Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/486

430 Gibberish is employed by the "medicine-men" in their incantations. The fidelity with which all apparently adhere to one set of words suggests that these may have descended from a language long since passed out of common use.

A variation from the above rule should be noticed. One of the Apahe-Tonto scouts being desperately sick of pneumonia during the Sierra Madre campaign, the "medicine-men" were duly consulted and applied all their skill, but in vain. The doomed man became more and more feeble, until at last life hung by a thread. Then it was that the most able of the Izzé-nantan was called upon to make a last effort for the restoration of his broken-down brother. The singing redoubled in volume, the music of rattles and drums waxed louder, while high above all sounded, in rude rhyme, a refrain like this:

in which were incorporated the names of Crawford, the officer immediately in command of them, and of General Crook. The surrounding Indians watched and listened with breathless anxiety. The liberal use of these military names proved of efficacy, and "John" began to improve from that night.

The "medicine-man" enjoys no sinecure among the Apaches. His services are in requisition at almost all