582 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
The Mexicans were wont to cry out “Here come our gods!” upon 
seeing their priests masked and disguised, and especially when they 
had donned the skins of the women offered up in sacrifice.! 
The headdresses worn by the gods of the American Indians and the 
priests or medicine-men who served them were persistently called ‘ mi- 
ters” by the early Spanish writers. Thus Quetzalcoatl wore “en la 
sabega una Mitra de papel puntiaguda.”* When Father Felician Lopez 
went to preach to the Indians of Florida, in 1697, among other matters 
of record is one to the effect that ‘the chief medicine man called him- 
self bishop.”* Possibly this title was assumed because the medicine- 
men wore ‘‘miters.” 
Duran goes further than his fellows. In the headdress used at the 
spirit dances he recognizes the tiara. He says that the Mexican priests 
at the feast of Tezcatlipoca wore ‘‘en las cabezas tiaras hechas de ba- 
rillas.”* The ghost dance headdress illustrated in this paper (Fig. 441) is 
known to the Chiricahua Apache as the “ich-te,” a contraction from 
“chas-a-i-wit-te,” according to Ramon, the old medicine-man from whom 
p > \ 
SD 
Fic. 441.—Ghost-dance headdress. 
I obtained it. Heexplained all the symbolism connected with it. The 
round piece of tin in the center is the sun; the irregular arch under- 
neath it is the rainbow. Stars and lightning are depicted on the side 
slats and under them ; the parallelograms with serrated edges are 
clouds; the pendant green sticks are rain drops; there are snakes and 
snake heads on both horizontal and vertical slats, the heads in the 
former case being representative of hail. 
There are feathers of the eagle to conciliate that powerful bird, tur- 
key feathers to appeal to the mountain spirits, and white gull feathers 
for the spirits of the water. There are also small pieces of nacreous 
shells and one or two fragments of the “ duklij,” or chalchihuitl, with- 
out which no medicine-man would feel competent to discharge his func- 
tions. 
The spirit dance itself is called ‘“cha-ja-la.” I have seen this dance a 
number of times, but will confine my description to one seen at Fort 
1 This fact is stated by Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, lib. 10, cap. 33, and by Gomara, Hist. of the 
Conq. of Mexico, p. 446; see also Diego Duran, lib. 1, eap. 20, p. 226. 
2 Herrera, dec. 3, lib. 2, p. 67. 
3 John Gilmary Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 472. 
4 Diego Duran, vol. 3, cap. 4, p. 217. 
