480 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



Apache have been modified tg some extent by the crude ideas of the 

 Mexican captives among them, who still remember much that was taught 

 them iu the churches of the hamlets in northern Mexico, from which 

 they were kidnapped years ago; but, ou the other hand, it is to be re 

 membered that the cross has always formed a part of the Apache sym 

 bolism; that the&quot; snake does not belong to the Christian faith, and that 

 it has never been allowed to appear upon the cross since the time of the 

 Gnostics in the second and third centuries. Therefore, we must regard 

 that as a Pagan symbol, and so must we regard the circle of willow 

 twigs, which is exactly the same as the circle we have seen attached to 

 the sacred cords for the cure of headache. 1 



The cross was found in full vogue as a religious emblem among the 

 aborigines all over America. Father Le Clem] 2 speaks of its very gen 

 eral employment by the Gaspesians : &quot; Us ont parmi eux, tout infideles 

 qu ils soient, la Croix en singuliere veneration, qu ils la portent figurde 

 sur leurs habits & sur leur chair; qu ils la tieiuient a la main dans 

 tous leurs vo iages, soit par mer, soit par terre; & qu enttn ils la posent 

 an dehors & an dedans de leurs Cabannes, comme la marque d honneur 

 qui les distingue des antres Nations du Canada.&quot; He narrates 3 that the 

 Gaspe tradition or myth was, that the whole tribe being ravaged by a 

 plague, the medicine men had recourse to the Sun, who ordered them 

 to make use of the cross in every extremity. 



Herrera relates that the followers of Hernandez de Cordoba found at 

 Cape Catoche &quot;unos Adoratorios . . . i Cruces pintadas que les 

 causo gran admiracion.&quot; 4 lie also says that Juan de Grijalva on the 

 island of Cozumel found a number of oratories and temples, but one in 

 particular was made in the form of a square tower, with four openings. 

 Inside this tower was a cross made of lime, which the natives rever 

 enced as the god of the rain; &quot;una Cruz de Cal, de tres varas en alto 

 & la qual tenian por el Dios de la lluvia.&quot; 3 



NECKLACES OF HUMAN FINGERS. 



The necklace of human fingers, an illustration of which accompanies 

 this text (PI. 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 ardu 

 ous 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 1877, it was a noted fact that wherever a band of the 



1 &quot; When the rain-maker of the Lenni Lennupe would exert his power, he retired to some secluded 

 spot and drew upon the earth the figure of a cross (its arms toward the cardinal points?), placed 

 upon it a piece of tobacco, a gourd, a bit of some red stuff, and commenced to cry alo id to the spirits, 

 of the rains.&quot; Brintou. Myths of the Now World. New York. 1888, p. 96 (after Loskiel). 



Peru Chrcstien Le Clercq. Gaspesie, Paris, 1691, p. 170. 



3 Ibid., cap. x, pp. 172-199. 



4 Dec. 2, lib. 2, p. 48. 

 Ibid., p. 59. 



