake Dance of the Moquis 

 of Arizona.&quot; 



