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
"He showed me, as a special favor, that which give him his power--a
bag with some reddish powder in it. He allowed me to handle it and
smell this mysterious stuff, and pointed out two little dolls or
images, which, he said, gave him authority over the souls of others;
it was for their support that flour and water were placed in small
birch-rind saucers in front."[299]
On page 286, narrative of the Jeannette Arctic expedition, Dr. Newcomb
says: "One day, soon after New Year's, I was out walking with one of
the Indians. Noticing the new moon, he stopped, faced it, and, blowing
out his breath, he spoke to it, invoking success in hunting. The moon,
he said, was 'Tyunne,' or ruler of deers, bears, seals, and walrus."
The ceremony herein described I have no doubt was analogous in every
respect to hoddentin-throwing. As the Indians mentioned were
undoubtedly Tinneh, my surmise seems all the more reasonable.[300]
Tanner relates that among the Ojibwa the two best hunters of the band
had "each a little leather sack of medicine, consisting of certain
roots pounded fine and mixed with red paint, to be applied to the
little images or figures of the animals we wish to kill."[301]
"In the parish of Walsingham, in Surrey, there is or was a custom
which seems to refer to the rites performed in honor of Pomona. Early
in the spring the boys go round to the several orchards in the parish
and whip the apple trees.... The good woman gives them some
meal."[302]
Among the rustics of Great Britain down to a very recent period there
were in use certain "love powders," the composition of which is not
known, a small quantity of which had to be sprinkled upon the food of
the one beloved.[303]
Attached to the necklace of human fingers before described, captured
from one of the chief medicine-men of the Cheyenne Indians, is a bag
containing a powder very closely resembling hoddentin, if not
hoddentin itself.
It is said that the Asinai made sacrifice to the scalps of their
enemies, as did the Zuñi as late as 1881. "Ofrecen á las calaveras
pinole molido y de otras cosas comestibles."[304]
Perrot says the Indians of Canada had large medicine bags, which he
calls "pindikossan," which, among other things, contained "des racines
ou des poudres pour leur servir de médecines."[305]
In an article on the myth of Manibozho, by Squier, in American
Historical Magazine Review, 1848, may be found an account of the
adventures of two young heroes, one of whom is transferred to the list
of gods. He commissioned his comrade to bring him offerings of a white
wolf, a polecat, some pounded maize, and eagles' tails.
Laplanders sprinkle cow and calf with flour.[306]
Cameron met an old chief on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, of whom he
says: "His forehead and hair were daubed with vermilion, yellow, and
white powder, the pollen of flowers."[307]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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