[From the Amhh&w ANTHROPefceetsr for January, 1890.] 
VESPER HOURS OF THE STONE AGE 
BY JOHN G. BOURKE. 
Although it is scarcely twenty-one years since I first crossed the 
Missouri river and began my acquaintance with the then wild tribes 
which roamed the valleys of its great tributaries and those of the 
Rio Grande, the Gila, and the Colorado, the interval has been ex- 
tended enough to see them all not merely subjected to a condition 
of peace, but in most instances notably advanced in the path of 
civilization, their children trained in the white man's ways, and all 
traces of earlier modes of life fast fading into the haze of tradition. 
It may, therefore, not be wholly without interest for an actual 
observer to describe, in a few words, some of the peculiar features of 
the closing hours of the Stone Age. 
Weapons. 
Most of the tribes herein considered were, to an insignificant 
degree, armed with muskets and rifles of old patterns, and occa- 
sionally with revolvers; but in both war and the chase they were 
mainly dependent upon weapons of their own manufacture. 
Lances, arrows, and clubs were their principal offensive weapons. 
Stone scalping-knives of the broad, leaf-shaped pattern were still 
worn suspended from the neck. 
Such fire-arms as had been obtained were invariably deprived of 
the iron butt-plate and one of the bands, and had the stocks scraped 
down in order to secure a minimum of weight. 
Among the southwestern tribes the stocks were nearly always fan- 
tastically ornamented with brass-headed nails, and, when procurable, 
with the sacred green chalchihuitl, the gun being looked upon as 
" medicine." In this connection it may be well to observe that the 
Apaches of Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora were among the first 
people in the world to reload the copper cartridge, which was done 
in a crude and laborious but efficient way by boring a hole in the 
base of the cylinder, inserting the old-fashioned percussion cap, and 
then refilling with powder. 56 
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[Vol. III. 
The Apache never failed to provide himself with two willow 
shoots, thirty inches long and half an inch in diameter. These were 
hardened in hot ashes and then peeled. When shooting, the Apache 
would hold these sticks in his left hand, criss-cross, and make a rest 
for his fire-arm. This custom undoubtedly can be traced back to 
the first appearance of the Spanish arquebuse, which was always fired 
from such a rest. 
Spears.-The lance was made of a staff selected from a suitable 
shoot of the mescal (century plant) or the amole (soap-weed), ten to 
twelve feet long. This was tipped with a flint barb, two or three 
inches in length by an inch in breadth, sometimes with serrated, 
sometimes with plain edges, fastened to the staff with sinew and gum. 
An improvement upon this was made by inserting an old cavalry 
sabre into the same kind of a shaft and fixing it in place by drawing 
over it and allowing to dry the sexual organ of the domestic bull. 
The penetrative power of the lance was very marked; the young 
warriors constantly practiced with them, using the vertical giant 
cactus as a target. 
Constant practice in the athletic game of mushka-which was 
practically a feat in lance-throwing, allied to the chunke found under 
various forms in so many parts of the American continent-added 
strength and dexterity to the arms of the Apache warriors. I have 
known them to pierce a human victim through the body at one 
thrust, and to transfix a saguara, or giant cactus, when advancing 
toward it on a run, from a point thirty to forty paces distant. 
Arrows.-The stone tips of the Apache arrows comprehended all 
the forms known to archaeologists: tongue and diamond shaped, 
straight or curved edges, serrated and non-serrated, with and with- 
out tangs. The Apache arrow, it should be stated, was composed 
of three parts : the reed, the stem, and the barb ; the last affixed to 
the stem and the stem inserted into the reed, and both firmly held in 
place by ligatures of sinew. The stem was made of a hard wood 
called kiong, the shaft of the carrizo or kloka. The use of sinew 
for securing the barb to the stem was believed to be based upon the 
fact that after the arrow had entered the body the warm blood flow- 
ing from the wound would soften and loosen the sinew, disengage 
the point, and increase the discomfort, pain, and danger of the 
victim. 
Arrows intended simply for the killing of birds or small game 
were not always barbed, but were generally provided with a cross- 
piece about two inches below the tip. Jan. 1890.] 
VESPER HOURS OF THE STONE AGE. 
57 
Bows.-'The bow was made almost always of the tough, elastic 
mountain mulberry, called, par excellence, iltin or bow-wood. 
Occasionally, the cedar was employed, but bows of horn, such as 
were to be seen among the Crows and other tribes of the Yellowstone 
region, were not to be found among the Apaches and their neigh- 
bors in Arizona. 
The elasticity of the fiber was increased by liberal applications of 
bear or deer fat, and on rare occasions sinew was glued to the back 
for the same purpose. 
The rule laid down by the Apaches for making their bows and 
arrows was the following: The length of the bow, or rather of the 
string, should be eight times the double span from thumb to little 
finger of the warrior using it. The curvature of the bow was de- 
termined almost entirely by individual strength or caprice. The 
shaft should equal in length the distance from the owner's armpit to 
the extremity of his thumbnail, measured on the inner side of his 
extended arm. The stem should project beyond the reed to a dis- 
tance equal to the span covered by the thumb and index finger ; this 
measurement included the barb, when made of sheet-iron. The iron 
barb itself should be as long as the thumb, from the end to the 
largest joint. 
Stone arrow-heads were made preferably of obsidian {dolguint), 
next of chalcedony, lastly of pieces of beer bottles, but the process 
of manufacture was in each case the same, and consisted in chipping 
small fragments from the edges of suitable pieces of material, the 
chipping implement being a portion of hardened deer or elk horn, 
held in the.right hand, the silicious stone being held in the left over 
a flap of buckskin to protect the fingers. Four or even five arrows 
could be discharged with a rapidity equal to or even greater than 
that of the firing of the same number of shots from the old-fashioned 
revolver. 
I made it my business to determine exactly how many minutes 
were requisite for making a serviceable arrow-head. I singled out 
an Apache at random and stipulated that he should employ no tools 
of iron, but allowed him to gather from the ground such pieces of 
chalcedony as he pleased. He made a number of barbs, the time 
as recorded in my note-book being five, six, seven, and eight 
minutes. An expert would have completed 'the barbs in less time ; 
but the problem was to determine how long it would take Apache 
Indians, whose village had been captured and destroyed by troops, 58 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
[Vol. III. 
to provide themselves anew with weapons which would render them 
a menace to the scattered settlements of the frontier. 
A good lance-head could not be perfected quite so soon. It could 
be made in a very short time, but in exactly how many minutes I 
am unable to say. 
The Apaches have a myth which states that they overcame all the 
tribes in their path because the god, To-va-dis-chinni (" The Mist 
Rising from the Water"), placed them in a reed swamp and gave 
them pieces of obsidian as tips for their arrows. When read between 
the lines this myth relates an important truth : The Apaches did 
subdue or drive the other tribes before them on account of having 
better arrows, made as described. 
Feathering.-At the lower end of the shaft were three half feathers 
of a hawk, fastened at each end with sinew, and in the direction of 
the axis. Each feather was as long as the inner seam of the second 
finger. No rule was found for placing the slot of the arrow, and in 
the same quiver I have found some in which the slot was in the same 
plane with the barb and in others perpendicular to it. These rules 
of measurement apply only to this particular class of arrows. 
I am able, from my own recollection, to supply a number of illus- 
trations of the great force with which the arrow was discharged, 
although a person for the first time observing an arrow coming 
towards him would be surprised at its apparent lethargy. In the 
summer of 1871 I was riding by the side of General Crook, on the 
summit of the elevated plateau known as the Mogollon Mountains, 
in Arizona. We were a short distance ahead of a large column of 
cavalry, and our immediate party was quite small. We ran into an 
Apache ambuscade ; a number of arrows were discharged, two of 
them piercing pine trees to a depth of at least six inches. On 
another occasion a pine door, three-eighths of an inch thick, was 
penetrated. In July, 1870, a friend of mine, M. T. Kennedy, was 
mortally wounded by an Apache arrow which pierced his chest. 
The autopsy disclosed the fact that the arrow had no head. 
The Apaches poisoned their arrows by rolling the stem in deer 
liver which an enraged rattlesnake had been made to bite. Their 
efficacy was more imaginary than real, because I have seen dogs, 
pigs, birds, horses, mules, and human beings wounded by such 
poisoned arrows and cannot recall the slightest increased danger or 
even the slightest additional inflammation from wounds made by 
them. Jan. 1890.] 
VESPER HOURS OF THE STONE AGE. 
59 
From their tenderest years Apache youth were trained with bow 
and arrow as with the lance, and, as a consequence, they attained 
a marvelous precision and rapidity in their use. 
Slings.-In the use of the sling the Apaches were inferior to the 
Yumas, the reason being that the Yumas lived in the Colorado bot- 
tom which is filled with inexhaustible quantities of smooth, round, 
water-worn pebbles, admirably adapted for missiles. 
The Apache were also expert in throwing stones, and often killed 
quail and turkeys with pebbles. 
War-clubs.-The war-club of the Apache was an admirable 
weapon: a stone of suitable size and shape was sewed up in a cow's 
tail; then a space of four inches was left in the tail, and lastly, a 
round stick was sewed in to give strength and rigidity and to serve 
as a handle. The hair was left pendant, as it kept the hand from 
losing its hold when covered with human blood. 
There was a radical difference between the Apache type of war- 
club and that of the macan of the Pimas, Maricopas, Yumas, 
Chemahuevis, Cocopahs, Opatas, and others. These macanes, or 
"potato-mashers," as the soldiers used to call them, are well de- 
scribed by their nickname. They were made, ordinarily, of the 
hard and close-grained wood of the mesquite and were a very effec- 
tive weapon at close quarters. 
By all these tribes the war-club was used in the same manner. 
Having located a rancheria, or village, of their enemies, they would 
surround it at night and when light first appeared in the east would 
raise a yell, shrill and unmistakable in its blood-curdling significance. 
The terror-stricken foe, rushing out pell-mell from their frail jacales 
were obliged to go down on their hands and knees to get out of the 
low openings. Crouched in this defenseless position, they would 
hardly have protruded their heads, when crack ! would come the 
macan or war-club of the blood-thirsty assailants. 
The Pimas and Maricopas used to be greatly addicted to plunder- 
ing, in which they rivalled the Prussians. Almost the moment a 
■hostile rancheria ms> attacked, pillaging began. 
Blow-gun.-Inquiry was made among the Apaches in regard to 
another peculiar implement of war, the blow-gun of the tribes of the 
Orinoco and Essequibo, called " cerbatana" by the first Spanish 
explorers. It is not unlikely that the Apaches were once familiar 
with some form of the blow-gun, because their children occasionally 
make use of a toy constructed on the same principle ; but nothing 60 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
[Vol. III. 
definite on this head could be extracted from them. The blow-gun 
is still in use among the Cherokees of the mountains of North Caro- 
lina, from whom I obtained one last summer. 
Boomeratig.-By many, if not all the tribes surrounding the 
Apaches, the boomerang has been used from time immemorial in 
hunting the jack-rabbit and the field-rat. The Apache secures these 
toothsome viands by other means, and has no use for the boom- 
erang. A form of the boomerang, studded with cruel teeth of 
obsidian, has been described by the early Spanish writers under the 
name of maquahuitl. It is said to have been a formidable war im- 
plement of the tribes of Anahuac and of those living near the Rio 
Grande, who could cut off a man's head with it. Not the slightest 
knowledge of this weapon exists among the Apaches of our day, and 
there are no references to it in their traditions or myths. But I 
heard something of a former use of the maquahuitl among the Rio 
Grande pueblos, and was assured by an old Indian, of Taos, New 
Mexico, that there was in that town at the time of my visit a weapon 
of this description, but the assertion was not verified. This old 
Indian insisted that a man's head could be cut off with this weapon, 
unconsciously corroborating the old Spanish story. Some of the 
bands of Siouan stock, on the Upper Missouri, retained a modifica- 
tion of the maquahuitl until within very recent times. It was a sort 
of tomahawk with long, sharp teeth of steel. 
Shields. 
Shields, made of the hide of the buffalo's neck, were still in 
general use. A hole was dug in the ground and filled with hot 
embers, over which was strewn a layer of earth. A piece of hide of 
the requisite size and shape, or rather of a little larger size than was 
strictly necessary, because shrinkage had to be allowed for, was next 
pegged down to the ground, covering the improvised oven; then 
came another layer of earth and a top layer of hot coals; the effect 
being that the hide was slowly and evenly baked and hardened 
without being burned or cracked, and was made capable of resisting 
the old-fashioned, round, leaden pistol or musket bullet. When 
ornamented with the owner's totem and gaily decked with eagle 
feathers which serve the triple purpose of decoration, of frightening 
the enemy's horses, and, as the savages thought, of resisting arrows, 
the shield was pretty to look upon and a good means of protection 
from the missiles of past eras. Jan. 1890.] 
VESPER HOURS OF THE STONE AGE. 
61 
Mortars, &c. 
There were various forms of metates, mortars, and mullers for 
grinding acorns, mesquite beans, grass seeds, and paint. Fre- 
quently rocks in situ, provided with suitable depressions on their 
surface, were so used. Such were the rocks in the Gila Canon, at 
the Ba-bi-tui or Coyote Springs, in Pinal Creek, and elsewhere. 
Stone mortars of great size were once to be found in Green Val- 
ley, where they formed the mills of the Apaches for grinding acorns 
so abundant there. Whether or not these belonged originally to a 
people of Pueblo type whom the Apaches displaced, cannot now be 
determined. The mortars themselves have all disappeared, having 
been carried off by American miners in which to crush auriferous rock. 
No time need be spent in describing the stones used in heating 
vessels of grass and palmilla-those for heating the ta-a-chi or sweat 
baths, or those for cooking mescal-except to say that they were 
always selected from silicious rock, which would not sp^t under 
high temperatures. 
Boring-tool, 
With an ordinary arrow held between the hands and revolved 
vertically the Apaches bored holes in beads. A bead of chalchihuitl 
was made in my presence under circumstances of great disadvantage 
in a trifle less than twenty-six minutes. 
' Fire-stick. 
In the butt of the lance-staff a hole was bored and to it was attached 
by a string, the essential fire-stick, because matches were as yet 
scarcely known. The time required for making fire by this method, 
according to my personal observation, ranged from eight to forty- 
seven seconds; but the Apaches assured me that they could make it, 
under the most favorable circumstances, by running their hands 
down the vertical stick only once, which would occupy not quite 
two seconds as recorded on' the watch. A sprinkling of sand in- 
creased friction and hastened the process very much. Two things 
are worthy of mention while speaking of this subject: the great 
volume of smoke that issued from the point of contact of the sticks 
and the total absence of flame. 
Amulets. 
AU the American aborigines used stones as amulets. The most 
familiar examples are the arrow and lance heads which had once 62 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
[Vol. III. 
killed enemies, or, in the hands of the enemy, had failed to kill the 
owner himself. Two or three arrow-heads were appended to the 
necklace of human fingers which I secured during a fight with the 
Cheyennes of northern Wyoming during the winter of 1876, and 
which has since been deposited in the National Museum. The in- 
formation obtained in regard to these was always vague and far from 
satisfactory, but better fortune attended my investigations into the 
nature and uses of the "medicine arrows" worn by the women 
among the Apaches and Pueblos. I have the only one of these ever 
given into the keeping of a civilized man. It had been worn for 
years by Tze-go-ju-ni ("Pretty Mouth"), an Apache squaw who 
claimed great skill as a midwife, and was in the habit of administer- 
ing a pinch of powdered arrow in water in cases of painful gestation 
and protracted labor. She explained that whenever lightning hap- 
pened to fell a pine tree on the top of a high mountain, the medi- 
cine men would hunt around to see if there was any rock at the foot 
of the blasted trunk which would yield fire when struck. Such 
quartz veins are, of course, common enough, and the only thing 
that remains to be done is to shape a piece of the stone into a lance- 
head. 
One of these "medicine arrows" was seen by me in the Pueblo 
of Acoma, New Mexico, in 1886. The woman who owned it 
acknowledged that its uses were identical with those of the same 
amulet among the Apaches, but absolutely refused to sell or trade 
upon any terms. 
Just such amulets, endowed with the same virtues, have been em- 
ployed all over the world, in Europe as well as in Asia, in early times 
as well as in our own day. 
A chapter of references to this topic has been compiled from vari- 
ous authorities in the course of my studies and will soon be pub- 
ished. I wish only to add, at this time, that the "elf shots" of 
he European peasantry may fairly be placed in the same category. 
Garcilasso de la Vega, in his " Commentaries Reales," made the 
curious statement that in Peru, whenever lightning struck a tree, the 
priests were careful to mark the spot to prevent the people from 
approaching and incurring the displeasure of supernatural powers. 
In the new light thrown upon this matter by Tze-go-ju-ni,. it is not 
at all unlikely that Garcilasso de la Vega, who was less than thirteen 
years of age when he left Peru, was entirely in error, and that what 
the priests really intended to do in such cases was to preserve the 
stricken trees for the manufacture of amulets and talismans. Jan. 1890.] 
VESPER HOURS OF THE STONE AGE. 
63 
The worship of stones was still further developed among the 
Apaches. I have been taken by these Indians to one of their sacred 
caves in the Tonto Basin in which was a stone phallus; in another 
the medicine men had danced and sung around stalactites and 
stalagmites which yielded musical resonance under the sturdy blows 
of their clubs. I did not see this dance, but the natives who con- 
ducted me to the cave, and whom I found to be perfectly reliable, 
showed me the stones and the places where the medicine men stood. 
The sacred stone-heaps described in all other parts of the world 
are frequent in Arizona where the Apaches call them " tze-nachie." 
I have prayed, cast stones upon these heaps, spat upon grass, blown 
my breath, and made a liftle backward jump precisely as the Apaches 
instructed me to do; but as this article has already exceeded the 
limits originally intended, and as it is trenching upon the more 
strictly religious side of Apache life, I will reserve further informa- 
tion for treatment under that head.