512 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
ginia in 1607 he was taken to “a long house,” where, on the morning fol- 
lowing “a great grim fellow” came skipping in, ‘ all painted over with 
coale, mingled with oyle. With most strange gestures and passions he 
began his invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of meale.” 
This priest was followed by six others, who “ with their rattles began 
a song, which ended, the chiefe priest layd downe five wheat cornes.” 
This ceremony was apparently continued during the day and repeated 
on the following two days.' Capt. Smith’s reception by the medicine- 
men of the Virginians is described by Picart.2 These medicine-men are 
called ‘ prétres,” and we are informed that they sang “des chants 
magiques.” The grains of wheat (‘‘grains de blé”) were “rangez cing 
a cing.” 
Gomara tells us that in the religious festivals of Nicaragua there 
were used certain ‘‘taleguillas con polvos,” but he does not tell what 
these “‘ polvos” were; he only says that when the priests sacrifice them- 
selves they cured the wounds, ‘ curan las heridas con polvo de herbas 
6 carbon.” 
While the Baron de Graffenreid was a prisoner in the hands of the 
Tuscarora, on the Neuse River, in 1711, the conjurer or high priest 
(“the priests are generally magicians and even conjure up the devil”) 
“made two white rounds, whether of flour or white sand, I do not 
know, just in front of us.” 4 
Lafitau says of one of the medicine women of America : *‘ Elle com- 
menga @abord par préparer un espace de terrain qwelle nétoya bien & 
quelle couyrit de farine, ou de cendre tres-bien bluttée (je ne me souviens 
pas exactement laquelle des deux).”° 
In a description of the ceremonial connected with the first appear- 
ance of the catamenia in a Navajo squaw, there is no reference to a use 
of anything like hoddentin, unless it may be the corn which was ground 
into meal for a grand feast, presided over by a medicine-man. ° 
When a woman is grinding corn or cooking, and frequently when 
any of the Navajo, male or female, are eating, a handful of corn meal is 
put in the fire as an offering (to the sun). * 
The Pueblos of New Mexico are described as offering sacrifices of food 
to their idols. ‘Los Indios del Norte tienan multitud de Idolos, en 
pequenos Adoratorios, donde los ponen de comer.” ® 
Maj. Backus, U. S. Army, describes certain ceremonies which he saw 
performed by the Navajo at a sacred spring near Fort Defiance, Ari- 
zona, which seems to have once been a geyser: 
'Smith, True Travels, Adventures and Observations, Richmond, 1819, vol. 1, p. 161. 
2 Cérémonies et Coitumes, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 74. 
3 Historia de las Indias, p. 284. 
4 Colonial Records of North Carolina, 1886, vol. 1, p. 930. 
5 Meeurs des Sauvages, Paris, 1724, vol. 1, p. 386. 
6 Personal notes of May 26, 1881; conversation with Chi and Damon at Fort Detiance. Navajo Agency, 
Arizona. 
7 Tbid. 
8 Bareia, Ensayo Cronologico, p. 160. 
