branches of pine and cedar, stone, petrified wood, and plume-sticks. These last, consisting of little twigs, tipped with the down of eagles and other birds, are buried in their fields by Zunis, Moquis and other Pueblo Indians, but the above is the only example of their use among the Apaches.
The turkey, quail, squirrel, and rat are, or have been, important sources of food-supply to the Apache. Positions of prominence should have been accorded them in the Olympus of their beneficiaries.[1] The Apache religious system is based, however, almost entirely upon a sense of fear and apprehension, and in no degree upon one of gratitude.
None of the animals now mentioned is endowed with power; and none, excepting may be the turkey, has the ability to move over great distances. In this they differ from the venison, every variety of which is deified and worshipped with becoming honours.
It should be remarked that from the hunting-sacrifices made in the caves, care is taken to exclude women; Severiano, Antonio Besias, Nott, and Inju-na-klesh ("He made it good") all concurring in the statement that were a pregnant woman to be present her child would be born looking like a deer.
The antiquity as well as the religious significance of these ceremonies is demonstrated by the circumstance that fire is made by the friction of pieces of dry wood, in place of matches, or flint and steel.
The conservative character of religion is a well-established fact. It is quite likely that in these cave-meetings the Apaches commemorate troglodyte or cave-dwelling ancestors. They and the Navajoes have traditions that their people "came up out of the ground", that is, that they dwelt in caverns.
- ↑ There is a tradition among the Apaches of a deluge which nearly swept away the earth. In this story the turkey figures as the friend and saviour of the human race.
