BOrRKE.1 



MEDICINE CORDS. 



553 



from him or from his friends, can help the crops, and cure (lie sick. Ft 

 the circle attached to one of these cords (see Fig.&quot; 436)~isT placed 

 upon the head it will at once relieve any ache, while the cross attached 

 to another (see Fig. 439) prevents the wearer from going astray, no 

 matter where he may be ; in other words, it has some connection with 

 cross-trails and the four cardinal points to which the Apache pay the 

 strictest attention. The Apache assured UK* that these cords were not 

 mnemonic and that the beads, feathers, knots, etc., attached to them 

 were not for the purpose of recalling to mind some duty to be performed 

 or prayer to be recited. 



Fin. 438. Two-strand medic-ine roril (Apiu hp). 



I was at first inclined to associate these cords with the quipus of the 

 Peruvians, and also with the wampum of the aborigines of the Atlantic 

 coast, and investigation only confirms this first suspicion. It is true 

 that both the wampum and the quipu seem to have advanced from 

 their primitive position as &quot;medicine&quot; and attained, ethnologicall* 

 speaking, the higher plane of a medium for facilitating exchange or disi- 

 seminating information, and for that reason their incorporation in this 

 chapter might be objected to by the hypercritical ; but a careful perusal 



