_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.
[Illustration: _Das Lan_ - Apache]
_Das Lan_ - Apache
_From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis_