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
Idols made of dough much after the fashion of the Aztecs are to be
found among the Mongols. Meignan speaks of seeing "an idol, quite open
to the sky and to the desert, representing the deity of travelers. It
was made of compressed bread, covered over with some bituminous
substance, and perched on a horse of the same material, and held in
its hand a lance in Don Quixote attitude. Its horrible features were
surmounted with a shaggy tuft of natural hair. A great number of
offerings of all kinds were scattered on the ground all around. Five
or six images, formed also of bread, were bending in an attitude of
prayer before the deity."[369]
Dr. Edwin James, the editor of Tanner's Narrative,[370] cites the
"Calica Puran" to show that medicinal images are employed by the
people of the East Indies when revenge is sought upon an enemy; "water
must be sprinkled on the meal or earthen victim which represents the
sacrificer's enemy."
In those parts of India where human sacrifice had been abolished, a
substitutive ceremony was practiced "by forming a human figure of
flour-paste, or clay, which they carry into the temples, and there cut
off its head or mutilate it, in various ways, in presence of the
idols."[371]
Gomara describes the festival in honor of the Mexican God of Fire,
called "Xocothuecl," when an idol was used made of every kind of seed
and was then enwrapped in sacred blankets to keep it from breaking.
"Hacian aquella noche un ídolo de toda suerte de semillas, envolvíanlo
en mantas benditas, y liábanlo, porque no se deshiciese."[372]
These blessed blankets are also to be seen at the Zuñi feast of the
Little God of Fire, which occurs in the month of December. It is a
curious thing that the blessed blankets of the Zuñi are decorated with
the butterfly, which appeared upon the royal robes of Montezuma.
What other seeds were used in the fabrication of these idols is not
very essential to our purpose, but it may be pointed out that one of
them was the seed of the "agenjo," which was the "chenopodium" or
"artemisia," known to us as the "sagebrush."
Of the Mexicans we learn from a trustworthy author: "Tambien usaban
alguna manera de comunion ó recepcion del sacramento, y es que hacian
unos idolitos chiquitos de semilla de bledos ó cenizos, ó de otras
yerbas, y ellos mismos se los recibian, como cuerpo ó memoria de sus
dioses."[373]
Mendieta wrote his Historia Eclesiástica Indiana in 1596, "al tiempo
que esto escribo (que es por Abril del año de noventa y seis)"[374]
and again,[375] "al tiempo que yo esto escribo."
The Mexicans, in the month of November, had a festival in honor of
Tezcatlipuca. "Hacian unos bollos de masa de maíz y semejante de
agenjos, aunque son de otra suerte que los de acá, y echábanlos á
cocer en ollas con agua sola. Entre tanto que hervian y se cocian los
bollos, tañian los muchachos un atabal ... y después comíanselos con
gran devocion."[376]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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