BOURKE. ] THE DRINKING REED. 493 
time of attaining womanhood wear pendant from the neck a scratcher 
of abalone shell, which they had to use for an indefinite period when 
the scalp became irritable. 
Prof. Otis T. Mason, of the National Museum, informs me that there 
is a superstition in Virginia to the effect that a young woman enciente 
for the first time must, under no circumstances, serateh her head with 
her fingers, at least while uncovered; she must either put on gloves or 
use a small stick. 
The Parsi have a festival at which they serve a peculiar cake or bread 
salled “draona,” which is marked by scratches from the finger nails of 
the woman who has baked it.! 
No stress has been laid upon the appearance in all parts of the world 
of “back seratchers” or “scratch my backs,” made of ivory, bone, or 
wood, and which were used for toilet purposes to remove irritation from 
between the shoulder blades or along the spine where the hand itself 
could not reach. They are to the present day in use among the Chinese 
and Japanese, were once to be found among the Romans and other 
nations of Europe, and instances of their occasional employment until 
a very recent date might be supplied. 
THE DRINKING REED. 
Exactly what origin to ascribe to the drinking reed is now an im- 
possibility, neither is it probable that the explanations which the 
medicine-men might choose to make would have the slightest value in 
dispelling the gloom which surrounds the subject. That the earliest 
conditions of the Apache tribe found them without many of the com- 
forts which have for generations been necessaries, and obliged to 
resort to all sorts of expedients in cooking, carrying, or serving their 
food is the most plausible presumption, but it is submitted merely as a 
presumption and in no sense as a fact. It can readily be shown that 
in a not very remote past the Apache and other tribes were compelled 
to use bladders and reeds for carrying water, or for conveying water, 
broth, and other liquid food to the lips. The conservative nature of 
man in all that involves his religion would supply whatever might be 
needed to make the use of such reeds obligatory in ceremonial observ- 
ances wherein there might be the slightest suggestion of religious im- 
pulse. We can readily imagine that among a people not well provided 
with forks and spoons, which are known to have been of a much later 
introduction than knives, there would be a very decided danger of 
burning the lips with broth, or of taking into the mouth much earthy 
and vegetable matter or ice from springs and streams at which men 
or women might wish to drink, so the use of the drinking reed would 
obviate no small amount of danger and discomfort. 
1Shayast li-shfyast, cap. 3, par. 32, p. 284 (Max Miiller edition, Oxford, 1880). When the “drén” has 
been marked with three rows of finger-nail scratches it is called a ‘‘frasast.”’ 
