The Medicine-Men of the Apache. (1892 N 09 / 1887-1888 (pages 443-604))

There was a "Cingulum ex corio humano" bound round patients during epileptic attacks, convulsions, childbirth, etc., and another kind of belt described as "ex cute humana conficiunt," and used in contraction of the nerves and rheumatism of the joints,660 also bound round the body in cramp.661

"The girdle was an essential article of dress, and early ages ascribe to it other magic influences: e.g., Thôr's divine strength lay in his girdle."662 In speaking of the belief in lycanthropy he says: "The common belief among us is that the transformation is effected by tying a strap round the body; this girth is only three fingers broad, and is cut out of human skin."663 Scrofulous tumors were cured by tying them with a linen thread which had choked a viper to death.664 "Filum rubrum seraceum [silk] cum quo strangulata fuit vipera si circumdatur collo angina laborantes, eundem curare dicitur propter idem strangulationis et suffocationis."665

"Quidam commendant tanquam specificum, ad Anginam filum purpureum cum quo strangulata fuit vipera, si collo circumdetur."666

"MEDIDAS," "MEASURING CORDS," "WRESTING THREADS," ETC

Black says:667 "On the banks of the Ale and the Teviot the women have still a custom of wearing round their necks blue woollen threads or cords till they wean their children, doing this for the purpose of averting ephemeral fevers. These cords are handed down from mother to daughter, and esteemed in proportion to their antiquity. Probably these cords had originally received some blessing."

Black's surmise is well founded. These cords were, no doubt, the same as the "medidas" or measurements of the holy images of Spain and other parts of Continental Europe. "The ribands or serpent symbols [of Our Lady of Montserrat] are of silk, and exactly the span of the Virgin's head, and on them is printed 'medida de la cabeza de Nuestra Señora Maria Santísima de Montserrat,' i.e., exact head measurement of Our Lady of Montserrat."668

These same "medidas" may be found in full vogue in the outlying districts of Mexico to-day. Twenty years ago I saw them at the "funcion" of San Francisco, in the little town of Magdalena, in Sonora. I watched carefully to see exactly what the women did and observed that the statue of St. Francis (which, for greater convenience, was exposed outside of the church, where the devout could reach it without disturbing the congregation within) was measured from head to foot with pieces of ribbon, which were then wrapped up and packed away. In reply to my queries, I learned that the "medida" of the head was a specific for headache, that of the waist for all troubles in the abdominal region, those of the legs, arms, and other parts for the ailments peculiar to each of them respectively. This was in a community almost, if not absolutely, Roman Catholic; but in the thoroughly Protestant neighborhood of Carlisle, Pa., the same superstition exists in full vigor, as I know personally. Three years ago my second child was suffering from the troubles incident to retarded dentition and had to be taken to the mountains at Holly Springs, within sight of Carlisle. I was begged and implored by the women living in the place to have the child taken to "a wise woman" to be "measured," and was assured that some of the most intelligent people in that part of the country were firm believers in the superstition. When I declined to lend countenance to such nonsense I was looked upon as a brutal and unnatural parent, caring little for the welfare of his offspring.

"In John Bale's Comedye concernynge thre Lawes, 1538 … Hypocrysy is introduced, mentioning the following charms against barrenness:

And as for Lyons, there is the length of our LordeIn a great pyller. She that will with a coordeBe fast bound to it, and take soche chaunce as fallShall sure have chylde, for within it is hollowe all."669

When a person in Shetland has received a sprain "it is customary to apply to an individual practiced in casting the 'wrested thread.' This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine knots, and tied round a sprained leg or arm." It is applied by the medicine-man with the usual amount of gibberish and incantation.670 These "wresting or wrested threads" are also to be found among Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, and Flemings.671

Grimm quotes from Chambers's Fireside Stories, Edinburgh, 1842, p. 37: "During the time the operator is putting the thread round the afflicted limb he says, but in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by the bystanders, nor even by the person operated upon: "The Lord rade, and the foal slade; he lighted, and he righted, set joint to joint, bone to bone, and sinew to sinew. Heal in the Holy Ghost's name!"672

"Eily McGarvey, a Donegal wise woman, employs a green thread in her work. She measures her patient three times round the waist with a ribbon, to the outer edge of which is fastened a green thread… She next hands the patient nine leaves of 'heart fever grass,' or dandelion, gathered by herself, directing him to eat three leaves on successive mornings."673

Miss Edna Dean Proctor, the poet, told me, June 9, 1887, that some years ago, while visiting relations in Illinois, she met a woman who, having been ill for a long time, had despaired of recovery, and in hope of amelioration had consulted a man pretending to occult powers, who prescribed that she wear next the skin a certain knotted red cord which he gave her.

On a previous page the views of Forlong have been presented, showing that there were reasons for believing that the sacred cords of the East Indies could be traced back to an ophic origin, and it has also been shown that, until the present day, among the peasantry of Europe, there has obtained the practice of making girdles of snake skin which have been employed for the cure of disease and as an assistance in childbirth. The snake itself, while still alive, as has been shown, is applied to the person of the patient by the medicine-men of the American Indians.

In connection with the remarks taken from Forlong's Rivers of Life on this subject, I should like to call attention to the fact that the long knotted blacksnake whip of the wagoners of Europe and America, which, when not in use, is worn across the body from shoulder to hip, has been identified as related to snake worship.

There is another view to take of the origin of these sacred cords which it is fair to submit before passing final judgment. The izze-kloth may have been in early times a cord for tying captives who were taken in war, and as these captives were offered up in sacrifice to the gods of war and others they were looked upon as sacred, and all used in connection with them would gradually take on a sacred character. The same kind of cords seem to have been used in the chase. This would explain a great deal of the superstition connected with the whole subject of "hangman's rope" bringing luck, curing disease, and averting trouble of all sorts, a superstition more widely disseminated and going back to more ancient times than most people would imagine. One of the tribes of New Granada, "quando iban à la Guerra llevaban Cordeles para atar à los Presos."674 This recalls that the Apache themselves used to throw lariats from ambush upon travelers, and that the Thugs who served the goddess Bhowani, in India, strangled with cords, afterwards with handkerchiefs. The Spaniards in Peru, under Jorge Robledo, going toward the Rio Magdalena, in 1542, found a large body of savages "que llevaban Cordeles, para atar à los Castellanos, i sus Pedernales, para despedaçarlos, i Ollas para cocerlos."675 The Australians carried to war a cord, called "Nerum," about 2 feet 6 inches long, made of kangaroo hair, used for strangling an enemy.676

The easiest method of taking the hyena "is for the hunter to tie his girdle with seven knots, and to make as many knots in the whip with which he guides his horse."677 Maj. W. Cornwallis Harris678 describes a search made for a lost camel. A man was detailed to search for the animal and provided with the following charm to aid him in his search: "The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had been fettered was rolled betwixt his (the Ras el Káfilah's) hands, and sundry cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged by the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each spell, it was finally delivered over to the Dankáli about to be sent on the quest." Stanley describes the "lords of the cord" at the court of Mtesa, king of Uganda, but they seem to be provost officers and executioners merely.679 "In cases of quartan fever they take a fragment of a nail from a cross, or else a piece of a halter that has been used for crucifixion, and after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the patient's neck, taking care, the moment he has recovered, to conceal it in some hole to which the light of the sun can not penetrate."680 There is a widespread and deeply rooted belief that a rope which has hanged a man, either as a felon or suicide, possesses talismanic powers.681 Jean Baptiste Thiers682 says: "Il y a des gens assez fous pour s'imaginer qu'ils seront heureux au jeu … pourvu qu'ils ayent sur eux un morceau de corde de pendu." Brand says: "I remember once to have seen, at Newcastle upon Tyne, after a person executed had been cut down, men climb upon the gallows and contend for that part of the rope which remained, and which they wished to preserve for some lucky purpose or other. I have lately made the important discovery that it is reckoned a cure for the headache."683 "A halter with which one had been hanged was regarded within recent times in England as a cure for headache if tied round the head."684

In the long list of articles employed by the ancients for the purpose of developing affection or hatred between persons of opposite sex, Burton mentions "funis strangulati hominis."685 "A remarkable superstition still prevails among the lowest of our vulgar, that a man may lawfully sell his wife to another, provided he deliver her over with a halter about her neck. It is painful to observe that instances of this frequently occur in our newspapers."686 While discussing this branch of the subject, it might be well to peruse what has already been inserted under the head of the uses to which were put the threads which had strangled vipers and other serpents.

UNCLASSIFIED SUPERSTITIONS UPON THIS SUBJECT

In conclusion, I wish to present some of the instances occurring in my studies which apparently have a claim to be included in a treatise upon the subject of sacred cords and knots. These examples are presented without comment, as they are, to all intents and purposes, "survivals," which have long ago lost their true significance. Attention is invited to the fact that the very same use seems to be made by the Irish of hair cords as we have already seen has been made by the Australians.

The Jewish garment with knots at the corners would appear to have been a prehistoric garment preserved in religious ceremonial; it would seem to be very much like the short blanket cloak, with tufts or knots at the four corners, still made by and in use among the Zuñi, Navajo, Tusayan, and Rio Grande Pueblos. But magic knots were by no means unknown to Jews, Assyrians, or other nations of Syria and Mesopotamia.

"In Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, we read: About children's necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St. John's Gospel, a crooked nail of a horseshoe, or a piece of a wolve's skin, and both the sucking child and nurse were girt with girdles finely plaited with woman's hair."687

Gainsford, in his Glory of England, speaking of the Irish, p. 150, says: "They use incantations and spells, wearing girdles of woman's haire, and locks of their lover's."

Camden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish, says that "they are observed to present their lovers with bracelets of women's hair, whether in reference to Venus' cestus or not, I know not."688 This idea of a resemblance between the girdle of Venus and the use of the maiden's hair may be worth consideration; on the same page Brand quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher:

Bracelets of our lovers' hair,Which they on our arms shall twist,

and garters of the women were generally worn by lovers.689

"Chaque habit qu'ils [the Jews] portent doit avoir quatre pands, & à chacun un cordon pendant en forme de houppe, qu'ils nomment Zizit. Ce cordon est ordinairement de huit fils de laine filée exprès pour cela, avec cinq nœuds chacun, qui occupent la moitié de la longueur. Ce qui n'est pas noué étant éfilé acheve de faire une espece de houppe, qu'ils se fassent, dit la Loi, des cordons aux pands de leurs habits."690

The following is from Black:691

When Marduk [Assyrian god] wishes to comfort a dying man his father

Hea says: "Go —

Take a woman's linen kerchief!Bind it round thy left hand: loose it from the left hand!Knot it with seven knots: do so twice:Sprinkle it with bright wine:Bind it round the head of the sick man:Bind it round his hands and feet, like manacles and fetters.Sit round on his bed:Sprinkle holy water over him.He shall hear the voice of Hea.Davkina shall protect him!And Marduk, Eldest Son of heaven, shall find him a happy habitation."

A variant of the same formula is to be found in François Lenormant's Chaldean Magic.692 Lenormant speaks of the Chaldean use of "magic knots, the efficacy of which was so firmly believed in even up to the middle ages."

Again, he says that magic cords, with knots, were "still very common among the Nabathean sorcerers of the Lower Euphrates," in the fourteenth century, and in his opinion the use of these was derived from the ancient Chaldeans. In still another place he speaks of the "magic knots" used by Finnish conjurors in curing diseases.

"The Jewish phylactery was tied in a knot, but more generally knots are found in use to bring about some enchantment or disenchantment. Thus in an ancient Babylonian charm we have —

'Merodach, the Son of Hea, the prince, with his holy hands cuts the knots.'

That is to say, he takes off the evil influence of the knots. So, too, witches sought in Scotland to compass evil by tying knots. Witches, it was thought, could supply themselves with the milk of any neighbor's cows if they had a small quantity of hair from the tail of each of the animals. The hair they would twist into a rope and then a knot would be tied on the rope for every cow which had contributed hair. Under the clothes of a witch who was burned at St. Andrews, in 1572, was discovered 'a white claith, like a collore craig, with stringis, wheron was mony knottis vpon the stringis of the said collore craig.' When this was taken from her, with a prescience then wrongly interpreted, she said: 'Now I have no hope of myself.' 'Belyke scho thought,' runs the cotemporary account, 'scho suld not have died, that being vpon her,' but probably she meant that to be discovered with such an article in her possession was equivalent to the sentence of death. So lately as the beginning of the last century, two persons were sentenced to capital punishment for stealing a charm of knots, made by a woman as a device against the welfare of Spalding of Ashintilly."693

"Charmed belts are commonly worn in Lancashire for the cure of rheumatism. Elsewhere, a cord round the loins is worn to ward off toothache. Is it possible that there is any connection between this belt and the cord which in Burmah is hung round the neck of a possessed person while he is being thrashed to drive out the spirit which troubles him? Theoretically the thrashing is given to the spirit, and not to the man, but to prevent the spirit escaping too soon a charmed cord is hung round the possessed person's neck. When the spirit has been sufficiently humbled and has declared its name it may be allowed to escape, if the doctor does not prefer to trample on the patient's stomach till he fancies he has killed the demon."694

"The numerous notices in the folklore of all countries of magic stones, holy girdles, and other nurses' specials, attest the common sympathy of the human race."695

This is from Brand:696 "Devonshire cure for warts. Take a piece of twine, tie in it as many knots as you have warts, touch each wart with a knot, and then throw the twine behind your back into some place where it may soon decay – a pond or a hole in the earth; but tell no one what you have done. When the twine is decayed your warts will disappear without any pain or trouble, being in fact charmed away."

"In our time, the anodyne necklace, which consists of beads turned out of the root of the white Bryony, and which is hung round the necks of infants, in order to assist their teething, and to ward off the convulsions sometimes incident to that process, is an amulet."697

"Rowan, ash, and red thread," a Scotch rhyme goes, "keep the devils frae their speed."698

For the cure of scrofula, grass was selected. From one, two, or three stems, as many as nine joints must be removed, which must then be wrapped in black wool, with the grease in it. The person who gathers them must do so fasting, and must then go, in the same state, to the patient's house while he is from home. When the patient comes in, the other must say to him three times, "I come fasting to bring a remedy to a fasting man," and must then attach the amulet to his person, repeating the same ceremony three consecutive days.699

Forlong says: "On the 2d [of May], fearing evil spirits and witches, Scotch farmers used to tie red thread upon their wives as well as their cows, saying these prevented miscarriages and preserved the milk."700

In Scotland "they hope to preserve the milk of their cows, and their wives from miscarriage, by tying threads about them."701

Brand gives a remedy for epilepsy: "If, in the month of October, a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the elder, and cut the cane that is betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these pieces, being bound in a piece of linnen, be in a thread so hung about the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the sword-formed cartilage."702

Black says:703 "To cure warts a common remedy is to tie as many knots on a hair as there are warts and throw the hair away. Six knots of elderwood are used in a Yorkshire incantation to ascertain if beasts are dying from witchcraft. Marcellus commended for sore eyes that a man should tie as many knots in unwrought flax as there are letters in his name, pronouncing each letter as he worked; this he was to tie round his neck. In the Orkneys, the blue thread was used for an evil purpose because such a colour savored of Popery and priests; in the northern counties it was used because a remembrance of its once preeminent value still survived in the minds of those who wore it, unconsciously, though still actively, influencing their thoughts. In perhaps the same way we respect the virtue of red threads, because, as Conway puts it, 'red is sacred in one direction as symbolising the blood of Christ.'"704

"To cure ague [Hampshire, England] string nine or eleven snails on a thread, the patient saying, as each is threaded, 'Here I leave my ague.' When all are threaded they should be frizzled over a fire, and as the snails disappear so will the ague."705

Dr. Joseph Lanzoni scoffed at the idea that a red-silk thread could avail in erysipelas; "Neque filum sericum chermisinum parti affectæ circumligatum erysipelata fugat." The word "chermesinum" is not given in Ainsworth's Latin-English Dictionary, but it so closely resembles the Spanish "carmesi" that I have made bold to render it as "red" or "scarlet."706

"Red thread is symbolical of lightning," and is consequently laid on churns in Ireland "to prevent the milk from being bewitched and yielding no butter." "In Aberdeenshire it is a common practice with the housewife to tie a piece of red worsted thread round the cows' tails before turning them out for the first time in the season to grass. It secured the cattle from the evil-eye, elf-shots, and other dangers."707 "It [blue] is the sky color and the Druid's sacred colour."708 "In 1635, a man in the Orkney Islands was, we are led to believe, utterly ruined by nine knots cast on a blue thread and given to his sister."

"In a curious old book, 12mo., 1554, entitled A Short Description of Antichrist, is this passage: 'I note all their Popishe traditions of confirmacion of yonge children with oynting of oyle and creame, and with a ragge knitte about the necke of the younge babe.'"709

A New England charm for an obstinate ague. "The patient in this case is to take a string made of woolen yarn, of three colors, and to go by himself to an apple-tree; there he is to tie his left hand loosely with the right to the tree by the tri-colored string, then to slip his hand out of the knot and run into the house without looking behind him."710

The dust "in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied up in a linen cloth with a red string, and attached to the body,"711 was one of the remedies for fevers. Another cure for fever: "Some inclose a caterpillar in a piece of linen, with a thread passed three times round it, and tie as many knots, repeating at each knot why it is that the patient performs that operation."712

"To prevent nose-bleeding people are told to this day to wear a skein of scarlet silk thread round the neck, tied with nine knots down the front; if the patient is a man, the silk being put on and the knots tied by a woman; and if the patient is a woman, then these good services being rendered by a man."713

A cord with nine knots in it, tied round the neck of a child suffering from whooping cough, was esteemed a sovereign remedy in Worcester, England, half a century ago.

Again, references will be found to the superstitious use of "ligatures" down to a comparatively recent period, and "I remember it was a custom in the north of England for boys that swam to wear an eel's skin about their naked leg to prevent the cramp."714

THE MEDICINE HAT

The medicine hat of the old and blind Apache medicine-man, Nan-ta-do-tash, was an antique affair of buckskin, much begrimed with soot and soiled by long use. Nevertheless, it gave life and strength to him who wore it, enabled the owner to peer into the future, to tell who had stolen ponies from other people, to foresee the approach of an enemy, and to aid in the cure of the sick. This was its owner's own statement in conversation with me, but it would seem that the power residing in the helmet or hat was not very permanent, because when the old man discovered from his wife that I had made a rude drawing of it he became extremely excited and said that such a delineation would destroy all the life of the hat. His fears were allayed by presents of money and tobacco, as well as by some cakes and other food. As a measure of precaution, he insisted upon sprinkling pinches of hoddentin over myself, the hat, and the drawing of it, at the same time muttering various half-articulate prayers. He returned a month afterwards and demanded the sum of $30 for damage done to the hat by the drawing, since which time it has ceased to "work" when needed.

This same old man gave me an explanation of all the symbolism depicted upon the hat and a great deal of valuable information in regard to the profession of medicine-men, their specialization, the prayers they recited, etc. The material of the hat, as already stated, was buckskin. How that was obtained I can not assert positively, but from an incident occurring under my personal observation in the Sierra Madre in Mexico in 1883, where our Indian scouts and the medicine-men with them surrounded a nearly grown fawn and tried to capture it alive, as well as from other circumstances too long to be here inserted, I am of the opinion that the buckskin to be used for sacred purposes among the Apache must, whenever possible, be that of a strangled animal, as is the case, according to Dr. Matthews, among the Navajo.

The body of Nan-ta-do-tash's cap (Fig. 434, p. 503) was unpainted, but the figures upon it were in two colors, a brownish yellow and an earthy blue, resembling a dirty Prussian blue. The ornamentation was of the downy feathers and black-tipped plumes of the eagle, pieces of abalone shell, and chalchihuitl, and a snake's rattle on the apex.

Nan-ta-do-tash explained that the characters on the medicine hat meant: A, clouds; B, rainbow; C, hail; E, morning-star; F, the God of Wind, with his lungs; G, the black "kan"; H, great stars or suns.