_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_
Another intoxicant, more effective than _tulapai_, is made from the
mescal--not from the sap, according to the Mexican method, but from the
cooked plant, which is placed in a heated pit and left until fermentation
begins. It is then ground, mixed with water, roots added, and the whole
boiled and set aside to complete fermentation. The Indians say its taste
is sharp, like whiskey. A small quantity readily produces intoxication.
Of game foods the Apache has deer, antelope, and wild turkey, with quail,
some water fowl, smaller birds, rabbits, and wood-rats. Fish and bear meat
are strictly tabooed.
The graphic art of the Apache finds expression chiefly in ceremonial
paintings on deerskin, and in basketry. Only rarely have they made
pottery, their roving life requiring utensils of greater stability. Such
earthenware as they did make was practically the same as that of the
Navaho, mostly in the form of small cooking vessels. Usually the pictures
are painted on the entire deerskin, but sometimes the skin is cut square,
and at others ceremonial deerskin shirts are symbolically painted.
Occasionally the Apache attempts to picture the myth characters literally;
at other times only a symbolic representation of the character is made. In
addition to the mythic personages, certain symbols are employed to
represent the incident of the myth. These paintings are made under the
instruction of a medicine-man and are a part of the medicine
paraphernalia. On some skins the most sacred characters in Apache
mythology are represented symbolically--Naye{~COMBINING BREVE~}nezgani, the War God;
Tubadzischi{~COMBINING BREVE~}ni, his younger brother; Kuterastan, the Creator of All;
Stenatlihan, the chief goddess. In fact the symbolism on an elaborately
painted deerskin may cover every phase of Apache cosmology.
In their basketry the Apache women display great taste in form, and in
their more superior work employ much symbolic decoration. Since the
beginning of the present "messiah craze" all baskets display the sacred
symbols believed to have been revealed to Das Lan by Chuganaai Skhin--a
combination of the cross and the crescent. There are many baskets, made
before this new religious wave swept over the tribe, into which the
symbolism has since been woven.
The basket most used is the _tu{~COMBINING BREVE~}tza_, or burden basket, roughly and
loosely woven, ornamented with circular lines as often painted on as woven
in. Previous to a messiah craze, which had its origin with the Apache
about 1901, the designs in these baskets were purely decorative, without
attempt at symbolism; but now, by order of a crafty old medicine-man,
every _tu{~COMBINING BREVE~}tza_ must display the combined cross and crescent.
The _tus_ is a water bottle, made invariably of withes of the aromatic
sumac, loosely woven, and coated inside and out with pinon gum. To use
material other than sumac would be considered very bad. In the Apache
deluge myth the people, instructed by Stenatlihan, built a monster _tus_
of pinon branches in which they floated away.
The _tsa-nasku{~COMBINING BREVE~}di_ is a bowl or tray-shaped basket of splendid form, with
symbolic decoration of intricate pattern.
The most pretentious basket is the _tus-nasku{~COMBINING BREVE~}di_, in general form like
the _tus_, but much larger; it is used for the storage of grain. Its lines
are most beautiful, as are also its inwoven symbolic designs.
Owing to the extremely secretive nature of the Apache, it is difficult for
the casual student to learn anything of the relations between their
mythology and the designs used in their basketry. Questioned, they will
perhaps say, "We don't know," or "To make it look pretty." But an
intelligent and trustworthy interpreter will tell you, "That woman knows,
but she will not tell." A law of the cult brought about by the recent
messiah religion is that every woman must have in readiness for use during
the migration to the future world a _tus_, a _tu{~COMBINING BREVE~}tza_, a _tsa-nasku{~COMBINING BREVE~}di_,
and a gourd drinking-cup, all decorated with the cross and crescent. These
are not used and are carefully preserved.
The clan and gentile systems of the American Indians have been the bulwark
of their social structure, for by preventing intermarriage within the clan
or the gens the blood was kept at its best. Added to this were the
hardships of the Indian life, which resulted in the survival only of the
fittest and provided the foundation for a sturdy people. But with
advancing civilization one foresees the inevitable disintegration of their
tribal laws, and a consequent weakening of the entire social structure,
for the Indians seem to have absorbed all the evil, and to have embodied
little of the good, that civilized life teaches.
[Illustration: The Covered Pit - Apache]