Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/475

 NOTES UPON THE RELIGION OF THE APACHE INDIANS.

THE religious sentiment of the Apache Indian is the underlying principle of his nature, entering into all the acts of his life, and infusing among those of a more commonplace character a feeling of dependence upon the spiritual powers not to be expected from a savage whose best-defined attribute is a ferocious self-reliance.

The foundation-stone of this religion is fear: fear of the unseen, the unknown, the unknowable. It may at first glance seem inconsistent that a people whose existence has been an uninterrupted Ishmaelitish warfare, conquering all tribes about them and maintaining against the European the most obstinate and successful resistance he has encountered on the American continent, should, in dealings with the invisible world, be a prey to puerile apprehensions; yet such is the fact.

A second, and equally marked, peculiarity is the jealousy with which the Apache preserves from the knowledge of the profane the meaning of rites, ceremonies, and incantations which he could, under no circumstances, be induced to neglect. No matter how great may be his friendship for the white man, he imparts with reluctance any information which may serve as clue to the arcanum of his religious belief and practices.

From the moment of his birth until the silent grave claims him as its victim, the Apache is completely enslaved by his superstitions. In sickness, in health, in peace, or in war, he looks for guidance and counsel to the Izzénantan, or "medicine-man", who combines in himself the functions of priest, prophet, and physician.