The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))Bourke, John Gregory
Religion
The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))
Bourke, John Gregory
Apache Indians -- Medicine; Apache Indians -- Religion; Apache Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Shamans -- New Mexico
Corbusier instances a remedy in use among the Tonto Apache. This
consisted in applying a rattlesnake to the head or other part
suffering from pain. He continues: "After a time the medicine-man
rested the snake on the ground again, and, still retaining his hold of
it with his right hand, put a pinch of yellow pollen into its mouth
with his left, and rubbed some along its belly."[266]
"He then held his hand out to a man, who took a pinch of the powder
and rubbed it on the crown of a boy's head. Yellow pollen treated in
this manner is a common remedy for headache, and may frequently be
seen on the crowns of the heads of men and boys."[267]
Hoddentin is used in the same manner as a remedy for headache among
the San Carlos Apache, but the medicine-men apply a snake to the
person of a patient only when their "diagnosis" has satisfied them
that he has been guilty of some unkindness to a snake, such as
stepping upon it, in which case they pretend that they can cure the
man by applying to the part affected the portion of the reptile's body
upon which he trampled.
The Apache state that when their medicine-men go out to catch snakes
for their snake dance, they recite a prayer and lay their left hand,
in which is some hoddentin, at the opening of the snake's den, through
which the reptile must crawl, and, after a short time the snake will
come out and allow himself to be handled.
Hoddentin is also offered to other animals, especially the bear, of
which the Apache, like their congeners the Navajo, stand in great awe
and reverence. When a bear is killed, the dance which is held becomes
frenzied; the skin is donned by all the men, and much hoddentin is
thrown, if it can be obtained. One of these dances which I saw in the
Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, lasted all night, without a moment's
cessation in the singing and prancing of the participants.
A great deal of hoddentin is offered to the "ka-chu" (great or jack
rabbit).[268]
The Apache medicine-man, Nakay-do-klunni, called by the whites
"Bobbydoklinny," exercised great influence over his people at Camp
Apache, in 1881. He boasted of his power to raise the dead, and
predicted that the whites should soon be driven from the land. He also
drilled the savages in a peculiar dance, the like of which had never
been seen among them. The participants, men and women, arranged
themselves in files, facing a common center, like the spokes of a
wheel, and while thus dancing hoddentin was thrown upon them in
profusion. This prophet or "doctor" was killed in the engagement in
the Cibicu canyon, August 30, 1881.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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