506 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 



diseases with which the Apache at Camp Verde had been afflicted the 

 summer previous. 



I am not sure that the Apache-Yuma have not borrowed the use of 

 hoddentin from the Apache. My reason for expressing this opinion is 

 that I have never seen an Apache without a little bag of hoddentin 

 when it was possible for him to get it, whereas I have never seen an 

 Apache-Yuma with it except when he was about to start out on the 

 warpath. The &quot; altars&quot; referred to by Corbusier are made also by the 

 Apache. Xavajo, Zufii, and Tusayau. Those of the_Apj,che, as might be 

 / inferred from their nomadic state, were the crudest ; those of the Navajo, 

 Zufii, and Tusayan display a wonderful degree of artistic excellence. 

 The altars of the Kavajo have been described and illustrated by Dr. 

 Washington Matthews, 1 and those of the Tusayan by myself. 2 



Moses BeTuIersoiiTwishing me to have a profitable interview with his 

 father, who was a great snake doctor among the Apache, told me that 

 when he brought him to see me I should draw two lines across each 

 other on his right foot, and at their junction place a bead of the chal- 

 chihuitl, the cross to be drawn with hoddentin. The old man would 

 then tell me all he knew. 



The Apache, I learned, at times offer hoddentin to fire, an example 

 of pyrodulia for which I had been on the lookout, knowing that the 

 Navajohave fire dances, the Zufii the Feast of the Little God of Fire, 

 and the Apache themselves are not ignorant of the fire dance. 



Hoddentin seems to be used to strengthen all solemn compacts and 

 to bind faith. I had great trouble with a very bright medicine-man 

 named Na-a-cha, who obstinately refused to let me look at the contents 

 of a phylactery which he constantly wore until I let him know that I , too, 

 was a medicine-man of eminence. The room in which we had our con 

 versation was the quarters of the post surgeon, at that time absent on 

 scout. The chimney piece was loaded with bottles containing all kinds 

 of drugs and medicines. I remarked carelessly to Na-a-cha that if he 

 doubted my powers I would gladly burn a hole through his tongue with 

 a drop of fluid from the vial marked &quot; Acid, nitric,&quot; but he concluded 

 that my word was sufficient, and after the door was locked to secure us 

 from intrusion he consented to let me open and examine the phylacteiy 

 and make a sketch of its contents. To guard against all possible 

 trouble, he put a pinch of hoddentin on each of my shoulders, ou the 

 crown of my head, and on my chest and back. The same performance 

 jwas gone through with in his own case. He explained that hoddentin 

 was good for men to eat, that it was good medicine for the bear, and 

 that the bear liked to eat it. I thought that herein might be one clew 

 to the reason why the Apache used it as a medicine. The bear loves 

 the tule swamp, from which, in days primeval, he sallied out to attack 

 the squaws and children gathering the tule powder or tule bulb. Poorly 



.~. .^ 

 2 Sn;lki 1&amp;gt;H1HT of the Moquis. 



