BOURKE. ] HODDENTIN. 501 
. 
tion,” in all their dealings with the supernatural. No Apache would, 
if it could be avoided, go on the warpath without a bag of this precious 
powder somewhere wpon his person, generally, as I have said, attached 
to his ammunition belt. Whenever one was wounded, hurt, or taken 
sick while on a scout, the medicine-man of the party would walk in 
front of the horse or mule ridden by the patient and scatter at intervals 
little pinches of hoddentin, that his path might be made easier. As 
was said tome: ‘ When we Apache go on the warpath, hunt, or plant, 
we always throw a pinch of hoddentin to the sun, saying ‘ with the 
favor of the sun, or permission of the sun, I am going out to fight, 
hunt, or plant,’ as the case may be, ‘and I want the sun to help me.’” 
I have noticed that the Apache, when worn out with marching, put 
a pinch of hoddentin on their tongues as a restorative. 
‘““Hoddentin is eaten by sick people as a remedy.”! 
“Before starting out on the warpath, they take a pinch of hoddentin, 
throw it to the sun, and also put a pinch on their tongues and one on 
the crown of the head. . . . When they return, they hold a 
dance, and on the morning of that day throw pinches of hoddentin to 
the rising sun, and then to the east, south, west, and north, to the four 
winds.”? 
IT am unable to assert that hoddentin is used in any way at the 
birth of a child; but I know that as late as 1886 there was not a babe 
upon the San Carlos reservation, no matter how tender its age, that did 
not have asmall bag of hoddentin attached to its neck or dangling 
from its cradle. Neither can I assert anything about its use at time of 
marriage, because, among the Apache, marriage is by purchase, and 
attended with little, if any, ceremony. But when an Apache girl at- 
tains the age of puberty, among other ceremonies performed upon her, 
they throw hoddentin to the sun and strew it about her and drop on 
her head flour of the pinon, which flour is called by the Chiricahua 
Apache “ nostchi,” and by the Sierra Blanca Apache “ opé.”* 
“ Upon attaining the age of puberty, girls fast one whole day, pray, 
and throw hoddentin to the sun.”* When an Apache dies, if a medi- 
cine-man be near, hoddentin is sprinkled upon the corpse. The Apache 
buried in the clefts of rocks, but the Apache-Mohave cremated. “ Be- 
fore lighting the fire the medicine-men of the Apache-Mohave put hod- 
dentin on the dead person’s breast in the form of a cross, on the fore- 
head, shoulders, and scattered a little about.”* 
The very first thing an Apache does in the morning is to blow a little 
pinch of hoddentin to the dawn. The Apache worship both dawn 
and darkness, as well as the sun, moon, and several of the planets. 
1 Information of T'ze-go-juni. 
2Information of Concepcion. 
3See notes, a few pages farther on, from Kohl; also those from Godfrey Higgins. he word “‘opé” 
suggests the name the Tusayan have for themselves, Opi, or Opika, ‘‘ bread people.” 
‘Information of T'ze-go-juni. 
® Information of Mike Burns. 
