"Help my babe, soon to be born, to come as you did—quickly, easily, and without pain."
The belt in Nayé̆nĕzganĭ's left hand represents the one worn by his mother, Stĕnátlĭhăn, when he was born. There was a time when skirts, too, having the same magic power the belt is[pg 040] supposed to possess, were worn by women at childbirth. One such is shown in the hand of Tubadzĭschí̆nĭ, next pictured, to whom the woman addresses a prayer much the same as the last. The skirt also is the one worn by Stĕnátlĭhăn when the two brothers were born.
Medicine Cap and Fetish - Apache
From Copyright Photograph 1907 by E.S. Curtis
Yólkai Nalí̆n 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 Nayé̆nĕzganĭ typify the bounties of the world into which it is hoped and prayed the child will be happily born.
The prayers finished, hádĭntĭn is sifted over all the figures. Beginning at the left, the lightning line is followed into Stĕnátlĭhăn'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 Yotlú̆nĭ, 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 Ndídĭlhkĭzn, Lightning Maker, with lightning, hádĭlhkĭh, 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 Ntĕlh (Wide Water), Yólkai Nalí̆n (White-Shell Girl), and Itsád Ndé̆yu (Eagle People) are supplicated.