476 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
ing neither meat nor salt; he bathes frequently in the Gila River and 
nearly the whole time keeps his head covered with a plaster of mud 
and mesquite. 
“The boyes [of the Massagueyes]| of seven or eight yeeres weare clay 
fastned on the hayre of the head, and still renewed with new clay, 
weighing sometimes five or six pounds. Nor may they be free hereof 
till in warre or lawfull fight hee hath killed a man.”! 
According to Padre Geronimo Boscana, the traditions of the Indians 
of California show that they “fed upon a kind of clay.”’ But this clay 
was often plastered upon their heads “as a kind of ornament.” These 
were the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, who strongly resembled the 
Mohave. After all, the “‘mudheads” of the Mohave are no worse than 
those people in India who still bedaub their heads with “the holy 
mud of the Ganges.” Up to this time the mud has been the “blue 
mud” of the Colorado and other rivers, but when we find Herbert 
Spencer mentioning that the heads of the Comanche are ‘“ besmeared 
with a dull red clay” we may suspect that we have stumbled upon an 
analogue of the custom of the Aztec priests, who bedaubed their heads 
with the coagulating lifeblood of their human victims. We know that 
there has been such a substitution practiced among the Indians of the 
Pueblo of Jemez, who apply red ocher to the mouth of the stone 
mountain lion, in whose honor human blood was once freely shed. The 
practice of so many of the Plains tribes of painting the median line of 
the head with vermilion seems to be traceable back to a similar custom. 
SCALP SHIRTS. 
The shirt depicted on Pl. 11, made of buckskin and trimmed with 
human scalps, would seem to belong to the same category with the 
mantles made of votive hair, mentioned as being in use among the 
California tribe a little more than a century ago. It was presented to 
me by Little Big Man, who led me to believe that it had once belonged 
to the great chief of the Sioux, Crazy Horse, or had at least been worn 
by him. Of its symbolism I am unable to find the explanation. The 
colors yellow and blue would seem to represent the earth and water or 
sky, the feathers attached would refer to the birds, and the round circle 
on the breast is undoubtedly the sun. There is a cocoon affixed to one 
shoulder, the significance of which I do not know. 
THE RHOMBUS, OR BULL ROARER. 
The rhombus was first seen by me at the snake dance of the Tusayan, 
in the village of Walpi, Ariz., in the month of August, 1881. Pre- 
vious to that date I had heard of it vaguely, but had never been able to 
see it in actual use. The medicine-men twirled it rapidly, and with a 
uniform motion, about the head and from front to rear, and succeeded 
! Purchas, lib. 9, cap. 12, sec. 4, p. 1555, edition of 1622. 
2 Chinigchinich, p. 253. 
