4!)2 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



Of tlie Abyssinians, Bruce says: &quot;Their liair is short and curled like 

 that of a negro s in the west part of Africa, Imt this is done by art not 

 by nature, each man having a wooden stick with which he lays hold of 

 the lock and twists it round like a screw till it curls in the form he de 

 sires.&quot; In a foot note, he adds: &quot; I apprehend this is the same instru 

 ment used by the ancients, and censured by the prophets, which in our 

 translation is rendered crisping-pins.&quot; 



Possibly the constant use of the scratch stick in countries without 

 wood suggested that it should be carried in the hair, and hence it 

 would originate the fashion of wearing the hair crimped round it, and 

 after a while it would itself be used as a crimping-pin. 



Thus far, the suggestion of a religious or ceremonial idea attaching 

 to the custom of scratching has not been apparent, unless we bear in 

 mind that the warrior setting out on the warpath never neglects to sur 

 round himself with all the safeguards which the most potent incanta 

 tions and &quot;medicine&quot; of every kind can supply. But Herbert Spencer 

 tells us in two places that the Creeks attach the idea of a ceremonial 

 observance to the custom. He says that &quot;the warriors have a ceremony 

 of scratching each other as a sign of friendship;&quot; 2 and again, &quot;scratch 

 ing is practiced among young warriors as a ceremony or token of friend 

 ship. When they have exchanged promises of inviolable attachment, 

 they proceed to scratch each other before they part.&quot; 3 



Dr. J. Hampden Porter remarks that this ceremonial scratching may 

 be a &quot;survival&quot; of the blood covenant, and that in earlier times the 

 young warriors, instead of merely scratching each other s arms, may 

 have cut the flesh and exchanged the blood. The idea seems to be a 

 very sensible one. 



Father Alegre describes a ceremonial scratching which may have 

 been superseded by the scratch stick, to which the medicine-men of 

 certain tribes subjected the young men before they set out on the war 

 path. Among the Pima and Opata the medicine-men drew from their 

 quivers the claws of eagles, and with these gashed the young man along 

 the arms from the shoulders to the wrists. 4 



This last paragraph suggests so strongly certain of the practices at 

 the sun dance of the tribes farther to the north that it may be well to 

 compare it with the oilier allusions in this paper to that dance. 



It will be noticed that the use of the scratch-stick, at least among 

 the tribes of America, seems to be confined to the male sex; but the 

 information is supplied by Mr. Henshaw, of the Bureau of Ethnology, 

 that the Indians of Santa Barbara, Gal., made their maidens at the 



Travels to discover the source of the Nile iu the years 1768, etc.. Dublin. 1791. vol. 3, p. 410. 

 2 Desc. Sociology. 



Iliid., quoting Schoolcraft. 



&quot;Saca de su carcax algiinos pics y nfias de aguila SCCOR y endurecidos. con low cuales, comienza A 

 s*jfir\e desdn los homhros hasta las muiiecas.&quot; Ilistoria de la Compauia de Jesus en Xueva F.Rpanu. 

 Meiic.0,1842, vol. 2, pp. 218, 219. 



