MORRIS E. OPLER
Myth and Practice in Jicari
Apache Eschatology
T HIS paper describes, for the first time in anthropological literature, the
attitudes and behavioral responses to death among the Jicarilla Apache of the
Southwest.1 In presenting these data there are a number of purposes to be served
In monographs or special papers the eschatology of most of the Apachean-speaking
peoples has already been described. With this paper and one on the Kiowa Apache
which is in process, the series will be complete, and the way will be open for a
comparative analysis which may clarify points concerning the relationship of thes
tribes.2 Secondly, these materials are intended to show the complexity and inter-
penetration of response to a culturally significant event. The Jicarilla reaction to
death involves their mythology, cosmology, social organization, economy, relation
to natural phenomena, and ritual; and throughout all these aspects of culture as
they are touched by death, consistent and unifying ideas and symbols appear. Such
a related and patterned cluster of components or associated body of ideas, symbols
artifacts, and behavior set into motion by some significant occurrence I have
called an assemblage.3 This paper attempts to call attention to the details an
character of the Jicarilla death assemblage. Finally, this treatment strives to show
how analyses of assemblages lead to the consideration of important affirmations or
organizing principles of the culture.
THE JICARILLA DEATH ASSEMBLAGE
In their account of the origin of man and his customs the Jicarilla Apache describe
how that great supernatural who was in command in the underworld, Black has'in
in creating man after his own image, sent Whirlwind into the figure he had traced
on the ground and rendered it animate. The whorls at the fingertips are evidence of
the path Whirlwind took into the body.4 This animating principle or "breath" (ih)
seeks to remain as long as possible in each human being. During this formative
period of man's existence, another important supernatural, White hascin, who took
command after mankind had ascended to this world, was inclined to grant man
immortality, but Coyote, Raven, and Turkey Vulture interfered and man's life
span was curtailed.5 As a result the "breath" or aspect of the life principle which
symbolizes action, vigor, and growth is opposed by evil forces of all kinds such
as sickness, misfortune, and witchcraft, summed up in the word cidn.6 Finally the
accumulations of evil take their toll and the "breath" is forced from the body. It
route of exit is the soles of the feet, as the whorls there indicate. Life and the
maintenance of life is thus conceived as a struggle between a vital principle that
animates the body and the hostile forces which oppose this. To exist is to strive and
contest. To reach old age is a major accomplishment, made possible by holding
evil and menacing forces at bay for a gratifying long period.
When the "breath" or shade leaves the body, it does not travel alone. The
Journal of American Folklore
breaths or shades of dead relatives know of acute sickness or danger and come to
counsel and guide the ailing. The fact that the very sick talk and motion to
persons who cannot be seen is considered proof that ancestral shades are at the
side of the dying. The convulsive swallowing during death throes is given as
evidence that relatives, returned from the afterworld, have brought food to sustain
the dying person on his journey to the land of the dead.
According to Jicarilla doctrine, as soon as the shade leaves the body as a
whirlwind from the bottoms of the feet, it starts out with the relatives who have
come for it on a four-day journey to the north. It finally comes to the brink of
a steep incline at the north end of the world. There a wild plum tree is standing,
and the relatives offer fruit from it to their dying kin. If he chooses to taste the
fruit, and he is represented as having a choice, he slides down the slippery slope to
the underword (ngba). After that his shade may not retrace its steps and re-enter
and revitalize the body. It is this last swallowing for which the living relatives
watch. If the traveler declines the food he may not enter the afterworld but
returns to his body and recovers from his illness. Those who have been close to
death but who have not made the fatal choice and have recovered sometimes
describe the journey to the north after their recovery and in this way acq
the living with the details that are recounted here.
If a person has been a witch, one who used supernatural power for evil en
it will be the shades of witches that will lead him on the northern journey; if
has been a person of good will in life, shades of the virtuous will guide him
instead. The afterworld or underworld is divided by a tall sheet of rock which
reaches to the sky into north and south halves. The north side is the abode of
the shades of witches. There is fruit in the place but it cannot be secured. Conditions
are designed to tantalize and thwart the inhabitants. It is an area of continuous
night, want, unhappiness, and cold. The only other plants besides the unobtainable
fruit are those which are poisonous and inedible. The only food available is the
lizard.7 The only animals present are the dangerous and evil ones. The snake, the
bear,8 the coyote, and stinging and poisonous insects continually harry the people
and allow them no rest or enjoyment. There is fire but it gives no warmth. The
denizens of the section attempt to play games such as the hoop and pole and the
stave games but derive no enjoyment from them, soon tire of them, and never
complete a game. From the south side they hear shouting, singing, laughter, and
the beating of drums, and they know that dancing is in progress. With flint knives
they try to chip away a hole through the stone dividing wall so that they can see
what is going on. When they nearly have a hole excavated, day dawns for those
on the south side who have been dancing and enjoying themselves throughout the
night. They stop to rest. Those on the north side are disappointed, for all the
sounds of celebration cease. They halt their labors, thinking they will resume and
quickly finish later on. But by the time the inhabitants of the south side are ready
to dance again the rock has closed up solidly. Each night those of the north side
attempt to breach the stone wall, and each time their efforts come to nothing.
On the south side of the barrier live the shades of those who have not been
witches during their earthly existence. They enjoy themselves continually wi
dancing and games as those of the north side well know.9 The sweet-singing bi
are all around them. The gentle deer and buffalo are there (the ferocious and
dangerous buffaloes are on the north side). These people live in a dream-like
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
state, just as the people lived in the underworld before the emergence.'0 They
have night and day, made possible by a sun separate from the one which illuminates
the earth above. The plants of the south side are medicinally beneficial or edible.
The inhabitants of the south side hunt and carry on the activities they most enjoyed
on earth, but they do not suffer the infirmities of age or die again. Those who are
already adult at death stay the way they are in appearance. Those who die in
childhood grow up to be young men and women and remain that way. Those
who are very old at death retain the appearance of old age, but they are vigorous
and able to accomplish anything a younger person can do. There is no weakness or
debility on this side of the rock wall."
The breath or shade of man is destined for the underworld. "The breath never
comes back unless it doesn't eat the fruit and has another chance to live in the
body. And it might come back to guide a relative to the land of the dead, but
then it may not stay," explained a Jicarilla. But there is a less ethereal aspect
of existence which persists after death and causes great anxiety, the gg'Ags. To
differentiate the ggkg's from the "breath," shade or spirit, we may call it the ghost
An informant has described this more earthbound component of life and afterlife
in these words.
A person has only one life, and at death it leaves his body through his foot.
But there is something else, the ghost, which is always fighting for possession of
his body. It is this that everyone has. At death it takes possession of the body
and stays around the place of death and the place where the dead man used to walk
for four days. During this time it can make people sick if they have no help. It
is this which takes care of the corpse at death. During life everyone has a ghost.
The breath is what makes us walk around. It is part of our life. But there is
this other part too. The matter that comes from the body, such as the mucous from
the nose or the marrow in the bones, is alive too. This is the material part of
your life, you might say, and the breath, the spiritual. At death the breath travels
for four days to the land of the dead. The ghost, the other part of the life principle,
stays around the place of death for four days.
At death the ghost comes out. It is walking around in there where the corpse
is being prepared for burial. It follows you when you take the body for burial.
It tries to return to the place where the man used to walk around before he died.
That is why the lines are drawn, cutting off the grave from the home at the return
of the burial party. It stays around the grave. That is why it is dangerous to
go around a grave at any time. The ghost can scare people. People don't see it.
It makes a noise, scares them, and makes them ill.12 The goods that are put on
the grave are not for use in the underworld. They are put there for the ghost
to use. The possessions which are left at the grave are really for the use of the
ghost so it will not bother people and frighten them. They say that if a man
retains the possessions of his dead relatives, the ghost will come back and bother
him all the time because he has not given the ghost what it needs. When a dead
person comes to bother the living, it is his ghost that does it. This world, where
there is death, is the world where the ghosts stay. They live right on earth. They
go together. They need possessions. That is why they bother you if you keep their
personal possessions. They hunt and live like other people do but you can't see
them.13
It is evident that the ghost is much more concerned with earthly possessions,
attachments, experiences, and satisfactions than the shade. It apparently resents
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its banishment from the ranks of the living and therefore becomes a striving,
unfulfilled, and malignant force. It is only the ghosts of those who die in infancy
and those who die in old age after a full life that hold no terror for the living.
The ghost of a baby remains four days in the vicinity of its grave and then
disappears into thin air, never to return. It has not yet had the sensations and
experiences which would attach it to the earthly scene. The very old are past
striving, desire, contention. Their ghosts remain but are harmless.
There is some difference of opinion among informants as to whether all ghosts
are malevolent and dangerous. Some say that it is only the ghosts of witches that
are really to be feared, but it is obvious that no ghost experience is relished. After
all it is difficult to be absolutely certain that someone who has died was not a witch in
life. Consequently, graves and any associations or behavior which might "draw" a
ghost are avoided, regardless of the identity of the deceased person.
Ghosts are capable of moving about as shadowy forms invisible to the eyes of the
living, or they may assume the forms of coyotes. Again there are differences of
opinion about details. Some assert that only the ghosts of witches turn into coyotes;
others believe that all or most of the ghosts of Jicarilla become coyotes. Not all
coyotes are ghosts, but since the ghost coyote cannot be distinguished from the mere
animal at a glance, the presence or sight of a coyote is anything but welcome.
Mention has already been made of the unsavory place which coyote holds in
Jicarilla myth and belief. A tale which associates coyote with death and the ghost
but which suggests that coyotes and ghosts are not always unfriendly is the following:
One man got into a fight with the Mexicans around Abiquiu. He killed a Mexi-
can. The Mexicans followed him and beat him up and left him for dead. But he was
not dead. though he was badly hurt, and he managed to get up after a while and
stagger along. He grew weak, however, fell down half-dead in some bushes. While
he was lying there he sensed that someone was near him. Without turning to see,
he knew who it was. It was the ghost of an old friend who had died. Then he heard
a voice and it was the voice of his friend just as he had heard it in life. The voice
told him, "You will not die."
He turned around now and saw a coyote sitting close to him. The coyote ran
away. The man was saved. He regained strength and made his way back to his peo-
ple and told what had happened to him. From stories like this the Jicarilla Apache
know that the coyote is the ghost of the dead.
The relationship between the ghost and coyote and the indestructibility of the
coyote which is really a ghost in animal guise are discussed by a middle-aged
Jicarilla man in these words:
Not all coyotes are ghosts. Some are animals. You can't tell by just looking at
them. It is the same with owls and other animals. Some owls are ghosts of Utes,
some are not.
The change to the animal does not occur for four days, for during these
days a person might come back to life. The "breath" is traveling to the place
the wild plum is to be offered and the ghost stays around the place of the grave
the spot where the man used to roam in life. That is why it is best to keep
from the graves. If one discovers that he is about to camp or sleep near a gr
moves away at once. If the fruit is eaten and the person will not come to life
the ghost takes the form of the animal. The ghost does not go into a coyote whi
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
already alive, but a coyote is created out of the ghost. It is a new one that never
existed before, for it is really a ghost. Even though the coyote which is a ghost is
shot and is supposedly killed, it does not perish. They say that the blood from this
animal that is killed and the fur turn into another coyote which is really the form
of this same ghost.
The fear that coyote inspires and the tendency to see human characteristics in this
animal are evidenced in another account:
All are afraid of the body of the coyote. We have no use for it. If you sit at
place where Coyote has been, your hand will double up. We are all afraid of it,
even of the hair and skin. When you go out and breathe and smell a coyote you
go around in a circle. The water drips from your mouth as though you were a dog
Your eyes get all red. We don't kill coyotes around the camp. But you white peopl
are different. It's all right for you. If anyone gets sick like this from the coyote
man who knows coyote songs will come and drive the sickness away. He has some
kind of plant that he burs and makes the patient inhale and he sings and drive
away that sickness.
A few years ago I saw a coyote with a short tail and no fur. Some men tried to
hit him with a stick. Then the men got scared and one man dropped the stick; it
fell out of his hand. A second man tried to hit it but the stick fell from his hand too
I tried to do it but my hand went down to my side and the stick fell from it. I had
picked up a big stick. About six of us tried but we were all scared. The coyote ra
to a place where trees had fallen across each other. We tried to hit him with rock
and drive him from the corner where he was hiding, but we couldn't for a long time.
Finally an old man did hit him in the back of the head. Then we ran up with stick
and killed him. It had no fur, this coyote, it was all smooth. And the tail was short,
half of what it should have been. He was just like a man. He had no fur, not even
on his ears.
It was mentioned above that almost all Jicarilla ghosts become coyotes if they turn
to animal form. The exceptions are the ghosts of those who "marry" or have sexu
relations with members of other tribes. The Jicarilla associate neighboring tribes with
various birds and animals and believe that the ghosts of those belonging to a par
ticular group turn, at death, to the condign form. The Navaho are the Mountai
Lion People, the Ute the Owl People, the Pueblo the Prairie Dog People, the
Mescalero the Wolf People, the Mexicans the Burro People, and the Americans th
Mule People.14 The conception of some of its involvements are explained by an
informant thus:
Jicarilla Apaches turn to coyotes after death-that is, their ghosts do. Thi
happens unless they marry a person from another tribe. In that case what the
ghost turns into depends on what people their wives or husbands come from. If
Jicarilla man marries a Pueblo woman, his ghost will turn into a prairie-dog at death.
If a Jicarilla woman marries a Pueblo man, it will be the same way-her ghost wil
change to a prairie-dog. They say that an Apache who marries a Navaho will turn t
a mountain-lion at death. A person who marries a Mescalero turns to a wolf at
death. If a Jicarilla Apache marries a white man or woman, he or she will becom
a mule at death. If a Jicarilla marries a Mexican, he will become a burro at death
The white people turn to mules at death and the Mexicans turn to burros.
If a person marries a member of another tribe, the ghost sometimes goes into that
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Journal of American Folklore
bird or animal before he dies. For example, if A married a Ute way up at Ignacio
and came back down here, the owl would come too. His ghost would already be in
that bird. The bird would say, "Hoo,hoo,hoo. I'm A," and the people would say,
"I guess A married some Ute up there." The bird could not do any harm unless A
dies. It can just call before that. It would not kill A to have his ghost in that bird.
As long as the "breath" is in his body he would remain alive.
A distinction is made between the ordinary owl and the owl which is the ghost
of a Ute or the ghost of a Jicarilla who has married a Ute:
The Utes are said to be the owl people. Long ago, when the people were going
around the world, one woman did not wish to take care of her child any longer.
She threw him away. But the owls came, found the child and took him home. He
grew up with the owls. Later on he started out to find his own people. But he had
no way of knowing who they were and he failed to locate them. He married and had
descendants. These are the Utes of today. So, when any Jicarilla Apache marries a
Ute, they say that the owl speaks and one can hear its words. That owl is the one
who has married the Ute, for some part of that Apache turns to owl when he
marries a Ute. That owl is telling who he is. "I am so and so," he says, mentioning
the name of the Apache who married the Ute. And any Apache who marries a Ute
will become an owl after his death.
We do scare children with the owl, but not because they are the ghosts of dead
people coming back to do harm. We do not believe that. It is because owl used to
be a monster when the earth was young and frightened people to death and carried
them off in his basket. The children know these stories about owl. So when their
mother dies and they cry for her, we tell them, "You must stop crying. Owl has
carried your mother off and will come back and carry you off too if he hears you."
This quiets them.
The owl is represented as a monster of the Origin Myth so destructive that it had
to be fought and vanquished by the culture hero. Its very name has become a
synonym of death. Through associations with the Utes the owl is linked with
exogamic marriage, ghosts, and death, as we have seen. But in addition to this, the
owl is classified, because of its nocturnal habits, with night and darkness, elements
which act as a screen for the ghost:
They say that the owl belongs to the ghosts. The living people have the birds
of the day and the animals that go around by day for themselves. The ghosts have
"dogs" and birds too. Their "dogs" and birds and animals are the ones of the night.
The owl is a bird of the ghosts, and all things that prowl around at night, like the
coyote, belong to the ghosts. The very old people will not whistle at night. They say,
"The owl whistles at night. Do not make yourself like an owl." When the old people
hear a young person whistle at night they say, "Do not make yourself a Mexican or
a white man." And that's why they don't want children to carry around the feathers
of night birds. It's a very dangerous thing to do. The ghost birds are nighthawk,
poorwill, and the elf owl.15
As a result of the connection of owl with darkness and ghosts, supernatural power
derived from it or other creatures of the night are particularly efficacious in dealing
with cases of ghost sickness. "If a person has a vision experience with the owl and
obtains power and a ceremony, he can use it on behalf of those sick from ghosts. The
power of any of these night things can be used against ghost sickness."
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology 139
In fact, anything which has to do with darkness, or even shadows which suggest
darkness, gives rise to anxiety. "We do not like anyone to make hand shadows on
the tent wall. We say it is like telling a ghost to come." The shadows of birds flying
overhead, particularly birds of evil omen such as the turkey buzzard and the raven,
are viewed with apprehension. Anyone upon whom such a shadow falls is in danger
of sickness and death unless ceremonial measures are taken. Children particularly
are warned against this danger and against touching the feathers of "night birds."
A man who is playing the hoop and pole game does not allow anyone to step upon
his shadow.
With these background concepts of the "breath," the ghost, and the polluting
beings and symbols related to ghosts in mind, let us now turn to the practices which
follow a death. The moment of death and the events that follow have been described
in these terms:
When a person is very sick, the dead relatives come to him. They give him food
and anyone can see a sick person swallowing it, though the food and those who
offer it cannot be seen. The dead relatives bring food for the journey. These relatives
come to get and guide the dying because they love them. It is not like scaring or
injuring them. You can tell when these relatives have come to get the sick one often,
for the sick one who is going to die motions to them and talks to people you cannot
see. The journey starts as soon as the breath has left the foot. When a man is dying
and relatives come to get him, if he is a witch, those on the witchcraft side come for
him. If he has been a good man on earth, those from the other side come for him.
No special number of relatives come to get him. It is up to the dead people. Both
those who are witches and those who are good eat of the wild plum before they go
down. The one who is dying chooses whether or not he wants to eat the fruit. It is
up to him. The place beneath is not the same place from which the people emerged
in the beginning. The two old people of the emergence story who said that the peo-
ple would return to them are there though.
When a person dies he is buried the same day. If he dies in the night they wait
until the daytime for the burial. Burial can take place in the night if it is moonlight.
Usually it is too dark though.
The close relatives, as soon as someone dies, cry and wail and cut their hair or
let it hang down. If a man dies, his children who love him well will cut their hair.
His wife will do so. His father and mother would too. His brothers and sisters do if
they feel grief strongly. If a man's cross-cousin gets sick and dies, he will cut his hair.
But if this cross-cousin gets killed by the enemy, his relative won't cut his hair. He'll
run among the enemy instead and try to kill them in revenge or sacrifice his own
life.16 Nieces and nephews wouldn't have to cut the hair for uncles and aunts, though
they could if they wished to. A grandfather and grandmother would cut the hair in
mourning for a grandchild, for they love their grandchildren. The grandchildren do
not do it for the grandparents. They are sorry, all right; but those grandparents are
just like ripe fruit, ready to fall, and therefore it is not done, for their deaths are not
untimely.l' A flint knife was used to cut the hair for mourning in the old days.
Instead of cutting the hair for mourning they sometimes divided the hair on each
side into two strands and twisted the strands together, tying them at the end. It
makes the hair look like a rope. Not only wives and husbands did it for each other,
but it would be done for all close relatives. You could do it for father, mother, sister,
brother, nephew, or niece, if you cared for them. It is a sign of grief. Men and
women both do it. It could be done for relatives-in-law too. If your wife's sister died,
for instance, you might fix your hair this way. Others let the hair hang loose as a
Journal of American Folklore
sign of grief and to show they are sorry. Often, when an old woman becomes a
widow, she lets her hair hang down all over as a sign of mourning. The mourners
do not paint their faces until the purification rite.
At death, old people, relatives, wash the body. The ones who prepare the body,
before they do it, put on old clothes. They go out dressed in these to bury the dead
too. These clothes are to be thrown away. Old people attend to all this because they
have passed their young years. The young are not supposed to touch dead bodies.
They get sick from it and die themselves. The old people are tough; they are
hardened to these things and won't get sick from it. Any relative can help in the
preparation of the body and the burial of any other relative as long as he is not too
young or not too old and feeble.
In washing the body they just use water. They wash it in order to wash off the
medicine, especially if a ceremony has been performed over the dead person before
he died. Medicine shouldn't go into a grave with a person. It is supposed to be on
top of the earth for mankind's good, not to be buried. The hair is washed too.
After the body is washed, they dress it in the best clothes. The same people who
washed it do this. After the body is dressed the face of the dead person is painted
with red ochre. No grease is mixed with it. They do not put grease on because it is
going to dry. They put the grease on to make it shine in life just as you put linseed
oil in house paint. But there is no need to do it in death. They also paint the hands
and the wrists of the dead person red on both sides. They do it so that when the
dead person gets to the land of the dead he will be painted well and will look well.
Those down there will know that he who is coming to meet them has relatives who
think a great deal of him and love him and have fixed him up well, and they will
be glad. Otherwise they would know that the relatives of this man were no good
and thought little of him. If the painting is done nicely it will be easier for the living
to forget the dead, for the dead will not approach them and bother them. The
painting is done to the bodies of both men and women and even little children. The
preparation and burial of children and grown people are the same. They do not
put pollen or specular iron ore on the faces of the dead. These things stand for life.
The same elderly relatives who have washed and dressed and painted the body
take it for burial. They tie the dead person over a horse. The horse has a saddle on.
It is the dead person's horse that they use. Two or four people go to bury the dead.
Sometimes four men, sometimes two men, sometimes men and women go. The
number in the burial party is not limited to four, but more than that rarely go. They
have a blanket around the body. They bring the personal property of the dead person
to put in the grave or by it.
When the corpse is being taken for burial, those whom the burial party pass have
to turn away and look away. The people in the camps cry and wail for the one going
past. If they don't it will make the relatives of the dead feel badly.
They bury the body in a crevice in the rocks in the hills or mountains. They
throw the body in there and cover it with sticks and rocks. This was the only type
of burial. It was the same for men, women, and children. The utensils of a woman,
if taken to the grave, are thrown in on top. Some break, some do not. Some are put
in the grave whole. The utensils of a woman are broken or burned if not taken to
the grave. A mother wouldn't want the utensils of her daughter around; she would
hate to see them. She would say, "My daughter was worth more than these things."
At the grave they sometimes, if the family had plenty of horses, killed the horse
on which the body had been carried. They shot it with arrows.18
Before they leave, the members of the burial party brush themselves off with
juniper branches and leave the branches on the grave. They put them on as a cross.
It is only when the dead person was very old that this is not done.
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
On the return, the burial party should not come home the same way it went. They
shouldn't make a circle either, they just come home some other way. This is because
they are not supposed to walk in the trail or track of the dead. A person could get
sick from crossing the trail of the dead. And they are not supposed to look back
when they leave the place of burial.
While the funeral party is gone, the people back home are getting ready to move
the encampment. As soon as they get home one of the burial party takes four small
pieces of mountain mahogany, about five inches long, and makes four lines on the
ground, cutting off the camp from the grave of the dead. Then that dead person
cannot cross the line and come to bother the living. The sticks are just thrown aside
after this. When the burial party returns, the clothes they wore are thrown into the
river so they will be washed down and all sorrow with them. Other close relatives
who are mourning have put on old clothes of uncolored buckskin. They do not have
gaily decorated clothes. But the clothes these mourners wear are not thrown away
because they will be touched in the ceremony with red paint and pollen and will be
brought back to the good side again. Then they will be all right to use as before.
After the return of the burial party the tipi in which the dead person died is
burned. They do not destroy all the horses the dead person had. They killed only
the one horse which carried him to the grave. The bow and arrows, all the possessions
of the dead person are supposed to be thrown away. The shield is buried with the
body. It is all right to keep what a dead person has given you if he didn't handle or
use it a lot. But anything in camp that was handled a lot or used a great deal by
someone who has died, even if it did not belong to him, is destroyed. They say it
belongs to the dead person anyway.19
They never bury any ceremonial things. If a man dies who has ceremonial pos-
sessions, they hang them on a young tree. They say that those things belong to the
supernatural power and as they go to pieces they say the power is taking them
back.20
They move camp. They always move to the east. That is because when they
started from the place of emergence after coming up, they went to the east. It is
just as if they are starting off again. They go to the other side of the hill, out of sight
of the old camp. That is enough.
After they move camp over to the other side they call in some old man who
knows some ceremony and they chase the ghost away, just as though they were
brushing it away. They get a man who knows songs against evil things (Aidn). A
witch, if his family does not hire a man to chase the ghost away, comes back and
scares his own family. That's why they do it. This is done just for one night. And
they burn "big leaf" and "ghost medicine" and smoke the whole dwelling.2' If they
don't do that they might become afraid. You know that sometimes they wake up
and just start to cry. They have dreams that scare them.
Talking or laughing in sleep is nothing to be afraid of or to get sick from if it is
not connected with ghosts. But if you dream about the ghost in a certain way and it
scares you or makes you cry, it is serious. Then they have this ceremony called "to
chase away from" in which all the bad things are driven away, and you are brought
back to your former state.
If you dream of a dead person it is not necessarily bad. It is not bad if you dream
that he is around and is not doing anything against you. That is just remembering
him and is good. But if in a dream your relative comes back looking as he used to
in life and offers you something to eat, or fights with you, or walks with you into
water or into fire, it is bad. All these things are very dangerous. If one of these
happens it means you are in danger of death. If you dream that a relative who has
died returns and leads you and you follow him, that means you are going to get sick
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and die. You haven't long to live then. If he leads you to the fire, you're going to get
sick. If he leads you to the water, you're going to die. The fire stands for sickness
because sickness always burns, like a fever.22 And water stands for death because it
means that you are not going to drink any more. If in your dream you walk right
into the water, it is just like defecating in it or urinating in it. If you dream of a
coyote, that is bad too. And if you dream of the owl, nighthawk, or any of those
night things, it is bad. If a man walks in his sleep and dies shortly afterward, the
next day for instance, they say, "The ghost came for him the day before he died and
walked him around." To dream of teeth coming out means that a close relative of
yours will die.
The ghost, the coyote, and the birds and animals of the night are all connected.
But not all sickness from coyote and birds of the night such as owl is caused by
ghosts. Some sickness is natural. You might just kill yourself from eating too much.
But some sickness can come from witches or from the coyote. Coyote sickness shows
itself by fainting. You might just fall over. And another way it works is to paralyze
you and make your limbs twisted. It often stops your speech and makes it so you
can't speak. This is called "coyote witchcraft." When you become ill from being
frightened by things of the night, such as owl, that is called "darkness sickness."
Ghost sickness affects the heart first. The heart runs the whole body. When you are
frightened the heart beats quickly and irregularly. It is just as though cold water was
thrown on the heart. Ghosts do not usually bother a person. It is just when you have
done something bad, when you have done something against them and have exposed
yourself that they get after you. Then they have their chance. It's just like gaining
protection from cold. If you have many clothes on it can't hurt you. If you have
just a few clothes on, it can get after you and freeze you. The ghost of just anyone
wouldn't frighten a person, but that of a witch would. If I am all right and am no
witch, my ghost wouldn't scare a person. But the ghost of a witch always takes the
form of a coyote and frightens people. It does this because a coyote is a mean animal.
Not all coyotes are ghosts of dead witches, but some of them are. You can't tell just
by looking at them. Some are natural.
For ghost sickness you do not necessarily have to hire someone who knows about
the things of the night, though this is usually done. You just get someone who knows
power in a good way. A man who has a ceremony and power from Morning Star,
for instance, might help you. Sometimes they can cure you, sometimes not. But
usually they sing ceremonial songs of the coyote and night beings when a person
has ghost sickness. We do not say that a man has power from coyote or from owl or
from the night monsters. We say "he knows the songs" of them. Perhaps a witch
might get power from them, but good people are all against them. If a man is ill
from ghost, someone is hired who knows songs against all these night things. He
comes and sings a song for each of them. When he has mentioned all of them he
says, "Now we have sung of all these such as coyote and owl who make people sick
at night. Now let us sing life songs." And then he sings of pollen and the good things
and makes everything whole and well.
They do not have to stop another kind of ceremony if death occurs in the neigh-
borhood. If the ceremony has not yet started, they would delay it out of respect for
the dead. Last summer S had started a girl's puberty ceremony and the next day a
death occurred. He could not stop it, for it was a "long life" ceremony23 and had to
go on.
If a person is afraid right after a death and burial, he takes the fire poker, marks
it in four places with bands of ashes, puts it by his pillow and leaves it there all night.
The fire poker is good for this because it is used in the ashes. If you are afraid that
the ghost will come back you put a dot of ashes on the forehead too.24 Ashes are
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
used to keep ghosts away because ghosts live in the ashes of fires. When they are
bothering you, if you provide ashes, they stay there. Sickness, ghosts, and harmful
things live in ashes. They are where you throw the ashes. Ghosts won't touch you
if you have a dot of ash on you because they know it is your ash and you haven't
thrown it away yet. The children are taught not to spread the ashes all over but to
keep them in a pile. Children are not allowed to play with ashes. Also, at this time,
mountain tobacco is taken and sprinkled clockwise around the edge of the tipi. They
make a complete circle of it. Then the ghost will stay away; it can't cross this.
Tobacco is used against the ghost because smoke comes from it. The ghost can't
stand it. It's just like when your house is burning, you cannot stand the smoke, for
it chokes you.
One must not call the name of the person who is dead. That person is buried
and covered with dirt. When you mention his name it is just as though you were
digging him out again, just as though you scraped the dirt away with your hand.
It doesn't matter how long ago the person died or whether or not his relatives are
around, you can't mention his name. If you do he may come back to bother you.
When my younger brother died, the people did not want to mention his name. So
they referred to him through me or my father. That is what is done to avoid calling
a dead person's name. You call him through his relative. They said: "The one who
used to be C's younger brother." Or they said, "The one who used to be J's youngest
son." Also polite form has to be used when speaking of any dead relative. It is not
necessary when speaking of any dead person but just when speaking of dead
relatives.25
The Jicarilla don't want to talk about dead people and they don't want to talk
about death either. They try to get around it. They say, "Owl carried him away in
his basket." That is another way of saying, "He is dead." In the old days Owl was
a monster and went around with his basket. Whomever he caught he put in his
basket and anyone who was put in his basket was carried home and eaten. It was
sure death to be caught by this monster.
The account which has been given summarizes the behavior patterns and attitudes
which are associated with death and burial. It is obvious from the many precautions
that are taken and the many ritual defenses which are invoked, that contact with the
dead or involvement in any way with the affairs of the recently deceased are a
source of pollution and danger. When a close relative dies, involvement through
various responsibilities and mourning practices is almost automatic, and the con-
tamination which results from this confrontation of death must be dispelled by a
purification rite. The mythological and psychological setting for this ritual and its
details have been given in these words:
The close relatives, those who are mourning for the dead person, do not go to
feasts or dances. They just stay around their camp all the time. They wear their hair
unbraided, hanging loose. They wear very scanty clothing. They do not stay in a
good tipi but in a rude shade or a round brush hut.
The children are not allowed to go out and play with other children. They are
supposed to stay home and by themselves until they are forgiven, until the pollen
comes back and their faces are painted in that ceremony that follows a death. After
the painting takes place it is all right for that family to build a good home again and
go around. But until then the whole family must stay by themselves, must not touch
others or eat with others, and must not attend a ceremony of others.
The next new moon after the death they are going to have the ceremony at which
the faces are painted. The painting means that they are going to be redeemed. When
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the face is painted, pollen and specular iron ore are used, because we look upon them
as growing things.
This ceremony is carried out to win back these people from death and from all
evil things. One-Who-Wins was a gambler who had great power. He won everything
from all people. All who played against him lost at every game. Then he would take
their children, their relatives, anyone he wanted. They all belonged to him. Upon
these people whom he owned he put the blight of starvation. All who belonged to
him had a hard time. He had many servants and they had to wait on him and do
what he wanted. Then Killer-of-Enemies came and played against him on behalf of
the People, and Killer-of-Enemies won back and freed the people. Before this One-
Who-Wins was just like He-Holds-in-the-Water at Taos. He could draw the people
to him.26
But after Killer-of-Enemies played the people were saved. That is why they put
pollen on the head and red ochre and specular iron ore on the face. These things are
on the side of Killer-of-Enemies and against One-Who-Wins. On the side of One-Who-
Wins are hardship, death, starvation. You must win yourself back from these. It is
like rubbing out the road to a grave. That is why, before the hoop and pole game is
played after a death has occurred in the neighborhood, the hoop and pole must be
painted red with ochre and the face must be painted too. If you do not do this, peo-
ple think you are on the side of One-Who-Wins and against Killer-of-Enemies. It is
done not only with the hoop and pole but also with the staves of the stave game and
all other parts of games, because Killer-of-Enemies played these games against the
one who had won all the people. This is always done at the new moon following
the death, and the game is not played before that.
They wait for the new moon to start the painting ceremony. The reason they wait
for the new moon is that they want a fresh beginning; they want to start anew just as
the moon does. "They paint themselves with red paint again": this is the name of
the ceremony.
A man and woman cannot have intercourse before this painting takes place. They
are out of harmony with nature. The sex act is just like planting seed, and they
should not have anything to do with growing things until they are made clean again.
In order to sing these songs and perform this ceremony you always learn it from
someone who knows it well. He won't teach you unless he sees that you are in
earnest. If you are not, it is just like working against yourself and your people. A
man is very careful to whom he teaches this. The man who instructs you watches,
and when he thinks you know the songs well he sends you out. The first time he
watches you and goes with you. If you make a mistake or forget something, he helps
you out. Later, when he is satisfied that you can manage it without mistakes, he
lets you do it yourself. A man who knows this ceremony will not use it for his own
family, for they say his power is not very good when he uses it for himself.
A ceremonial payment has to be made before this ceremony is performed; a
cigarette is put on the singer's right foot when his services are requested. It is like
a pass to get in.27 After that he can ask pay for himself-a horse, buckskin, or
something of that nature.
When the sun is about to come up, the man who conducts the ceremony smokes
and sings. In this ceremony, when tobacco smoke is offered, it is given to the earth,
the sky, and the sun. The sky is our father, the earth our mother, and the sun helps
us to live.
The man in charge throws pollen to the sun. And he does the same with specular
iron ore. They say the sun brought everything on the earth. He sends the light to
the earth and the pollen grows because of sunshine, they say. The old men say, "You
rub a plant and pollen falls off." That is just how sunlight comes. The sun is rubbed
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
and the pollen of the sun falls. This is the sunlight. At night when the moon is
rubbed the pollen of the moon falls to us. This is specular iron ore. Specular iron
ore is the light of night, starlight and moonlight. Pollen is the light of day. And the
ochre is red, just as the sunshine is red. Therefore it is used in this ceremony.28
Before painting the mourners the singer puts pollen in their mouths. He does it
to all who are to go through the ceremony. And he puts pollen on top of their heads.
Then first on the palm of the right hand of each mourner and then on the palm of
the left he makes a cross of pollen. And on top of the moccasin of the right foot of
each and then on the moccasin of the left foot he makes a cross of pollen too.
Next the singer rubs his hands with fat. In the old days it was buffalo fat, but now
mutton fat is used. Then he puts red ochre on his hands, rubbing his hands together
to mix it with the fat. Then, with pollen, he sprinkles the outline of a sun on the
palm of his right hand. Four rays of pollen extend outward, one in each of the direc-
tions. Inside the circle of pollen he makes a circle of specular iron ore. While he is
doing this he sings. He is supposed to get the picture of the sun traced just about
the time the sun comes up. As the sun comes up he holds this picture up to the sun
and sings. Then he rubs his hands together, obliterating the sun picture. He rubs
his hands all over his face, painting his own face in this manner first because he is
just like Killer-of-Enemies; he is leading them away from the side of death.
He draws the sun again, just as he did the first time. He sings as he does so.
There are many songs for it, so he does not necessarily have to repeat the same songs.
Then he paints each mourner in turn by rubbing the sun picture over him. The order
always is: parents first, the father being the first one; then the children; then other
relatives. When he has finished painting the faces of all, he puts a dot of pollen on
his own forehead to represent the sun and then does the same to all the others. On
the chin of each, beginning with himself, he puts a dot of pollen to represent the
moon.
Now on the left side of his own face, using specular iron ore, he mak
to represent the big dipper. Then he does it to the mourners. On t
his face, using specular iron ore, he puts the star that never moves
He does this to the others too. He paints the seven stars on the f
dipper will remain intact, so that one star will not be lost from it. For
when one star is lost, something bad will happen on the earth, the mon
back. So they do this to hold the star there. The north star stands
want fire to protect them, to warm the home, not to burn them a
stands for the pollen. The moon is put on the chin to ask for old
they ask that the new moon shine upon them many times. No m
person gets, as long as he is alive, the new moon always shines on him
If you are unfortunate, you may die before the next new moon. They
this should not happen.
After he has put these marks on the faces, with his hands still cover
red ochre, and specular iron ore, the singer rubs the bodies of these pe
with the shoulders of each. He just rubs off what he has on his han
to put new clothes on them, clothes of pollen, specular iron ore, an
tells them to keep it on all day and all night. The following mornin
it off.
The mourners have had to keep away from clean people until the ceremony was
over. But now it is just as though they are redeemed. Their dishes, food, fireplace,
everything is clean again. In the songs that he has sung while painting the people
the singer has mentioned all these things and so they are fit for use again. Now the
dishes may be used for others too. Before this none of their possessions could be used
by others. Before this ceremony is performed, these people have had to stay by them-
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Journal of American Folklore
selves. Until then it is said of them, "They have no paint on." This means they are
not forgiven and cannot come around other people.
That day they keep the paint on they are already clean and can go anywhere.
They are considered to be flowers which they say have been painted by the sun. The
flower has pollen and so have they pollen on now and they will not do any harm to
anyone by going around. The singer who performed the ceremony for them has to
keep the paint on all day in the same way too. There are no further restrictions on
those who have gone through the ceremony. They have all been brought back to the
life side.
With one exception those closest to the deceased pass through the purification
rite that has been described at the first new moon period following the burial. That
exception is the mate of the dead person. Marriage, in Jicarilla society, entails many
respect and service obligations toward relatives-in-law, especially on the part of the
man, since residence is matrilocal. The spouse of a person who dies, therefore, has
to request and receive permission from the close blood kin of the deceased to undergo
the purification rite. If the person has been an indifferent provider, or has been faith-
less, cruel, or abusive toward his marriage partner, such assent may be withheld; and
formerly the unhappy individual might even have been forced to wear a rawhide
collar as a badge of his unclean state until he was freed. The gaining of his freedom
may be quite expensive, too, for he may virtually have to buy his way out of the
predicament. The situation in such cases and the unenviable state of the person who
is not able to proceed to the purification rite have been described thus:
After the death of a member of the family, the others all have a ceremony per-
formed in which their faces are painted red. After that they are free to mingle with
people, go to ceremonies or do anything. But if your mate dies you cannot have this
ceremony performed over you unless your mate's relatives allow you to. As long as
you are 'acd ("bound to" relatives-in-law), you cannot have it done. Your children
and the others go ahead and have it done. but vou cannot. Then you cannot even
go to your own children. You are "unforgiven." You cannot go near anyone. Your
food is brought to within a short distance of you, but not right to you. You have to
eat out of special dishes which no one else uses but you. You may not touch anyone.
You cannot come right into anyone's camp. If you want to speak to people you
come to within a short distance of the camp and talk to them. You cannot attend
any ceremony or dance. You are just like a slave and outcast. You have to stay
around your wife's people if you are a man and be just like a slave to them. As long
as they keep you "bound to" them you cannot marry again. If you are a woman and
your husband dies, his people can keep you "bound to" them. You live with your
own people but you have to obey the same restrictions and do what your dead
husband's relatives tell you to do.
In the old days you had to wear a collar which your mate's people put on you
if they kept you "bound to" them. It was a rawhide and just big enough to go over
your head. It was wet when they put it over. It dried and shrank so it would not
come over the head again. They said you had to keep it on until it wore through.
But it would never wear through. This was just a way of saying that you were a slave
of theirs for life or until they wished to free you. Sometimes they would keep a person
in this state for a year or so and then free him. When he was freed he would have
the ceremony performed in which the face was painted and then he was free to go
about and marry again. If your mate's relatives have nothing against you, if they
don't blame you, they free you right away. When my first wife died her father came
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
to me and told me I was free. If a man has been a good son-in-law, after he is freed
they usually try to keep him; they offer him another girl. Very often, if you are
"bound to" them, they let you buy your way out. A father-in-law would say to you,
"Give us ten horses and we will let you go." Then if you can get the ten horses you
are allowed to go.
You could not violate this condition of being "bound" and take off the collar and
go among people without being freed. People would think you were crazy. They
would kill you. If you came among them without being forgiven, the death of your
mate would still be with you and you would be endangering the lives of others. If
you went to your children, for instance, they would die or be very unfortunate.
If a widow or widower is well-liked and respected by his relatives-in-law, is "freed"
at once, and passes through the purification rite with other family members, an
attempt, as already has been mentioned, is likely to be made to keep him within the
family circle. Sororate-levirate arrangements are favored; and if a marriageable
sibling or cousin of the dead person is available, a union may be urged. It is likely
to be the junior levirate or sororate, though this is not a hard and fast rule, because
siblings are usually married in order of age. Such a step is considered wise, par-
ticularly if there are small children to be cared for. Time and again the sentiment
has been voiced in this vein: "If you have a big family you usually do marry a sister
of your dead wife. She will treat the children well, just like her own. But an outsider
doesn't care about them. P's present wife (who is no relation to his first wife) does
not take much care of the children of his first wife."
Even though a widower is "freed" by his relatives-in-law and undergoes the
purification rite, it is felt that the ill luck that marked his first union and the
contamination that stems from the disruption of his first marriage by death will
pursue him and endanger any subsequent marriage unless something intervenes.
That something might be a ritual hunt in which the man goes out by himself and
remains away until he succeeds in obtaining some large game, or an affair with some
woman without benefit of marriage. The ritual hunt and the temporary union are
both called "medicine to heal up the place." 29 "It's like filling up the dirt in the
road, filling up the holes," explained an informant. Still further precautions are
taken before a man enters upon stable, enduring marriage relations again. He will
again undergo the purification and face-painting ritual in company with his new
wife; and the couple, if possible, will then cross a river, symbolically leaving behind
the death and misfortune which marked the former marriage.
Though it is the ghosts of dead relatives that are most frequently and poignantly
feared, the ghost of any foe or witch among tribesmen, and the ghosts of members of
hostile tribes are also sources of anxiety. Because of the malevolent activities of
ghosts of the last category, the whole warpath and raiding complex is hedged about
with protective ritual, restrictions, and precautions. War parties could be led only
by those with special ritual knowledge, the war party underwent a protective ritual
"so that when they go on and see a dead enemy it won't bother them," and a scalp
could only be taken by one who "knew how." The victory dance was more of a
purification rite and ghost-laying ceremony than anything else. A person who had
been captured and held by the enemy, after escape or liberation, could not rejoin
his family and move freely among the people until he had undergone the same
redemption and purification rite which those contaminated by death observe. The
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Journal of American Folklore
enemy is considered on the "death side," and it is felt that anyone who has been in
contact with him must be ritually drawn to the "life side" once more. After describ-
ing how a Jicarilla woman who was captured by the Cheyenne escaped and made
her way home, an informant explained that she could not enter the encampment
immediately but had to wait until the purification rite was performed by two men
who went out to her. Concerning the rite he said, "This was always done for es-
caped prisoners. This gets rid of the influence of the enemy. The face of the escaped
prisoner was painted red. Before the face was painted red he bathes all over in
yucca suds and water and washed the hair. He threw away the old clothes too. If this
were not done the enemy would come around all the time. The escaped prisoner
would be unclean and would draw them. The red paint was kept on the face for
four days. After that it could be washed off."
Since living members of enemy tribes exercise such baneful influence, it can be
expected that the ghosts of dead members of these same groups are regarded with
greatest apprehension:
The Jicarilla Apache can get frightened and sick from the ghosts of white men,
Mexicans, Utes, and other different peoples too. If the Jicarilla kills anyone from
any of these groups, the ghost will make him sick. The heart becomes affected. The
heart knows that the ghost is near even though the eyes do not see it, and the person
becomes frightened. It also affects the stomach. It gives one diarrhea all the time
and there is vomiting. Even now the Indians do not like to go to the funeral of a
white person and do not want to see a white person who is dead. The white people
are our enemies and we get sick from seeing a dead enemy. You do not have to kill
the person yourself to be made sick by him. Just to see him is enough. They call the
sickness "evil from the enemy." This is the sickness from any enemy, Indian, White,
or Mexican. They say that the white people hate the Indians. They want to kill them
all the time when they are alive. And when they die it is just the same, their ghosts
try to kill and do evil to them all the time. In the old days they ran the danger of
becoming sick from enemy ghosts because they might see and touch the body of an
enemy in war. They kept from getting sick when taking the scalp of an enemy be-
cause they knew how; they had words to say against it when they did it. Usually,
before they went off to raid or fight, they had a ceremony so that when they saw a
dead enemy it wouldn't bother them. The same songs and ceremony are used against
the enemy ghosts as against the ghosts of our own people. When they took the scalp
or any possession of the enemy, they always handed it to a man who knew about
these things so he could chase the ghost back to its own country where it would not
bother the Jicarilla. The fat and flesh from the inside of the scalp were used by the four
old men to whom it was given upon the return of the war party. These old men
mixed the fat and meat from the scalp with red paint and rubbed it on their own
faces. They took charge of the dance and the ceremony.30
CONCLUDING COMMENT
Jicarilla death practices and attitudes present something of a paradox. There are
few cultures that strive as determinedly as do the Jicarilla to repress thoughts of
death; witness the practice of hasty burial, destruction of the property of the
deceased, and the ban on the mention of his name. Yet few cultures have more lore
concerning death and the afterworld than the Jicarilla, and few have a more fully
developed set of activities and beliefs with which to cope with death and all its
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Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology
consequences, from the disposal of the corpse and the counteraction of death pollu-
tion to the neutralization of the ghost. This preoccupation with what is rejected may
possibly be explained as an unavoidable concession to the inevitability of death.
Yet not all peoples think of death in terms of pollution and danger. There are
groups who think of the ancestors as benevolent rather than menacing beings and
who consider the time of death as a release to be celebrated with rejoicing rather
than a danger from which to be safeguarded and rescued.
I do not think we can understand the shrill and hostile Jicarilla reaction to
death without coming to grips with the total Jicarilla conception of existence.
Jicarilla culture prizes and promotes a doctrine of activity. It admires motor
accomplishment and movement. It is no accident that the whirlwind is the Jicarilla
symbol of life. Health and long life, zest and vitality are the goals of every
individual. Debility and death are the obstacles and the opponents. There are a
large number of curing rites to cope with sickness. The death assemblage is the
defense against the ultimate and more overwhelming foe. The defenses are elaborate
and pervasive because the culture, in its enthusiasm for the life principle, has
not made its peace with death and rejects its implications at every level. The
importance and affirmation of the theme of active vitality in Jicarilla culture
becomes an organizing principle dividing animals, birds, plants, substances, men,
and supernaturals between those that favor, promote, and symbolize "the life side"
and those that threaten and oppose it and therefore are counted on "the death
side." Assemblages or organized and related clusters of culture elements are a means
of advancing or safeguarding the prime concerns of a culture. The details and their
integration are intelligible only when seen in the context of the themes or major
postulates of the way of life.
NOTES
1 The fieldwork during which the Jicarilla material was gathered was carried on i
In Opler, "A Summary of Jicarilla Apache Culture," American Anthropologist, XX
(1936), 202-223, a short section is devoted to a brief summary of Jicarilla death c
other of the author's writings incidental references to behavior at a death are inc
is the first complete account of the Jicarilla response to death, however.
2 Grenville Goodwin, The Social Organization of the Western Apache (Chicago, 1942
An Apache Life-Way (Chicago, 1941); Opler, "The Lipan Apache Death Complex and Its
Extensions," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, I (1945), 122-141; Opler, "Reaction to
Death Among the Mescalero Apache," SJA, II (1946), 454-467; Leland C. Wyman, W. W.
Hill and Iva Osanai, Navajo Eschatology, University of New Mexico Bulletin No. 277 (Al-
buquerque, 1942).
3 Morris E. Opler, "Component, Assemblage, and Theme in Cultural Integration and
Differentiation," AA, LXI (1959), 955-964.
4 Morris E. Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, Memoirs of the American
Folklore Society, XXXI (New York, 1938), 5. See also Frank Russell, "Myths of the Jicarilla
Apache," JAF, XI (1898), 253-271.
5 0pler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, p. 45. Coyote is associated with
sickness, death, ghosts, witchcraft, and punishment in after life. Those who "know coyote songs
in a good way can help those who are sick from ghosts or have had bad dreams about the dead."
Those who do not use such supernatural power in a good way "will become just like a coyote,
scaring the people, making them sick, being just like a poison." It was explained that the mouth
of a person sickened by coyote became twisted. He became "wild," flinging his arms around and
opening and shutting his hands convulsively. He could be helped by the use of the sweatbath
and by the burning together of certain plants and the droppings of the rat. The smoke that
arose was inhaled. The imprecation, "May a coyote eat you," was said to be the worst swear
word that a person could use to another. It is interesting that a curse only slightly less serious
is, "You are a ghost." A plant associated with coyote is sedulously avoided. An informant who
149
150 Journal of American Folklore
had had a ceremony performed over him explained the need for it in th
dreaming of a dead relative who came back to bother me. He wouldn't let m
I went out to the toilet. I had a blanket around me. I didn't notice it until
just a few feet away from me, a coyote had been sitting all the time. As I go
I wasn't scared at the time but I began to get sick after that." The bodies o
and turkey vulture are not touched by those without special protective pow
turkey vulture is explained by his habit of chronic lying and he is credited
for theft and concealment. Sickness results if the shadow of a turkey vulture
or if one steps upon the shadow of a shaman who has supernatural powe
vulture. Sickness from "stones" in the body (gall stones, bladder stones, etc
the turkey vulture. It is obvious that these creatures which are associated w
have unsavory reputations in many contexts.
6 In explaining the full implications of the term cidn an informant sa
does not necessarily mean the spirit of the dead person coming back to b
stands for evil, anything bad. If you dislike a man and try to make him
this is called cidn even though you are alive and do not kill the person. And
The evil and wicked things witches do are called cidn too." For an almost id
of the term from a Navaho see Wyman, Hill and Osanai, Navaho Escha
Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache use the term more narrowly, for ghost.
7 The touch of lizard is feared. Typical comments are: "We are afraid o
you die at once if it runs up your body to the top of your head and urinat
the food of witches." "Our people are afraid to handle or use the lizard in
people sick. Wherever they touch you it pains you. It is just like a burn.
they were lying down under the skin. You are all right for a month, pe
makes you sick.. . . One time I was staying with a certain man. I sat in th
came. A lizard ran right on top of my knee. I had brand-new clothes on. I
threw them away. I went right in the river and stayed in that water washin
two hours. If you shoot one with an arrow you wouldn't retrieve the arr
much afraid of even the blood of the lizard." Lizard is a symbol of incest a
tions as well as witchcraft (the two are closely related in Jicarilla ideology)
wry bantering which is permitted between cross-cousins of opposite sex an
and sister. "But I joke with my cross-cousin this way all the time. If I go t
a lizard around I make believe I am afraid and say, 'This must be a witch's
is her dog!' . . . She jokes the same way with me. . . . Being a witch is th
which you can joke with your cross-cousin.. It is the same with real sist
as to the joking. You can call them witches in fooling. I used to joke like th
and they did with me."
8 The snake and the bear are considered evil as well as dangerous. Much
into wasting illness, in which the patient grows thin and weak (snake sic
marked by increasing inactivity, obesity, and torpidity (bear sickness). A m
ness Rite, is carried out to cure Snake and Bear sickness. See Opler, The Cha
tion of the Jicarilla Holiness Rite, The University of New Mexico Bulletin N
que, 1943).
9 For parallels to this separation of witches and evildoers in afterlife see
Apache Death Complex," p. 130; Wyman, Hill and Osanai, Navajo Eschat
Morgan, Human-Wolves Among the Navaho, Yale University Publications
No. 11 (New Haven, 1936), pp. 33, 38; Grenville Goodwin, "White Moun
gion," AA, XL (1938), 36. Edward S. Curtis, ("The Jicarillas" in The North
I [Cambridge, U.S.A. University Press: 1907], 56) has also recorded it for
The aberrant behavior and separate destiny of witches were dealt with by a
"They say that witches hang around graves and open them up. Anyone seen
grave is considered a witch. . . . When a witch dies there is a fog all over.
old woman at the hospital died. I guess that is why it was so foggy. The
witch before. The fog always brings sickness. The witches live in the sick
protect them when they are going out. They just threw the body of a witch
that even if you bury it it will come to the surface again. So they do not bo
It is thought that some shamans, too, have a separate destiny after death
been good and used his power in the right way, when his time comes he goes d
of his master. If he got his ceremony from a power who lives in a certain
right in that mountain and not to the underworld."
10 According to the Jicarilla Origin Myth, man was created in an unde
lived in a dream-like state until his ascent to this world. Two old people wh
make the ascent warned the departing people that they would return to the
them at death. Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache, p. 26.
Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology 151
11 In answer to a question about possible Christian influences in the idea of separation of
witches and good people in afterlife an informant said: "The dead do not have any trouble in
getting to the underworld, any bridges to cross, any obstacles. That is the Christian story. The
idea of punishment, of the separation of the good and bad in the underworld is not Christian
but is old. My grandfather's hair was all white. He was blind and deaf when he told me this
story. And many old people who knew or cared nothing about the Christian church told me
about this. Everyone knows about this."
12 Fright can be a cause of sickness and at the least facilitates the entrance of sickness into
the body. "The entrance of the sickness into the body from fright is known by the cold chill
that attends it. It is just as if you had gone out suddenly into the cold without a coat."
13 There is not complete agreement that property put with the corpse or disposed of at the
time of death is solely for the use of the ghost and never for the benefit of the shade in the
underworld. In discussing warfare an informant said: "If the Jicarilla saw the enemy when they
were still far away and had time, they would put on good clothes to fight. The idea is that if
you are killed with your best clothes and possessions on, you will take your possessions to the
underworld." On the other hand the same informant asserted that a warrior who was determined
to die in battle would signify this by divesting himself of clothes and possessions: "If a man is
very brave and wants to get even for a relative he has lost, wants to meet the enemy hand to
hand, and is determined to engage the enemy at close quarters, he will strip himself naked, daub
red paint on his body to make it look like arrow wounds, and then go in, resolved to die. This
shows that a man is desperate; he wants to die if he does this. He strips entirely and throws
off his gee-string, saying, 'I am throwing away my life string.' This symbolizes the act of severing
all connections with life." Other hints of confusion concerning whether property disposed of at
death is meant for the ghost which remains on earth or the "breath" in the underworld have
been found in the materials. It seems to be the consensus, however, that the property abandon-
ment and disposal are necessary to appease and satisfy the ghost and that it is the ghost which
will punish any laxity in this regard.
14 For further details about such beliefs see Opler, "Mythology and Folk Belief in the Main-
tenance of Jicarilla Apache Tribal Endogamy," JAF, LX (1947), 126-129.
15 While a number of other varieties of owl such as the pallid horned owl and the burrowing
owl are feared, the elf owl is particularly disliked. Its glance could make a person "just like
drunk." Anyone on whom its shadow falls becomes "sick and crazy." Elf owl sickness can also
affect the heart and may affect speech, "hurt the tongue." In the ceremony to cure a person
afflicted with elf owl sickness, a very small pinion tree is used to brush the malady from the body
of the patient. An instance of this sickness occurred at the very time of inquiry: "J's boy is
very sick. They say he was frightened by one of these little owls."
16 Jicarilla cross-cousins of the same sex have a teasing and rivalry relationship. One of its
aspects, for males, is the obligation to be comrades-in-arms and instruments of vengeance in
dealings with the enemy.
17 Note the relaxation of death practices in the case of a very old person.
18 The lack of agreement about whether it is the ghost or the shade which benefits by the
property destroyed or abandoned at a death extends to the horse dispatched at the grave. An
informant opined: "They say that the person is going to take the horse with him to the after-
world. They do it so he won't have a hard time, so that he will have a horse to ride right
on the trail. They say that the property that is put in the grave goes with him too."
19 The possessions of the deceased may be buried with him, left on top of the grave in un-
broken or broken condition, burned, or placed in a tree. The feeling about the destruction or
abandonment of the home has persisted into the modern period. A young man who was unable
to make use of a home he owned because of his father-in-law's attitude, complained: "I under-
stand the white man's thinking and agree with it. I have a good house in which I lived with
my first wife. She didn't die in there. She died in the hospital. But because she used it some my
father-in-law [the father of his present wife] won't let me take his daughter to it. When I'm
in the neighborhood alone I sleep there at night sometimes. I never hear anything." Because
horses were so valuable and important it is doubtful that the best horse of the deceased was
invariably killed or that horses were always destroyed following a death. One informant insisted
that it was the poorest horse of the lot which was likely to be sacrificed. He said: "If a man
dies and leaves many horses, an old one will be killed. We do not think of evil coming from
the keeping of horses. We kill an old one because it is just like condemned. If more than
one horse is killed it is because of something like this. If a person dies and has three horses and
no close relatives, the people quarrel over the horses. One says, 'I want this one.' Then another
wants it. To end such discussions they sometimes kill all three of them." As guns were acquired,
because they, too, were so valuable and difficult to replace, they were exempted from the
rule of destruction at the death of the owner. An exception is made too, to permit the inheri-
tance of stock. "If a man who has sheep dies his family will get them. When a man who dies
152 Journal of American Folklore
has no close family and is by himself, his other relatives will get his sheep. If he
but has a good friend, the friend would get the sheep. The stock would not be de
not trade sheep to get rid of the ones that dead relatives herded. Even now if I h
sheep this is how they will be disposed of if I die. I have two sons. The oldest
sheep; that's enough for him. But my youngest son and my daughter-in-law and
do not have enough. So they can have my sheep."
20 Though there is a feeling against burying ceremonial objects, there are cir
which it is permitted: "Ceremonial things of a shaman can be buried with him if
to the shaman for a long time. But if something was tied on a patient during t
ceremony and the patient died, these ceremonial objects would be taken off at
not be buried with the patient. But something that was given to the patient af
a long time ago, like a wristband, could be buried with the patient.
21 A number of trees and plants are considered to be effective against ghosts and
nation that attends death. One way to use them is to bur them and to allow the
cense to bathe and purify persons, dwellings, and possessions. For sickness from
branch of pifion pine is put in the fire from the four directions and then the patie
off with it. Cudweed is also burned to restore a child who has been sickened by
children are frightened at night bear grass is burned and the smoke from it inhaled
weed and sagebrush are known as "medicine against ghosts" and are burned to co
and death pollution. The leaves of sage are burned with those of the giant hyssop
wort when a powerful fumigant against ghosts is required. Another combination
in the same way is a mixture of pennyroyal, thorough-wort, and winter fat. Th
of the puccoons (Lithospermum multiflorum) are also burned with "medicine
for purposes of purification. Beard grass or little blue stem is another of the plants
bination with others for incensing in these circumstances. Mushrooms, too, are p
and burned with other plants to keep ghosts away. The needles of juniper, an
the one-seeded juniper, are burned by themselves or with other plants, in inc
ghosts and fright. Juniper berries, held in the mouth at a crucial period, will s
and fright also. A decoction from the ground root of the four-o'clock pla
oxybaphoides) is a specific for one who faints from fear of ghosts.
22 An informant advised, in case of a dream about fire, to take four leaves of
two pieces on each side of the door with the sharp points facing each other. This
sickness from passing the threshold. There was little he could suggest to counteract
of a dream about a flood. It is an ill omen for a woman whose husband is away o
dition or raid to dream of a river, for it suggests that her husband may have d
tempting to cross some water barrier.
23 Jicarilla "Long Life Ceremonies" are complex, traditional rites carried on b
act as custodians of tribal religious lore. They are to be contrasted with the less e
individual, shamanistic rites, which stem from personal encounters with superna
24 To prevent a child from being frightened by ghosts, the finger is put in as
white dot on the forehead of the cottontail rabbit and then on the forehead of th
25 Polite form is a special third person form used when addressing or referri
with whom one has a restraint relationship. Another Jicarilla comment on the us
of the dead is the following: "If you speak of the dead you do not mention na
to the dead through relatives. You don't call the name of the dead at all. You avoi
You should not even use the name of a man who died a long time ago. If a relati
of whom you are speaking is in the group, you do not call the name. Instead
father of this man,' or 'the father-in-law of this man,' and so forth. The Jicari
names much anyway because they say it makes you just like an owl. The owl s
and calls, 'Hoo, hoo, Mr. Opler, hoo, hoo!' People do not want to be that way."
who had a hard time remembering the names of chiefs of his youthful period
man's Indian name is not called after he is dead and in those days few had M
Therefore it is easy to forget." It may be, of course, that this man was not too eage
names of these dead chiefs and so invoked this Jicarilla convention.
26 For an account of the contest between the Culture Hero and One-Who-W
Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, pp. 128-136. He-Holds-in-th
water monster who "swallowed" anyone who came to a lake near Taos and held
under the water. For an account of the contest between the Culture Hero and thi
the freeing of the captives see Opler, Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apach
104-109.
27 This is a payment to supernatural power and the deities and not to the singer, as the next
sentence indicates.
28 Sun and Moon are considered to be important supernaturals and are treated with great
respect by the Jicarilla. According to one version Sun and Moon require the payment of human
Myth and Practice in Jicarilla Apache Eschatology 153
lives for their services to mankind, something that accounts for the constant attempts to appease
these deities: "I have heard that the sun requires a life each day and the moon requires one at
full and new moon. The idea is that the sun requires payment of a life for his services in crossing
the sky every day. This is not told in the Emergence Story but I have heard it from many men.
They talk about it on the side. That is why the old Jicarilla Apache used to throw pollen to
the sun each morning and to the new and full moon too. Also the face is painted with red ochre
at the new and full moon, during the day. The people had different ways of putting on this red
ochre. It's just like a prayer, an offering asking that one should not die as a payment to the sun
and moon. The throwing of the pollen and the painting for full and new moon is for forgiveness,
so that the sun and moon will forgive anything that has been done against them or said against
them, knowingly or unknowingly."
29 There is a tendency to equate hunting ritual and love magic in Jicarilla thought and
practice. Ritual to secure game, and especially ritual to secure deer, can be used for attracting
persons of the opposite sex. The points of similarity seem to be that in both of these quests one
pursues a victim and attempts to prevent him from leaving the vicinity, exercising judgment,
or displaying opposition. Hunting ritual that is used for love magic, however, becomes weakened
as a means of securing game. For best results one has to resolve to use it for the one purpose
or the other. In the mythology, interestingly enough, the woman who is a symbol of romance
and passion is the daughter of the man who is in charge of the game animals. Opler, Myths
and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians, pp. 213-214.
30 For a narrative describing these elaborate observances see Opler, "A Jicarilla Apache
Expedition and Scalp Dance," JAF, LIV (1941), 10-23. Supernatural impersonators appear
the last night of a scalp or victory dance and drive ghosts and sickness away. After being stripped
of power in this ritual, the scalps were returned to the one who had taken them. They were
then treated as his property and might even be buried with him at death.
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