The Myths of the North American IndiansSpence, Lewis
History
The Myths of the North American Indians
Spence, Lewis
Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
Among the Athapascan Indians the Apaches, both male and female, wear
fetishes which they call _tzi-daltai_, manufactured from
lightning-riven wood, generally pine or cedar, or fir from the
mountains. These are highly valued, and are never sold. They are
shaved very thin, rudely carved in the semblance of the human form, and
decorated with incised lines representing the lightning. They are
small in size, and few of them are painted. {90} Bourke describes one
that an Apache chief carried about with him, which was made of a piece
of lath, unpainted, having a figure in yellow drawn upon it, with a
narrow black band and three snake's heads with white eyes. It was
further decorated with pearl buttons and small eagle-down feathers.
The reverse and obverse were identical.
Many of the Apaches attached a piece of malachite to their guns and
bows to make them shoot accurately. Bourke mentions a class of
fetishes which he terms 'phylacteries.' These are pieces of buckskin
or other material upon which are inscribed certain characters or
symbols of a religious or 'medicine' nature, and they are worn attached
to the person who seeks benefit from them. They differ from the
ordinary fetish in that they are concealed from the public gaze. These
'phylacteries,' Bourke says, "themselves medicine," may be employed to
enwrap other 'medicine,' and "thus augment their own potentialities."
He describes several of these objects. One worn by an Indian named
Ta-ul-tzu-je "was tightly rolled in at least half a mile of saddler's
silk, and when brought to light was found to consist of a small piece
of buckskin two inches square, upon which were drawn red and yellow
crooked lines, which represented the red and yellow snake. Inside were
a piece of malachite and a small cross of lightning-riven pine, and two
very small perforated shells. The cross they designated 'the black
mind.'" Another 'phylactery' consisted of a tiny bag of hoddentin,
holding a small quartz crystal and four feathers of eagle-down. This
charm, it was explained by an Indian, contained not merely the
'medicine' of the crystal and the eagle, but also that of the black
bear, the white lion, and the yellow snake.
{91}
Iroquoian Fetishes
Things that seem at all unusual are accepted by the Hurons, a tribe of
the Iroquois, as _oky_, or supernatural, and therefore it is accounted
lucky to find them. In hunting, if they find a stone or other object
in the entrails of an animal they at once make a fetish of it. Any
object of a peculiar shape they treasure for the same reason. They
greatly fear that demons or evil spirits will purloin their fetishes,
which they esteem so highly as to propitiate them in feasts and invoke
them in song. The highest type of fetish obtainable by a Huron was a
piece of the onniont, or great armoured serpent, a mythological animal
revered by many North American tribes.
Fetishism among the Algonquins
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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