The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604)) — John Shaqi
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
In Guiana,[12] the candidate for the office of medicine-man must,
among other ordeals, "drink fearfully large drafts of tobacco juice,
mixed with water." The medicine-men of Guiana are called peaiman.
I have never seen tobacco juice drank by medicine-men or others, but I
remember seeing Shunca-Luta (Sorrel Horse), a medicine-man of the
Dakota, chewing and swallowing a piece of tobacco and then going into
what seemed to be a trance, all the while emitting deep grunts or
groans. When he revived he insisted that those sounds had been made by
a spirit which he kept down in his stomach. He also pretended to
extract the quid of tobacco from underneath his ribs, and was full of
petty tricks of legerdemain and other means of mystifying women and
children.
All medicine-men claim the power of swallowing spear heads or arrows
and fire, and there are at times many really wonderful things done by
them which have the effect of strengthening their hold upon the
people.
The medicine-men of the Ojibwa thrust arrows and similar instruments
down their throats. They also allow themselves to be shot at with
marked bullets.[13]
While I was among the Tusayan, in 1881, I learned of a young boy,
quite a child, who was looked up to by the other Indians, and on
special occasions made his appearance decked out in much native finery
of beads and gewgaws, but the exact nature of his duties and supposed
responsibilities could not be ascertained.
Diego Duran[14] thought that the priesthood among the Mexicans was to
a great extent hereditary, much like the right of primogeniture among
the people of Spain. Speaking of the five assistants who held down the
human victim at the moment of sacrifice, he says:
Los nombres de los cinco eran Chachalmeca, que en nuestra
Lengua quiere tanto decir como Levita ó ministro de cosa
divina ó sagrada. Era esta dignidad entre ellos muy suprema y
en mucha tenida, la cual se heredaba de hijos á padres como
cosa de mayorazgo, sucediendo los hijos á los Padres en
aquella sangrienta Dignidad endemoniada y cruel.
Concerning the medicine-men of Peru, Dorman[15] says:
The priestly office among the Peruvians appears to have been
hereditary; some attained it by election; a man struck by
lightning was considered as chosen by heaven; also those who
became suddenly insane. Mr. Southey says that among the Moxos
of Brazil, who worshiped the tiger, a man who was rescued
from but marked by the claws of the animal, was set apart for
the priesthood, and none other.
I shall have occasion to introduce a medicine-woman of the Apache,
Tze-go-juni, or "Pretty-mouth," whose claims to preeminence among her
people would seem to have had no better foundation than her escape
from lightning stroke and from the bites of a mountain lion, which had
seized her during the night and had not killed her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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