500 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
Europe and America. The interpreters had no intention to deceive; 
they were simply unable to disengage themselves from their own preju- 
dices and their ow ignorance; they could not, and they would not, 
credit the existence ofany such thing as 
religion, save and excepting that taught 
them at their mothers’ knees in the petty 
hamlets of Sonora and of which they still 
preserved hazy and distorted recollec- 
tions. Oneofthe first things to be noticed 
among the Apache, in this connection, 
was the very general appearance of little 
bags of buckskin, sometimes ornamented, 
sometimes plain, which were ordinarily 
attached to the belts of the warriors, and 
of which they seemed to be especially 
careful.! 
What follows in this chapter was not 
learned in an hour or a day, but after a 
z long course of examination and a com- 
parison of statements extracted from dif- 
ferent authorities. 
The bags spoken of revealed when opened a quantity of yellow colored 
flour or powder, resembling cornmeal, to which the Apache gave the 
name of ‘* hoddentin,” or “ hadntin,” the meaning of which word is “ the 
powder or pollen of the tule,” a variety of the cat-tail rush, growing in 
all the little ponds and cienegas of the Southwest. 
I made it the touchstone of friendship that every scout or other 
Apache who wished for a favor at my hands should relate something 
concerning his religious belief. I did not care much what topic he se- 
lected; it might be myths, clan laws, war customs, medicine—anything 
he pleased, but it had to be something and it had to be accurate. 
Hoddentin having first attracted my attention, I very naturally made 
many of my first inquiries about it, and, while neglecting no opportunity 
for independent observation, drew about me the most responsible men 
and women, heard what each had to say, carefully compared and con- 
trasted it with the statements of the others, and now give the result. 
I noticed that in the dances for the benefit of the sick the medicine- 
men in the intervals between chants applied this yellow powder to the 
forehead of the patient, then in form of a cross upon his breast, then in 
a circle around his couch, then upon the heads of the chanters and of 
sympathizing friends, and lastly upon their own heads and into their 
own mouths. There is a considerable difference in method, as medi- 
cine-men allow themselves great latitude, or a large ‘“‘ personal equa- 
Fic. 433.—Bag containing hoddentin. 
1The medicine sack or bag of the Apache, containing their ‘‘ hoddentin,” closely resembles the 
“bulle"’ of the Romans—in which ‘On y mettait des préservatifs contre les maléfices."’ Musée de 
Naples, London, 1836, p. 4. Copy shown me by Mr. Spofford, of the Library of Congress. 
