Chapter 5

Many of the medicine-men have some knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and generally make use of them in the treatment of disease, but their treatment consists more of incantation than aught else. Even in collecting the plants they invoke the deities, usually facing the cardinal points in turn. In case the prescription calls for a combination of herbs or other vegetal products, the number four is always strictly adhered to; it might be a decoction made of four roots of one variety or of a single root from each of four varieties of plants.

Every Apache medicine-man has a medicine skin, his _epu{~COMBINING BREVE~}n ezchi_, inscribed with the symbolism of the tribal mythology. With his prayer wands he rehearses the symbolic figures, praying to the mythical characters who are regarded as most efficacious in the particular ailment under treatment. In his own little _kowa_, or dwelling, with the painted deerskin spread before him, on which are delineated the symbolic representations of a score of gods comprising the Apache pantheon, a medicine-man will sit and croon songs and pray all day and all night in the hope of hearing the voices of celestial messengers.

Many of the prayers and songs of the Apache medicine-men are very beautiful. The following is an example:

1 _Stena pehi{~COMBINING BREVE~}nda nzhoni, togonil adahe be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

2 _Inate{~COMBINING BREVE~}sh nzhoni be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

3 _Enude{~COMBINING BREVE~}tsos nzhoni be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

4 _Inyatil nzhoni be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

5 _Be{~COMBINING BREVE~}hnandahi inkehi togonil adahe be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

6 _Indu{~COMBINING BREVE~}h binandahe be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

7 _Beh nashalolezh nde; nasheyo shichi{~COMBINING TILDE~}sigo__n__ zho__n__dolezh._

8 _Nde shinkloho beh sanandahe be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

9 _Beh sanashado be{~COMBINING BREVE~}oishka__n__._

10 _No osko__n__go adishni dahazhi behnashado ti nde ta nasheyo go__n__zhodo._

11 _Shagocho paogo nasha._

12 _Akud nde sa nzhoni ye{~COMBINING BREVE~}sitchi ye{~COMBINING BREVE~}atido._

13 _Pidi yu{~COMBINING BREVE~}gga sa nzhoni ye{~COMBINING BREVE~}kissin shi{~COMBINING TILDE~}dil e{~COMBINING BREVE~}ndo._

14 _Shitu{~COMBINING BREVE~}h gozho__n__dolezh pogo hadishndi._

1 _Stenatliha__n__, you are good, I pray for a long life._

2 _I pray for your good looks._

3 _I pray for good breath._

4 _I pray for good speech._

5 _I pray for feet like yours to carry me through a long life._

6 _I pray for a life like yours._

7 _I walk with people; ahead of me all is well._

8 _I pray for people to smile as long as I live._

9 _I pray to live long._

10 _I pray, I say, for a long life to live with you where the good people are._

11 _I live in poverty._

12 _I wish the people there to speak of goodness and to talk to me._

13 _I wish you to divide your good things with me, as a brother._

14 _Ahead of me is goodness, lead me on._

While this prayer is worded as if uttered by the supplicant, it is in reality offered by the medicine-man in his behalf.

There are head medicine-men and medicine-men of lesser degree. The man who becomes influential enough to be considered the head medicine-man of the tribe is more of a politician than a doctor of diseases, and in important cases only is he called to treat in a healing ceremony. It requires a particularly capable Indian to attain the position of head medicine-man, for to do so he must not only make the people subservient to his will, but must wrest the leadership from some other and usually older medicine-man who is himself an influential character. Unfortunately it is apt to be the most crafty, scheming man who gains such power over his tribesmen.

A case in point was the recent strife between Das Lan and Goshonne. For some years the latter, an Indian of exceptional ability and withal apparently an honest man in his treatment of diseases, was the head medicine-man of the White Mountain Apache. Then it came to pass that the crafty old Das Lan of the Cibicu had his vision, in which was revealed a special message brought by Chuganaai Skhin from Kuterastan to the Apache people. This was the beginning of the present so-called messiah craze.

Maternity Belt - Apache

_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_

From the first there was promise of a battle to the end between Goshonne and Das Lan. Goshonne well knew that if the new cult gained a firm footing he would lose his influence and at best be but a mediocre medicine-man. Das Lan, on the other hand, knew that he must break the power of such a man as Goshonne, if he was to assume the leadership. Goshonne scoffed and scorned, and would have none of the new belief. Still, he was an Indian, and the prophecies of his rival gradually filled him with superstitious fear, while his followers were either deserting him openly or were secretly joining the ranks of the enemy. Death was predicted for the members of Goshonne's own family, and well could Das Lan make such prophecies, for Goshonne's two brothers were already stricken with tuberculosis. First one died, then the other. Das Lan could now point to him and say, "That is what Kuterastan does to those who do not believe!" It was thus that Goshonne's power finally was broken and Das Lan became a seer.

Sacred pollen, _hadintin_, is used in all ceremonies, particularly in those designed for healing. The principal source of _hadintin_ is the tule, but much of it comes from the pinon. For prayers invoking an abundance of corn, pollen is mixed with cornmeal. Not only do the medicine-men use this powder, but each individual carries a small quantity of it in a deerskin pouch somewhere about his person. In the pollen may be small medicine trinkets--sometimes consisting of a few shell beads from prehistoric ruins--and there is scarcely a person, old or young, who does not have a small section of the candle cactus fastened somewhere about his clothing.

When childbirth approaches, the medicine-men are always summoned. Nothing can give a better idea of the medicine rites on such an occasion, and of the use of sacred pollen, than a description of a maternity belt procured by the writer and here illustrated. So far as can be learned, this belt is very old, so old that its painted symbolic figures have been three times renewed. Belts of this kind are very rare, and are hired whenever their use is required. The owner of this particular belt, a widow, did not care to dispose of it; as she expressed it, "it is like a husband": the remuneration from granting its use was sufficient to support her.

The belt is made from skin of the mountain lion, the black-tail deer, the white-tail deer, and the antelope--animals which give birth to their young without trouble. Medicine-men are called in to pray to the spirits of these animals when a woman approaching confinement puts on the belt. It is worn for a day or so only, but constantly during the critical period, not being removed until after the child is born. Prayers are made, first by a mother or father for their daughter, then by a medicine-man, and lastly by the patient to the gods and elements depicted on the belt. These figures are all connected with lightning lines. The first one to the left is Stenatlihan; on the same portion is the Snake Girl, Klishcho Nali{~COMBINING BREVE~}n; the next is Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani, the third Tubadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni, and the last Yolkai Nali{~COMBINING BREVE~}n. The sharp points around the circular abodes of the two goddesses represent barricades for protection. At the real homes of these deities, none can pass through these barriers.

Each of the gods from left to right is prayed to successively, and _hadintin_ is sprinkled around them afterward. Stenatlihan is the first to be addressed by the prospective mother:

"We are your children. When you gave birth to your children, it caused you no trouble. Make me like yourself, that my child, soon to be born, may come into this world easily and quickly, without pain to me."

Next the Snake Girl is prayed to:

"Kli{~COMBINING BREVE~}shcho Nali{~COMBINING BREVE~}n, you came into this life with ease. Do what you can for me now, that my child may come in like manner."

Then to Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani:

"Help my babe, soon to be born, to come as you did--quickly, easily, and without pain."

The belt in Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani's left hand represents the one worn by his mother, Stenatlihan, when he was born. There was a time when skirts, too, having the same magic power the belt is supposed to possess, were worn by women at childbirth. One such is shown in the hand of Tubadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni, next pictured, to whom the woman addresses a prayer much the same as the last. The skirt also is the one worn by Stenatlihan when the two brothers were born.

Medicine Cap and Fetish - Apache

_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_

Yolkai Nali{~COMBINING BREVE~}n is the favorite goddess from whom, in their belief, the Apache women are endowed with great beneficence. She lives in the skies, where all souls go. The prayer to her is, as to the others, "Save me from pain and let my child come as you did."

Clouds at the feet of Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani typify the bounties of the world into which it is hoped and prayed the child will be happily born.

The prayers finished, _hadintin_ is sifted over all the figures. Beginning at the left, the lightning line is followed into Stenatlihan's abode, which is then encircled, and the sacred powder is liberally sprinkled around and over her body. Each figure is treated in like manner.

The accompanying plate shows a medicine-cap made by Yotlu{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni, a medicine-man, about forty years ago, to cure a boy of lightning stroke which had impaired his reason, and a small wooden image of a god recently made to be carried by a girl troubled with nervousness. On both these objects the gods and elements which cause afflictions and which alone can give relief are symbolically represented.

The central figure on the cap pictures Ndidilhkizn, Lightning Maker, with lightning, _hadilhkih_, in zigzag lines above his head and beneath his feet. The broad arch indicates clouds with rifts in them, out of which the evil came and into which it may return. The cross of abalone, the small white bead, and the eagle feather are media through which Tu Ntelh (Wide Water), Yolkai Nali{~COMBINING BREVE~}n (White-Shell Girl), and Itsad Nde{~COMBINING BREVE~}yu (Eagle People) are supplicated.

The cap was worn at night by the boy, whose parents each morning at sunrise prayed to the various gods and elements represented on it, invoking them to take back that which they had left with the boy, and adding: "Keep us even in temper and mild and clean in action. We do wrong at times, but that is not our wish. If our minds are kept clean we will do nothing bad. We wish to have good thoughts and to do good deeds. Keep our minds clear that we may think them and do them." After each prayer _hadinin_ was sifted upon the symbol representing the deity addressed.

As the boy soon recovered, the virtue of the cap was attested, and subsequently its owner often hired it to others.

The little wooden image represents Hadinin Skhin, Pollen Boy, God of Health. The painted figures on the skin pouch in which it is carried are similar to those on the cap, and all are supplicated in the same manner. The medicine-man who made the image and pouch received a horse from the father of the patient in payment; but not the least interesting feature of the case for which these objects were made is that the god of the natives received all the credit for the efficient treatment given the afflicted girl for a year by the reservation physician.

Dry-paintings, or figures drawn upon the ground with colored earths, were used in the Apache healing ceremonies, but never to a great extent, and of late years they have been practically abandoned. These paintings, compared with the beautiful, conventional productions of the Navaho, are crude; in making them the Apache always attempt to picture the objects literally rather than to represent them conventionally or symbolically.

On the infrequent occasions when the dry-paintings are employed, the medicine-man in charge of the ceremony directs his assistants, at daylight, to begin the painting. When it is finished he takes his station close to the easternmost figure of the painting, on its northern side. At the right of the medicine-man sit twelve chosen singers with a drum. The four masked _gaun_, or gods, at the same time take their places at the cardinal points. The patient then enters from the east and sits down on the head of the large figure in the centre of the dry-painting. As he does so the medicine-man commences to sing, and is joined by the chorus at once. They may sing the song four times, or sing four different songs, or any multiple of four, at the pleasure of the medicine-man. When the songs are finished the four masked personages scrape the colored earths into a heap about the patient and rub them in handfuls over his body. If this ceremony proves to be ineffectual, it is believed to be the will of the gods that the patient be not cured.

_Das Lan_ - Apache

_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_

THE MESSIAH CRAZE

Among the Apache, in the spring of 1906, the excessive use of a combined cross and crescent symbol was noted. Men, women, and children had this anchor-like design cut into wood, tin, and metal talismans, and also tattooed on their faces and branded on their horses. It was used also as a decorative device in much of the new basketry and worked in beads on their moccasins, and new shirts and waists seldom failed to display a cross in narrow yellow and black ribbon in front.

Four years before this time a forceful old medicine-man living on the Cibicu, in a remote corner of the Apache reservation, either through the influence of a vision or other hallucination, or by a desire to become the ruling spirit in the tribe, proclaimed the gospel of a messiah who, he claimed, had appeared to him in the hills and would later return to the deliverance of his tribespeople.

In childhood this future prophet was given the name Das Lan, Hanging Up, by which designation he is commonly known in familiar discourse among his tribesmen; but on the census rolls of the White Mountain agency he is recorded simply as "V-9." On becoming a medicine-man in his youth, in accordance with tribal custom he adopted the name--what may be termed a professional title--Doni Tli{~COMBINING BREVE~}shi Noiltansh, which signifies Turquoise Rolling Stone.

As hitherto mentioned, the Apache is the personification of devoutness in the performance of his religious duties, and no matter where circumstances may place him, he manages always to have a small pouch of _hadintin_ carefully secreted about his person for use in paying his devotions to half a score of gods, at least once every four days. If occasion demands, he may pray every day, or four times a day, or any multiple of four times. This custom has a direct bearing on the story of the messiah, which is this:

Das Lan, in a spirit of more than usual devotion, began a series of prayers to the gods of Life, Peace, and Plenty, delivered as usual just as the sun appeared over the eastern mountains. On the fourth morning, with offerings of _hadintin_, he invoked the benediction of Kuterastan, the Creator, Hadintin Skhin, God of Health, Hadintin Nalin, Goddess of Crops, and of Chuganaai himself, the All-seeing Sun. As the fourth pinch of pollen wafted away on the breeze there appeared the vision, immediately beneath the sun, of a small bearded dwarf, less than three feet in height, who approached him, and said:

"I am a messenger sent by Kuterastan to talk to you. The Sun is my father; I have just left him to come to you. You are to inform all your people that a change is about to be made in their lives and in the nature of the whole world. In place of this life of strife and toil with little to eat, all, the white man as well as the Indian, will be taken to a place where all things grow without labor, and where there will be no rough, barren mountains, but instead broad valleys filled with grass, trees, corn, fruits, nuts, and all kinds of game in abundance. There, too, you will meet all your fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children who have gone before you from their homes, for they are now there. There no sickness or death will visit anyone. The old and feeble will become strong, the crooked straight, and the blind shall see. But to be taken, all must have faith, believing as one, and observe these instructions I am to leave with you. You are commissioned to instruct the people. Those who believe must adopt the _daiita ilhnaha_, the cross and crescent, as a symbol of faith, for it represents the shape the new world will have and the road all must travel to reach it, and any who start on the journey without using this sign will be lost on the way. When the time comes to depart, I will return to lead you. A great cloud, open in the centre, will come down from above and surround us all, so that none shall see whither he goes. Until then those who would go must do as you bid them. All males, boys or men, must have caps of deerskin with the _daiita ilhnaha_ marked on them in beads on four sides, and two eagle feathers attached to the top, ready to wear on the journey. They must also have new shirts, leggings, and moccasins upon which this figure has been made in black and white.

Apache Village

_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_

"The girls and the women must likewise have new clothing, bearing the sacred symbol, ever in readiness. All their water bottles, burden baskets, and saddlebags must also bear the sign, and should any desire to ride horses, only the best, fleet and strong, branded upon the left buttock with the _daiita ilhnaha_, may be taken. The permanent homes of all people living in bands under a chief must no longer be scattered, but must be built close together in long rows, that no time may be lost in assembling when our Great Father wills that you depart from this life to go to that where all is peace and plenty. Until that time, which is not far off, you must conduct yourselves as I have directed, discarding also all old medicine symbols for the new."

The plain Greek cross and the crescent have been used by the Apache as decorative and religious symbols from early times, but this recent adaptation of the combined form came as a sudden wave.

With an unusually strong personality, Das Lan had long been held in fear by those who knew him best, and with his story of the new messiah he soon became of great prominence in the tribe. Das Lan first made confidants of the leading spirits in the various bands, who in turn converted others to the new faith before public announcement was made. Having won the strongest men in the tribe through personal appeal to their vanity, the crafty Das Lan could now remain at home, enjoying the prosperous practice that grew out of his new cult.

Throughout the reservation those most deeply affected by the messiah belief have been appointed spies over the others. If any persist in the use of old medicine paraphernalia, they are reported at once and harassed by threats of plague, sickness, ill-luck, disaster, and even death, which Das Lan claims to be able to cause or to dispel at pleasure. Once the threat is made, nothing unwelcome can happen to one under the ban that is not immediately attributed, by all the medicine-man's disciples, to the disfavor of the gods; and nothing more potent is necessary to convert the unbeliever, for there is no Indian reared in the wilds who is not steeped in the belief that his gods are all-powerful in both causing and eradicating every ill.

About two years ago, on the Cibicu, a woman murdered her husband. She did not deny the act, but pleaded justification, alleging that her husband was guilty of unfatherly conduct toward his daughter. The local authorities were very sceptical of her defence, since the murdered man had always borne an excellent reputation among both Indians and whites; but no contradictory evidence could be adduced upon which to base an open trial, so the matter became quieted. After time had cancelled the crime in the mind of the guilty, it became known that the murder had been committed at the instigation of the scheming Das Lan, who found the deceased an obstacle to his prophetic assumptions, and under the guise of an order from Kuterastan had him despatched. Naturally fierce, strong, and bold, Das Lan has become more emboldened by his success as a prophet, and indirect threats of further crafty murders are sometimes uttered by the more fanatical members in each band when anyone presumes to defy his creed and will.

In 1903, throughout the White Mountain reservation, the Government farmers found it difficult to persuade the Apache to plant the usual corn. The following winter found them with a scant food supply, and Government aid was neccessary to relieve suffering. The cause of the failure to plant, none of the officials then knew; but to his tribesmen Das Lan had prophesied the probable advent of the messiah at that time--so why plant corn?

Another effect of Das Lan's prophecy is noted in the fact that although a few years ago the Apache houses were scattered far and wide, now there are many villages consisting of long straight rows of grass-thatched huts, bearing testimony to that deep-seated superstition which in the Apache apparently will never be eradicated.

Sand Mosaic - Apache

_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_

This pictures an Apache dry-painting employed in an attempt to cure a paralytic about the year 1882. The several figures are crude representations of masked deities--_gaun_. The wavy lines are lightning symbols. The patient entered upon the central figure, when the colored earths were gathered from about him and rubbed upon his body by masked men personating the _gaun_.

PUBERTY RITE

The ceremonial celebration of the arrival of the period of puberty in girls is more rigidly adhered to than any ancient religious rite or social custom in vogue among the Apache. By this ceremony the social position of the girl is established, and she is given assurance, on the eve of her womanhood, of a long, happy, active life. At this critical period, if the favor of the gods were not thus invoked in behalf of the girl, it might augur ill for her in after life.

This Nalin Bagudzitash, or Girl Dance, is held always at dawn and is brought to a close when the sun shines full upon the participants. The ceremony is conducted by a woman selected from among the friends of the girl's parents for her comeliness, activity, and good character. So far as the performance of the successive parts of the ceremony is concerned, no special knowledge on the part of the leader is required, as a medicine-man is engaged to give the necessary directions and to sing the songs. The girl lies on a blanket upon the ground, and her sponsor, so to speak, straightens her arms and legs, rubs her joints, and otherwise simulates remoulding and beautifying her body. The girl then sits up, and those assembled dance and sing in a circle about her. An eagle feather and a white-shell bead are tied in her hair, and sacred pollen is rubbed on her face, in deference respectively to the bird of war and the god and goddess of health and fructification--Hadintin Skhin and Hadintin Nalin.