552 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
The three-strand cord was sent to me at Washington by my old 
friend, Al. Seiber, a scout who has been living among the Apache for 
twenty-five years. No explanation accompanied it and it was probably 
procured from the body of some dead warrior during one of the innu- 
merable scouts and skirmishes which Seiber has had with this warlike 
race during his long term of service against them. The two strand 
cord was obtained by myself so long ago that the circumstances con- 
nected with it have escaped my memory. These cords, in their perfee- 
tion, are decorated with beads and shells strung along at intervals, 
with pieces of the sacred green chalchihuitl, which has had such a 
mysterious ascendancy over the 
minds of the American Indians— 
Aztec, Peruvian, Quiche, as well 
as the more savage tribes, like the 
Apache and Navajo; with petrified 
wood, rock crystal, eagle down, 
claws of the hawk or eaglet, claws 
of the bear, rattle of the rattle- 
snake, buckskin bags of hodden- 
tin, circles of buckskin in which 
are inclosed pieces of twigs and 
branches of trees which have been 
struck by lightning, small frag- 
ments of the abalone shell from 
the Pacific coast, and much other 
sacred paraphernalia of a similar 
kind. 
That the use of these cords was 
reserved for the most sacred and 
important oceasions, I soon 
learned; they were not to be seen 
on occasions of no moment, but 
the dances for war, medicine, and 
summoning the spirits at once 
brought them out, and every medi- 
cine-man of any consequence would 
appear with one hanging from his 
right shoulder over his left hip. 
Only the chief medicine-men can make them, and after being made 
and before being assumed by the new owner they must be sprinkled, 
Ramon told me, with “heap hoddentin,” a term meaning that there is 
a great deal of attendant ceremony of a religious character. 
These cords will protect a man while on the warpath, and many of 
the Apache believe firmly that a bullet will have no effect upon the 
warrior wearing one of them. This is not their only virtue by any 
means; the wearer can tell who has stolen ponies or other property 
Fia. 437.—Three-strand medicine cord (Apache). 
