AMULETS AND TALISMANS.
THE "TZI-DALTAI."
The Apache, both men and women, wear amulets, called tzi-daltai, made of lightning-riven wood, generally pine or cedar or fir from the mountain tops, which are highly valued and are not to be sold. These are shaved very thin and rudely cut in the semblance of the human form. They are in fact the duplicates, on a small scale, of the rhombus, already described. Like the rhombus, they are decorated with incised lines representing the lightning. Very often these are to be found attached to the necks of children or to their cradles. Generally these amulets are of small size. Below will be found figures of those which I was permitted to examine and depict in their actual size. They are all unpainted. The amulet represented was obtained from a Chiricahua Apache captive. Deguele, an Apache of the Klukaydakaydn clan, consented to exhibit a kan, or god, which he carried about his person. He said I could have it for three ponies. It was made of a flat piece of lath, unpainted, of the size here given, having drawn upon it this figure in yellow, with a narrow black band, excepting the three snake heads, a, b, and c, which were black with white eyes; a was a yellow line and c a black line; flat pearl buttons were fastened at m and k respectively and small eagle-down feathers at k on each side of the idol. The rear of the tablet, amulet, or idol, as one may be pleased to call it, was almost an exact reproduction of the front.
Fig. 443.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).
The owner of this inestimable treasure assured me that he prayed to it at all times when in trouble, that he could learn from it where his ponies were when stolen and which was the right direction to travel when lost, and that when drought had parched his crops this would never fail to bring rain in abundance to revive and strengthen them. The symbolism is the rain cloud and the serpent lightning, the rainbow, rain drops, and the cross of the four winds.
These small amulets are also to be found inclosed in the phylacteries (Fig. 447) which the medicine-men wear suspended from their necks or waists.
Sir Walter Scott, who was a very good witness in all that related to prehistoric customs and "survivals" among the Celtic Scots, may be introduced at this point:
A heap of wither'd boughs was piled
Of juniper and rowan wild,
Mingled with shivers from the oak,
Rent by the lightning's recent stroke.[722]
Fig. 444.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).
CHALCHIHUITL.
The articles of dress depicted in this paper are believed to represent all those which exclusively belong to the office of the Apache "diyi" or "izze-nantan." Of late years it can not be said that every medicine-man has all these articles, but most of them will be found in the possession of the man in full practice.
Plate VI.
APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT.
No matter what the medicine-man may lack, he will, if it be possible, provide himself with some of the impure malachite known to the whites of the Southwest as turquoise. In the malachite veins the latter stone is sometimes found and is often of good quality, but the difference between the two is apparent upon the slightest examination. The color of the malachite is a pea green, that of the turquoise a pale sky blue. The chemical composition of the former is a carbonate of copper, mixed with earthy impurities; that of the latter, a phosphate of alumina, colored with the oxide of copper. The use of this malachite was widespread. Under the name of chalchihuitl or chalchihuite, it appears with frequency in the old Spanish writings, as we shall presently see, and was in all places and by all tribes possessing it revered in much the same manner as by the Apache. The Apache call it duklij, "blue (or green) stone," these two colors not being differentiated in their language. A small bead of this mineral affixed to a gun or bow made the weapon shoot accurately. It had also some relation to the bringing of rain, and could be found by the man who would go to the end of a rainbow, after a storm, and hunt diligently in the damp earth. It was the Apache medicine-man's badge of office, his medical diploma, so to speak, and without it he could not in olden times exercise his medical functions.
Fig. 445.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).
In the curious commerce of the Indian tribes, some possessed articles of greater worth than those belonging to their neighbors. In the southwest the red paint sold by the tribes living in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was held in higher repute than any other, and the green stone to be purchased from the Rio Grande Pueblos always was in great demand, as it is to this day. Vetancurt[723] speaks of the Apache, between the years 1630 and 1680, coming to the pueblo of Pecos to trade for "chalchihuites." John de Laet speaks of "petites pierres verdes" worn in the lower lip by the Brazilians.[724]
Among the Mexicans the chalchihuitl seems to have been the distinguishing mark or badge of the priesthood. Duran, in speaking of the consecration of a sacrificial stone in Mexico by Montezuma the elder, and his assistant or coadjutor, Tlacaclel, says: "Echáronse á las espaldas unas olletas [I do not know what this word means] hechas de piedras verdes muy ricas, donde significaban que no solamente eran Reyes, pero juntamente Sacerdotes."[725]
Fig. 446.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).
Among the tribes in Central America, a chalchihuitl was placed in the mouths of the dying to receive their souls: "que era para que recibiese su ánima."[726]
One of the Mexican myths of the birth of Quetzalcoatl narrates that his mother, Chimalma, while sweeping, found a chalchihuitl, swallowed it, and became pregnant: "Andando barriendo la dicha Chimalma halló un chalchihuitl, (que es una pedrezuela verde) y que la tragó y de esto se empreñó, y que así parió al dicho Quetzalcoatl."[727] The same author tells us that the chalchihuitl (which he calls "pedrezuela verde") are mentioned in the earliest myths of the Mexicans.[728]
In South America the emerald seems to have taken the place of the chalchihuitl. Bollaert[729] makes frequent mention of the use of the emerald by the natives of Ecuador and Peru, "a drilled emerald, such as the Incas wore;" "large emeralds, emblematic of their [the Incas'] sovereignty."
From Torquemada we learn that the Mexicans adorned their idols with the chalchihuitl, and also that they buried a chalchihuitl with their dead, saying that it was the dead man's heart.[730]
"Whenever rain comes the Indians [Pima and Maricopa] resort to these old houses [ruins] to look for trinkets of shells, and a peculiar green stone."[731] The idols which the people of Yucatan gave to Juan de Grijalva in 1518 were covered with these stones, "cubierta de pedrecicas."[732] Among the first presents made to Cortes in Tabasco were "unas turquesas de poco valor."[733] The fact that the Mexicans buried a "gem" with the bodies of their dead is mentioned by Squier, but he says it was when the body was cremated.[734]
The people of Cibola are said to have offered in sacrifice to their fountains "algunas turquesas que las tienen, aunque ruines."[735]
"Turquesas" were given to the Spaniards under Coronado by the people of the pueblo of Acoma.[736]
"The Mexicans were accustomed to say that at one time all men have been stones, and that at last they would all return to stones; and, acting literally on this conviction, they interred with the bones of the dead a small green stone, which was called the principle of life."[737]
The great value set upon the chalchihuitl by the Aztecs is alluded to by Bernal Diaz, who was with the expedition of Grijalva to Yucatan before he joined that of Cortes to Mexico.[738] Diaz says that Montezuma sent to Charles V, as a present "a few chalchihuis of such enormous value that I would not consent to give them to any one save to such a powerful emperor as yours."[739] These stones were put "in the mouth of the distinguished chiefs who died."[740]
Plate VII.
APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT.
Torquemada[741] repeats the Aztec myth already given from Mendieta. He says that in 1537 Fray Antonio de Ciudad-Rodrigo, provincial of the Franciscans, sent friars of his order to various parts of the Indian country; in 1538 he sent them to the north, to a country where they heard of a tribe of people wearing clothes and having many turquoises.[742] The Aztec priesthood adopted green as the sacred color. The ceremony of their consecration ended thus: "puis on l'habillait tout en vert."[743]
Maximilian, Prince of Wied, saw some of the Piegans of northwestern Montana "hang round their necks a green stone, often of various shapes." He describes it as "a compact talc or steatite which is found in the Rocky Mountains."[744]