Indians of North America -- Religion; Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies; Peyotism
[8] Bennett and Zingg (_The Tarahumara_, 135) write that “in a culture
where animals are thought to talk and cattle are supposed to warn their
masters of impending drought or plague, it is not surprising that plants
also are imbued with personality and harmful or helpful attributes.
The small ball of cacti is especially revered by the Tarahumara.” Some
_Mammillaria_ spp. have a striking resemblance to a head of hair; one
figured in Higgins with flowing white “hair” is called “Old Man Cactus”;
again, natives have an intense fear of even touching these plants—an
attitude recalling the Pima belief that even one drop of Apache blood
falling on a person would make him ill (Hrdlička, _Physiological and
Medical Observations_, 243). In this connection it is interesting to note
that Spier has collected evidence bearing on the magical use of enemies’
scalps. The magical malevolence of the enemy or his scalp is cited
(_Warfare_) for the Maricopa, Yuman and Piman groups, Navaho, Jicarilla,
and Pueblo. The Yumans and Pimans required stringent purification from
contact with the enemy or his scalp; the Pimans, again, along with
the Navaho and Pueblos turned this power to account in curing and
rain-bringing. Spier states that for the Pima-Papago the scalp is turned
into an ally against the enemy, and made a specific prophylactic against
such enemy-engendered dangers as paralysis, swooning at the sight of
blood or a violent death; the Maricopa, indeed, convert a scalp into one
of themselves, much as a captive is ceremonially converted and purified.
Further still, according to Spier, the Maricopa and Yumans received
prophetic foreknowledge of the enemy from these scalps, which therefore
they carried with them to war. Still more strikingly, scalps are thought
to laugh and cry and babble incessantly, much as the noisily talkative
peyote plant is supposed to do.
[9] Lumholtz, _Tarahumari Dances_, 452; also _Unknown Mexico_, 1:372-74.
[10] Spier (_Warfare_) writes that “Clairvoyance on the part of the
shaman who accompanied a war party is noted for Maricopa, Yuma, Pima,
and Papago [as well as] in the Plains and Plateau.” Zuñi war chiefs, he
adds, sought sound-omens on the eve of setting out on the war-path. In
this last connection the detailed similarities in attitude and conduct of
war-expeditions, peyote-pilgrimages, and salt-gathering expeditions in
Mexico and the Southwest should not be overlooked. (The Huichol shooting
of the peyote plant, however, is a hunting rather than a war symbolism,
that of hunting the hikuli-deer of the peyote origin legend.) Information
on the Comanche horse-raid is from E. A. Hoebel; unfortunately the
Government took most of these peyote-given horses back again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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