574. MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
East Indies could be traced back to an ophic origin, and it has also 
been shown that, until the present day, among the peasantry of Europe, 
there has obtained the practice of making girdles of snake skin which 
have been employed for the cure of disease and as an assistance in 
childbirth. The snake itself, while still alive, as has been shown, is 
applied to the person of the patient by the medicine-men of the Amer- 
ican Indians. 
In connection with the remarks taken from Forlong’s Rivers of Life 
on this subject, I should like to call attention to the fact that the long 
knotted blacksnake whip of the wagoners of Europe and America, 
which, when not in use, is worn across the body from shoulder to hip, 
has been identified as related to snake worship. 
There is another view to take of the origin of these sacred cords 
which it is fair to submit before passing final judgment. The izze-kloth 
may have been in early times a cord for tying captives who were taken 
in war, and as these captives were offered up in sacrifice to the gods of 
war and others they were looked upon as sacred, and all used in con- 
nection with them would gradually take on a sacred character. The 
same kind of cords seem to have been used in the chase. This would 
explain a great deal of the superstition connected with the whole sub- 
ject of “hangman’s rope” bringing luck, curing disease, and averting 
trouble of all sorts, a superstition more widely disseminated and going 
back to more ancient times than most people would imagine. One of 
the tribes of New Granada, “quando iban a Ja Guerra llevaban Cor- 
deles para atar a los Presos.”! This recalls that the Apache them- 
selves used to throw lariats from ambush upon travelers, and that the 
Thugs who served the goddess Bhowani, in India, strangled with cords, 
afterwards with handkerchiefs. The Spaniards in Peru, under Jorge 
Robledo, going toward the Rio Magdalena, in 1542, found a large body 
of savages ‘que Ilevaban Cordeles, para atar 4 los Castellanos, i sus 
Pedernales, para despedagarlos, i Ollas para cocerlos.”? The Austral- 
ians carried to war a cord, called “Nerum,” about 2 feet 6 inches 
long, made of kangaroo hair, used for strangling an enemy.? 
The easiest method of taking the hyena “is for the hunter to tie his 
girdle with seven knots, and to make as many knots in the whip with 
which he guides his horse.”* Maj. W. Cornwallis Harris® describes a 
search made for a lost camel. A man was detailed to search for the 
animal and provided with the following charm to aid him in his 
search: “The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had been fet- 
tered was rolled betwixt his (the Ras el Kafilah’s) hands, and sundry | 
cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged 
' Herrera, dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 1, p. 171. 
2Tbid., dec. 7, lib. 4, eap. 5, p. 70. 
3Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p.351. See also previous references to the use of such cords 
by the Australians. 
4Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap..27. 
5 Highlands of thiopia, vol. 1, p. 247. 
