X 



504 MEDICINE-MEN OF THK APACHE. 



met by a small party of the Indians, one of whom chalked a cross on 

 the breast of each, with a yellow earth, which he carried in a satchel at 

 his belt. Previous to doing so he muttered some words very solemnly 

 with his hands uplifted and eyes thrown upwards. Again, on arriving 

 at the camp of the people, the chief and others in greeting them took 

 a similar vow,, touching thereafter the yellow chalked cross. Sonora 

 may have furnished them with some of their notions of a Deity.&quot; 1 



&quot;The yellow earth,&quot; seen by Dr. Smart was, undoubtedly, hoddentin, 

 carried in a medicine bag at the belt of a medicine-man. Some years 

 ago I went out with Al. Seiber and a small party of Apache to examine 

 three of their &quot;sacred caves&quot; in the Sierra Filial and Sierra Ancha. No 

 better opportunity could have been presented for noting what they did. 

 The very last thing at night they intoned a &quot;medicine&quot; song, and at early 

 dawn they were up to throw a pinch of hoddentin to the east. 



Moses and John, two of the Apache mentioned above, requested per 

 mission to go off in the mountains after deer and bear, supposed to be 

 plentiful in the liigher altitudes. Before leaving camp, Moses blew a 

 pinch of hoddentin toward the sun, repeating his prayer for success, 

 and ending it with a sharp, snappy &quot;ek,&quot; as if to call attention. In 

 one of the sacred caves visited on this trip, the Apache medicine-men 

 assembled for the purpose of holding their snake dance. This I have 

 never seen among the Apache, but that they celebrate it and that it is 

 fully the equal of the repulsive rite which I have witnessed and noted 

 among the Tusayan 2 1 am fully assured. I may make reference to some 

 of its features fli the chapter upon animal worship and ophic rites. 



From a multiplicity of statements, the following are taken : Concep- 

 cion had seen the snake dance over on the Carrizo, near Camp Apache; 

 the medicine-men threw hoddentin upon the snakes. He said: &quot;After 

 getting through with the snake, the medicine-man suffered it to glide 

 off, covered with the hoddentin, thrown by admiring devotees.&quot; 



Mike Burns had 110 remembrance of seeing hoddentin thrown to the 

 sun. He had seen it thrown to the snake, &quot;in a kind of worship.&quot; 



Nott and Antonio stated that &quot;when they find that a snake has 

 wriggled across the trail, especially the trail to be followed by a war 

 party, they throw hocldentiu upon the trail.&quot; Nott took a pinch of 

 hoddeutin, showed how to throw it upon the snake, and repeated the 

 prayer, which I recorded. 



Corbusier instances a remedy in use among the Tonto Apache. This 

 consisted in applying a rattlesnake to the head or other part suffering 

 from pain. lie continues : &quot;After a time the medicine-man rested the 

 snake on the ground again, and, still retaining his hold of it with his 

 right hand, put a pinch of yellow pollen into its mouth with his left, 

 and rubbed some along its belly.&quot; 3 



Smart, in Smithsonian Report for 1867, p. 419. 

 2 Snake Dance of Moquis of Arizona, Xe\v York, 1884. 



3 In the third volume of Kingslioroiigh, on plate 17 (Aztec picture Moulin); to M. Pejernavy, Pestb, 

 Hungary), an Aztec, probably a priest, in shown offering food to a snake, which eats it out of IUH hand. 



