Boi-RKF.,] HODDENTIN. 505 



He then held his hand out to a man, who took a pinch of the powder 

 and rubbed it on the crown of a boy s head. Yellow pollen treated in 

 this manner is a common remedy for headache, and may frequently be 

 seen on the crowns of the heads of men and boys.&quot; 1 



Hoddentin is used in the same manner as a remedy for headache among 

 the San Carlos Apache, but the medicine-men apply a snake to the 

 person of a patient only when their &quot;diagnosis&quot; has satisfied them that 

 he has been guilty of some unkindness to a snake, such as stepping 

 upon it, in which case they pretend that they can cure the man by 

 applying to the part affected the portion of the reptile s body upon 

 which he trampled. 



The Apache state that when their medicine-men go out to catch snakes 

 for their snake dance, they recite a prayer and lay their left hand, in 

 which is some hoddentin, at the opening of the snake s den, through 

 which the reptile must crawl, and, after a short time the snake will 

 come out and allow himself to be handled. 



oddentin is also offered to other animals, especially the bear, of 

 which the Apache, like their congeners the Navajo, stand in great awe 

 and reverence. When a bear is killed, the dance which is held becomes 

 frenzied; the skin is donned by all the men, and much hoddentiu is 

 thrown, if it can be obtained. One of these dances which I saw in the 

 Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, lasted all night, without a moment s 

 cessation in the singing and prancing of the participants. 



A great deal of hoddentin is offered to the ka-chu&quot; (great or jack 

 rabbit). 2 



The Apache medicine-man, jSTakay-do-kluuui, called by the whites 

 &quot;Bobbydoklinny,&quot; gxercised great influence over his people at Camp 

 Apache, in 1881. He boasted of his power to raise the dead, and pre 

 dicted that the whites should soon be driven from the land/} He also 

 drilled the savages in a peculiar dance, the like of which had never been 

 seen among them. The participants, men and women, arranged them 

 selves in files, facing a common center, like the spokes of a wheel, and 

 while thus dancing hoddentin was thrown upon them in profusion. 

 This prophet or &quot;doctor&quot; was killed in the engagement in the Cibicu 

 canyon, August 30, 1881. 



In a description of the &quot;altars&quot; made by the medicine-men of the 

 Apache-Yuma at or near Camp Verde, Arizona, it is shown that this 

 sacred powder is freely used. Figures were drawn upon the ground 

 to represent the deities of the tribe, and the medicine-men dropped on 

 all, except three of them, a pinch of yellow powder (hoddentin) which 

 was taken from a small buckskin bag. This powder was put upon the 

 head, chest, or other part of the body of the patient. 



Surgeon Corbusier, U. S. Army, 3 says that the ceremony just described 

 was &quot; a most sacred one and entered into for the purpose of averting the 



Corbusier, in American Antiquarian. November, 18K1. pp. :wti-37. 

 &quot;Information of Afoses Henderson. 

 . 3 American Vntiquarian. Sept. and Xov.. 1886. 



