BOURKE. ] HODDENTIN. 505 
He then held his hand out to a man, who took a pinch of the powder 
and rubbed it on the crown of a boy’s head. Yellow pollen treated in 
this manner is a common remedy for headache, and may frequently be 
seen on the crowns of the heads of men and boys.”! 
Hoddentin is used in the same manner as a remedy for headache among 
the San Carlos Apache, but the medicine-men apply a snake to the 
person of a patient only when their “diagnosis” has satisfied them that 
he has been guilty of some unkindness toa snake, such as stepping 
upon it, in which case they pretend that they can cure the man by 
applying to the part affected the portion of the reptile’s body upon 
which he trampled. 
The Apache state that when their medicine-men go out to catch snakes 
for their snake dance, they recite a prayer and lay their left hand, in 
which is some hoddentin, at the opening of the snake’s den, through 
which the reptile must crawl, and, after a short time the snake will 
come out and allow himself to be handled. 
Hoddentin is also offered to other animals, especially the bear, of 
which the Apache, like their congeners the Navajo, stand in great awe 
and reverence. When abear is killed, the dance which is held becomes 
frenzied; the skin is donned by all the men, and much hoddentin is 
thrown, if if can be obtained. One of these dances which I saw in the 
Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, lasted all night, without a moment’s 
cessation in the singing and prancing of the participants. 
A great deal of hoddentin is offered to the “ka-chu” (great or jack 
rabbit).” 
The Apache medicine-man, Nakay-do-klunni, called by the whites 
“Bobbydoklinny,” exercised great influence over his people at Camp 
Apache, in 1881. He boasted of his power to raise the dead, and pre- 
dicted that the whites should soon be driven from the land. He also 
drilled the savages in a peculiar dance, the like of which had never been 
seen among them. The participants, men and women, arranged them- 
selves in files, facing a common center, like the spokes of a wheel, and 
while thus dancing hoddentin was thrown upon them in profusion. 
This prophet or “doctor” was killed in the engagement in the Cibicu 
canyon, August 30, 1881. 
In a description of the ‘‘altars” made by the medicine-men of the 
Apache-Yuma at or near Camp Verde, Arizona, it is shown that this 
sacred powder is freely used. Figures were drawn upon the ground 
to represent the deities of the tribe, and the medicine-men dropped on 
all, except three of them, a pinch of yellow powder (hoddentin) which 
was taken froma small buckskin bag. This powder was put upon the 
head, chest, or other part of the body of the patient. 
Surgeon Corbusier, U.S. Army,* says that the ceremony just described 
was ‘‘ a most sacred one and entered into for the purpose of averting the 
' Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, November, 1883, pp. 336-37. 
° Information of Moses Henderson. 
3 American Antiquarian, Sept. and Nov., 1886. 
