m l-iiKK.] MEDICINE SHIRTS AND SASHES. f)93 



as was the case. 1 had obtained from cliff dwellings, sacred caves, and 

 other places beads of talc, of chalchihuitl, and of shell, pieces of crys 

 tal and other things, sacred in the eyes of the Apache, and these 1 was 

 compelled to barter for the information here given. 



The medicine shirts of the Apaches, several of which are here repre 

 sented, do not require an extended description. The symbolism is 

 different for each one, but may be generalized as typical of the sun, 

 moon, stars, rainbow, lightning, snake, clouds, rain, hail, tarantula, 

 centipede, snake, and some one or more of the u kan&quot; or gods. 



The medicine sashes follow closely in pattern the medicine shirts, 

 being smaller in size only, but with the same symbolic decoration. 

 Similar ornamentation will be found upon the amulets (ditzi), made of 

 lightning-struck pine or other wood. All of these are warranted, among 

 other virtues, to screen the wearer from the arrows, lances, or bullets 

 of the enemy. In this they strongly resemble the salves and other 

 means by which people in Europe sought to obtain &quot; magical impene 

 trability. The last writer to give receipts for making such salves, 

 etc., that I can recall, was Ktmiiller, who wrote in the early years of 

 the seventeenth century. 



.o:ss. I c . / T v/ B frf- *&quot; 



Flu. 448. Apache medicine sasb. 



Such as the reader can imagine the medicine-man to be from this 

 description of his paraphernalia, such he has been since the white man 

 first landed in America. Never desirous of winning proselytes to his 

 own ideas, he has held on to those ideas with a tenacity never sus 

 pected until purposely investigated. The first of the Spanish writers 

 seem to have employed the native terms for the medicine-men, and we 

 come across them as cemis or y.emis, bohiti, paehuaci, and others; but 

 soon they were recognized as the emissaries of Satan and the preachers 

 of witchcraft, and henceforth they appear in the documents as &quot;hechi- 

 cheros&quot; and brnjos&quot; almost exclusively. Tienan los Apaches pro- 

 fetas 6 adivinos que go/.an de la mas alta estimation. Ksos adivinos 

 pratiean la medicina lamas rudimental, laaplicacion de alguuas yerbas y 

 esto acompanado de ceremonias y cantos supersticiosos.&quot; I imentel 

 seems to have derived his information from Cordero, a Spanish officer 

 who had served against the Apache at various times between 1770 and 

 1795, and seemed to understand them well. 



&quot;There was no class of persons who so widely and deeply influenced 

 the culture and shaped the destiny of the Indian tribes as their priests. 

 In attempting to gain a true conception of the race s capacities and 



1 Vhiientel. Lensluns IlliliKPiius de Mexico, vol. II, pp. 498, 4 J9. 



9 ETH ;58 



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