surprising that the Apache should look with awe upon the pretty, denticulated crystals of silica.[1]
Twigs cut down by lightning are, perhaps, the most highly regarded of all talismans employed. This results logically from the worship paid to lightning—a worship prevailing as well among the Sioux and Cheyennes of the Great Plains, where lightning is so vivid and destructive.[2]
On the Sierra Madre expedition, one of the young "medicine-men" excited curiosity by the carefulness with which he preserved from scrutiny a little buckskin bag, elaborately dotted with brass-headed tacks. After much persuasion, he allowed several officers to examine it, to feel it, and to peer into, but not to empty it. It contained a couple of these twigs and one or more pieces of stone of some kind.
Under the head of mortuary customs, the Apache treatment of the bodies of the dead should be more fully
- ↑ Father Baeza, in the Registro Yucateco, says they (the Mayas) consulted a crystal, or transparent stone, called Zalzul, by which they pretended to divine the origin and cause of any sickness. (Bancroft, Native Races, Pacific Slope, vol. ii, page 667.)
- ↑
The following is the prayer of the Sioux upon cutting down the sacred tree for their sun-dance:
"We are making a good world, we are making a good day.
My friends, look at me; I am making medicine.
I hope you will have a happy life.
Great Spirit! you promised me a bull robe.
Who is our friend? The Lightning is our friend.
Who is our friend? The Lightning is our friend."
(The hands of the "medicine-men" were here extended, palms towards the sky, but not joined.)
"Who is our friend? The Thunder is our friend.
Who is our friend? The Thunder is our friend.
Who is our friend? The Bull (i.e., the buffalo bull) is our friend."
It might be added that the smoking prayer and motions of the Sioux exhibit the same close resemblance; and that fire, although not any longer made by friction of sticks, is at the sun-dance kindled by the Sioux "medicine-men" with flint and steel, instead of matches. —Personal Note.
