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
Subsequently Pedro went on to describe in detail a phallic dance and
ceremony, in which there was a sort of divination. The young maiden
who made the lucky guess was richly rewarded, while her less fortunate
companions were presented with a handful of kunque, which they kept
during the ensuing year. This dance is called "ky'áklu," and is
independent of the great phallic dance occurring in the month of
December. Pedro also stated that until very recently the Zuñi were in
the habit of celebrating a fire dance at Noche Buena (Christmas).
There were four piles of wood gathered for the occasion, and upon each
the medicine-men threw kunque in profusion. This dance, as Pedro
described it, closely resembled one mentioned by Landa in his Cosas de
Yucatan. High up on the vertical face of the precipice of Tâaiyalana
there is a phallic shrine of the Zuñi to which I climbed with Mr.
Frank Cushing. We found that the place had been visited by young
brides who were desirous of becoming mothers. The offerings in every
case included kunque.
In the account given in the National Tribune, Washington, District of
Columbia, May 20, 1886, of the mode of life of the Zuñi woman Wehwa
while in the national capital, and while engaged in the kirmes, we
read:
She also strewed sacred corn meal along on her way to the
theater to bring good luck to her and the other dancers. * * *
She has gone from her comfortable room to pray in the street
at daylight every morning, whatever the weather has been.
* * * At such times she strews corn meal all around her
until the front-door steps and the sidewalk are much daubed
with dough. But this is not the corn meal in common use in
the United States, but is sacred meal ground in Zuñi with
sacred stones.[273]
So long a time has elapsed since any of the Pueblos have been on the
warpath that no man can describe their actual war customs except from
the dramatic ceremonial of their dances or from the stories told him
by the "old men." The following from an eyewitness will therefore be
of interest: "Before the Pueblos reached the heights they were ordered
to scale they halted on the way to receive from their chiefs some
medicine from the medicine bags which each of them carried about his
person. This they rubbed upon their heart, as they said, to make it
big and brave, and they also rubbed it upon other parts of their
bodies and upon their rifles for the same purpose."[274]
The constant use of kunque by the different Pueblo tribes has been
noticed from the first days of European contact. In the relation of
Don Antonio de Espejo (1583) we are told that upon the approach of the
Spaniards to the town of Zaguato, lying 28 leagues west of Zuñi, "a
great multitude of Indians came forth to meete them, and among the
rest their Caçiques, with so great demonstration of joy and gladnes,
that they cast much meale of Maiz upon the ground for the horses to
tread upon."[275]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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