580 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
by a woman; and if the patient is a woman, then these good services 
being rendered by a man.” ! 
A cord with nine knots in it, tied round the neck of a child suffering 
from whooping cough, was esteemed a sovereign remedy in Worcester, 
England, half a century ago. 
Again, references will be found to the superstitious use of “liga 
tures” down to a comparatively recent period, and ‘‘ I remember it was 
a custom in the north of England for boys that swam to wear an eel’s 
skin about their naked leg to prevent the cramp.” ” 
THE MEDICINE HAT. 
The medicine hat of the old and blind Apache medicine-man, Nan- 
ta-do-tash, was an antique affair of buckskin, much begrimed with soot 
and soiled by long use. N evertheless, it gave life and strength to him 
who wore it, enabled the owner to peer into the future, to tell who had 
stolen ponies from other people, to foresee the approach of an enemy, 
and to aid in the cure of the sick. This was its owner’s own statement 
in conversation with me, but it would seem that the power residing in 
the helmet or hat was not very permanent, because when the old man 
discovered from his wife that I had made a rude drawing of it he 
became extremely excited and said that such a delineation would 
destroy all the life of the hat. His fears were allayed by presents of 
money and tobacco, as well as by some cakes and other food. As a 
measure of precaution, he insisted upon sprinkling pinches of hoddentin 
over myself, the hat, and the drawing of it, at the same time muttering 
various half-articulate prayers. He returned a month afterwards and 
demanded the sum of ‘$30 for damage done to the hat by the drawing, 
since which time it has ceased to ““ work” when needed. 
This same old man gave me an explanation of all the symbolism 
depicted upon the hat and a great deal of valuable information in 
regard to the profession of medicine-men, their specialization, the 
prayers they recited, ete. The material of the hat, as already stated, 
was buckskin. How that was obtained I can not assert positively, but 
from an incident occurring under my personal observation in the Sierra 
Madre in Mexico in 1883, where our Indian scouts and the medicine- 
men with them surrounded a nearly grown fawn and tried to capture 
it alive, as well as from other circumstances too long to be here inserted, 
I am of the opinion that the buckskin to be used for sacred purposes 
among the Apache must, whenever possible, be that of a strangled 
animal, as is the case, according to Dr. Matthews, among the Navajo. 
The body of Nan-ta-do-tash’s cap (Fig. 454, p. 503) was unpainted, but 
the figures upon it were in two colors, a brownish yellow and an earthy 
blue, resembling a dirty Prussian blue. The ornamentation was of the 
downy feathers and black-tipped plumes of the eagle, pieces of abalone 
shell, and chalchihuitl, and a snake’s rattle on the apex. 
! Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 111. 
2 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, pp. 288, 324. 
