452 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
and enter into a treatment of the religious ideas, the superstitions, 
omens, and prayers of these spiritual leaders, would be to open a road 
without end. 
As the subject of the paraphernalia of the medicine-men has never, 
to my knowledge, been comprehensively treated by any writer, I ven- 
ture to submit what I have learned during the twenty-two years of my 
acquaintance with our savage tribes, and the studies and conclusions 
to which my observations have led. While treating in the main of the 
medicine-men of the Apache, I do not intend to omit any point of im- 
portance noted among other tribes or peoples. 
First, in regard to the organization of the medicine-men of the 
Apache, it should be premised that most of my observations were made 
while the tribe was still actively engaged in hostilities with the whites, 
and they-cannot be regarded as, and are not claimed to be, conclusive 
upon all points. The Apache are not so surely divided into medicine 
lodges or secret societies as is the case with the Ojibwa, as shown by Dr. 
W.J. Hoffman; the Siouan tribes, as related by Mr. J. Owen Dorsey; the 
Zuni, according to Mr. F. H. Cushing; the Tusayan, as shown by myself, 
and other tribes described by other authorities. 
The Navajo, who are the full brothers of the Apache, seem to have 
well defined divisions among their medicine-men, as demonstrated by 
Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. Army; and I myself have seen 
great medicine lodges, which must have contained at least a dozen 
Apache medicine-men, engaged in some of their incantations. I 
have also been taken to several of the sacred caves, in which solemn 
religious dances and other ceremonies were conducted under the same 
superintendence, but never have I witnessed among the Apache any 
rite of religious significance in which more than four or five, or at the 
most six, of the medicine-men took part. 
The difficulty of making an accurate determination was increased by 
the nomadic character of the Apache, who would always prefer to live 
in small villages containing only a few brush shelters, and not needing 
the care of more than one or two of their “doctors.” These people show an 
unusual secretiveness and taciturnity in all that relates to their inner 
selves, and, living as they do in a region filled with caves and secluded 
nooks, on clits, and in deep canyons, have not been compelled to celebrate 
their sacred offices in ‘“estufas,” or “plazas,” open to the inspection of 
the profane, as has been the case with so many of the Pueblo tribes. 
Diligent and persistent inquiry of medicine-men whose confidence I 
had succeeded in gaining, convinced me that any young man can be- 
come a “doctor” (‘¢diyi” in the Apache language, which is translated 
“sabio” by the Mexican captives). It is necessary to convince his 
friends that he “has the gift,” as one of my informants expressed it; 
that is, he must show that he is a dreamer of dreams, given tu long 
fasts and vigils, able to interpret omens in a satisfactory manner, and 
do other things of that general nature to demonstrate the possession of 
