University of Virginia Library

Ethnological Note 1
////Most Chiricahua Apache ceremonies are curative rites performed by shamans who have obtained supernatural power from one of a great number of sources. These sources include natural phenomena such as lightning, morningstar, plants, animals, and supernaturals. One of the most potent sources of this last category are the Mountain Spirits, a race of supernaturals who are said to inhabit the interiors of mountains. A ceremony is acquired by an Apache as a result of a personal encounter with these Mountain Spirits. Though these experiences and the ceremonies derived from them differ in detail they are remarkably similar in pattern. An Apache, fleeing from the enemy, may pause exhausted before some wall of rock in the mountains and sleep there. At that place he has a vision experience. The Mountain Spirit appears to him and offers to lead him into the holy home of the masked dancers. He follows. he passes four obstacles and enters four separate chambers. Animals and supernaturals of all kinds offer him much power and display their wares. Advised by the Mountain Spirit, he refuses all of these and at the end of the last chamber the masked dancers are waiting for him. Their power he accepts and spends four nights learning all the details of the ceremony and the designs to be painted on the persons and paraphernalia of the dancers. His guide conducts him back to the door once more and then the Apache finds himself awake at the place where he lay down to rest.

////After such an experience the Apache, when hired for the purpose, may conduct his ceremony to cure the sick and to keep away or drive away epidemics and diseases. The procedure is to dress and design a number of men, usually four, to represent the Mountain Spirits. These dancers then approach the patient or the camps from which the disease is to be driven away and by dancing, stereotyped calls and gestures, accomplish that purpose. Songs, such as the ones that follow, are sung by the shaman when he is preparing the dancers and while they are dancing. These songs function as a, message to the Mountain Spirits to acquaint them of the aid required by the shaman. Since they are the songs which the Mountain Spirits themselves taught the shaman, it is believed that they must respond to them. The close bond between the shaman and the Mountain Spirits is manifest throughout the songs and reference to this rapport will be made in following notes. [See also the ethnological note to Chiricahua text 19, note 1 and following.]

Ethnological Note 2
The conception is that the Mountain Spirits approach from all directions. The implication is that disease and everything wicked are therefore necessarily driven away. As referred to in ethnological note l to this text above, the Mountain Spirits are very numerous and inhabit many mountains. It is the practice of the Apache, however, to associate their ritual objects and supernaturals with colors and directions. Therefore, the Mountain Spirits of each cardinal direction are represented by a leader only and color is attributed to him. The association of color and direction in these songs is blue to the east, yellow to the south, white to the west, and black to the north. This color-direction association differs for different shamans and even for the different ceremonies of the same shaman. Most often, however, in Chiricahua rites, the association is black to the east, blue to the south, yellow to the west, and white to the north. Note that the Apache ceremonial circuit is always clockwise.

Ethnological Note 3
The homes of the supernaturals are very often described in terms of natural phenomena such as clouds, mirages, etc. A number of instances of this maybe noted in these songs. The natural phenomena are colored in accordance with the color-directional association noted in ethnological note 2 to this text above--thus, the home of the Black Mountain Spirit from the north is of the black mirage.

Ethnological Note 4
Each shaman is directed by his supernatural power to request certain ceremonial gifts of the patient before initiating the ceremony. These are considered to be a payment to the power without which the power will not lend its aid. The shaman is paid in addition. One of the ceremonial gifts which the particular shaman who sang these songs always requests is a piece of turquoise. His allusion to a turquoise cross is a reference to this. Both turquoise and the cross are much used in Chiricahua religious symbology.

Ethnological Note 5
The phrase "tassels of the earth" is also translated "pollen of the earth". The sacred substance, pollen, is considered by the Apache to represent growth and vitality. To say that one is in the midst of a movement of pollen is equivalent to saying that all is healthy and vigorous with one.

Ethnological Note 6
A reference to the vision experience in which the songs were obtained. See ethnological note 1 to this text.

Ethnological Note 7
This refers to the intercession of the Mountain Spirits on behalf of the shaman and patient.

Ethnological Note 8
That is, because of my [the shaman's] experience, my songs have come into being.

Ethnological Note 9
An obvious reference to the shaman's vision experience.

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That is, the shaman met the Mountain Spirits by means of their power.

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The implication is that the ceremony cannot take place in the absence of the Mountain Spirit and his power.

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Usually four fir trees are set up in the cardinal directions and within the space thus enclosed a fire is built. The masked dancers who represent the Mountain Spirits enter this square while the shaman is singing these songs and approach the fire from all directions beginning with the east and going in a clockwise circuit. In turn they drive the diseases and evil, by means of gestures with their wands, away to each of the corners of the earth.

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In other words, no matter to what direction I go [or, wherever on earth I go] I am happy over my relationship to the Mountain Spirit and because of the songs he has given me. These lines are evidence of the close union and communication believed to exist between recipient of power and source of power.

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That is, my songs about the vision experience and these supernaturals have come into being. As is apparent from this material the songs often refer to the experience and to the supernaturals who granted it. Such references to themselves and their activities are supposed to be very pleasing to the supernaturals and to make them more than willing to heed the songs and prayers of the shaman on behalf of his patient.

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A clear reference to the reciprocal trust and fellowship which is believed to obtain between supernatural and Apache shaman.

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Just as the homes of the supernaturals are referred to in terms of natural phenomena of appropriate colors, so are their persons.

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In Apache ritual custom, when one person learns ceremonial songs from another the teacher is said to 'sing them into the mouth" of the pupil. This expression probably derives from the practice of putting pollen into the mouth of the pupil four times at the end of the apprenticeship. With the entrance of the pollen into the mouth the abilities and spiritual benefits which go with the songs are said to enter also. It must not be believed that every Apache who practices a ceremony has obtained it by his own personal experience. In origin, a Mountain Spirit ceremony is always obtained through a personal vision experience, but once it has been learned it may, if the Mountain Spirits are willing, be passed on to another. There are tests to determine whether the person who wishes to learn the ceremony is acceptable to the Mountain Spirits.

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This is a metaphorical reference to the home of the Big White Mountain Spirit.

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"Horns" refer to the uprights on the masks worn by the masked dancers. They are here associated with yellow dust or pollen.

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The dancers, since they are imbued, because of these songs, with the abilities of the Mountain Spirits, can see evil and sickness and can thus drive it away.

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The home of the Yellow Mountain Spirit is made of yellow clouds and these clouds, with all their sacred properties, move down to help the shaman in his work.

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This refers to the ritual motions and gestures which the shaman saw the Mountain Spirit perform in his vision experience and which the masked dancers perform in imitation of them.