emely secretive nature of the Apache, it is difficult for
the casual student to learn anything of the relations between their
mythology and the designs used in their basketry. Questioned, they will
perhaps say, "We don't know," or "To make it look pretty." But an
intelligent and trustworthy interpreter will tell you, "That woman knows,
but she will not tell." A law of the cult brought about by the recent
messiah religion is that every woman must have in readiness for use during
the migration to the future world a _tus_, a _tu{~COMBINING BREVE~}tza_, a _tsa-nasku{~COMBINING BREVE~}di_,
and a gourd drinking-cup, all decorated with the cross and crescent. These
are not used and are carefully preserved.

The clan and gentile systems of the American Indians have been the bulwark
of their social structure, for by preventing intermarriage within the clan
or the gens the blood was kept at its best. Added to this were the
hardships of the Indian life, which resulted in the survival only of the
fittest and provided the foundation for a sturdy people. But with
advancing civilization one foresees the inevitable disintegration of their
tribal laws, and a consequent weakening of the entire social structure,
for the Indians seem to have absorbed all the evil, and to have embodied
little of the good, that civilized life teaches.

[Illustration: The Covered Pit - Apache]

The Covered Pit - Apache

_From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis_

The Coyoteros are divided into five bands, each consisting of a number of
clans, although in one band there are now survivors of a single clan only,
while in others as many as seven or eight clans are still to be found.
Descent among the Apache generally is reckoned through the mother; that
is, the children belong to their mother's clan. An exception to this rule
is said by "Peaches," an old Apache scout under Crook, to exist among the
Chiricahua, where the children take the gens of the father. Among the
Apache some of the younger generation are inclined to disregard tribal
laws respecting marriage, but in former times they were rigidly enforced,
marriage within the clan or the gens being regarded as incestuous. When
asked what would happen if a man and a woman belonging to the same clan
should marry, one old man answered that both would be quickly put to
death.

In the Appendix are given the clan names of the Coyoteros, also of the
A