A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

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PAPERSOF THEPEABODY MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGYAND ETHNOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITYVOL. XXXII, NO. 3A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMFRANC JOHNSON NEWCOMBSTANLEY FISHLERANDMARY C. WHEELWRIGHTLINE DRAWINGSBYLLOYD MOYLANCAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.SA.PUBLISHED BY THE PEABODY MUSEUM1956

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A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISM

PAPERSOF THEPEABODY MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGYAND ETHNOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITYVOL. XXXII, NO. 3A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMFRANC JOHNSON NEWCOMBSTANLEY FISHLERANDMARY C. WHEELWRIGHTLINE DRAWINGSBYLLOYD MOYLANCAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A.PUBLISHED BY THE PEABODY MUSEUM1956

PRINTED BY THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRINTING OFFICECAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A.

PART I: NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SANDPAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS,by Franc Johnson NewcombPREFACE 3THE NAVAJO SAND PAINTING .... 4PLACE AND NUMBER 7SIGNIFICANCE AND USE OF COLOR ... 13GREAT POWERS OF EARTH, SKY,WATER, AND THE UNDERWORLD . . 20SKY SYMBOLS, STARS AND COMETS ..24WIND, RAIN, HAIL, CLOUDS, MIST,LIGHTNING ARROWS, AND RAINBOW 28ANIMALS AND TRACKS 31SYMBOLISM OF PLANTS, SEEDS, ANDPOLLEN HERB INFUSIONSCEREMONIAL COSTUMES, MASKS AND35ARTICLESBODY PAINTING AND PICTURE WRIT-39ING 44PART II:NAVAHO PICTURE WRIT-ING, by Stanley A. Fishier 49INTRODUCTIONAN ORIGIN LEGEND FOR CURING SOR-51CERY 55CONTENTSiOwl-raised-Ute 56THE PICTURE WRITING 60CONCLUSIONS 73REFERENCES 79NOTES ON CORRESPOND-ING SYMBOLS IN VARIOUS PARTSOF THE WORLD, by Mary C. Wheelwright81PART III:NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLSIN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD .83Deer and horns of power 84Dontso 86Feather and other abstractions 88Ethkav-nah-ashi and Asvins 89Bear constellation of seven stars 00Ritual similarities between Navajo conceptsand others 90Notes on parallel svmbols and rites in India,Tibet and ancient Persia 91Tibet 92India 93REFERENCES 99PRONUNCLATION 100NASAL SOUNDS 100PART I: NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SANDPAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS,by Franc Johnson Newcomb1. Straight bar from E. to W. is rainbow (female)and N. to S. zig-zag bar is lightning(male):. Oblong symbols of houses of various powersin Hail Chant3. The path of life is shown as a cornstalk crossinga white field4. Cross symbolizing fire5. Border representing variety of trails connectedby black land below the horizon . . .6. Central dwelling place and homeland . . .7. Place of emergence8. Lake9. Prayer stickLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSLINE-CUT FIGURESFire poker 10Four sacred plants 10Static cloud giving nourishment to tree . . 11. Three sprigs of tree carried bv sand paintingfigures 11Cloud dropping rain on earth nSun or moon svmbol 13Father Sky 14Evil blue star 16Dark world 16Bear 17Squirrel 17Guardian rainbow 17Mountain god wearing four blankets of fire 17Mother Earth (left) and Father Sky (right) 19Cloud power 21Serpent 21

CONTENTS26.28.29.30.3 1 -36.38.40.42.60.68.69.70.7 1 -76.53- Serpents 2954- Guard55- Mirage293056. Curved serpent guard 3057- The sun's medicine bag 3058. Bear constellation 3259-72-73-74-75-77-78.Home of snake people 21Moon shadows or phases 21"Jalth," the frog 21Turtle 21Horned toad 21Gila monster 21"Teoltsodi," water monster 22"Tabasteen," otter 22"Tchah," beaver 22"Kahtsen," alligator 22Big fish 22Sky symbols 24Comet or shooting star 25Star 25Star 25Clouds carrying hailstones 27Clouds carrying stars 27Turkey 27*5-27-3*-33-34-35-37-39-4'-43- Eagle 2744.45-BatSmall bird272746.47-48.Thunder birdRain cloudDancing figures27272749- Feather showing direction of movement . . 2950.5i-52-Dragon flyDontsoLightning292929Buffalo 32Whirling circle tvpifving means of locomotion3261.62.63.64.65.66.PorcupineMountain lionDeerGoat or deer or antelopeRabbitCoyote32323232333367. Badger 34Star cross 34Wolf tracks 34Bear tracks 34Eagle or hawk claws 34Willow square used in Yehbechai ceremony 36Medicine bags hanging from wrist .... 36Kehtahns 36Yucca 36Corn in Blessing Chant representing the treeof life 37Sunflower 37Beganaskiddy, carrier of seeds, with his ceremonialcane and horns of power 40Fire god carrying fire stick and traveler'sbread 40Pollen Boy on the face of the sun 43Corn Maiden on the face of the moon ... 43Butterfly 44Kehtahns 44Chart of hero's journey 46Symbolic writing 47Life and death cross 47Crossing rivers 47PART II:NAVAHO PICTURE WRIT-ING, by Stanley A. FishierCOLOR PLATESI-XII following 72NOTES ON CORRESPOND-ING SYMBOLS IN VARIOUS PARTSOF THE WORLD, by Mary C. WheelwrightPART III:LINE-CUT FIGURES1. a, b, c, d, Four versions of Dontso. e, f, g, h.Ancient Chinese calligraphic symbols forCicada, (e-h, courtesy Metropolitan Museumof Art) 872. Gold symbol from Colombia in British Museum873. Jade circle from British Honduras in BritishMuseum 874. Symbol associated with Ka 875. Squash blossoms and fertility symbol of Navajonecklaces 916. Derivation of words from pre-Sanskrit ... 947. Ethkay-nah-ashi figures at bottom 958. Design on wall with Perusha on top .... 959. Idealized form of man 95HALF-TONE PLATESPLATE I. a. Horned god. Chinese bronze Kuangceremonial vessel, owned by Mrs. EugeneMeyer, Washington, DC b, Wooden monsterhead from Ch'angsha, south central China, 4thcentury b.c. (Photo, courtesy of the BritishMuseum.) following 88PLATE II. Antlered mask from the HopewellMound, Ohio. (Photo, courtesy of the ChicagoNatural History Museum.)

CONTENTSPLATE III. Antlered altar from Ch'angsha, silver, from Persia, 19th century, owned by MissChina, owned by Mr. John Hadley Cox, Wash- Susan Dwight Bliss, New York, b. Crystalington, D.C. chrysalis of insect from Spiro Mound, Oklahoma.(Photo, courtesy of the University ofPLATE IV. a, Antlered human head of steel and Oklahoma Museum.)UNIVERSITY OF FLORI PA.,3 1262 07311 264

ALLA SHORT DESCRIPTIONOF THE FORM OF NAVAJO CEREMONIESceremonies are for healing, either ofWhen this and thefears or of bodily ailments, and each is acommunal affair paid for by the patient's relatives.A medicine man is consulted as to whatceremony is required and often uses divinationto decide the matter.location are settled, and also whether a completeritual or a short one should be used, thehogahn is selected or built and medicine articlesare collected, such as herbs, rocks to crushinto colored sands, fuel, and persons to helpthe ritual. It begins by the lighting of the firein the hogahn, and for four days in a completeritual the patient and participants take asweat bath and emetic to cleanse themselves,and ceremonial offerings are made for thePowers to be invoked. In the evening whileprayers are sung, a rite of the untying ofknots in woolen cords which are pressed tomade to embody the powers tothe patient's body and limbs, may typify theloosening of tensions in the patient.There are several forms of these rites, suchas passing the patient through a line of hoopsplaced outside the hogahn on four consecutivedays while prayers are said. As he passesthrough, a covering is progressively removed,which typifies a process of recreating him intohealth again.The sand painting rite begins after the purificationand isbe invoked. The painting is made under themedicine man's direction and is produced byeach painter holding a particular colored sandin his hand and pouring it in a delicate streambetween thumb and first finger.When complete, the painting is blessed withpollen and prayer, and the patient sits on itand is treated by the assistant, who first pressesthe figures of the painting himself, thenpresses them to the body of the patient. Thepatient also drinks a decoction of the paintingand afterwards inhales incense. In a completeceremony there are usually four days of sandpainting rites; each day after the treatmentof the patient the painting is destroyed. Sometimesthe body of the patient is painted withthe great symbols, which ends the rite of healing.This ends the ceremony except where thereis a public ritual dance.A more complete account of the ceremoniesand ritual is given in Volume I of the NavajoSeries published by the Museum of NavajoCeremonial Art. There are at least eightmajor ceremonies, and many many others, andat the Museum there are over four hundredsand paintings recorded.Mary C. WheelwrightMuseum of Navajo Ceremonial Art'955

PART I:NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGSAND RITUAL OBJECTSbyFranc Johnson Newcomb

PREFACEbyMary C. WheelwrightI HAVE known Mrs. Franc J. Newcombfor twenty years and am so thankful thatshe has been persuaded to put down her intimateknowledge of the sand paintings, theirsymbols, meaning, and the ritual connectedwith them.She came from Wisconsin to the NavajoCountry in 1914, living at Fort Defiance as ateacher, and after her marriage, coming to atrading post (Nava, now called Newcomb,New Mexico) 65 miles north of Gallup on theroad to Shiprock, New Mexico. In those daysthere were no surfaced roads — in rainyweather the roads were nearly impassable —and her life was definitely of pioneer quality.On a camping trip in 1920 I stayed at theNava trading post, having just seen my firstNavajo ceremony, and I asked many questionsand found both Air. and Mrs. Newcomb reallyinterested in the Indians' ceremonies whichwas most unusual, as few traders at that timetook any interest in them. They were veryfond of Hasteen Klah, one of the most respectedof the medicine men, who lived nearbyand who was also fond of the Newcombs. Iurged Mrs. Newcomb to make a study of theIndian religion as she could draw well andhad such a wonderful opportunity throughKlah's friendship to understand and possiblyrecord the religion, which had never beendone except by Washington Matthewstwenty-five years before. He was an Armydoctor situated on the Reservation and duringseven years made a superb record of one ceremony,the Night Chant or Yehbechai, amongothers. But through Klah we found that therewere at least eight major ceremonies practisedby the Navajo people.Klah was, fortunately, willing to answerquestions and finally invited Mrs. Newcombto see a ceremony, at which time he gave aBlessing Chant over her. She felt, as I did,that there was an enormous amount to learnand respected Klah's integrity and fineness, sowas willing to obey his condition of recording;that is, that she should memorize thepaintings but never take notes or draw at theceremonies. She was particularly interested inrecording the paintings, and later, when weworked together, we divided the task so thatI recorded the ritual and myth. At first it wasall we could do to put down what we saw,but gradually during many years and dealingwith the many medicine men recommendedto us by Klah, the idea of the meaning of itall came to us both, and I urged her to opento others her unique knowledge acquiredthrough thirty-five years. Others have studiedcarefully the racial and social Navajo systemof life, but no one has lived with the Navajosand studied their painted symbols as has Mrs.Newcomb. Meeting so many medicine men,she, through her knowledge, made them realizethat she was qualified to obtain what informationthey could give her.When a noted medicine man died, and hisrelatives realized that they were not sure ofdetails of the paintings, they asked Mrs. Newcombto help them. Only last year she foundat a Mountain Chant ceremony that the medicineman was using a painting that she hadhelped to recreate, and he spoke of the factto her.During my efforts to record the ritual andmyths I began to be fascinated with the fundamentalsimilarity of these to the myths inother religions over the world. During mytravels and reading I had noted these, so inPart III of this book I have added my contributionextending the scope of this study toinclude wider horizons.I have not attempted any complete study ofthese universal symbols, but felt it would beuseful to publish them here, suggesting andhoping that others will be inspired to carrythis study further, for in my opinion theypoint to a common source.

TOTHE NAVAJO SAND PAINTINGBECOME acquainted with the symbolismwhich accompanies all Navajo religiousritual, it is necessary to spend longhours in the ceremonial hogahn observing thesymbols of the sand painting, the designs onwooden plaques, bone whistles, gourd or hiderattles, and many other decorated articles. Inthe ceremonial hogahn the medicine man, thepainters, and the helpers are nearly alwaysmen, although there is no taboo against womenacting in these capacities.In almost every Navajo ceremony, whethergreat or small, the painting and use of coloredsymbols plays an important part, and, as thepigment for these ritualistic designs is e;enerallyfive colors of sand, they are called "sandpaintings." Up to recent times there wereno copies of sand paintings or other ceremonialdesigns made in permanent form, the onlyrecords being held in the minds of the medicinemen. The painters who spread the coloredsands under their guidance are men whohave already been initiated into this particularrite and who know the procedure, but it isthe medicine man who directs sand painting,line for line, and color for color. If the paintermakes a mistake either by drawing an incorrectline or using the wrong color, it is nevererased. The painter simply picks up a handfulof background sand and covers the erroruntil it does not show, then proceeds to laythe correct line or color.The ceremonial hogahn, in which the sandpaintings will be made, is always built so theearthen floor approximates a circle. The roofopening or smoke hole is a rectangular openingin the roof to admit light and provideventilation. The doorway, which always facesthe east, is covered with thick blankets andkept tightly closed during all ceremonial procedure.During the rites and the chanting,which take place at night and in the earlymorning, the fire pit is located in the centerof the floor directly beneath the smoke hole.In preparation for a large painting, this firepit is moved east of the center to a positionabout three feet inside the door, and peopleentering must go either to the right or to theleft of it.The hollow which held the old fireis filled with adobe clay and tamped solid.Young men, who are acting as helpers,bring blankets filled with clean wind-blownsand to serve as background for the painting.This adobe-colored sand is then spread smoothwith oak weaving battens and is ready for thepainters to begin. Three of the basic sandcolors are obtained by crushing and grindingthe red, white, and yellow native sandstone.Blue is the charred root of the rock oak groundwith white sand, and black is obtained bygrinding charcoal with dark sand. A nearrelative of the patient sits near the north wallto grind these colors with stone and metate,then places each color on separate slabs ofbark. Grinding the sand is considered an unluckytask which only a relative or a closefriend will undertake. After this work is finished,the medicine man will say a prayer forthe grinder and sprinkle pollen over his handsand arms to banish evil effects.Each painter is supplied with five slabs ofbark holding the "paint" they are to use. Ifthe medicine man is using one symbol morepowerful than any of the others, it will beplaced in the center, and very often he makesthis design to start the painting. Then he sitson folded blankets or sheep pelts with all ofhis medicine bundles, prayer sticks, rattles,bowls, and pollen bags piled against the westernwall.After the central design is completed, thepainters move back, smoothing the sand andadding other symbols to the east, south, west,and north, as well as in the semi-directions. Aguardian symbol is usually drawn aroundthree sides, and this is sometimes a rainbow ora flash of lightning, bars of light, or even acurved snake. The unguarded side is alwaystoward the east, and here two small guardsymbols are usually drawn. Four, eight,twelve, or anv numeral of four prayer sticksare erected at equally spaced intervals aroundthe outside of the painting; bowls are filledwith herb infusion and placed inside theguards at the northeast, and all is in readinessfor the ritual.

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMBNow a pause occurs, and the women bringbaskets of bread fresh from the adobe ovens,pans of mutton stew, melons, coffee, andsugar. The men group about the food, cuttingthe meat with their own knives and dippingthe stew with the crusty bread. Whenthe women have taken away the remains ofthe dinner, the medicine man opens a buckskinbag of pollen and, carefully stepping onthe background sand, takes pinches of theyellow powder to bless each symbol. With acircular motion of his hand he dusts the pollenover the guards, and ends with a motionof tossing some through the opening in theroof. Throughout this pollen blessing rite themedicine man intones a low prayer.When the medicine man is again seated onhis blankets a helper steps outside the doorand calls loudly, "The ceremony is about tobegin."This is a signal for the patient, accompaniedby a sponsor, to enter the hogahn closely followedby the women of the patient's familyand all others who wish to be present at thehealing rites. Before entering the hogahn, thepatient has been handed a basket of corn meal;white for a man, yellow for a woman. Heholds this basket in the curve of his left arm,and the medicine man directs him in scatteringmeal on each symbol following the samesequence as the pollen blessing. But this cornmeal is in the nature of a gift and is not accompaniedby either prayer or chant. The patientis offering this food to the forces representedby the sand symbols.Then the patient sits near the door to removeshoes, clothing, and jewelry; a man wearsonly his shorts or gee-string, but a woman removesonly her shoes, velvet blouse, and jewelry.When ready, the patient is helped to hisfeet and the medicine man leads him to theplace he is to sit on the sand painting. Thisis generally west of the central symbol andalways facing the east.The medicine man returns to his seat, picksup his rattle, and starts the rhythm. Thereare usually several men who sit near the medicineman to assist with the chant, and a fewmay have rattles. When the correct number ofprayer songs have been chanted, the medicineman sets aside his rattle and walks onto thesand painting to stand before or beside thepatient.The various healing rites which he performsduring this part of the ceremony are accompaniedby intermittent chanting started by themedicine man and carried through by thechorus. There is the ritual of pressing medicinebundles to the body of the patient, thedrinking of herb infusion, and other symbolicrites. The rite most closely connected withthe symbols depicted on the sand painting isthe pressing of sand to the patient's head,body, and limbs. To begin this, the medicineman pours the few remaining drops of herbmixture over the palms of his hands, thenpresses his palms to the heads of all the sandsymbols and transfers the colored sand to thehead of the patient. His hands are nextpressed to the neck and chest of each design,and then to the neck and chest of the patient.This procedure continues until it is completedat the soles of the patient's feet, when themedicine man raises his hands, palms upward,toward the smoke hole with a gesture of dismissal.The last act in this series of healing rites isthe fumigation. Live coals are placed in frontof the patient and also in front of any memberof the audience who has paid for a bit ofhealing. The powder which the medicineman sprinkles over these coals is a mixture ofaromatic sumac, bird feathers, water pollen,and dust from a gopher hole. A blue sweetsmellingsmoke arises, over which the patientand other participants stoop to inhale as muchas possible before it disappears. This rite issymbolic of internal and mental healing, andto banish the fear of having the ailment reappear.It also protects the patient from possibleoverpowering effects of the rites.A bundle of eagle wing feathers is held outto the patient to help him to his feet and thenis used to brush the colored sands from hisbody before he steps off the painting. Hethen gathers his clothing and jewelry in hisblanket and walks to the men's quarters.After the patient leaves the ceremonial hogahn,all members of the audience are at libertyto enter the painting from the east andpick up and apply the colored sand to anypart of their bodies where there is an ache or

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMa bruise. If the ailment is a headache, thenthe sufferer picks up sand from the headsof the various symbols and applies it to hisown head; if he is afflicted with rheumatismof back, arms, hands, or lower limbs, thensand is selected from those parts of the paintedcharacters to cure these aches.By the time all have finished using the magicsands, the designs are thoroughly blurred andthe colors are mixed with the dull backgroundsand. The medicine man then walks onto thepainting and, with a feather tipped wand, carefullydestroys every vestige of the symbolism.Helpers scrape the loose sand into blanketsand carry it to the north, where it is piled ina sheltered place to be redistributed over theearth by the wind.The majority of all sand paintings are madeand used inside some type of ceremonial structureand are for the purpose of banishing; evilinfluences, as well as securing blessing, healing,and peace of mind for human beings.There are occasions where they are made outside,and sometimes above, a ceremonial structure(fig. i). In the Night Chant, a sweathouse is built in each of the four directions,and each is completed with a sand paintingover its top. In late winter the Navajo oftenhold a ceremony to bless their flocks of sheepand goats. During these blessing rites, a sandpainting is drawn just outside the corral gate,and the animals are driven over it. The medicineman follows and sprinkles a little polleninto the hoof prints of the animals. To gainblessing for crops, a small sand painting issometimes made in the center of a field aboutto be planted.Other outdoor paintings are those used intrance rites during which the medicine manseeks to diagnose some unusual ailment. If heisa star gazer, then the painting will be madeat night, and will consist of one or more starspainted on a dark background, but if he is a"sun gazer," the ceremony will be held at highnoon, and the main figure in the painting willbe the sun.Although the sand painting is used mainlyfor healing for blessing, and for the banishingof evil influences, these uses are frequentlycombined with other purposes. With a littleadded ritual and the accompanying prayers,a baby or a group of babies may be christened,boys or young men may be initiated,a child may be adopted, or any spiritual disturbanceadjusted. So we find the sand paintings,with their amazing variety of stylizedsymbols, occupying a major place in the religiousceremonialism of the Navaio.

THEestablishing of a definite locale is oneof the first objectives of any Navajomyth, legend, sand painting, or religious rite.PLACE AND NUMBERAll of these have their beginnings at certainplaces where the immortals are said to havemet and instructed the earth people. Eventoday the selection of a place in which to holda major ceremony is influenced by the myth'sdescription of a site favored by the gods. Themyth may start by mentioning the place wherethe hero, or his parents, or possibly his clanwere living at the time the story began.In the myth explaining the Hail Chant, theopening phrase is, "There was a family of fiveliving in a place called Kloditzen." Four ofthese people remained there but the fifth, beingthe hero of the lengthy tale, left his homeand journeyed far to meet strange people andimmortals. He visited the home of WinterThunder who became his enemy and soughtto destroy him with white lightning; this homeis described in detail. He also visited thehomes of the frog people, of the "Dontso"messengers, and of the four Summer Thunders.All of these localities are illustrated bysand paintings used during the Hail Ceremony,and each place is represented by arectangle, the color of which indicates itsdirection. Each oblong house is outlined withfour colors excepting a door which faces thecenter. A wind symbol is placed in each doorway(fig. 2). .In this Hail Ceremony, the land of night ismade in the form of a rectangle, although insome sand paintings it is drawn as a diamond.Its inhabitants are the sun, the moon, theMilky Way, the stars, sun spots, comets,northern lights, and lightning. None of theseare considered gods in their elemental form,as all were placed in the sky by the first immortals,but the spirits which control themhave untold power for both good and evil.In the Blessing Ceremony, the land of theSpirit Givers (fig. 3) is an oblong topped bya square, all of which is covered with whitecorn meal. This is outlined with yellow pollen,and the figures painted on the white backgroundare of colored meal or pollen. Theblue land of summer is also drawn as a rectangle,and the cloud house of Estsan-ah-tlehay(Changing Woman) is painted as a whitesquare.In many of the myths, the elements, animals,insects, birds, and other forms of life are personifiedor characterized as having human attributes.All of these are spoken of as livingin certain places where their sphere of influenceis greatest. Many are said to possesshomes of four, eight, or twelve rooms piledone above the other or spread to the fourdirections. The ownership of this home issometimes determined by the tracks or footprintsplaced on it, or just in front of thedoorway.There is an indefinite land or plane of existencesituated between the earth and the skywhich is occupied by such elements and formsof life as move between the two. This is inhabitedby the rain, the mist and fog, the smallwinds, birds, insects, moths, winged seeds, andthe leaves and tips of trees. The shape of thisland is rectangular but all of its inhabitantsare in some manner characterized by the triangleand the number three. Clouds havethree sides as do arrows, leaves, insect's wings,bird's tails, Nilth chizzie (Little Wind), PollenBoy and Corn Bug, and many more figures(see figs. 80 and 81).When the myth centers around the placewhere the immediate ceremony is being held,the sand painting will often show the traditionalfeatures of that setting. One sand picture,made during the Mountain Chant, showsthe circle of cedar branches which enclose theceremonial ground. It also shows the centralfire symbolized by a large red cross, outsideof which is a yellow circle and this is thespace reserved for the dancers (fig. 4). Acircular space marked with blue and red indicatesthe protected space reserved for theaudience.Location, described by the tale and shownon the sand painting, lends character to theceremony, plays an important part in determiningthe number of ritualistic events, andgenerally indicates which group of immortals

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMn

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMBor spirit forces are to be invoked. Whenthe symbol or symbols representing place, orhome, or mountain, or lake are placed in themiddle of a sand painting, the figures whichpoint in the semi-directions belong to thatsymbol. The figures which He toward thecardinal points represent the immortals orpowerful forces expected to arrive at the ceremonycoming from the four directions. Theborder around the picture may represent thetrails they are traveling (fig. 5).The number 4 symbolizes stability and balance,and is static, typifying homeland orfield, or a known locality. There seems to bebut slight distinction in the symbolic use andmeaning of the oblong and the square. Bothare said to represent the land or dwellingplaces of spirit forces, immortals, elements,people, or animals (fig. 6). But in writing thedescriptions of many sand paintings, I havenoted that the square is more often spoken ofas a "house" or an immediate locale while therectangle represents the whole sphere of influenceor the habitat of some particulargroup. In either case, it was said to be aknown area with definite boundaries. TheNavajo homeland is supposedly square, corneredby the four sacred mountains. This is asmall and well-known area when comparedwith the rectangles representing the sky, thespirit world, or the land of summer.Four squares, one above the other, are symbolsof a four-story dwelling and probablycame from the pueblo community houses. Ablack square or circle in the center of a sandpainting is generally explained as being theunderneath-land or place of danger where thesun does not enter. The circle can be a symbolof the place of emergence through which allliving things ascended to this present world(fig. 7). The story says that water followedthe ascending people not far behind so nowthis place is a bottomless lake. Black, yellow,blue, or white squares placed in the center mayalso represent stars and are regarded as beingthe homes or habitat of immortals and powerfulspirit forces who can be persuaded tocome to the assistance of human beings if theright prayers are chanted and the correct sandpaintings made (fig. 8).Parallelograms or long bars are to be found1House God and Humped-back God.in a great many sand paintings, and are usedto represent rain shaft guards, horizon boundaries,long ranges of distant mountains, columnsor pillars of stone, and bodies of tallimmortals, stalks of plants, or bars of light ordarkness. Increasing the length or accentingthe height or width of a symbol adds to itssignificance in the sand painting, and to itspower in the rites of healing. Sometimes afigure which is painted very tall for a malepatient, is shortened and widened when thepatient is a woman.Ritualistic objects which are long and slim,such as canes carried by the Hashje-hogahnand by the Beganaskiddy, 1 are counted as separate"beings" with spiritual powers of theirown (fig. 9). Ladders, flutes and fire pokersare a few of the objects which gain importancewith length and have spirit-controlled voicesto guide parts of the ceremony or human actionswhenever the need arises (fig. 10). Along, black, horizontal bar outlined in whitemay mean the dark earth just under the surface,and may be scattered with various colorsof seeds. Or it may mean night, and thenthere will be stars painted on it. This is anotherway of indicating a certain place orlocality.The symbology of number as used in theNavajo sand painting is explained at lengthin Reichard's Navajo Religion, Volume I. Ofthe even numbers, 4 or one of its multiples isemployed most frequently in laying downpatterns which are expected to meet the approvalof the gods. Some students of ethnologybelieve that 4 is the number which symbolizesthis present earth and everything wefind here.A fundamental quality of any Navajo religioussymbol is the plural character of everyspiritual power or elemental force. The hero,who killed the evil monsters, had three brotherswith separate abilities and life histories;but Klah remarked, "They are really all oneperson." 2The Fire God is sometimes pictured as fourpersonages standing side by side or comingfrom the four directions. The Sky is oftendivided into four segments with a definitesymbol for each. The number of divisionsgranted to each great power depends on the2 Similar to the forms of the gods in India.

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMI. IFigs. 8— i i. 8. Lake. 9. Prayer stick. 10. Fire poker. 11. Four sacred plants.type of ceremony and the size of the sandpainting, and can be two, four, five, eight, orsixteen.Every sand painting emphasizes the cardinalpoints, the four corners of the earth wherestand the four sacred mountains, four parts ofthe day, and four seasons in the year. Thereare four or eight sacred plants (fig. 11), fourwater monsters, four thunderers, and four,eight, or twelve prayer sticks erected aroundthe border of the painting after its completion.It would take several chapters to list all ofthe places where four is of ceremonial importance.Human existence has been divided intofour stages, and everyone is expected to havefour ceremonies held for them before theydie. One fact brought to my attention by amedicine man when he wished to emphasizethe importance of "4" was nature's use of thatnumber and its multiples. Corn is a sacredplant in Navajo lore and ceremony, and heshowed me a "perfect ear" which had twelverows of kernels along the cob and four equallyperfect kernels at the tip.The number next in importance is "2". Oneof the most interesting elements in their religionis the duality which is found in almostevery part of creation, usually one an activeand the other a passive form, not in oppositionto each other but complementing each other'spowers, such as he-rain and she-rain, crookedlightning and arrows which are dangerous;or straight lightning and arrows which areguarding Sky Father and Earth Mother.East and south directions are beneficent, theeast being the masculine in character andsouth the feminine. The west and north areless beneficent, the north being masculine,west feminine. The southern and westerncolors of blue and yellow are consideredfeminine showing characteristics of warmth,growth and fertility. The north and east colorsof black and white are considered masculineand are more abstract, consisting of thewhite or the spirit life, and the darkness ofdormant life. In this as in other forms of thesymbology, the active and passive forces areunited to form the perfect symbol.This is accented in the tales of the warriortwins who are supposed to be dual personalities;one went forth to accomplish dangerousfeats while the other remained at home toguard the spiritual power of his brother. Anothermyth tells of two monster birds who

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMBnested on the peak of Shiprock and broughtsmall children as food for the two fledglingsThe sun and the moon are twinin the nest.powers in the sky and, although both are consideredmasculine in gender, the sun plays thedominant role, while the moon, although ofequal importance, is less aggressive. FatherSky and Mother Earth are twin creations and,when placed in the same sand painting, are alwaysshown as being the same size and thesame shape, but bearing different colors, designs,and potentials.There are two guards placed before thedoor when a ceremonial lodge is symbolizedin sand, and two guardians at the east of manysand paintings. There are two "talking kehtahns"and two "spirit givers." Estsan-ahtlehay,the Earth Woman, and Yolthkai-estsan,the White Shell Woman who representswater. These are a few of the instances whichemphasize the importance of the number "2"in Navajo ceremony and sand painting.More difficult to evaluate "1" is as a symbolicnumeral. Many lone figures which maybe used for complete sand paintings are stillassociated with companions or with groups ofsimilar symbols. The blue-faced sun is oftenused in a minor ceremony, but the white-facedmoon is considered its companion. MotherEarth may be used as the design for a healingor blessing ceremony, but Father Sky isneeded to complete the symbology, as onedoes not exist without the other.There is one great coiled serpent whichrepresents the latent powers of the underworld,but because of his twelve coils and histwelve house markings, he becomes a sum offour. There is one large whirling wind symbolthat has no companion which is edged withforty-eight knives which promise death to allwho venture near; and there is one evil blackstar which foretells illness and misfortune toall who chance into its influence. There isalso a monster serpent who "swallows hisvictim alive" or so surrounds him with evilthat misfortune follows his every act.A very unusual ceremony is sometimes heldfor a person who has been bitten by a snakeor is thought to be the victim of snake magic.The sand painting for this ceremony depicts alarge blue serpent about six feet long and threefeet wide. The patient, liberally sprinkledFigs. 12-13. I2a - Static cloud giving nourishment totree. 12b. Three sprigs of tree carried by sand paintingfigures.13. Cloud dropping rain on earth.with blue sand, lies on this huge symbol whilethe prayer chant and the rites take place.Then the medicine man actually drags thevictim away from the monster and the paintingis destroyed.Many of the legendary monsters vanquishedby Enemy Slayer were solitary evil doers, andwhen one was destroyed there were no othersAmongto trouble the inhabitants of the earth.these were the great giant on Mt. Taylor,whose blood ran down the valleys and turnedinto lava rock; the monster Elk at Black Lake,the Rolling Stone, the Eyes-that-kill and theKicking Rock. From these and other instances,it would seem that "1" is a numbermore often connected with evil forces thanwith those of a beneficent nature. It may bethat, in Navajo myth and symbolism, a loneobject or force such as the cyclone representssomething abnormal, or perhaps a rebel suchas the black star who became an enemy ofsociety and is greatly feared. The tornado isshown singly with lightning arrows, and whenin milder form carrying wild plants.As a set and unvarying number for manythings "3" (figs. 12, 13) is used in various ritesand sand paintings. Triangles are active,

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMsquares are static. Triangles are used in birdsymbols, rain, cloud, and wind, or monsters.There are always three roots for every plant,three tips on a stalk of corn, three sides to arain cloud, three tassels on each side of a dancingkilt, and three bindings for an arrow.Five and three are often inter-changeable.Five stalks of growing plants may be reducedto three without changing the symbolism, thegroup of arrows carried in the right hand ofeach Flint Boy may be either three or five.Arrow points held upright show movement.Clouds are pictured in tiers of three, five orseven.Ceremonies lasting three days and threenights contain the same prayers, rites, andsymbols as those of five-day duration. Inother groupings, "5" seems to be a combinationof four and one, four of these objects,persons, or times being of ordinary value butthe fifth exhibiting extraordinary characteristics.Examples of this are four dancers andone medicine man; four people at Kloditsinplus one son who became a prophet; and fourdays of unhurried rite and ceremony precedingthe fifth which brings the religious, social,and festive activities to a climax. Feathers areusually placed in groups of five, with raregroupings of three or two, and sometimestwelve.Although we find them occasionally "6","7" and "11" are seldom essential to Navajomyth, rite, or sand symbol: "8" and "12" aremultiples of four, and "10" is simply two fives."9" is the number of days and nights requiredby all of the greater ceremonies, but this canbe divided into four plus four plus one. Thefirst four days and nights are for the propitiationof the immortals, the elements, the earth,and any other forces that might cause trouble.The next four days and nights seek to bringthe power of healing which is the main objectof the ceremony. The ninth day and nightstage the grand finale with many visitors andall of the ritualistic dancing.The number "13" is not a ceremonial oneand whenever it is mentioned it seems to beconnected with something evil. If a sandpainter accidentally places thirteen featherson Talking God's headdress, the whole figureis covered with background sand and then redrawncorrectly.The Navajo calendar lists thirteen months,the extra one being the last ten or twelve daysof October and a few days of November.During this odd month no new tasks may bestarted or old ones completed, no ceremoniesmay be held, no games or festivities indulgedin, and all travelers must halt their journeysuntil the next month arrives. The name forthis month is Gahnji, meaning "the dividedone," and is said to belong to the coyote. Itsascendant star is the coyote star which we callthe Dog Star, and under this omen huntersare supposed to prepare their weapons, masks,buckskin clothing, and amulets to be ready totake part in the winter hunting or "animal"ceremonies.The story of the Bear Maiden cites anotherinstance where thirteen is of evil significance.The myth deals with twelve brothers and onesister who could change into a bear at will,and then used her evil magic against her ownbrothers. It would be impossible to state thatany one number was a constant symbol forgood or another constant as a representativeof evil, but odd numbers predominate whenthere is mention of evil from antagonisticsources, and even numbers are usually foundwhere benefits and blessings are expected.

COLORSIGNIFICANCE AND USE OF COLORoccupies an important place inNavajo symbolism. Its use is mandatoryin most designs made for healing or for initiationceremonies, but not for the small figuresfrequently drawn for exorcism, and the tinysymbols used in picture writing are seldommade in color. The significance of the colorof any particular symbol is second only to itsshape and its size. The shape of the figurewhich is being drawn tells the object or forceit represents and the color tells of what it ismade, the direction from which it came, andsomething of the power it carries.For example, the shape of the sun symbol isround like the sun. Its mask is blue, the materialbeing turquoise, with heat and light beingthe attributes of the blue coloring (fig. 14).Fig. 14. Sun or moon symbol.Whether the religious symbols of the Navajowere always painted in several colors isimpossible to .say, but we do know the pigmentsused to make the earliest designs werenot colored sands. In early days there seemsto have been a taboo against using material,or body, of Mother Earth in this manner; evenat the present time the correct prayers mustbe said before the stones can be ground intopaint. It is possible that pollen was the firstpigment to be used for ceremonial purposesand, if so, the earliest colors were yellow,white, and a soft red. These were closely followedby, or perhaps contemporary with, theuse of white, blue, yellow, and red corn meal.Red was also obtained by grinding rosehipsand other red mountain berries to powder,and blue was obtained by crushing the drypetals of lupine or larkspur. Charcoal dustmixed with a heavier base has always suppliedblack paint and powder. The symbols paintedfor certain ancient rites still use these unusualpigments.Paint made from native clays softened withwater has always provided the color mediumfor the prayer sticks and the designs on drum,rattle, and mask, and also for face and bodypaintings. These are of the five conventionalcolorings excepting when gray ashes or brownadobe is added. As the use of clay paint iscommon to all North American Indians, it isquite certain to antedate the use of dry sandor other dry pigments, and probably establishedthe basic use of five colors.In his book, The Night Chant, A NavajoCeremony, Washington A-latthews says thatin the rites and sand paintings of the NightChant and of several other healing ceremoniesthe cardinal points are thus symbolized —white to the east, blue to the south, yellow tothe west, and black to the north. In the mythsand in nearly all day paintings, the zenith isassociated with blue. In rites which stem fromthe underworld or place of danger and inceremonies for the banishment of evil, blackis placed in the east, white in the north, whileyellow and blue remain unchanged. A mixtureof colors which makes a reddish pink, is sometimesused in the north.He also writes of the law of contrasts inwhich a blue surface is outlined or tipped withyellow, a yellow surface edged with blue, awhite surface with black, and a black surfacewith white. 3This generalization is just the first step inrecording the symbolic placement of colorin the Navajo sand painting and does not coverthe many variations which are demanded forspecific purposes. There are occasions whenthe color arrangement does not follow anyestablished rule. A symbol of great power,such as that of the sun, will take precedencesome colors are considered masculine, others femi-'Another sign of the duality of symbolism is that nine.'3

'4 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMover all other symbols and will occupy theposition of honor, no matter what its colormay be. If this is placed in the center, thenthe usual sequence of colors surround it, butwhen there is to be no central design, thenthis powerful symbol is placed in the east. Sowe find that although the sun is blue, it isalways given a central or an eastern position.There is another law which governs manysand paintings, and that is the law of opposites;or a better term might be "twin powers." Forexample, when the blue sun is painted in theeast, the white moon is always in the west,and when the black wind occupies a southernposition, the yellow wind will be placed inthe north. Still other factors which determinecolor sequences are the season in which theceremony is being held or the natural colorof the object being represented such as brownotter fur or the gray of the badger. Anotherdetermining factor is the nature of the illnessthe medicine man is seeking to cure. Thereare no generalizations which will cover theentire subject of color sequence, but each ceremonyhas certain established rules which canbe listed as basic.There are a few of the smaller paintingswhich employ just two or three colors withone predominating. The moon mask is alwayswhite, that being the color of the shell fromwhich it was made. There is generally a yellowline of blessing across the chin, and a redborder for the life symbol. Here we find thecolor being determined by the material fromwhich the object was formed, but that wasnot the only reason the white mask was givento the moon.White is the color of purity and of theDOspirit, and also it is a symbol of coldness, ofdistance, and of pre-dawn light. The moongives no heat and its light isOno greater thanthat of pre-dawn; therefore, the mask it wearsrepresents these qualities.Winter thunder is always spoken of as beinga white thunder bird, but this is seldommade in any sand painting for fear of bringingtoo much cold to the Navajo country.Two of the most powerful symbols everdrawn into a sand painting are the Ethkaynah-ashi,or Spirit Givers (see fig. 3).* These*See chapter on "Ceremonial Costumes, MasksFig. 15. Father Sky.are given white bodies, white masks, whitehead feathers and kilts, and white hands. Allbut the hands are outlined with the red lifeline and little more is added excepting theblack slits for eyes and mouth and a few dotsof pollen. The most powerful headdressesworn by any of the immortals belong to thesetwo figures and to House God and TalkingGod. All four are identical and each containstwelve white eagle feathers tipped with blackand divided by the red life line showing thatthe feathers were taken from live eagles. Thisis a tall headdress and points upward to indicatespiritual knowledge and power. The upraisedhands of these four figures, and of manyothers, are always white as they are said tobring healing and spiritual blessing.A white square or rectangle (fig. 15) willoften represent a spirit land located above thisearth and held in place by cloud columns ateach corner. A white circle or oblong in thenorth will symbolize the cold mountains inthat direction; if placed in the east they representthe cold light of pre-dawn.The significance of white as a color symbolcan be either good or evil, as the medicine manand Articles," and Part III, sections dealing withEthkay-nah-ashi.

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB '5or the ceremony require. The painting of thegreat white serpent which coils twelve timesaround the earth, proved to be too powerfulfor good results — the patient died. On theother hand, the background for all Hozhonji(Blessing) rites is a mat of white corn mealindicating a sacred or spirit land; and againwe find that the upper bar on the foreheadof many of the masks worn by the immortalsis white.Yellow is a color of spiritual blessing andalso immediate physical well-being, and seemsto carry fewer ills, along with the good, thanany of the other four. It gains its importancefrom the use of yellow pollen as a mediumwith which to banish evil influences and tosecure peace of mind along with many otherblessings. Yellow sand does not possess thepower of pollen, but its color significance isthe same although it is never used as a substitute.A familiar symbol is the little yellowpollen boy, shaped like a wind elf, carried onthe face of the sun, or the moon, or the cloudand bringing the blessing of fertility.Yellow is the color of the female wind andof the ripened harvest and the soft autumnrain. The mountains of the west and thewestern sky are painted to represent the lateafternoon sunshine and the evening of life.Paintings of the two birds of mid-summer,the canary and the meadow lark, are madewith yellow sand, and yellow feathers fromlive birds are used in making prayer sticks andkehtahns for offerings.In marking the masks and in painting thepatient's face, a broad yellow stripe is alwaysdrawn across the chin to show that the ^odsas well as the patient have been fed with foodmixed with pollen. Yellow corn meal mushis the ceremonial food for the women as itindicates fertility, while white corn meal isprepared for the men. A yellow circle on theeastern side of the painting may represent thebasket of sacred corn meal sprinkled withpollen, but if the circle is placed in the westit is the symbol of mountains at sunset.A yellow square or rectangle west of thecenter will represent the home or land of theimmortals who live in that direction. Yellowblossoms, feathers, pitch, stones, and fur all arethought to have medicinal properties whichmay be used for ceremonial purposes.Jasper is the yellow stone from which ceremonialknives are crudely fashioned, and luckyisthe medicine man who has chanced to finda perfect arrowhead or a spear point of prehistoricworkmanship, but beads or ornamentsfashioned of this stone are never worn by theNavajo. Pifion resin is sometimes ground withthe yellow sand to brighten its coloring, andit is often melted and applied as a salve forcuts and sores.I have mentioned white as being the spiritualcolor but, in many ways, blue is thought ofas being just as sacred and possibly more powerfulas a positive force for good. The sun,which is one of the most important figures inall symbolism, wears a mask of blue turquoise;the blue dome of the sky speaks of warmthand summer vegetation; in several sand paintingscorn, the most valued food plant, ispainted blue edged with white. The bluebirdis spoken of as a symbol of prosperity, health,and happiness; while the blue pine-martin andall blue mountain flowers are held sacred. Astring of turquoise beads will bring the powerof the sun to protect its wearer, and the blueclouds bring the summer rains.As white is the color of cold and snow, blueis the emblem of warmth and rain.Tohnenilli,the water carrier, wears a robe of blue and theDiginnih, or holy people of the Night Chant,wear blue masks. Blue corn, blue mountains,blue cloud columns and figures dressed in bluegenerally occupy a southern position on thesand painting. The corn bug and the cornmaiden, symbols of food, are nearly alwaysblue in color while bread or mush made ofblue corn meal is considered sacred food.It would seem that the color blue alwaysindicated some beneficent object or force, butthis is not the case. There is a blue star (fig.1 6) which wanders about and shoots peoplewith magic arrows to cause fevers and mentalaberration; also there is a great blue serpentwhich is blamed for epidemics and lingeringillnesses.Green sand is a pigment not often used atthe present time, but in the first ritualisticsymbols green leaves were crushed and, later,rocks stained with copper were scraped toobtain a green paint. Klah explained thatgreen sand was not considered necessary forpresent-day paintings because at a distance the

i6A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMFig. i 6. Evil blue star. Fig. 17. Dark world.mountains, the trees, and the shrubs appear tobe blue, therefore, blue and green were consideredthe same color.Color is never an abstraction in Navajosymbolism, and black carries more significancethan other colors because of its varying characteristics.Just as we associate black withdeath and with garments of mourning, so dothe Navajo associate death, the underworld(fig. 17), a dark night, an evil deed, or anyplace of danger with this color. Black wind,black lightning, and black hail are all deemeddestructive forces and are pictured wearingblack clothing and masks. Even the feet andhands of these characters are black. The greatblack serpent of the underworld, the blackGila monster, and the king horned toad areevil forces to be propitiated.All colors are credited with dual characteristics,and black is no exception. We find theblack thunder speaking in the loudest voice,and black clouds bringing the greatest rainfall,which is a much prayed-for blessing. Ablack square in the center of a sand paintingmay represent the place of emergence intothis world, the dark underneath land, or thehome of under-earth dwellers. A black circlein the same position might be a mountain ormountain cave, or it may stand for a deep lakewith a constant supply of water.Black mountains usually stand at the northor the east and are considered guards or wallsbetween the Navajo and their enemies. Theyare a beneficent power which provides springs,lakes, fire wood, obsidian, herbs for healing,mountain sheep, and other food animals, andthe feathers of the magpie.The blanket of night is pictured as a matof black sand decorated with patterns ofwhite stars and also the sun and the moon.It is outlined in white morning light. Nightby itself is not considered evil unless it iscloudy, windy and moonless; then it is saidto be filled with evil spirits, and the birds,animals, or people who hunt or travel abouton such a night are thought to be their servants.Owls, night hawks, coyotes, rats, mice,crickets, moths, whip-poor-wills, and badgersare classed with witches. If one of these isdrawn into a sand painting its color is eitherblack charcoal or gray cedar ashes, both ofwhich have been through fire.Gray is a color seldom used in a major sandpainting made for an ordinary healing ceremony,but there are various shorter rites forthe purpose of warding off evil influences thatdo use gray ashes to draw symbols. If a Navajohas injured a coyote, or a badger, orweasel, or any other night prowler and theact has been followed by an accident or badluck, he concludes that the animal has turnedits evil influence against him and his household.Then a medicine man who knows thecorrect ceremony is hired, and often he makesa symbol of the animal with gray ashes. Smallsketches of gray ash are also used in sometrance rites.Red is a color of fierce power which is seldom,if ever, used as the main color or backgroundof a sand painting. In places where amajor symbol might logically be expected tobe red, there is a compromise of mixed colorscalled "ditsos," which appears on the paintingas a dusky pink. This is used in the northin lieu of a red thunder bird, it is used as thecolor of serrated arrows sent forth by thenorthern lights, for special medicine bundles,and to indicate thunder reverberations. Onlythree ceremonies use this particular color, butin the Mountain Chant it is used in nearly allthe larger paintings. A somewhat lighter shadeof pink, made from a mixture of red and whitesand, is for the masks of the mountain godsand indicates tanned weasel hide, also theuppermost star is pink.Red occupies an important place in thecolor symbolism of all Navajo sand paintings,as it represents the life principle of animalsand humans as well as immortals. It may alsodesignate the symbol which causes death.Many animals are drawn with a red and blueline from the mouth to the heart (fig. 18),which represents the breath and the circula-

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 17Figs. 18-21. 18. Bear. 19. Squirrel. 20. Guardian rainbow. 21. Mountain god wearing four blankets of fire.tion. There is a heart symbol which oftenshows four beats of the heart. Animal skinsused for medicine bags usually have a redline along the back to show where the knifeslit the hide (fig. 19). Nearly all masks andmany figures are outlined in red to indicatethe life and power within. The figures of thesun and the moon are always outlined in red.Red pollen is often sprinkled on and abovethe sketches of animals and birds.On the other hand, a red arrow, or onetipped with red, is the symbol of a poisonedpoint which is capable of causing death. Whenthe tongue of a serpent is yellow it is harmless,but if the tongue is red it represents asnake whose bite is deadly poison. The reddot or cap on a serpent's head shows whereit carries its poison. The red arrow-shapedcaps worn by the Flint Boys and the Warriorsindicate their privilege and power to slay theirenemies. Contact with red wind or a glimpseof the red star will bring illness or bad luck.Another role this color plays in the paintingis that of guardian. The rainbow (fig. 20)which frequently guards the painting on threesides is red and blue, divided and edged withwhite. The beneficent blue is generally drawnon the inside and the militant red is placed onthe outside. The red and blue sun rays followthe same pattern as do the red and blue spotson wrists, knees, and ankles, and other rainbowspots and arcs used as protection.There are a few sand paintings in whichred is the predominant color and these dealwith fire, the red wind, or the red ant people.A red cross represents a blazing fire, and thelarger the cross in proportion to the rest ofthe painting, the greater the significance ofthe fire. In one painting of the MountainChant, the mountain gods each wear fourblankets of fire, one above the other, to emphasizethe height of the leaping flames on

18A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMthe night of the fire ceremony (fig. 21). In north star is pictured with a red cross in itsthis same painting the four sacred mountains center, and this is called "the camp fire ofare covered with red sand to indicate the fire the sky." It is impossible to list all the placespotential of the trees and vegetation growing where any individual color can be used, buton their slopes. In the paintings belonging to this gives a fair outline of the significance ofthe Red Ant Chant, many of the figures in- each wherever it may be used on the sandeluding the horned toad are painted red. The painting.

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 19

GREAT POWERS OF EARTH, SKY, WATER,AND THE UNDERWORLDIN THE Navajo Creation Myth there is adetailed account of how this earth and thesky were formed, and how their physicalcharacteristics and their inhabitants werecreated.The first things used as combined symbolson sand paintings were described as being verylarge and few in number, the numerical patternfor each type mentioned seeming to beone, two or four. I have termed these "monsters"because their extent and spiritual powerwas so great as to exceed the comprehensionof human beings.The two mentioned first in the myth areFather Sky and Mother Earth (fig. 22), andthe sand-painted symbols of these two followthe details of the written description. Themain body of each is in the form of a diamondor, less frequently, a rectangle. Either formindicates an extensive place or sphere of influence,and this shape is used in nearly everysymbol that depicts unusual force.The earth and sky figures have arms in theshape of bows and pollen hands which carryturquoise and white shell bowls eternally filledwith food and water. The legs are arcs orangles ending in pollen feet. After beingshaped, the earth was spread with all kinds ofvegetation which at a distance appeared to beblue, and the four sacred cultivated plants areshown growing from a central lake of purewater (also the place of emergence). Thesand painting of Father Sky shows the skycovered with darkness marked with stars, theMilky Way, the sun, the moon, and bars ofwhite dawn light. The necks of both Earthand Sky are blue columns crossed by four redstripes, and the masks are formed by four colorsof clouds with black charcoal marks foreyes and mouth. A prayer feather, or bundle,is tied to the top of each mask with cottoncord, and horns are attached to the sides.These horns are half black for night time andhalf blue for the day. White lightning oneach section of these horns indicates theirpower to maintain the earth and the sky inspace without wings or other visible means ofsupport. Stars and comets sometimes take thediamond form, but are not given horns as theirtriangular points carry them through space.In the Blessing Ceremony a cloud powerhas a diamond-shaped body marked with diamondsof all the sky and earth colors. He haswhite arms and his tail ends in the "kosescheen"(fig. 23), a column of triangularclouds. He is the author of cloud bursts andheavy, destructive rains. The thunder bird isanother of these great powers (fig. 46).The following symbols show their use astypes of forces rather than individuals by notshowing feet and paws, but cloud symbolsinstead. On the surface of the earth, serpents(fig. 24) are frequently symbolized as diamond-shapedmonsters with blue necks, arrow-shapedheads, and tails bearing rattles,and they represent the connection with thewater under the earth. If personalized, theywear brown earth masks, red arrow caps indicatingdeath-dealing power. They are alsodrawn with arms and legs, a cloud dancingkilt,fetish pouch and pendant medicine bundles.They generally carry bows and arrows.In either delineation, the bodies are dividedinto five sections by four sets of four particoloredlines which reflect cloud colors, andfrom which hang shell beads representing rain.The upper section of this monster includesthe head, neck, arms and chest; the next foursections, although rhomboid in shape, are consideredin the same category as rectanglesmeaning place or sphere of influence. On eachis the rectangular home of the snake peoplewith a deer track pointing toward the house(fig. 25). This symbol also carries the significanceof swift movement in a certain direction;it may stand for physical swiftness ofthe deer, the wind, an arrow, or even directedthoughts or desires. On each side stand curved

1NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 2IFigs. 23-30. 23. Cloud power. 24. Serpent. 25. Home of snake people. 26. Moon shadows or phases. 27. "Jalth,'the frog. 28. Turtle. 29. Horned toad. 30. Gila monster.

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMFigs. 31-35. 3 1 . "Teoltsodi," water monster. 32. "Tabasteen," otter. 33. "Tchah," beaver. 34. "Kahtsen," alligator.35. Big fish.symbols variously called moon shadows, orpossibly phases of the moon (fig. 26). 5"Jalth," the frog, is pictured in the form ofa monster and used as a guardian symbol (fig.27). The turtle (fig. 28) is in this same classwith the frog, as both are amphibious anddivide their time between land and water.The dark, underneath world is symbolizedby two monsters, the horned toad and theGila monster. The horned toad (fig. 29) wearsarmor of arrow points and carries lightningarrows in both hands and feet. His body andhis head are diamond-shaped. In sand-paintedpictures of the Gila monster (fig. 30) theangles of the diamond are rounded so thebody is fatly oblong; he is marked with goldand black stripes, then dotted with variouscolors, especially red, to denote the glitter ofhis scales. The horned toad is the protectorand messenger of the Gila monster, who seldomventures away from his dark home. Thesecond sight of the trance rite called the"Shaking Hand" is attributed to the power ofthe Gila monster.Water monsters included "Teoltsodi,"Water Monster, who has control of the ocean(fig. 31), tidal floods, gulfs and bays: Tabasteen,otter (fig.32), who governs the waters ofrivers, creeks and any flowing streams; Tchah,beaver (fig. 33), whose domain includes lakes,ponds, and all fresh water behind dams. Kahtsen,alligator (fig. 34), rules over swamps andmarshes, also stagnant water back into baysand lagoons and is represented as a long oblongwith oval head and extended snout. Hisarms are black crossed with white.Water Monster (fig. 31) is pictured as alarge white diamond with smaller diamond6Like Yin and Yang symbol in the East.

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB -3head, white arms, and legs ending in cloudand water symbols. He carries all colors ofrain in his tail. Otter (fig. 32) is either a diamondor a plump oblong with a diamondshapedhead, and his four legs end in whitepaws with claws. He is brown in color, withrainbow spots along his sides.Another water monster is the big fish (fig.35) that swallowed "Nilthtsa-eshki" (MoistureBoy) and carried him to the land belowthe waters of the lake. There are four of thesefish shown in each painting, and they are picturedsomething like frog, only they have finsand fish tails, and their hind legs bend in theopposite direction.Another abstract power is Niholtso, thetornado, with rain bows and arrows shootingfrom him, and a rainbow ending in seed plantsabove him.These symbols of abstract powers, whosesize and power is considered unlimited, aregenerally included in sand paintings used forexorcism or diagnosing, and less frequentlyon those employed for restoration.

SKY SYMBOLS, STARS AND COMETSA land so dominated by the sky with itscontinuous changes of color and mood, itINis not surprising that almost all Navajo medicinemen of the older generation spent muchtime in the study of sky lore. From LaughingDoctor, who was the greatest Yehbechai chanterof whom we have record, and from Scarface,who was equally famed as chanter ofthe Male Mountain Chant, Klah learned awealth of sky and seasonal lore, a part ofwhich I was privileged to record.In nearly all Yehbechai, Shooting Chant,and Mountain Chant sand paintings we findthe white sky symbol placed in the east asthis is the color of the first rays of light afterthe darkness of night. Blue sky is given aposition in the south to represent mid-day;the yellow sky of sunset is placed in the west,and the black night sky in the north. Theshape of each of these sky symbols is rectangularor rhomboid, and each is outlined inits opposite color. When a triangle is addedto this symbol, it represents all the clouds thatmay move across the sky at this time of day(fig. 36). Quite frequently we find twelvefeathered medicine bundles attached to thetop of each sky or cloud symbol, and thesecan be interpreted as rays of magic power.Each medicine bundle is tipped with an arrowpoint or peak which indicates movement in acertain direction. On the white sky symbol,a raven and a yellow-shouldered blackbirdare often shown, because birds are consideredsky people. On this we also find the bluefigure of a mountain goat, which belongs tothe sky because its white fleece is symbolicof the soft white clouds of spring and earlysummer. Two yellow birds, the canary andthe flicker, belong to the blue sky of mid-day,and the bluebird and the pine-martin aresketched on the yellow evening sky. In allof these we find the parallelogram (or rhomboid)symbolizing a place where somethinglives.On the symbol of the night sky, we findpatterns of stars, the sun and the moon, theMilky Way sometimes referred to as the high-MFig. 36.Sky symbols.

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 25way across the heavens. Even on the blackmat of the night sky, the sun and the moonare drawn as twin symbols. They are alwaysround, usually wearing horns and sometimesa circlet of feathers, and are always accompaniedby rainbow spots or bars. There are afew occasions where the slim arc of the newmoon is used, but the shape of the sun symbolnever changes. Horns, when added to anysymbol, indicate extraordinary powers as theydo in many other religions.When star symbols are enlarged and a fewused for the entire design of a sand paintingwithout the night background, they are seldommade in the form of a cross. The sandpaintings made during the rites of the StarCeremony emphasize stars as the main symbols,and may consist of only one star surroundedbv its attributes and assistants. Theshape of this large star is often square and ahuman figure representing the Fire God, or aFlint Boy, or one of the Twins may be imposedon its surface. So again we find thesquare used as a place where something lives.I have never seen a star in the shape of arectangle, but the larger ones are often diamond-shapedand carry figures of the blackFie. 37. Comet or shooting star.Comet (fig. 37) or shooting star symbolsare seldom placed in any sand painting usedfor healing or restoration to normal well being.This is because they are considered tobe an abnormal phenomenon acting contraryto established laws. They are sometimes usedwhen the object of the ceremony is to banishbad dreams or dissipate evil influences. Thesesymbols take the form of star faces trailed bylong streamers of light.Fig. 39. Star.Fig. 38.Star.On the black background of the night sky,ordinary stars are made in the form of crosses,the larger of which carry dots of red in theircenters to indicate light or fire (fig. 38). Smallstars are simply white dots scattered verythickly along the Milky Way and around themajor constellations, but less frequently overthe remainder of the sky.Fire Gods. Klah explained that these starswere their homes where they went after theyhad finished making this earth and the peoplewho were to inhabit it. He also said theywere very far away and, therefore, must bevery large to be seen from our earth. So theof something verydiamond takes the qualitylarge whose extent and potentialities are unknown.Another shape in which stars are sometimesdrawn is a square with points of light added(fig. 39), and a third is the double trianglewhich gives the star six points. The fivepointedstar found in many present-day paintingsis a later development possibly adoptedfrom the stars in our flag.The Star Chant is one of the few Navajoceremonies in which the sand paintings aremade at night. This is necessary, for the stars

2 6 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMmade with colored sand must be lighted andgiven spiritual power by the star shine of aparticular star, which looks down through theopening in the roof of the medicine hogahn.If the sand painting consists of five stars,the largest is placed in the center, and theother four stand at the cardinal points. Thiscentral star represents the largest star to beseen through the roof opening while the ceremonyis in progress, and the healing rites aresupposed to be completed before this star disappearsfrom view, as this is the one being intercededwith in behalf of the patient. It mayalso be the one that is selected for a star gazingrite.In the Star Ceremony there are not manysky maps such as we find in the Hail Chantand in the Shooting Chant, nor are there anyreal constellation groupings. Each medicineman chooses one or more that he believes hecan influence, and then directs his ceremonialprayers and rites toward that particular oneor group of stars.The original legend tells us that the starswere shaped by the seven immortals who createdthe first world. They were made fromthe pieces of material remaining when thesun and the moon were made. First Womanlaid them out in patterns on the earth, thenFire God and Coyote climbed a lightning ladderto place them in the sky. As each wasput in its proper position, it was given a sparkof fire or spirit light, and it was also given apath which it must follow. The pole star wasto remain stationary as a guide for travelers,for wandering tribes, and for those who mightbecome lost on the desert or in the mountains.Each constellation formed the pattern of asymbol, and established some law for the earthpeople. They truly believed that their rulesfor living were written in the stars. Alsoevery form of life mentioned in the old legendshad its symbol in the stars. Men, thesnake, the lizard, the Gila monster, the butterfly,the turkey, the eagle, the swallow, thebear, the coyote, the porcupine, the badger,and even the measuring worm had its owngroup of stars.

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 27Figs. 40-48. 40. Clouds carrying hailstones. 41. Clouds carrying stars. 42. Turkey. 43. Eagle. 44. Bat. 45. Smallbird. 46. Thunder bird. 47. Rain cloud. 48. Dancing figures.

WIND, RAIN, HAIL, CLOUDS, MIST, LIGHTNINGARROWS, AND RAINBOWSYMBOLS representing either the fourquarters of the sky, or those which arerectangular or diamond-shaped maps of thesky, are never placed on any sand painting ina position which connects them with earthsymbols. The only exception to this rule isthe circle representing the peaks of the foursacred mountains, which in ceremonial terminologymeans "reach the sky." These circlesmay also represent four pillars of light supposedto hold the sky in place.In between this sky land and the earth thereis a sphere that accounts for perhaps a fourthof all Navajo symbolism. In this classificationwe find all the elements: rain, hail, wind,clouds, mist, and mirage. We also find allwinged creatures: birds, butterflies, flies, bugsthat fly, feathers, and winged seeds. Anothergroup of symbols belonging to this categoryconsists of arrows, darts, lightning, sun rays,rainbow, medicine rattles, and even the leaveson trees and shrubs. This symbolism seems toinclude everything that lives or moves betweensky and earth, or has the power to lift itselfor be lifted any distance above the earth.Cloud and storm symbols are nearly alwaystriangular in shape, and may consist of justone, or as many as twelve, triangles placed oneabove the other. Each triangle of the paintingmay carry a symbol that designates the typeof ceremony being held.In the Hail sand painting each cloud carriesa diamond-shaped hailstone (fig. 40). In thestar painting, each cloud carries a cross representinga star (fig. 41 ). When the peak of thetriangle points toward the central design ofthe painting, the clouds are rising from thatcentral symbol — which may be a lake, amountain top, or even a star.Bird forms do not seek to depict an accuratesketch of any one particular bird, and yetto the nature-trained eye of the Indians, or tothe ornithologist, every bird design carriessome line or feature which gives the symbola definite name. The swallow is shown witha forked tail, the turkey (fig. 42) with stripeson its tail, the eagle (fig. 43) with a hookedbeak, the woodpecker with a crest, the bat(fig. 44), the owl, and the duck are very easilyrecognized; and the hummingbird has butterflywings signifying their constant motion. Smallbirds such as the bluebird, the canary and thewren are differentiated by their coloring.These small birds are generally drawn with atriangle for a body, arched or bent wing symbols,round head with two eyes and a beak, atriangularly shaped tail, and legs bent at rightangles ending in bird claws (fig. 45).The thunder bird symbol (fig. 46). is not atrue bird design, but is composed of variousbasic characters which combine to create asymbol of unusual power. The body of thethunder bird is a rectangle indicating a definiteplace or sphere of activity, the lower limbs arethe builders "7" which hold the body above the"feet," which are the cloud and earth symbols.The wings form a bow for which the bodywould be the arrow. The tail is diamondshapedcontaining lines of wind and rain, andbordered by a pink line representing thunderreverberations. From the feet there is flashlightning, and under the wings hang rain bundlesaccompanied by lightning. The neck isthe usual blue column with four red lines, andthe mask is determined by the ceremony beingheld. The headdress is topped by one or morearrow points, indicating the power to kill. Athunder bird is never drawn with the head ofa bird.Water Horse (Kahilth-klee) is made muchlike the thunder bird, excepting in his sketchthe "wings" change to arms, and his mask isequipped with horns which are indicative ofhis power to travel through space — evenabove the sphere of the thunder bird or thecloud and storm triangles.When the base of the cloud or storm istoward the center, it indicates descendingstorm or rain (fig. 47). A symbol used by theZuni shows a cloud with rain falling from itsbase. This same symbol is employed by theNavajo as a white kilt for dancing figures (fig.28

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 29•ftVFigs. 49-54. 49. Feather showing direction of movement. 50. Dragon fly. 51. Dontso. 52. Lightning. 53. Serpents.54. Guard.48); the tassels at the corners indicate rain, andthe jingle of the deer toes fastened to thetassels and to the belt and fetish bag representsthe patter of rain drops. Direction isshown by the legs and feathers on the heads(%• 49) •Wind symbols are also drawn in the formof triangles, especially when associated withrain or moisture. And here, too, the designmay consist of one or many triangles. Butwind is often shown with points coming together,while clouds or storm never are giventhis position. The power of the wind is thatof lifting and carrying things through the air,of searching for information through crevicesand small openings, even entering the ear toinfluence thought. Like every other elementit can be either beneficial or harmful; and asit is an ever-present force in Navajo daily life,a vast amount of ceremonialism dedicated toits control has developed.Little wind, Nilth chizzie, is an informerwho guides the prophets in their search forknowledge. He is more or less the same symbolas the "Dontso" (Messenger Fly), who alsotakes the part of informant and guide. The"Dontso," the dragon fly (fig. 50), the cornbeetle, the butterfly, the cicada, and otherflying insects are drawn with straight bodies,masked faces, and with the legs, arms, andwings making long slim triangles (fig. 51). Theability to move through the air seems to dependon wings and is indicated by upper armsand upper legs. For feet, they have either theclaws of a bug or "kosescheen" (cloud) symbols.Light rays, straight lightning, rain bars, andmild wind often take the form of straightlines of four different colors attached to majorsymbols or placed at the cardinal point to actas guards. Jagged lightning (fig. 52), wararrows, crooked wind, and serpents (fig. 53)are drawn with five sections and four obtuseangles. They also are attached to, or carriedby, some main figure in the sand painting, andindicate power to move swiftly in more thanone direction. All of these can be extended toact as guards around one central figure, oraround the whole sand painting (fig. 54).Various plants and vines have this same angularshape, and in a few instances are classedwith the arrows and medicine bundles thatact as guards. Also in the Blessing Chant andPrayer writing, the straight or angled yellow

3° A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMFigs. 55-57- 55. Mirage. 56. Curved serpent guard. 57. The sun's medicinebar ending in a cross denotes continuance oflife.The blue, red and white rainbow symbol isgenerally a three-quarter arc with mask, arms,legs and kilt, frequently termed the RainbowGoddess, although it really is hermaphroditic;the red stripe representing the warlike guardianshipof the male, and the blue stripe denotingthe more peaceful protection of the female.Sometimes in ceremonies connected with vegetation,a line of pollen is drawn in the rainbow.The mirage symbol may also be an arcencompassing three sides of the sand picture,or it may be long bars dotted with every colorof sand available, representing a mixture ofmist and dust (fig. 55). If it reaches frommountain to mountain, it is decorated withthe feathers of the birds belonging to thosemountains, but when it is painted with a mask,arms, kilt, and legs, it receives the name ofMirage Woman.When the curved figure of a serpent is usedas the guardian symbol (fig. 56), it often representsthe line of the horizon where the landseems to meet the sky. Many guardian symbolsbelong in this in-between sphere. Thesun's medicine bag (fig. 57) made of red deerhide and holding the sacred stone pipe and thebit of rock crystal with which to call downthe sun, belongs to sun ray. The bat whichcarries a medicine bag filled with pollen, the"Dontso" fly which has no eyelids, lightningarrows, blue birds, arrow snakes, and featheredmedicine bundles are all in this classification.

ANIMALS AND TRACKSSYMBOLS of the animals depicted in sandpaintings of various ceremonies can be dividedinto three classes. First, we list the animals,insects, worms, and other earth dwellerswho contributed knowledge, power, or materialgifts to the prophets while they werestudying and collecting the prayers, ritual,and symbolism that combine to create eventhe lesser ceremonies. Second, we have theanimals whose flesh could, by permission ofthe gods, be used for food. Third are theanimals, insects, and worms whose influenceis always evil.The bear is drawn both as an earth and asa sky symbol. In the first he is a stocky figurewith blunt head, humped shoulders, small ears,thick legs, grizzly mane, feet ending in claws,center bar of red and blue that turns backabove his rump, and a red symbol of his heartfrom which a double line of red and bluetravels up his neck and out through his noseto end in a couple of white dots. This representshis blood stream and his breath.When made as a symbol of the Bear constellation,the body is the same, but the legsand nose end in the "kosescheen" or cloudsymbol (fig. 58), and he carries five red featherson his back. His symbol is considered verypowerful as are all humpback figures. Theshape of the back signifies great carryingpower. He is most frequently placed as aguard or as a "scare" medium, but in severalsand paintings belonging to the MountainChant, his symbol is employed as the maintheme. His color is generally black or blue,but when several are used in one sketch thevtake the colors of the four sacred mountains.I have never been present at a painting wherethe bear was personified or given a humanmask. The Navajo never eat the flesh of abear or of his cousin, the woodchuck.The buffalo (fig. 59) is another large animalwhose size and strength are symbolized inmany paintings, especially those of the ShootingChant. His rump and shoulders form twohumps, and he has a stiff mane and shorttasseledtail. His legs bend inward and endin split hooves. A yellow line outlines thelower part of the symbol from nose to tail,to indicate the pollen from the tall grass andother vegetation through which he runs.In other versions his symbol is personifiedwith a striped or a brown mask, representingmist or dust. In this form he is given armswith hands which carry the whirling circle(fig. 60), but he still has the hind legs, hooves,and tail of a buffalo, also the divided hump.The arc which guards a painting containingbuffalo symbols is usually the many-coloredmirage, because at a distance the moving herdswere almost lost in dust and mist.The Navajo have no legends or ancientrecipes to indicate they ever ate buffalo meat.They did send hunting parties into buffalocountry, after holding the correct huntingceremonies, to kill buffalo. These men mayhave eaten the meat while there, and thusacquired much strength and magic power, butthe parts of the buffalo they brought homewere those the medicine man desired for usein ceremonies: the horns, the tails, as muchof the hide from the shoulders as they couldcarry, the hearts which would be dried andground into powder, the skin from the nose,and several other portions which representedbuffalo magic.The porcupine (fig. 61) is another humpbackedsymbol that is used in the MountainChant and in the Feather Chant. His magicis connected with his unusual armor — thethick pads on the soles of his feet, his sharpteeth, and horny nose. He taught the Navajoto eat the buds of the spruce tree for healing,and how to make armor from hides glued togetherwith pihon pitch. Porcupine meat isnever used as food.The mountain lion (fig. 62), the leopard,the lynx, the wildcat, and badger are symbolizedeither as animals or as personages whowear animal masks. In the Bead Chant theyare shown bearing gifts of medicinal herbs.In other ceremonies they are depicted as messengersor informers. The wolf is in this samecategory. None of these are food animals.Water animals such as the mink, the otter,the beaver (fig. 33), and the muskrat are some-

3* A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISM

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 33Fig. 65. Rabbit.Fig. 66. Coyote.times killed ceremonially to obtain fur andother parts for use in various rites, but arenever used for food. Their types are includedin many sand paintings where wateris indicated.The most important food animals are thedeer (fig. 63) and the antelope, for these werethe most abundant in Navajo country. Elkand mountain sheep were also hunted as gameanimals, but were more difficult to procure.Sand paintings which are made for the huntersare those made for blessing of food, seeds,and reproduction and carry symbols of all thegame animals. The bodies, legs, and hoovesof the deer, antelope, elk, and mountain goat(fig. 64) are all made the same, the body beinga long rectangle with rounded corners, theslim legs bending inwards ending in splithooves. The deer's head is carried high, withfairly long ears and spreading antlers; its coloris generally blue. The yellow antelope has asmaller head, straighter neck, and the antlerspoint forward. The elk is black with longerantlers and longer tail. The gray goat's hornscurve backward. The mountain sheep iswhite, not as slim as the others, and along hisback are curls of wool. His horns are thickat the base and coiled to a peak at the tip.These pictures of food animals are not symbolsof abstract powers, but simply stylizedsketches of the actual animal. They all havetheir own type of magic which each carriesin its horns. Sketches of the heads of thesefour animals are made to show that the immortalsoften appeared disguised in this head mask.Such masks were also worn by hunters whenstalking deer or antelope.It is customary for the hunters to save thehorns, and later these are blessed and used invarious ceremonies. They are also ground upand used in infusion, and sprinkled on hotcoals for incense or as a fumigant."There are two rodents which the prophetsallowed as sources of food. These are therabbit (fig. 65) and the prairie dog, and atthe present time these furnish the Navajo withabout the only wild meat they have. I askedBilly Yazi how it happened the Navajo couldeat prairie dog and not gopher or woodchuck.He answered, "The prairie dog and rabbitlive on grasses, leaves, and roots just the sameas the deer and the antelope, so their flesh isgood to eat." A conventionalized sketch forboth of these is to be found in sand paintingsof several ceremonies.The third class of animals consists of coyotes,foxes, wolves, dogs, badgers, weasels,pack rats, mice and all animals, bugs or insectsthat live on carrion or act as scavengers. Themyths belonging to the various ceremoniesoften mention one or more of these, and thecoyote (fig. 66) is the protagonist of manytales. But in the sand painting, their sketchesor symbols are rarely used. The Coyote Chanthas four paintings showing the coyote andone with the badger, while the diagnosing"Rite of Listening" uses both the coyote andthe dog. These sketches are made of cedarashes and charcoal, used during the trancerite; then the ashes and sand are scraped ontoa paper, carried to the north, and placed undera bush.The badger (fig. 67) is not considered asevil as the coyote but still it is said that "only"See section on "Deer and Horns of Power" inPart III.

34 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISM##«0*67707'Figs. 67-71. 67. Badger. 68. Star cross. 69. Wolf tracks. 70. Bear tracks. 71. Eagle or hawk claws.witches eat the flesh of the badger." Sketchesof him or his pelt are to be found in the StarChant, the Bead Chant and the Female MountainChant. Weasel and squirrel are used insand paintings as medicine bag symbols, andas part of certain masks and dance costumes.Rats, mice, skunks, and crickets are night animalsand are too thoroughly in league withthe forces of evil to be used in any sand paintingẆhen a sand painter wishes to show whoor what lived on a certain mountain, or walkedin a certain direction, then tracks of that person,animal, or bird will be drawn in theproper position. These track symbols are consideredas powerful for exorcism as the sketchof the person, animal or bird would be. Thosemost often used are the pollen tracks of theimmortals, star crosses of the sky forces (fig.68), rainbow spots, human footprints, theprints of wolf, bear, cougar, eagle, and hawkpaws and claws (figs. 69, 70, 71).

THESYMBOLISM OF PLANTS, SEEDS,AND POLLEN HERB INFUSIONSearliest plant symbolism used in connectionwith Navajo ritual and sandpainting seems to be that of plants growing inor near water. An ancient and now obsoleteform of the Night Chant called "Tohe Klehje"emphasizes this fact. Klah informed us thatin this ceremony all knots used to bind prayersticks and ritualistic articles were tied underwater. The Water Chant, in which waterpollen and water plants are used ritualistically,is one of the earliest Navajo ceremonies, onlyparts of which are still remembered by Navajomedicine men.Willow is the wood generally used for thebase of all prayer sticks, and the pollen fromthe catkins is gathered in the spring to use inblessing rites. Withes of willow are used inthe water chant in place of the yucca strandsemployed in the releasing rite or other evildispelling ceremonies. When a Navajo sheepherder fell into a flooded arroyo and wasnearly drowned, Big Man Begay, who wasthe medicine man chosen to hold the restorationceremony, asked me to send to the oceanfor long strands of kelp and three other varietiesof seaweed. In a certain rite the sheepherder patient was bound in a net made ofthis seaweed; then at the proper moment inthe ritual, he was gradually released. This indicatedthat he had escaped the anger andpower of the water.Wands of willow (fig. 72), growine at theedge of water, are sjathered and dried severaldays before they are to be used. The sectionscut from these wands to make prayer sticks(see fig. 9) must have no branches and mustbe free of all blemish. The bark is peeled off,one end is sharpened and painted white to beinserted into the ground. The other end isshaved flat on one side, then painted whitewith black dots for eyes and mouth. If thereare eight sticks being prepared, two will bepainted white, two yellow, two blue, and twoblack. Then turkey and eagle down andshredded herbs are tied to the back of thehead and bound to the neck with cord spunfrom wild cotton.Rattles are made of gourds or of skins withlightning arrows and stars pricked on them.On the sand paintings most of the figures carrysmall medicine bags attached to their wristsby cords of rainbow (fig. 73).A medicine man may possess four, eight, ortwelve prayer sticks which he keeps with hisother permanent equipment, and as long asthese are used with the correct rites and prayers,and occasionally blessed with a pollenblessing, they continue to gain power. Forthis reason, an older medicine man often sellsor trades a few of his prayer sticks to a neophytewho is studying his ceremony, afterthe student has learned the prayers and ritual.If a ceremonial article is given away or stolen,it loses all of its sacred significance. It alsoloses its power if it is picked up by a dog orpushed around by any other animal. In a ceremonyDejoli Begay had erected four prayersticks and a beaver collar outside the door ofthe ceremonial hogahn; then he went insideto supervise the sand painting. A couple ofsheep dogs came along and carried away twoof the prayer sticks and the beaver collar.When the attendants discovered what hadhappened, theceremony ended abruptly andthe medicine man, the patient, and the guestshurried to their homes.Dejoli Begay was very disgruntled becausehe had not only lost two prayer sticks and avaluable beaver pelt, but his whole ceremonyhad lost favor in the minds of his friends andthe community.He must now pay a medicineman from some other section of the reservationto hold a ceremony of exorcism to dispelthe evil influences causing his ill luck in orderto restore his prestige as a medicine man.Other water plants of ceremonial importanceare those of the cane and reed family."Lukatso" generally refers to the bamboowhich is often mentioned in the legends, butis seldom used in present day ceremonies.J 5

3

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 37the clay paint so that it will stick to theplaques, the cane, and the masks and body.Of the cultivated plants, corn takes precedenceabove all others (fig. 76), and there isno ceremony that does not use some symbolof corn. Corn pollen (tradadeen) is one ofthe sacred elements; corn meal ground by avirgin is a ceremonial food; and two perfectears of corn, bound together, are symbolic ofphysical and spiritual life.The pollen from bulrushes is brownishvellowand is called water pollen (Toh-bithtradadeen)and, according to WashingtonMatthews, this was the first pollen to be usedin Navajo ceremonies. It is still gathered andcarefully stored in every medicine man's bundle,to bless the sand symbols, the kehtahns,and the patient when the water spirit has beenangered and must be propitiated. Water lilypollen is quite rare, but very powerful forthis same purpose. Another water pollengreatly prized by the Navajo medicine man isthe yellow deposit sometimes seen along thewater line of lake or ocean. At one time Klahdesired a supply of this "ocean pollen" (Tohntyelige)so I wrote and explained his desire toMr. North Duane of Santa Barbara. Hewatched the beach for some time before hefound the yellow scum on the sand; then hesent Klah a pint of the yellow powder mixedwith the sand and Klah was greatly pleased.jMr. Duane took some to a botanist who informedhim that the yellow substance wasnot really pollen but minute algae that comefrom deep sea plants when the water had beengreatly disturhed.Sunflower (fig. 77) pollen was used in theVehbechai and in the Hozhoni-Ba'ahd (FemaleBeauty Chant) before corn pollen cameinto general use. It was considered a powerfullife-giving principle evidenced in the tale ofthe Bat Woman, who walked through a fieldof sunflowers with a basket of feathers, andwhen the sunflower pollen touched the feathersthey turned into birds. In an ancient formof the Yehbechai four types of sunflowerswere pictured in the sand paintings along withsketches of immortals who wore black masks.The meat from sunflower seed was groundwith grass seed and deer tallow, molded intosmall flat cakes, then baked between hotstones. These were highly nutritious, andwFig. 76. Corn in Blessing Chant representing the treeof life. Fig. 77. Sunflower.were strung on deer sinew to be carried onlong journeys. This was called "traveler'sbread."Sunflower pollen is still used, but generallyis mixed with pollens of other yellow flowerssuch as the goldenrod. It is given the generalname of "bihadadeen." The seeds are still usedin ceremonial foods and as a cure for stomachdisorders. Mountain pollen is blue in color,and is a combination of the pollen and thecrushed petals of several mountain flowerssuch as the lupine, larkspur, hairbell, andasters. It is used in blessing the fields, theseeds, and the flocks. Tree pollen is also usedin these same rites.To make pollen especially powerful forcertain rites, it is sprinkled over birds or animalsor insects. My daughter had a youngnorthern mockingbird and a medicine manasked permission to sprinkle a couple ofounces of pollen over it. We placed a cleanwhite paper in the cage to catch the pollen,which later was used in a ceremony held fora child with a speech defect. Pollen throughwhich a lizard has walked is used in child

J 8A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMbirth, eagle pollen is a cure for sore eyes, andowl pollen corrects poor hearing. All of theseare called "life pollens" because they havegained power from living creatures.Pollen is the element which brings peaceand plenty, long life, and security. An incidentwhich occurred several years ago willillustrate the confidence every medicine manplaces in his particular mixture of pollens. Mr.accompanied by Klah, wereNewcomb and I,motoring along Highway 66 near Baca, NewMexico, when we noted a dark cyclone columntwisting its way from the north to crossour route perhaps a mile in front of us. Stoppingthe car we all stood in front of it towatch the progress of this unusual phenomenon,when its wavering course changed andit seemed to be headed directly toward us.Klah opened his pollen bag, which he alwayscarried with him, and took a smallamount of pollen in his hand. Then he walkedabout, picking a bit of every kind of plant orshrub to be found on the mesa, adding thebits to the pollen in his hand. When he hadthe plants he wanted, he put the whole handfulinto his mouth and chewed it into a pastewhich he spat as far as he could toward theapproaching menace.We could barely hear the low chant of someprayer which evidently was the accompanimentof this rite. Strange to say, the blackcolumn changed into an hourglass shape, thenparted in the middle with the lower conewhirling away to the south and the upper halfmerging with the dark clouds over head.When we finally decided the danger waspast and continued our journey, we found aplace about a half mile further on where thetelegraph poles and wires were strewn in atangle and the fence posts and wires were flatto the ground. To the south of us, a highbutte displayed a raw gash that resembled afresh landslide.The strangest thing about it all was Klah'ssupreme confidence in his ability to turn dangeraway from us, and we must have shareda measure of that faith as we made no moveto retire to a safer distance.One day Klah and I rode up the mountainas far as the car could go and then walkedsome distance up a steep slope to the base ofa huge mass of rock that capped the eminence.Here Klah placed his open palms flat againstthe smooth surface of the rock and muttereda low prayer that took about five minutes.Then he opened his pollen bag and sprinkledpollen up and down the rock, also in a circle,which indicated a blessing for the wholemountain and everything on it. After this hebegan his search for the things he wished totake home. It seemed to me that he askedpermission to gather the herbs and branches,at the same time thanking the mountain spiritfor its gifts.The root of the bulrush (Tralth) is used asmedicine for burns from lightning or forestfires. The root is ground and boiled to makea tea to absorb the poison in the stomach orbowels, which are distended from the poisonof the burns.The seeds of the everlasting pea (nah-oliilth-tai— leaves like the bean) are sometimesplaced inside the medicine rattle along withbeans, corn, and melon seeds to call for rain.

•*CEREMONIAL COSTUMES, MASKS AND ARTICLESEVERY Navajo religious ceremony is conductedby a medicine man (or a medicinewoman) who has spent years memorizing thecorrect prayers, rites, herbs, and symbolism;also the sequence of ritual which belongs tothat particular ceremony. This religious lorewhen duly recognized and accepted by hiscontemporaries, is his most valuable asset, andhe becomes one of the most important men ofhis community. Although he may be comparativelywealthy, owning many sheep andmuch silver and turquoise jewelry, his dress,when acting as master of ceremonies, is nomore elaborate or symbolically decorated thanthat of other men who are simply helpers orspectators. The esteem and respect he receivesfrom other members of his tribe stem fromthe spiritual knowledge and power he hasacquired and not from his personal wealth.(See figs. 78 and 79.)Some of the older medicine men in ourvicinity considered their possessions a handicapto their chosen vocation. Klah dividedmore than a thousand sheep, many ponies, anda few cattle among his nieces, his mother, andhis sister. Then he put all of his extra robes,buckskins, silver, and turquoise into a stoutwooden chest and stored it at our trading post.Hasteen Beahle, the Eagle Chanter, gave all ofhis property to his sons, not saving even onehorse on which to ride as he went from ceremonyto ceremony.A Navajo medicine man never dresses inweird costumes to dance and shout around thepatient to frighten the evil spirits away. Hisrole is that of a priest who knows the correctrites, prayers, symbols, and methods of petitioningthe immortals and the great forces ofthe earth and sky in behalf of those who areill in body or in spirit. His power is symbolized,not by costume, headdress, or mask, butin the various articles he carries in his medicinebundles, and in the herbs and pollens hehas gathered for the ceremony.During the rites of healing, the medicineman may act as the representative of someYeh, or Hashje, or other immortal who is supposedto carry out this part of the ceremony,and then he will wear or carry articles thatrepresent the spiritual powers of these personages.In a certain rite of the Yehbeehai, Klahwould don a blanket of white unwoundedbuckskin and wear the Hashje-altye (TalkingGod) mask. In the Mountain Chant HatraliNez wore an otter neck piece to which wastied a reed flute and many small shells. YoheHatrali had a white and a blue bead, and also afair-sized medicine bundle tied to his scalp lockso that it dangled over his forehead; HasteenBeahle wore a cap of eagle breast feathers whilehe performed the healing rites of the EagleCeremony; Dejoli Begav, followed by two assistantsmasked as buffalo, led his line of dancersaround the central fire, chanting and whirlingthe bullroarer, as his salute to the fire. Eachone of these medicine men selected the mostpowerful symbol from his medicine paraphernaliato use in the ceremony and transmit itspower to the patient for his healing.Yehbeehai masks are made of white buckskinpainted with symbols and trimmed withfeathers, hair, fur, twigs, or beads to representthe various immortals mentioned in the myths.The shape of each mask is rectangular orround with a flattened base, both representingthe "place" where that spirit dwells. A whitemask often represents clouds, blue may symbolizerain, yellow is generally pollen or fertility,and black may be black clouds or nightsky. Nearly all masks represent somethingabove the earth. These are the permanentmasks belonging to the medicine man whoconducts the Yehbeehai ceremony. He alsouses temporary masks which are destroyedduring the rites, and these are made of sprucetwigs, yucca leaves, or bulrush leaves.All ceremonial masks are held in great reverenceand also a certain amount of fear bythe Navajo people, as they are supposed tocontain the spiritual life and powers of theimmortals they represent. It is believed thattheir influence can bring great blessings ifthey are treated with respect and handledwith the proper prayers and ceremony, but ifused incorrectly they can cause great disaster.Two other masks belonging to the Yeh-39

4° A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMFig. 79. Fire god carrying fire stick and traveler'sbread.Fig. 78. Beganaskiddy, carrier of seeds, with his ceremonialcane and horns of power.bechai ceremony are those of the Ethkay-nahashi,or Spirit Givers. These are very rare andtheir whereabouts or the name of their owneris seldom disclosed to white people, as theyare said to possess the greatest magic poweraccredited to any medicine article used bv theNavajo. Father Berard Haile pictures thesemasks as being round with flattened bases, onewhite and the other yellow. Tied to the masksand lying around them are articles and smallmedicine bundles.Klah describes these Ethkav-nah-ashi masksas being round, of white buckskin, borderedby the red life line and crowned by twelveeagle tail feathers. A line of yellow cornpollen marks the chin, the necks are blue, andin sand paintings the bodies are white with ared outline. They wear no ornaments andcarry no bundles or symbols of power as they,in themselves, represent the essence of indestructiblespiritual life. Their gift to the patientor to the initiate is a portion of theirown bodies, which loss immediately replacesitself.Klah said, "They never become less powerful,they could give their substance all awayand still be there just the same." They are toopowerful, and have not been used because noone dares to use them.Some years ago Mr. Newcomb heard thatan aged woman living on the other side ofthe Carrizo Mountains had in her keeping somemedicine articles the Navajo referred to asEthkay-nah-ashi. Mary Wheelwright askedus to find her and see if these articles could

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 41be obtained for the Museum of Navajo CeremonialArt. Taking Clyde Beahle as an interpreter,we drove as far as we could find aroad and then walked several miles to locatethe cluster of hogahns where she lived. Fora time she refused to talk to us or to answerour interpreter's questions. However, theywere very poor and when we offered hertwenty-five silver dollars, she admitted havinga large box filled with medicine articles; butno man must ever see or touch them untilthey were again being used by a medicineman. She explained that women were alwaysthe caretakers of these sacred things.I was permitted to enter the hogahn andsat quietly on the north side while she and herdaughter held a purification ceremony whichconcluded with the pollen blessing for thehogahn, herself, her daughter, and me. Thenshe opened a goat hide covered box and tookout some of the whitest and most beautifullytanned buckskins I had ever seen. Underthese were several bundles of medicine articlesrolled in clean unbleached sheeting and piecesof buckskin. As each article came to view,she blessed it with corn pollen and intonedthe correct prayer. The largest of these rollscontained twelve or more masks for use in theYehbechai ceremony.A bundle wrapped in several layers ofcoarse cloth and a final layer of white buckskinwas opened, and disclosed two maskswith the top eagle feathers turned down soas to completely conceal the faces. The oldwoman lifted them out of the box and heldthe feathers upright so I could see the masks,as she fed then) white and yellow corn meal,and blessed them with yellow corn pollen.Both masks were of beautiful soft, white buckskin,not hard and dried as many of the otherYehbechai masks I had seen. One was somewhatyellow from the dust of the yellow cornmeal which was scattered around its mouth.Both had wisps of red hair tied around theupper portion and both were marked withyellow pollen along the chins. Turquoise,white shell, stone pipes, decorated sticks andother small medicine articles lay under themasks. I was informed that these were thethings the Navajo called "Ethkay-nah-ashi."(Later I learned that all stored medicine articlesand properties which had been used bya medicine man now dead, could be referredto by that name.) Our interpreter learnedthat all this sacred collection had belonged tothe Laughing Doctor, Nah-cloi Hatahli, whowas said to be the greatest Yehbechai chanterand who was Klah's instructor. Also he wasthe one from whom Washington Matthewsobtained the material for his book, mentionedheretofore, entitled The Night Chant — ANavajo Ceremony.A tale that emphasizes the fear in whichthese Ethkay-nah-ashi masks are held, wastold to me by Haskie Wood of Crown Point.He said that when he was a young man thegovernment employed him as interpreter forSuperintendent Stacher at the Crown PointNavajo Agency. One fall a great many Navajosheep owners and farmers came to the agencyto complain that a certain man was bewitchingthe children and also causing sickness tospread among the sheep and cattle of all thosewho refused to pay him tribute in money,jewelry, or sheep.The superintendent called all the men ofthat district who had any knowledge of theseoccurrences to meet at the agency on a certainday. Then he sent his policemen to bring inthe man accused of witchcraft, and also tobring all of his magician paraphernalia. Whenall were in the assembly hall, with the superintendentand his interpreter behind the desk,and the accused man at its side, the box ofmagic articles was placed on a stool in frontof the desk.More than a hundred Navajo men and afew of the agency's white employees stoodin the main part of the room, and several wereasked to testify before the superintendent andthe assembled Navajos. When they had finishedtheir accusations, the prisoner was askedwhat he had to say in his own defense. Hesaid that he was not a wizard or "Chindi"person as his accusers claimed, but he didhave powerful magic bundles that would doanything he asked, and he had used these tofrighten his neighbors into giving him sheepand goats. He claimed that he had neverharmed any of the children, but every timeanyone was ill they blamed him.Then the superintendent asked some ofthe Navajo men to come up and open thebox but no one came, as all were afraid to

4- A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMuntie the knots. The superintendent askedHaskie Wood if he was afraid to open thebox and he said, "Yes, I am afraid, but I willopen it just the same." When he had it openhe saw two white masks and white buckskinrolled to resemble arms and legs. Several ofthe other Navajo men and most of the whitepeople came to look into the box, but theNavajos took one look and then went awayvery fast. The superintendent ordered thebox tied up again and asked some of the whiteemployees to carry it to the furnace room andwatch until it was completely burned. Thenhe told the Indians to go home and that hedid not care to hear of any more witchcraft.I have no complete description of thoseEthkav-nah-ashi masks and I have never heardof another set on that part of the reservation.The masks and costumes belonging to theYehbechai are frequently borrowed by themedicine men of the male Hozhoni (BeautyChant) and also by the Coyote Chanter.The Feather Chant includes many of thesame Yeh (gods) as the Yehbechai and whenthey hold a nine-night ceremony they havemasked dancers, but they add masks for everytype of game animal found in the Southwestand a few birds and water animals. In thisceremony they use masks of deer, antelope,elk, and mountain sheep; strips of pelts of theporcupine, weasel, prairie-dog, otter, beaver,and muskrat; and feathers of various birds.Part of the ceremony seems to be dedicatedto rites for the reproduction of all forms ofwild life.The animal masks are made from the hidefrom the animals' heads with the ears and thehorns still attached. They are hood-type masksand are to be worn over the heads of theimpersonators. The legend speaks of hunterswearing animal-head masks while stalkingtheir game.The only times I have ever seen animalmasks worn at Navajo ceremonies has beenon the last nights of the Mountain Chant ceremony(Tsilthkehji) when medicine men fromevery type of ceremony bring their groups tosalute the fire. The Yehbechai medicine manoften has two dancers masked to representbig horn sheep; the Nahtohe chanter (ShootingChant) will bring two masked as buffalo;the mask for the Feather Chant will be eitherof the deer or the antelope; the group representingthe Mountain Chant will have pinkstripes of weasel hide to which are attachedmany cane splints, weasel tails, feathers, brightcoloredyarn, beads, and small medicinebundles.In the Bead Chant, the animal masks areevidently made from their own hides whichhave been dried, shaped and then slits cut foreyes and mouth. These animals include themountain lion, the wolf, fox, badger, lynx,and wildcat. I have heard that years ago thecharacter who takes the part of the bear inthe "scare ceremony" wore a bear mask anda bear robe. But this often frightened thepatient too badly, so now he is dressed in ablanket of spruce twigs which seems to symbolizethe bear's pelt.The only bird to be accorded a mask andrated among the immortals is the thunder bird.This figure is shown in the Shooting Chant,in the Water Chant, the Feather Chant, theHail Chant, and in the Wind Chant sand paintings.His mask is rectangular and may be thepink of northern lights, the white of summerclouds, brown of earth material (these brownmasks are supposed to be made of buffalohide) or it can be marked with the four barsof light. Where a symbol serves in so manydifferent ceremonies, there are many varietiesof decorations on these masks, but I havenever seen a dancer impersonating a thunderbird.The Wind Chant has so many variations,with wind spirits characterized by differentpatterns, that it is difficult to describe anyparticular mask. The immortals who are petitionedto come to this ceremony are generallygiven rectangular masks of brown earth material;masks given to personifications of trees,cactus, serpents, and healing herbs are of thesame color and material. But when the medicineman uses a different theme, all of thesecan wear striped masks. The Messenger Fly(Dontso) is a familiar figure in this ceremonyand generally wears a white mask. The maskfor the rainbow is either white or brown.The Nilthtsa-eshki or Little Wind Spirit,also the Pollen Boy (fig. 80) and the CornMaiden (fig. 81) are among the few figures tobe made entirely of one color. The PollenBoy is yellow from the soles of his feet to

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 43Fig. 80.Pollen Boy on the face of the sun.Fig. 81.Corn Maiden on the face of the moon.the tip of the prayer feather on top of hishead. His hands, his kilt, his medicine pouch,and even the strings which tie this pouch tohis waist, are yellow. He is not outlined inan opposite color; he is simply a spirit forcemasked and entirely wrapped in pollen. TheCorn Maiden is the same, only her color isblue.The hourglass figures which represent thetornados and the little whirlwinds are muchthe same as the Pollen Boy and the CornMaiden, in the fact that they have faces,hands, and feet, also kilts the same color astheir bodies. The explanation of this is thesame as that for the Pollen Boy, only theseare clothed in the colors of light from thefour directions.Any figure representing light or direction isalways outlined with its opposite color, andthese wind symbols are no exception. Theyhave two powers which the Pollen Boy hasnot: they can move through space and thevcan create a sound. So they are pictured withwind arrows on their heads, in their left handsand under their feet. These indicate move-ment. In their right hands they carry rattlesor three twigs of the rattle pod weed whichare called the "wind's voice," and representthe sound made by the wind as it travels aboutthe earth.The sun is always pictured with a roundmask of blue turquoise; the mask worn by themoon is of white shell; that worn bv the malewind is a round of obsidian, while the femalewind mask is made of yellow jasper. Afterthese four colors have been griven to the figureson the sand painting, additional masks ofstripes in four cloud colors are often paintedover them to protect the patient and thespectators from the full power of the symbols.The mask given to the rainbow is generallywhite, but its color varies with the type ofceremony in which it is being used. It is aguardian symbol used in day ceremonies andnever at night, therefore it never wears ablack mask. The lightning seldom wears amask but is headed by an arrow point. Inone or two cases it is made with a brown ora white mask.

THEBODY PAINTING AND PICTURE WRITINGNavajo myth speaks of the butterflyas being the first character or "person"to make use of body paint as an attraction.His brilliant colors are still considered in thesame class as "paint" because they are notpermanent and may be rubbed off to be usedas butterfly pollen. This pollen is thought topossess a special type of magic, very powerfuland somewhat evil, and never to be used inordinary ceremonial procedure. It may beemployed as one of the ingredients in a powderedmixture used to cast spells over enemiesor to bewitch certain persons. The Navajowho gathers this pollen is more apt to betermed a sorcerer than the one who uses it.The butterfly is never a beneficent power (fig.82).Fig. 82. Butterfly. Fig. 83. Kehtahns.Just as grinding the colored sands to makea sand painting or the weaving of willow andreed into baskets are considered unlucky occupations,the mixing of earth colors intopaint is also a perilous procedure. Only themedicine men may mix ceremonial paint withimpunity. As one Navajo friend informedme, "A medicine man knows all the prayersand he knows the proper way to mix it, soit does him no harm."The correct procedure seems to be the placingof hard chunks of red or yellow ocher,blue indigo, white clay, or black charcoal ona concave stone, then adding a little stickyyucca juice and water, carefully dripped fromthe end of a quill or a sliver of yucca leaf thatis to be used as the paint brush. This sametype of paint is used to decorate the kehtahn44or the cigarette-shaped containers of offerings(fig. 83), and wooden kehtahns and for sketchingthe designs on masks, rattles, and altarplaques as well as for body design.Only a medicine man or a helper who hasbeen initiated into this particular ceremony ispermitted to do the actual painting. Each designpainted on mask or body is a symbol ofsome power or quality that is possessed by orbestowed upon the individual who is to actthe part of the particular immortal whoseassistance is needed. Medicine men ordinarilywear no paint, but when they don a mask torepresent one of the gods, thev are oftenmarked with his insignia.The symbols painted on masks generally indicatesomething above the earth. Nayenezgani'sblack mask is marked with white lightning.Fire God's mask has seven stars. TalkingGod wears a mask of white dawn light,and Zah-dolth-jah's mask has the new moonon the forehead with the full moon for themouth. Body designs typify extraordinarybodily or physical powers. Lightning patternson the lower limbs and arms denote speedand strength in lifting or carrying; rainbowdots or bars indicate spiritual protection; yellowand blue markings are symbolic of rain,pollen and other blessings.A different type of body painting is that ofthe dancers in the Fire Ceremony of theMountain Chant, and also of the dancers onthe exhibition night of the Yehbechai. Thispainting has no particular form of design butthe entire body and face of each dancer isdaubed with white clay to represent the Nakaiwho were evidently credited with possessinga whiter skin than the average Navajo. Blackmarkings are used on the face. It is not necessaryfor a medicine man to apply this paint,and the dancers usually spend some time decoratingeach other before entering the dancingarena.Just as the colored sands which have beenused to make the designs in a sand paintingare considered sacred and remain powerfulfor healing purposes, so the clay paints which

NAVAJO SYMBOLS IN SAND PAINTINGS AND RITUAL OBJECTS: NEWCOMB 45are scraped or washed off the bodies of theimpersonators or off the dancers still possessmagic powers and are carefully gathered,dried, and stored in medicine pouches to beused in another ceremony.The painting of the patient's body on thelast day of the Wind Chant is one of the mostimportant healing rites. In this ceremony theface is also painted. The Apache Wind versionplaces a black wind spirit on the chest ofthe patient and an identical blue figure on hisback. Four sets of blue- and black-angledwind trails spring from these central symbolsto meet on the shoulders and under the arms.Then a designated number of black or bluecircles and half-circles (which represent thechanges of the moon) are stamped on theforehead, the cheek bones, and scattered profuselyacross the chest and back, but all arecounted and placed in a symmetrical pattern.The arms are marked with lightning arrowswith the point in the palm of the hand. Thelower limbs each show a serpent with the tailpointing upward, four angles in the body,and the head drawn on the bis; toe. Whenthe body painting is completed, a prayer beadwith small medicine bundle is tied to thescalp lock with cotton cord stiffened in whiteclay. The patient wears this paint for fourdays or until it becomes blurred and startsfalling off.In another form of the Wind Ceremony,the blue sun is painted on the chest of thepatient and the white moon on the back, thelines coming from these are of four colors.When the patient is a woman, the blue CornMaiden and the yellow Pollen Boy are oftenused as fertility symbols. The purpose ofpainting the body of the patient is to transferto him, through these symbols, the strengthand spiritual power of the elements depicted.The inner force or spiritual strength must berestored before physical healing can be assured.Body painting occurs in ShootingChant, Star and Red Ant Chants also.The symbols used for recording prayersand for memorizing ritualistic procedure arenot entirely different from those used in sandpaintings and in clay decorations.My first knowledge of Navajo prayer writingwas acquired at a Bezh (knife) ceremonyconducted by Hasteen Tso who was noted forhis information concerning Navajo ceremoniallore. At this time he was instructing threeyoung men in the rites, prayers, and legendsof this chant. At unoccupied intervals in theceremony, he sat in the medicine lodge tellingstories, reciting parts of the prayers, and occasionallysinging or humming short measuresof the chant. In his hand he held a smallprayer stick and once in a while he wouldmark a design in the clay of the hogahn floor.I memorized as many of these designs as Ipossibly could and later sketched them onpaper. I asked Hasteen Klah for an explanationof their meaning and he said, "That isthe way Hasteen Tso teaches his students theprayers that belong to his ceremony." I stillhave the sketches I made and note that hisprayer writing emphasizes the stone knife, theserrated arrow point, the cross representingfire, the flint mountain, and the jagged lightning.It was only a fragment of the prayerand I have not been able to get more of it.Some years later Nahtohe Hatrali, medicineman for the Hozhoni Chant (male beautychant), which I attended as a visiting studentand a contributor toward the expense, attemptedto teach me the first day's prayer.This dealt with the hero's journey and all ofthe sacred places mentioned in the myth, andstated where each rite and each sand paintingwas originated. It took more than an hour torecite, but was not too difficult when he haddrawn me a chart to follow. The first symbolplaced in the east was the Hahjeenah or emergenceshape to bring the people up to thisearth. Then followed forty-one symbols ofmountains and places of different shapes andsizes. The seventeenth design was a mountaincalled "Chizzie-hulth-gezzie" and here the firstsand painting was made. Again there was apause at the twenty-third mountain, "Tsolltsilth,"which was blue, and here the secondsand painting was spread. Again theymoved on past several mountains and mesasand arrived at number thirty-three, a mountaincalled "Tzilth-doh-kidji" which waswhite with a black lake. The sand paintingthat was made here is still called by that name.At number thirty-nine there was a mountaincalled "Tilth-kayje-hozhoni" and here the lastsand painting was made. Then they cameback to the "Hahjeenah" symbol and here the

46 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMEASTFig. 84. Chart of hero's journey (see text).trail went inside the first circle of symbolsand began with a house of four square rooms,spotted, blue, yellow and white. It continuedand again went all the way around the earthdepicting symbols of places, houses, hills, andflat mesas, springs and rivers where rites wereperformed and where herbs or articles to beused in the ceremony were collected. The

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48 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMtrail ended at the northeast corner and the lasttwo symbols were "Sahah-nahray-ahtzeel"and "Bekay hozhon ahtzeels." All the Navajomedicine men to whom I showed thischart (fig. 84) assured me that it never beforehad been given to or used by a white person.The chart I had was the one for the firstday and listed all of the sacred places in theceremonial myth. The second day's prayerfollowed the same course, but the symbolswere of the sacred elements, clouds, rain, dawnlight, and so on; instead of the mountains andplaces.The third day the theme for the prayerwas sentient things, the immortals, the firstpeople who held the ceremony, the hero, theanimals and birds who gave assistance alongthe way. The fourth day's prayer includedall of the rites, sand paintings, and the orderof ceremony as it would be carried out fromthat time on. All of these prayer charts weremade in five colors.The next prayer writings I acquired werefrom Hasteen Nez's nephew who was studyingthe "Tsilthkehji" (Male Mountain Chant)under the direction of his uncle. This youngman had two notebooks filled with picturewriting (fig. 85) and, as he had attended governmentschool, he marched his figures alongstraight lines and kept them fairly well proportioned.He had symbolic writing not onlvfor the prayers, but for every rite and everyarticle used in the ceremony. His first designwas of the ceremonial hogahn, then the brushshelter for the men and the women's hogahn.After that the symbols followed the sequenceof the rites, prayers, and sand paintings. Hehad the record of the ceremony as completeand far more accurate than any ethnologistcould have written it. He used no color butoccasionally had shaded, or dotted, or stripedcertain figures to give them special character.I spent the whole afternoon copying fromhis notebooks and writing the meaning andnames, first in Navajo and then in English.But it was much too long for me to completein one day and I did not go back the next,although this was the only opportunity I everhad of recording a ceremony in picture writingṀy last contact with picture prayers was inArizona through a young man who was attemptingto memorize the Apache form of theWind Chant. He too had picture symbolsrepresenting the rites, and the articles used inthe rites, as well as the pictured prayers. Hehad attended school at St. Michaels, and hisrecordings showed the influence of thistype of education. The picture writing wassketched with pencil and then filled in withthe five basic colors. All of the prayers andrites he had drawn in that particular notebookwere those belonging to the cleansing ceremonyof the sweathouse.The upright line of the cross to the Navajomeans life and the crossing line death (fig.86). One of their greatest symbols is of thecrossing of the two great rivers (fig. 87), thefemale river rising in the west and flowing eastthen turning south crossed by the male riverflowing from north to south and turning west.It is my opinion that all prayer pictures werewritten in spiral form before the advent ofgovernment schools and the influence of theprinted page. At this period all cultivatedfields were planted in widening spirals, beginningat the eastern center and ending justbefore reaching the last position at the outerrim. Picture writing began with the first designon the outer rim at the east and made twoor four coils toward the center, bringingpower from every direction to one locality.Father Berard Haile has published an accountof pictured prayers from one chant,and in the Peabody Museum publication ofNavajo Creatio?i Chants there is a study ofNavajo music and prayer writing by DavidMcAllester.In closing I wish to emphasize that all Navajosymbolism is a form of picture writingwhich carries a message to the audience aswell as to the actors taking part in the religiousrites, and this picture writing is only used formemorizing religious material. The meaningof each symbol is expressed first by its shapeand size; second, by its color; third, by itsplace on the sand painting, ceremonial article,or person; and fourth, by the signs and symbolswhich surround it.There has been much written describingNavajo symbolism but I hope this materialadds a little to the information that has beenmade available to the student of Navajo religiouslore.

PART II:NAVAHO PICTURE WRITINGbyStanley A. Fishier

INTRODUCTIONWHILE doing field work in 1950, in theTuba City, Arizona, area, I becameacquainted with the informant who made possiblethe viewing of many of his "treasures."Sacred "horses" and "sheep"; a ceremonialaxe, presumably owned by Monster Slayer; abullroarer; and other sacred paraphernalia,over a period of time passed in review. Theinformant then spoke of ceremonies in hispossession, painted upon cloth. These werefinally unfolded and shown to me. Upon eightmuslin cloths, each approximately 18 by 36inches, were painted in watercolor or incolored pencils pictographs for use in variousceremonies. Explaining the use of the cloth,the informant chose one of the ceremonies, thefirst, and using it mnemonically, traced withhis right index finger along the symbols uponthe cloth singing the verses appropriate to theparticular section of the symbol.With the assistance of the informant's foursons, the author was allowed to copy one ofthe cloths upon a large white sheet of paperwith colored pencils. Within three hours, whenthe copy was almost finished, the first thunderstorm of spring occurred. This is a problemthe field worker encounters in gainingany information of a ceremonial nature fromthe Navaho. Only during the winter whencertain of the "gods sleep" do many of thesingers and curers 2 feel safe in discussing religiousbeliefs without fear of punishment by1 1 am most grateful for the suggestions and criticismsof Father Berard Haile, Dr. Clyde Kluckhohn,Dr. Douglas Oliver, Dr. Evon Z. Vogt, Miss Mary C.Wheelwright, and Dr. Leland C. Wyman. I wouldespecially like to express here my thanks to FatherBerard. For many years he has assisted students interestedin the Navaho and this kindness he has extendedto me. I would further like to express myappreciation to Mary C. Wheelwright and the PeabodyMuseum for the opportunity to have this materialpublished. Mrs. Niel Zierler copied the roughdrawings and made them into recognizable forms.Mrs. Natalie Stoddard has given much help and assistancein the processing of the manuscript for publication.Acknowledgments would not be completewithout mentioning my parents, Mr. and Mrs. PhilipL. Fishier, and my brother and his wife, Dr. and Mrs.Kenneth O. Fishier, who gave much assistance whilethe gods. There are some singers who havesuch knowledge and rapport with the pantheonof gods that they feel safe in transcendingusual procedure and speaking of such mattersduring other times of the year. The firstthunder of the year heralds the awakening ofthese gods, and supposedly no informationshould be given until the following winter.The copy was hurriedly finished and the othermuslin sheets put away, and no further informationwas gained from them. The clothwhich was copied bore the picture writing inthis paper, while the remaining seven muslinsheets still remain uncopied in the possessionof the informant. The following day the informantdescribed most of the symbols, pluswhat the ceremonies were primarily concernedwith. No further information has beengained since that time.The informant, John Yazzi, 3 was a respectedsinger knowing the Blessing Way, the UpwardReaching Way and many other minorand major ceremonies and ceremonials. 4 Theposition held by the informant was reflectedin the many activities of his lifetime. Duringhis early married life he primarily dependedupon farming and sheep raising for the supportof his family. Silver work and work asa singer, both of which he learned in early life,helped to supplement his income. As he becameolder and prospered, he married twomore women, setting up an independent neo-I was in the field. One often forgets the assistancegiven by librarians in a paper of this kind, so I wouldlike to express my appreciation to Miss MargaretCurrier, Miss Betty Tooker, and other members ofthe staff at Peabody Museum Library. Lastly go mythanks to my wife who willingly gave much of hertime to check tedious references and to correct errorsin the manuscript.- A singer is differentiated from a curer in that hemust know at least one complete chant (Kluckhohnand Wyman, 1940, p. 15).3This is not the true name of the informant, butany qualified student may obtain it through the PeabodyMuseum, Harvard University.*A ceremony is for the carrying out of a singlespecific function, while a ceremonial is a number ofceremonies (Haile, 1938b, pp. 10-12).5'

52 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMlocal family settlement, contrary to the usualNavaho matrilocal type. As the years wentby, silver work became more important tohim and then declined again as his eyesightbecame poor. He believed this loss of sightdue to a violation of the mother-in-law tabooearly in his married life.His sons were taught to do silver work andthis they continue to do. A reduction in thenumber of sheep during the government stockreduction program decreased drastically the dependenceon this as a supplement to his livelihood.Income from farming and ceremonialswas now of great importance. In 1947,the informant and his sons approached a whitetrader with a plan to establish a trading postin the rather isolated area in which they lived.With the financing and guidance of the governmentand the trader, a large rectangularstone trading post was built. In 1950, onlyone wife still lived, but the children of allthree wives lived in an extended family settlementconsisting of one stone building and fourhogans. Needless to say, the informant wasan exceptional Navaho.The existence of picture writing amongpresent-day Navaho gives rise to a number ofinteresting speculations as to the origin, useand importance of such devices. There existedno published evidence until i95o, r> of any picturewriting of the type herein described.There do exist, however, in various publications,some references to picture writing havingbeen used by the gods, for the use of recordingprayer stick or other designs for usein ceremonies, or for other purposes. Unlessthese devices, prior to this time, were keptwell hidden for a number of years, which theymay well have been, it may be presumed thatpicture writing of the type described here isa relatively new acquisition by the Navaho.The use of a permanent method to recordceremonial knowledge is quite a change fromthe usual attitude and procedure of the Navaho.While the majority of the Navaho havealways been reticent in discussing religion insome of its manifestations, even stronger hasbeen their attitude toward the reproductionand permanent recording of dry paintings, andthe like. This change is one indication amongmany of the rapidity with which acculturationalprocesses are occurring among ThePeople. A prominent singer in the Pinedale,New Mexico, region has been seen to refreshhis memory while making sand paintings byreferring to an ordinary paper notebook inwhich he had made sketches of sand paintings. 6There exist several factors influencing theutilization of picture writings as "memoryjoggers."One such factor, which is recognizedas having occurred in the past by manyof the Navaho, is that of a "growing" Navahoreligion. It has been lon^ believed that muchof the religious and ceremonial life of theNavaho has been influenced by the Pueblopeople. Many informants have believed thatduring and since the time of the incarcerationof the Navaho at Fort Sumner in 1 864, Navahoreligion has grown much because of associationwith other tribes. 7 Within recent years adecreasing number of Navaho have not hadthe inclination, attitude, or time to study adequatelythe complicated ceremonial rituals.School now takes up the time that young boys"should" be using to learn long tedious verses.Orientation toward American white valueshas taken away much of the interest formerlyshown in the fulfilling of needs by group andfamily participation in ceremonies and ceremonials.This is not to say that the religionof the largest North American Indian group isbeing given up en masse. The majority stillretains its beliefs and still spends a large percentageof its income and time on ceremoniesand ceremonials. 8 The veterans, although attimes outwardly greatly acculturated, stillAnd due to"respect" the old peoples' beliefs.a large number of factors having to do witheconomics, social contact and religion, thevast majority of off-the-reservation Navahoreturn often to visit friends and relatives andNewto take part in various religious activities.goals have taken the place of older ones withthe influence of movies, newspapers, radios,5 Haile, 1950, p. 256.8Leland C. Wyman, personal communication,March, 1954.* This was how the Chiracahua Wind Way wasacquired (Haile, 1938b, p. 640)."Kluckhohn, 1938, p. 364, states that one-fourth toone-third of the total time of the men and one-fifthto one-sixth of the time of the women is involved inreligious activity among the Navaho at Ramah, NewMexico.

travel, education, and contact with otherpeoples.The changes in Navaho life since 1941 havebeen great, yet will not compare with thechanges that will transpire within the nextfew years as contemplated plans materializefor more and better roads, schools and hospitals,raised economic and health levels, and asoff-the-reservation employment, contact andliving take place. These changes have alreadybeen felt in all aspects of social, economic andreligious life.Economic difficulties were met by the informantin the building of a trading post withthe assistance of a son who was a veteran.Religious conflict was met in another way.He realized that his sons could not and wouidnot learn his ceremonials and ceremonies. Inorder that this knowledge not be lost fromthe tribe and so his grandsons would knowwhat the old Navaho believed, he had theauthor record a version of the creation myth. 9The decrease in the number of practisingsingers and the loss of some ceremonies andceremonials 10 has influenced the recording ofsome material. It is difficult to describe thecomplexity of dogma and belief and the tremendousbody of ceremonial lore found amongthe Navaho. The amount of knowledge islimited that even the best singer can acquirein his lifetime. 11 There are thousands of versesto each newly acquired ceremony and someceremonies are not often done. My informantmet his need by an innovation. Making use ofexoteric Navaho symbols, inventing esotericones, and adding the use of English numbers,he set down in a permanent medium some ofthe important and key parts of ceremoniesseldom practised by himself. Here then hehad his "memory-jogger," not ideographicwriting with symbols representing words asINTRODUCTION: FISHLER 53such, but with symbols which denoted thekey concept in a verse or series of verses uponwhich he could look prior to a ceremony torecall the content and sequence.Such an action, known only to family membersand a few close friends, was in some waysfraught with danger. The attitude that asinger should rely only upon memory, that itwas dangerous to keep ceremonial knowledgein permanent form which could be viewedduring the wrong time of the year, and otherfactors, made it possible that such actionwould offend the gods. However, rationalizationupon the part of the informant, the beliefthat ceremonial knowledge would protecthim and that these were not really exact duplicatesof dry paintings, allowed the informantto diverge from the accepted procedure. Theappearance of picture writing of this typeclearly indicates a change in attitude andvalues due to acculturation, as some influenceschanged certain outlooks on religious andceremonial belief.The use of exoteric symbols in this manneris merely an extension of the use of such symbolsin other aspects of Navaho ceremonialism.This again indicates the great influence whichNavaho religion and symbolism have hadupon Navaho daily life. Many of the symbolssuch as the War Twins, clouds, arrows, mountains,thunder, bear, bi? snake, wind, corn,pumpkins, and so on, are drawn in a stylesimilar to those in dry paintings, some weaving,basketry, prayer sticks and sacrificial figurines.The esoteric symbols are of equal interest,yet unfortunately not enough is knownto explain the reasons, if there are any, fordepicting subjects in certain manners. Someesoteric symbols are undoubtedly influencedby general ceremonial symbolism, but othermaterial cannot be derived in this manner.For instance, sa/ah na-ydi and bikeh xozq(Plate XI, 8-10) make up a very complexbodv of knowledge, extremely esoteric, whichindividual singers will divulge only in oldage. 12The knowledge of these beings or concepts,sa/ah na-yai and bikeh xozg, gives greatpower and through possession one may liveto old age and gain happiness. These two representmore of a concept than actual gods"Fishier, 1953.I0 Wyman and Kluckhohn, 1938, pp. 5-7, list 9obsolescent or extinct ceremonials of a possible 58.11Kluckhohn and Wyman, 1940, p. 15, state thatthe largest number of ceremonials a singer will likelyknow is 6 to 7 — out of a listed 58 (Wyman andKluckhohn, 1938, p. 38).'- Haile, 1947, pp. 17, 19-20. The spellings ofnative words used in this article follow the phoneticsystem of Father Berard in "Prayer Stick Cutting in aFive Night Navaho Ceremonial of the Male Branchof Shootingway."

54 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMwith forms and they are never represented indry paintings. 13 There is some indication thatthe symbols, as portrayed here, outwardlyfollow accepted belief. That is, sa'ah na-yaiin one way can be conceived as being a distinctconcept having certain values and attributesas against the distinct values and attributesof bikeh xozq. However, these two arealways conceived of as being closely interrelatedand linked, 14 as indicated in the drawing.Because knowledge about these two conceptsor beings is so esoteric, no informationcould be gained in plates XII, 5, 11, and XI,8-10, as to what the individual symbols meant,except that as a composite they representedLong Life and Happiness, respectively.These picture writings are representative ofmany Navaho ceremonies. Some of the materialhere points to possible future orientationin field work, such as the curing of witchcraft.Father Berard believes that all the ceremoniesare inherently good, but that it is only theway in which they are used that makes themevil. 15 For example, any of the ceremonies forcuring may be diverted from their inherentgoodness, by placing a red dot at the ankleor wrists of the represented person, pointingthe red in the rainbow toward the individualinstead of away, or a number of other waysin order to witch a person. This is done toliterally make you a ghost, i.e., the GhostWay ritual. At the moment we are concernedwith the symbols and what they mean. It ishoped that the sketchy representation as toceremonial detail and the mere inferencesgiven in reference to the symbolism will besupplemented in future work.'Haile, personal communication, December, 1953.'Haile, 1947, p. 17.''Haile, personal communication, December, 1953.

AN ORIGIN LEGEND FOR CURING SORCERYDURING theexplanation of the symbolsin the first ceremony, a myth was toldby the informant which he stated to be anorigin legend. This is curious, for no storysimilar to the one recorded in the followingpages is recorded as a complete origin legend.There is a short episode in the myth of theMountain Chant which has some points ofsimilarity to the legend given by John Yazzi(Wheelwright, 1951, pp. 10-11). And thereare some recorded as trickster or coyotestories.As is generally known, trickster cycles appearover a large part of North America. Thefirst portion of this myth is rather similar tothose both inside and outside the area of thePlains and the Southwest. The general themeisthat the trickster feigns death and returns indisguise to seduce his daughter. In the surroundingareas the following groups possesssuch myths: Southern Paiute, 1 Southern Ute, 2Northern Shoshoni, 3 Jicarilla Apache, 4 Mono, 5and Walapai. 6 The origin myth of the JicarillaFemale Shooting Way is similar to the generaltheme of the myth recorded here. 7Schmerler 8 claims that although this tale isfound among the Navaho and White MountainApache, they are rare in the Southwest.This is not so, for published and non-publishedmaterial exists on the Navaho alone, 9 butmuch of this has come to light since thearticle was written.The one version published similar to theone here was written by Matthews in 1885.The motif is different only in the followingpoints: the mother lives away from her daughterdue to the mother-in-law taboo; the motherdiscovers the deception; the raised child killstwo children unrelated to him; warriors followhim and find him chips of wood; and onthe second and following days the number ofmen increases and from these nine men, eightof whom are made from wood, are derivedthe Ute Indians.Father Berard, in an unpublished manuscript,10 has also recorded a story similar tothat of Matthews. The significant differencesare as follows: 11 the male owl took the boyback to the badger hole; each time the boybegan to start to find his relatives he heardnoises in his trachea, ears, nose, or his skinprickled and/or he had bad dreams, whichwere to be the types of warnings the futureEarth People were to have; Coyote's son didnot meet the ash, torch, mano and metate,bush, the yuccas, bear, big snake, thunder andwind; and the boy killed his mother andfather. Another unpublished version has beenrecorded by Leighton. 12 The story is essentiallythe same except Coyote is not the "hero"and the boy is taken back by the father andmother. It is Father Berard's belief 13 that thisstory which tells of witchcraft was utilizedas an explanation of the origin of a ceremony.He bases this on two factors: the activitiesdescribed within the story take place duringpost-emergence time which dates it so it cannotbe classed as an origin legend, and thecoyote in this story is not the Trotting Coyoteof the pre-emergence period.There are several actions within the folktale that denote association with witchcraftto the Navaho, which explains why theymight have believed the story to be an originlegend. Incest and witchcraft are closely associated,and suspicion of one automaticallyleads to suspicion of the other. 14 Dyk 15 describesthe Navaho attitude toward such an'Lowie, 1924, p. 172.sLowie, 1924, p. 28."Lowie, 1909, p. 248.*Opler, 1938, p. 280.6Kroeber, 1901, p. 268."Kroeber, 1954, p. 266.7Kluckhohn and Wyman, 1940, pp. 156-57."1931, p. 196."Dyk, 1945; unpublished material in the Ramahfiles at Harvard University. There did exist, at onetime, a chantway to cure people who had committedincest. Haile, n.d., and Kluckhohn, 1944, p. 22, fn.10 Haile, 1929.11Father Berard's version is much longer and moredetailed than the one described here. It is still unpublishedso only a few of the important differences willbe pointed out."Leighton, 1940.13 Haile, personal communication, December, 1953.14Kluckhohn, 1944, p. 15.16 '945-55

56 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMact as one of classic horror, and body contactand talk about sex in the presence of a forbiddensex partner is tabooed. Only a personwith the power of a witch could send ashadow among people. It is also believed thatonly a witch would visit deserted or burnedhogans.There are several possible explanations forthe occurrence of the "origin legend," one ofwhich may be that this is a tale of some antiquity.Information concerning witchcraft isoften difficult to gain. In spite of the thousandsof articles and books on the Navaho,unknown material is still frequently broughtto light. It is then possible that this is esotericknowledge because of its association withwitchcraft and incest and thus known to few.The associations between the explanations, activitiesand objects in the myth itself and thevarious symbols represented in the ceremonialare too close to be accidental. That the ceremonyexisted in all the details elaborated here,and that later this myth was conveniently attachedto give it prestige, is possible but notprobable.It is possible that a ceremony did existwhich had a number of similarities to an existingfolk tale. The informant, versatile ashe is, might have attached the myth and elaboratedthe missing details into the ceremony.Or an extreme possibility is that to an existingmyth was attached a whole complete ceremonyoriginated and invented by the informant.Haile 16 states that a man tried to popularizea ceremony he gained while dreaming ina cave. He died shortly after this and hissudden demise settled his claim of communionwith the gods. While the informant is anexceptional individual, it is more probablethat he elaborated on a ceremony already inexistence, rather than originating a new one,if choice need be made between these.OWL-RAISED-UTECoyote had a daughter and liked her verymuch, but not as he should have liked adaughter. One day he decided to marry herso he told his wife and daughter that whenhe died, a man would come to marry hisdaughter. This stranger would look just likeCoyote. When Coyote finished telling thisto his family, he began acting as if he werevery sick and soon got sicker and sicker. Atlast, he didn't eat anything and was about todie. He told them this, "Gather together somewood and put me on top of it. Then start afire from the four directions and go off andleave me, but do not look back!"After Coyote said this, his wife and daughterbegan to gather wood. As Coyote had requested,they placed him on the wood andstarted the fire from the four sides. This ishow the Paiute, Utes and Walapai learned toburn their dead. It is not the same with us,for we just burn the hogan instead of the dead.We were not given this to do and were toldnot to do such things. One of Coyote's sonswas the dirtiest and the worst one of his sons,for he never washed or kept himself clean.As the family left Coyote, this son lookedback. He said to his mother and sister, "Myfather has jumped off that pile of wood."The wife and daughter said, "Don't ever saythat about your father. You aren't supposedto say that." After Coyote jumped off thewood, he ran around to where his family wasstaying. As he came up to them, he said,"Where is my nephew? Did he die? Whatdid he say about me when he died?" He keptasking questions until Coyote's wife said, "Iwas told that if I was to get a son-in-law hewould be just like Coyote."Coyote said, "I will take care of you peoplefrom now on. I am going to be your ownson-in-law." Then Coyote married his owndaughter. A little while later Coyote wentout and got soapweed to make some soap suds.Coyote had a form like we have. All of thishappened before the people turned into animals.Coyote, who was supposed to haveburned on the fire, had a wart on the back ofhis neck. As Coyote had his hair washed hisdaughter saw the wart on his neck. Later shetold her mother, "This man seems like my16 Haile, 1940, p. 359.

AN ORIGIN LEGEND FOR CURING SORCERY: FISHLER 57father." The mother replied, "That is notthe only person like that. Many people havewarts." But she went and looked at Coyoteand finally recognized him.Shortly after this, Coyote's new wife had ababy and she threw him into a badger hole.Coyote went back to the badger hole so hecould eat the baby, for he knew whose childit was. In the hole lived an old male and afemale owl who had no children. When Coyotearrived, the female owl told Coyote hecould not eat the baby. The old man askedif he and his wife could raise the child andCoyote agreed. The old owls raised the babyuntil he was a man about twenty years old.From the time Coyote's son was a baby heslept with the grandmother owl and the oldman became jealous, for he never had a chanceto sleep with his wife.One day the wind whispered in the boy'sear and said: "If you stay here the owl willkill you. You have a home and a mother andbrothers and sisters. You have to go home."The boy then started off to find his home, asthe wind had directed him. When he got towhere he was born he found the ruin of anold hogan. As he approached the ruin he sawa black poker (see plate I, C, 6) which hadbeen thrown away by the people who hadlived there before. As he got closer to thepoker, he winked his eye and the poker turnedinto a person. The poker turned into an oldman. The poker said, "My grandson, I was tohave killed you, but I will not kill vou. Thereis another old hogan out there. That is wherevou are going."The boy continued on until he came uponanother old hogan. Here he found some ashand as he winked his eye the ash turned intoa person — an old woman. She said, "Mygrandson, I was to have killed you, but I willnot. There is a hogan out there. That iswhere you are going." The boy continued onuntil he reached still another hogan. Insidethis hogan, was a torch thrown away by theformer inhabitants. As Coyote's son winkedhis eye, the torch turned into a boy and allhappened as before. These people did not killthe boy for he had power; besides he had donenothing and they did not want to kill him.Each time he traveled on, he met somethingdifferent which had been thrown away fromeach of the hogans. The ceremonial potturned into an old woman. The stirring stickturned into a girl. The bowl turned into amiddle-aged woman. The dipper turned intoa young girl. The metate turned into a very,very old woman. The mano turned into avery young girl (8-10). The old worn outbrush turned into an old woman. The BroadYucca turned into a man of 35; the regularYucca turned into a woman of about 35; theYeibichai Yucca turned into a boy of 20 andthe Horn Yucca into a girl of about 17.As Coyote's son traveled along from onehogan to another, the first hogans were veryold, but now they were getting newer andnewer. The Yucca People were not found inthe hogans, but the bov met them as he traveledalong. The Wide or Broad Yucca saidto him, "I was to have killed you, but I willnot. There are people ahead of you. That iswhere you are going." Each of the Yucca toldhim this.When he met the Bear, the Bear told himthe same as the Yuccas. Then he met BigSnake, the Thunder and the Wind. After theboy met the Wind, the Little Holy Windwho was taking care of him said and whisperedin his ear: "Your grandfather Owl tookhair, spit, dirt from vour arms, body and legs,your feces and urine, your footprint and yourshadow — he used them for witchcraft. Thatis why all those things happened to you. Youmust be careful of yourself and watch forwitchcraft. Build a small hogan just like asweat bath. Don't make room for the owl orhe will kill you. Just make enough room foryourself. Build a fire in front of the hoganfor the rocks."The boy did as he was told and built ahogan. He got inside of the sweat hogan towardthe back at sundown and soon he heardthe two owls coming toward him. Each owlgave four hoots when they got to the littlehogan. Then the grandfather owl said "Wheredo you think you are going, my grandson?Let us go back home." The boy refused toq-o with the two owls.The wind whispered to the boy and theboy took out five stones (white shell, turquoise,oyster shell, jet and red rock) as agift to the owls. When they received the qift,the owls said no more and left. They had

5§ A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMcome to killhim, but after they had receivedgifts they just left Coyote's son without speakingto him. After they were gone, the boystarted out to find his brothers. He came toa canyon and below the cliff he saw them.The wind said to him, "These are your brothersand sisters." The boy sat down andwatched them for they were having a goodtime.Before the time of this boy, there were noshadows. Shadows came from the winds themselvesas they turned into shadows. The windsaid, "There are things that will happen. Iwill go down there and see what is going on."So the boy sent this shadow out to find whathis brothers and sisters were doing. Theshadow comes from a person's breath or windor air. It is the air that comes out of yourbody. The shadow will follow along by yourside as you walk. The shadow was black andlike any shadow nowadays. The shadow cannotbe divided from the body, but witchescan project their shadows. These people arethose who walk on the wrong side of theroad — those who are witches.When the wind returned in the evening hetold the boy that there was to be a meeting.The boy went to the meeting and went intothe hogan. He sat down on the south sideof the doorway. The boy was the only onethere with a shadow. After a few days thepeople said, "There is someone who sits thereevery evening. Let us find out who he is."The people asked the boy to come to thecenter of the hogan. He found that thewoman sitting there was his mother. He toldthem where he came from and told them allof the experiences he had had. He told themthat he had been born in that first hogan.Nowadays women without fathers for theirchildren might throw them away because ofwhat this woman did to her son.This boy was Coyote's child, but Coyote'sdaughter married again and had children froma second husband. The boy's brothers andsisters did not know him and his mother actedlike she did not recognize him either. Theydid not treat him or act toward him like abrother. After he finished his story, they said,"He is some kind of a person. He is not ourbrother." Still he stayed near the hogan fora while. Finally, one day the brothers saidwhen they were alone and he was not around,"Let us kill him, for if he stays very long hewill cause witch trouble." The wind heardthis and told the boy, "Within four days theywill try to kill you. This is what I want youto do. Make four bows and four quivers fullof arrows. Hide them in the earth. Put themin a row and hide them away from each other.When the shadow hits noontime you are tostart your battle."The boy started to work on these things sohe could finish them within four days. Whenhe had finished, the wind said, "There will begambling in the open. Do not go near wherethey are doing this. Practise shooting anddon't play with them. They will come afteryou. At noon kill one of them with yourbow." There was a stick standing up to tellwhen it was noon. His brothers had to killhim at noon in order to succeed. They didnot like him because before he came amongthem they had no shadows. They hated himbecause he had powers of a witch and causedthem to have shadows.Before it was noon, one of his brothersrushed and chased after him, but the boykilled him. He killed as many of them as hecould and when he ran out of arrows he brokehis bow and dropped it. He ran to where hehad hidden his second bow and quiver ofarrows. After he had used all of these, hedug up his third set of bow and arrows andran around the people killing them until allthese arrows were gone. He ran up to hislast bow and arrows. After he dug up hisfourth set, he ran around the group, flexinghis bow and playing like he was going toshoot. A few minutes to twelve, the boy said,"I wish I could shoot the Sun." He turnedhis bow upward and then down to where hisfat brother was sitting on his heels and shothim through the throat, above the collarbone.The boy ran away, for now he had onlyfour arrows left. He then blew down the Sun.He had the power to do these things becauseof the people he had met and overcome in hisjourney. He received his power from overcomingthese beings, for all of these peoplegave him some of their power. Nearby thecamp of his brothers and sisters, was a cliffwall. The boy shot two of his arrows into acrack in the wall and there appeared a pine

AN ORIGIN LEGEND FOR CURING SORCERY: FISHLERand an evergreen tree and up these he escaped.It was a very high cliff. The people couldnot see him for now he had power. He laterbuilt a fire and cut a stick from some hard oakthat was growing around his new camp. Afterhe finished cutting the stick, it turned into aperson.The next day Coyote's son and his newcompanion moved on and made a new camp.The second night the boy cut two more sticks,built a fire and stayed there for the secondnight. The third day, they moved to anothercamp. The third night all went out and gatheredmany twigs. The bark was taken off ofthe wood and a sing was held over the woodand the wood turned into men, as before.They built a fire by a road and all gatheredtogether like they do at a girl's dance today.The fourth day they started off to the Utecountry to a place called Ute's Canyon orUte's River. These people are now the Utes.They are at this place today.This story branches off before the timeCoyote started on his adventures. There weremany coyotes at this time. There is a singfrom the finishing of the Coyote stories. TheFeather Stories or Gambling Story with a singgoes along with this story (?).59

THE PICTURE WRITING >WITCHES cause sickness by allof thesethings: manos, metates, brushes, yucca,and the others. 2 A witch might take a pieceof an arrow feather, dirt from a feather or apiece of sinew, or similar things owned bv aperson, and bury it near ghosts or in a burialground. If anything personal is taken fromyou, a witch can make you sick, for any ofthese things can be used for witchcraft. Ifyou are sick and yucca is used, it can be takenby a stranger or anyone else, to cause sicknessto you or the medicine man who worked onyou. Witches are people on the left sidewhile most of the gods and people are on theright side by doing good and helping people."Plate I,A si. Thunder. The red beneath his wingsrepresents his power.2. Monster Slayer. This shows when hewas taken to Shiprock by the Giant Eagle ashe called, "I'm the War Twin," and, "I'm theThunder."3. "Thunder pick me up." (This representsthe picking up of the Twin by theEagle.)"Pick me up, I'm ready to go."4. "Flying off."5. "Flying one place (or wiggling wings),going up into the air. I am trying to see whereI am."6. "Flying away with the Monster Slayeron the bird."All of these represent you, as the one who issick. This ceremony is the prayer used forthe sick person. Medicine is taken from wherelightning strikes a rock or tree. A gift is givenof obsidian (jet). Plants are picked aroundwhere the lightning has struck, which makesstrong medicine. These are given to the patientand he is told to wash all of his goods inthe medicine — bows and arrows, pokers,bowls, and other things. This ceremony wasused a long time ago when the Twin waspicked up by the bird. The Twin said, "Thiswill be used by the Future People."Plate I, BThis ceremony is the same as I, A, exceptthat in addition, a song goes along with theprayer. The first song starts from the beginningof the ceremony. Another song goesfrom the bird to the black cloud. A thirdsong goes from the bird to the witch. Thisis how the witchcraft g;oes back to the witch.1. This represents the starting of the firstsong. It starts from the beginning.2. Monster Slayer. This is the First WarTwin as also represented above. From thebeginning, the song goes to the figure of theTwin and then to the Bird.3. Thunder. The song sequence is fromI, B, 1, to the Twin, to the Thunder, to theFlint Arrows, to the circle of protection, andthen to the clouds. As the Thunder takes off,he holds the Twin by his hair.4. Flint Lightning. The black flints andlightning protect the Twin, and follow theTwin and the Thunder into the cloud. TheTwin says, "Four Black Flints with lightningaround me."5. Protection Circle. The circle around thebird and the Twin is the protection given bvthe lightning and the flint. "Circle aroundme."6. Cloud. The white spot is the opening inthe cloud. The song goes to the clouds andto the witch again. The bird flies to the cloudto hide the Twin from witchcraft. The significanceof the yellow above the clouds theinformant refused to say.1The material on the ceremonies below has beenleft mostly as it was interpreted and then transcribedby the author. Changes were made only toclarify meanings, as understood by the author. Thedirect quotations were carefully interpreted and arethose things thought to be of especial importance bythe informant or represented actual stanzas withinthe songs and prayers themselves. The numbering ofceremonies in plates I and II was for convenience and60does not indicate they are each to be considered asone whole ceremony which can be done only in itscomplete form.2KIuckhohn, 1944, pp. 89-91, gives some of thematerial used by witches.3 Father Berard, in a personal communication inDecember, 1953, believes this first ceremony to bepossibly connected with the Red Antway.

.THE PICTURE WRITING: FISHLER7. Lightning. This is sent from the birdto the witch.8. The singer. This represents the singerwho in turn represents sa/ah na-yai bikehxozq in attacking witchcraft. The red linerepresents the witchcraft, and the red ball theblood coming from the victim. The long redline represents, "As the song goes to sing itaway." Red is the color of danger, war andsorcery, 4 but it can be used to denote protection.59. The singer. The circle represents thesinger. The rays are sa/ah nagoa binaxozf-l. 610. Witch. This is the witch. The witchis hit by the lightning and begins to bleed. Hefalls back or retreats from the lightning.1 1 Lightning protection."The people who are witches do not likeme for I can cure those who are victims ofwitches and I can cause the witches to bekilled in turn."Plate I, C: Fire Medicine.1. Hogan. This shows a hogan and a specialprayer is used in case a hogan burns down,a person burns to death, or anything else isburned — medicine bag, prayer sticks, orother things. Unless this prayer is used, all ofthe clans will have sickness because of witchcraft.7a. These are the causes of the sickness.b. This was said to represent nothing.c. This is the outline of the hogan.d. This is anything inside the hogan,person or goods, that could be burned.e. This is the fire. The black is the ashand the red and yellow is the flame.In the song, "e" should face toward the eastduring the ceremony, but it may face theother directions.Plate I,DIf a witch drew lightning on a hogan, lightningwould strike the corn field, the house,children or animals — whatever the witchwanted. 8 Witches can do this with snake bites,too.1. Two. The "2" means this is the secondceremony used.2. Man-God. This represents the Man-God.a. From his head is a flint feather whichgoes out to kill the witch.b. From his right shoulder goes onelightning for protection.c. This represents what the god holds inhis hand — a club of flint and lightning.d. This represents the lightning whichcomes from his body.e. This is the lightning from his knees.f. From the god's toe comes lightning.3. Witch. This is the witch with the reddesignating his power or witchcraft.4. A bow.a. The string of the bow.b. The back of the bow.c. This represents, "A long time agowhen the gods were created."5. Lightning Arrow. If a witch came toyour camp he could take a feather from yourarrow for use in witchcraft. These witchestake the bow outside somewhere. The objectsfrom four onward, the singer uses in a FiveNight Sing to cure sickness.6. Poker. The poker is hidden so that thewitch will not find it and make the sick persondie. Any of these from the bow to the yuccacan be sung over by a witch to make peopledie. These objects were used for a Five NightSing.7. Torch. The torch is made out of cedar(actually juniper) bark and wrapped as tightlyas possible and tied with bark. Used in thisway, it will last a month. Long ago thesewere used as matches.8. Ash. If a witch found some ash from adead person's hogan, he could use it to causepeople to die. Any of the other objects canalso be used in this way. Even things that youhave touched can be taken and given to a*Reichard, 1950, pp. 198, 200.sReichard, 1950, p. 199. Kluckhohn, 1944, p. 17,states that all of his informants denied red as beingassociated with witchcraft.'Although this term is similar to sa'ah na-yai,which is to live to old age, it means the fear of dyingbefore your time — with witchcraft implied. Fishier,953- P- 44- fn -7Kluckhohn and Wyman, 1940, p. 57, note a separateceremony similar to this one, which is calledFire Medicine.8 Haile, 1950, p. 195, suggests that perhaps it ismerely the thought behind the action which is theimportant thing in witchcraft.

..6ic'j-di- or buried in a graveyard. That is whysuch people have to later have sings held forthem.9. Ceremonial pot. This is a ceremonialpot with a stirring rod. The stirring rod ismade of Black-Four-Leaf-Bush.10. Bowl. This is a bowl made of clay.1 1 Dipper. This is a dipper made from agourd. No ceremonials are done over pots ordippers (?).12. A4ano and metate of a man. There isno ceremony over these either (?).13. Brush. This is used to brush off themetate, after the corn is ground. This brushis made from a grass.14. Broad Yucca. The red part representsthe red roots of the Broad Yucca.15. Ordinary or slender yucca. The bluepart represents the blue roots of the ordinaryyucca.16. Yeibichai Yucca or Yucca of the gods.The red part represents the red roots of theyeibichai.17. Horn Yucca. The blue part representsthe blue roots of tin, Horn Yucca.18. Bear. 9 He has a red mouth for as heA STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMgets angry he opens his red mouth. This is theordinary bear which guards the Sun's house.The bear is now a god, for he has beenchanged. Beneath the Black Bear are the colorsof the bears of the four directions: black,gray (or blue), yellow, and white. Witcheswill say that the Black Bear will go and bitepeople, hurt them or kill them. A singer maypray to this bear for protection from witches.He will say: "Big Black Bear, at the eastward,with the bear pollen, lying over there, I willgive you this gift for my protection (turquoiseand rust, a specular iron ore). Here is mygift to you for your power. A witch told methat the bear will bite me, but this will nothappen. Black Bear, get up before me formy protection. Black Bear, get up before mewith your black flint shoes. Black Bear, getup before me with your black flint stockings.Black Bear, get up before me with your blackflint clothing. Black Bear, get up before mewith your black flint cap." The bear will hearthis prayer, for the wind will tell him.19. Serpent or Big Snake. On his back aretwo boxes. The first represents his home.The inverted V's are the tracks of the deerand antelope. The red spot on the foreheadof the Big Snake is a whistle, like the one atTuba. 10 This makes the earth move. Accordingto the story (i.e., the informant's story),the Big Snake stays inside his hole and "suckspeople to him." u The deer or other animalsmay be a long way off and the Big Snake willdraw them closer and closer until they gofaster and finally run to the Big Snake. Thereis a Big Snake near Fort Defiance. It is overthree feet long and has the power to eat animalswhole. When he eats a deer, he gets bigenough to swallow him. The colors beneathBig Snake represent the snakes of the fourdirections. He, too, guards the Sun's house.20. Thunder. This is Thunder. Beneathhis arms (red) is his power. He also guardsthe Sun's house and he is now a god. Beneaththe Thunder are the colors of the main Thundersof the four directions.2 1 The Wind. This is the Wind or Tornado.He, too, is a guardian at the Sun's house.Beneath this god are the colors which representthe gods of the four directions. Abovethe head of this god are two triangles whichshow him to be the Wind and which representthe clouds. A witch will say, "Tornadopick that man up."22. You. This represents you!a. Your hair. 12b. Your face and your eyelashes, or dirt,spittle or any water used to clean your face.c. This is your arm and the dirt whichcomes from it.d. This is your body and legs and thedirt from them.e. This is your waste — urine and feces.f. This is your footprint.g. This is your shadow and a witch couldsteal it from you.Some readers may notice that there are details inthe representations of the bear, big snake, thunder,and others, which vary from one ceremony to thenext. This is the way in which they were representedin the informant's original drawings and it has nosignificance other than that no effort was made tomake the pictographs similar.10At Tuba City, Arizona, is a government heatingand power plant which has a steam whistle."Hill, 1938, pp. 113-17."These hairs should actually number only 7 insteadof 11.

All of these things can be taken and used bya witch to make a person ill and sick.23. These are all of the things combinedwhich can kill you. The various colored linesrepresent everything that can be used. Thecircle represents the earth — everything onthe earth. The yellow cross represents nothing.13 Because of these things a witch maypray that you be killed by anything — a horse,rock, sheep and so on. Many colors are usedbecause the witch can use anything to makesomeone sick.24. Witch (red).a. This means that he is crying becauseof what has been done to him with this ceremony.Big Snake was beaten by this power(the ceremony).b. The songs and prayers go from thehead to the toes, and the witch's power goesback to his heart or has been reversed on him(the usual order of sequence has been reversedto nullify the witchcraft and to send it backto the witch).c. "A long time ago when a witch usedthis power on me and now it goes into hisheart."d. The circle represents the power thathas been encircled or turned back to him (thewitch).25. The witch has died and gone farunder the north pole to the "c'j-di-" land.26. The prayer goes: "Witchcraft wentbehind the red world and red heaven."a. Red Heaven.b. Red Earth.c. The entrance or door.The witch is blocked in and no longer canuse his power.27. This is the witch Coyote who comesup in front of the witch to block him. Thewitch and Coyote ordinarily are friends, butbecause of these songs and prayers, Coyotemust block the witch.28. Squeaking Pinyon Jay. He is a friendof witches. He also must block the witch becauseof the songs and prayers (i.e., becauseof this ceremony Squeaking Pinyon Jay isforced to fight against the witchcraft).THE PICTURE WRITING: FISHLER29. Big Red Star — Coyote's Star. 14 Thisstar is seen only during the summer. Big RedStar is a god, for when a witch says somethingwill happen to someone due to this star, it willhappen. He, too, must block the witch becauseof this ceremony.30. Red North Star. This star is evil. He,too, must block the witch.Black North Star. He is our friend forhe helps us. There are these two north stars:one good and one evil, but both live in heavenand not on the stars themselves, for they are3 1 .gods.32. Curing Bear, a good bear. Now as wetravel back (i.e., from the first line to thesecond and right to left), we start to cure thepatient. The Black Bear is first and the BlueBear is second. In the sincr the reverse is true,for you sing to the Blue Bear first and theBlack Bear second, saying as before (plateI, D, 18): "Big Blue Bear to the eastward, etc.,etc."33. Curing Big Snake. He is of two colors,which are represented as before. The tonguesand the red color represent the power to swallowwitchcraft as is shown above.34. Curing Thunder. He is also of twocolors and is the same as above.35. Wind. He is of the two colors and isthe same as the others. Only two CuringBears, Big Snakes, Thunders and Winds areused, instead of four, because sometimes peoplepray only to one god or two instead ofall four. This has been done from the beginning.These are sung in the Opposite ways sothat the power of the witch will be reversedback to him; so that he will die instead of hisvictim.36. Mirage Stone. The lines representwhat the lines actually look like in the realstone. These are actually gods and are prayedto, as are the Bear, Big Snake, Thunder, theWind and other gods: "Black Mirage Stone,get up before me, etc."37. Mirage Stone Powder. He is also a god.He is prayed to, as are the others, to stopwitchcraft.38. Emergence — Upward-Reaching-Way. 1563"The informant was very emphatic about this." Haile, 1947, p. 8."This is a small ceremony which may be givenseparately. The names which are given for the ma-jority of the following ceremonies are hypotheticaland not actually known. Father Berard, Dr. Wymanand the author agree as to these names being possibly(Continued on p. 64.)

6 4 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMa. The ladder or cane coming from theearth, which ended all revelations. 16b. The dark circle is the hole of emergence.c. The yellow represents the pollen usedto pray over the hole of emergence. "Eventoday, we (the informant and author) couldgo and pray over this and give pollen for ourgood health."39. Black Owl. He is a god and is a fortuneteller who tells you what will happen in thefuture.40. Blue or Gray Owl. This whole ceremonyis called Owl-Raised-Ute, or it is sometimescalled Two-Days-with-the-Owl story.There are few singers who know this.41. Gifts. These are gifts which are givento the Owl nowadays in return for what hetells:a. Turquoise.b. White Shell (bead).c. Oyster Shell.d. Biack Obsidian (jet).e. Gray Obsidian.There are prayers said over all of these, asbefore.Plate II: Branch of the Big Starway.1. Monster Slayer. Above his head is darkness.These figures represent certain gods:2. Dawn. The yellow represents the sunlight.3. Sun.4. Moon.5. a. This is the North Star. Big Dipper. 176. Big Star (Scorpio). There is a Blackand a Blue Big Star: "Black and Blue Starsdown toward the south." 187. Little stars, black and blue, or slim firstone (part of Orion). 19 "Little black and bluestars down toward the south."8. a. Black Big Star is in the southeasternheavens. 20skies.isb. Grav (dark) Big Star. 21c. Blue Big Star is in the northern skies. 2 -d. Yellow Big Star is in the southerne. White Big Star, "igniter of thunder,"near the center of the skies.f. Silver (red?) Big Star, "igniter of flashlio;htnin°;," is in the southwestern skies.(Continued fro?n p. 63.)the right ones, based upon the descriptive materialwithin each ceremony. Father Berard Haile, 1938a,pp. 640, 641, has pointed out that an entire ritual mavbe shared in common by several chantways. Thepopular and strong ceremonials grow as the weakerones are absorbed into the repertory of the strongerone. This apparently also accounts for the extinctionof chantways. Added to this difficulty of identificationis the problem of chants having two or morenames, besides an occasional nickname."This refers to White Shell Woman or WhiteBead Woman going to the west, at which time thegods said they would not be in direct contact withthe Earth Surface People any longer. Fishier, 1953,p. 92.17 Haile, 1947, p. 4. In this drawing, by the informant,there are less stars than actually exist in the BigDipper, but the pattern is such that the Big Dipperas a part of Ursa Major is recognizable. Dr. Vogt, ina personal communication, has reminded me of severalfactors which may influence the apparent differencesbetween the description by my informant andthose represented by Father Berard, Dr. Tozzer, andthe actual positions. Those Navaho who do knowstar lore, divide the heavens differently from one another,with few representations being as they actuallyexist in the heavens. Also to fulfill the purpose of thepicture writing the ones made by my informant didnot have to be exact replicas to fulfill their purpose."Haile, 1947, p. 7, notes that this star representsFirst Man, who was the author of witchcraft, inhuman form. The number of stars represented hereare fewer in number than actually exist, but somesimilarities are found. In the drawing, the constellationHyades, lacking two stars, is an addition toOrion. Although lacking these two stars, the drawingis very similar to Tozzer's (1908, p. 31) rattle markingnomenclature, rather than the actual appearance, butHyades is more similar to the actual appearance ofthe stars. Haile's data do not agree with Tozzer andhe believes Hyades and Pleides are assigned to Oriondue to ritualistic significance."The drawing of Orion, Scorpio and Ursa Majorfollow the Navaho custom of representing humanparts, feet, arms, head, etc., in Haile, 1947, p. 7. However,the drawing here, follows Tozzer's drawings,1908, p. 31, more than they do Haile's.30 Haile, 1947, p. 8. Little has been published onthe Big Starway. Without more information it is difficultto tell whether this ceremony is a part of it ornot. Many similarities exist, the names of the constellationsand other stars, with the exception of GrayStar; Thunder; Big Snake; Wind Bear; Big Star;one of the War Twins; and the use of five stanzasongs.'This star is not noted in Haile, 1947.'Haile, 1947, does note the stars in 8c, d, e, f.

.THE PICTURE WRITING: FISHLER 65g. This is said to represent nothing.h. Five. This represents the five stars,with five stanzas (above numbers a, c, d, e, f).i. This is the singer; as he sings he usesthese figures. He sings: "I am a Black BigStar, War Twin, etc."j. Seven Stars (Pleiades). 23k. These colors represent the colors ofthe stars.9. a. This represents the five stanzas usedin this ceremony.b. This represents the same star as above,Black Big Star.c. Monster Slayer.10. Blue (green) Star. This has five stanzas.These are the same as above.Yellow Star. This also has five stanzas.1 112. White Star. The White Star has fivestanzas.13. Pronged Star. This has five stanzas upin the sky. 2414. Silver Star. This has five stanzas.15. The informant claimed this representednothing, but is used merely to tell the orderof the verses. One at first might wonder atthis, but a similar explanation of its purposewas given at the end of the ceremony (number26).16. Wind. This is the Wind with all fivestanzas telling about the black, blue, yellow,white and silver Wind.17. Thunder. This is the Thunder withfive stanzas telling about the black, blue, yellow,white and silver Thunders.18. Big Snake. This is the Big; Snake withfive stanzas telling about the black, blue, yellow,white and silver Big Snakes.19. Bear. This is the Bear with five versestelling about the black, blue, yellow, whiteand silver Bears. The red on his back representsthe power of the Bear.20. Monster Slayer.a. "Big Star above his head."b. "Lightning from his head."c. "Lightning from his hand."d. "Lightning from his knee."e. "Lightning from his feet."21. Hand of the Twin. This holds hisshield.22. These are the same and are used as protectionby the Twin. The Twin said, "Powerholding the shield in front of me," i.e., a protectionshield.23. Thirteen. This is the name of it (?).24. "Enemies falling away," and, "Enemiesdying from witchcraft."25. Shield of Protection. This is as innumber 22. This means, "The red (witchcraft)will bounce off the shield." The ceremonyitself is the shield, which deflects danger,evil or witchcraft.26. Beginning of ceremony. This showsthe beginning of the ceremony and the end.27. Hogan. This represents the hoganwhere the ceremony is to take place. Thesinger symbolically goes out to the east, wherethe first red dot is shown, and prays. He thengoes out to the south and prays; goes to thewest and prays and then goes out to the northtwice and prays. The five stanza prayer of"9" is used when to the east, at the red dot.To the north are used the stanzas of "10" onthe red dots. On the west is used "11" and onthe north are used the prayers of "12" and"i3-"The red in the diagram represents witchcraftor the evil spirits against the sick person.Numbers 14 and 15 are used at the hogan also,as are 23 and 26, which are the same. The*" Haile, 1947, p. 9. The informant specificallymentioned seven stars, but of course, only six arevisible in the skv. Upon the cloth were eight stars.The informant followed the distribution of the actualrepresentation, as is shown in Tozzer, 1908, p. 31,but with two additional stars. Nor does the informant'sdistribution follow that used on the mask of theBlack God as shown in Haile, 1947, p. 3. The differencemay be explained in several ways: ( 1 ) extensiveknowledge of star lore is not esoteric; (2) miscopyingon part of the author; (3) accurate reproduction byinformant is not important since symbols are mnemonic;(4) ceremonial restrictions. Father Berard Haile,1947, p. 11, adds that difficulty in identifying the starisbecause verifications can be made only during certainmonths and the tendency is to find the figurerepresented in star groups, so a larger area must beincluded in order to accommodate all of the stars.The informant follows Tozzer's belief, of eight starswithout the additional five of Haile's, 1947, p. 11, tocomplete the Pleiades, Haile, 1947, p. 12.24This is also called White Star, but differs fromthe above, which is probably the morning or eveningstar. Haile, 1947, p. 7. Although the number five israther ambivalent in that it can be associated withthe practice of witchcraft, it is as often used in thecuring of witchcraft. Reichard, 1950, pp. 244-47.

.66 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMblack dots represent the singer battling thewitchcraft. The red lines represent the actionand thoughts of witchcraft by a witch. Thedark lines represent the action and thoughtsof the singer to counteract the witchcraft.Since there are two thoughts or actions, twoprayers are used against the witchcraft. Tothe north are two dark lines. In case there istrouble and the first prayer does not work,"14" is used to supplement the ceremony. Allof this is done while all the prayers are beingsaid.The good people and the good singers likethese ceremonies, one and two, for they destroyevil.Plate III 25This ceremony is something like the onewith Thunder (Ceremony I), but the Bearis prayed to here.1. Bear. This is the bear, "All of the Bear."2. Mountain. This is the mountain byFort Defiance, c'osgai — white spruce — theChuska Ran^e. This where the War Twinsspent the night with the bear. Afterwards theTwins said, "This will be used in future times,"i.e., the information gained while with thebear.3. Sun.4. East. This line represents the east, wherethe Sun comes up. "Under, toward the east,a Black Bear lying. I need your protection."5. Witch.6. Power. This is the power of the witchand what he thinks.7. Connecting the witch. This line is fromthe witch: "As he cries."8. Suffering. "The witch as he suffers."9. Dying. The witch dies, ". . . and as hefinally dies because of the power of this ceremony."There are many verses to this ceremonyas the witch suffers, cries, and finallydies.10. Gifts. These are the gifts of the whiteshell, turquoise, oyster shell and jet given tothe Bear, Big Snake, Thunder and the Wind,for their help and power. Blue pollen 26 isalso given, so as to not let the witchcraft takeplace.1 1 The First Twin or the Second Twin.26This chantway is unrecognized, but it is not apart of the Blessing Way.This represents the First or Second Twin,with lightning and flint from his head, shoulders,hand, knee and foot. As you pray to theBear, you say, "I am the First War Twin,etc." As you pray to the Big Snake, you say,"I am the Second War Twin." Praying to theThunder, you say, "I am the First War Twin,"and praying to the Wind you say, "I am theSecond War Twin."12. Singer. This shows the singer actingas the War Twin, shooting lightning: "Protectionof lightning and flint around me."13. Colors of Bears. These are the fourcolors of bears: black, gray (blue), yellow andwhite.14. These four represent the four lightnings.The flint, added to these which theTwin has, makes five stanzas in all.15. Big Snake. This is the Big Snake offour colors.16. Home. This is where the Snake lives.a. Cliff. This is a cliff or- rock wall.b. Singer. This is the singer.17. Thunder. This is the Thunder of fourcolors.18. Clouds. These are Clouds where theThunder s^oes for protection from witchcraft.The Thunder and the Clouds always go together.19. Wind. This is the Wind of the fourcolors.Plate IV: Blessing Way.Sometimes a person will learn too much orgain too much power. He may get stiff whenhe is beincj sung over or when he is hearingstories. He may get anxious or worry overstories and thus get sick. When this happens,this ceremony is held.1. Talking God. On his head are "live"eagle feathers.2. Black Mountain. This is Pelado Peak, tothe east.3. Corn Pollen. Inside the mountain is cornpollen.4. Doorway to Mountain. This is the trailor doorway of the mountain. The mountainis like a hogan and one can go in or out. Thepollen shown is that used during the ceremonyinside the hogan.w Wyman and Harris, 1941, p. 32.

.1947, pp.THE PICTURE WRITING: FISHLER67Haile, 16-29. ward Reaching Way.5. Pollen Footprint. This is the pollen footprint6. Wind. The Wind of four colors orof the person who is sick.directions.6. Pollen Fingerprints. These are the pollenfingerprints of the person who is sick. Plate VI 20These pollen prints are made from pollen duringIf a person is hurt under the heavens or onthe ceremony.the earth, there is a ceremony which can beheld to cure him. If a person has Mirage Rock7. Pollen Sitting Print. This is a pollensitting print made during the ceremony.in his medicine bag and it is broken, he must8. Pollen Trail. This is like a trail going give a gift before he can fix it. If you getany place — home, on a trip, hunting or anywhere.hurt in the horizon where there is a mirage,a gift of the five (white shell, turquoise, oyster9. Long; life. This is sa/ah na-yai: "I am shell, jet and red stone) will cure you. If aimmortal (have long life) until the time I willdie of old age."twosinger knows such prayers he can cure a sickperson from these causes.1. Earth. This is the earth. Inside the eartha. This connects the together, sa/ahna-yai and bikeh xozq.are twelve colors, but only four need to be10. Happiness or bikeh xozq.used in this ceremony. Beneath the earth are1 1 This is also part of bikeh xozq.the four colors. The things inside the earthAfter this ceremony is done over vou, all are plants, trees, flowers — just to show thatpeople will be friendly and no one will witch this represents the earth. 30you. 272. Heaven Black. This is the Black Heaven.Plate VThe informant stated that there was no specialreason for the red or yellow around heaven.This is a short ceremony for protection3. Mirage Rock. This is Mirage Rock withagainst witchcraft. The singer may pray to all the four colors: Black Mirage Rock, Blue,protect himself or to protect the patient. The Yellow and White Mirage Rock. The yellowpatient can decide whether he wants this and black lines show this to be Mirage Rock.prayer or not during a ceremony. 284. Mirage God. You can pray for help:"Black Mirage, rise before me so no enemy1. Sun.a. The lines represent the direction, east. will see me. Can you see anything beyond2. Gifts. These are gifts which are given me?"to the Bear, Big Snake, Thunder and the A gift of the five must be given to theWind.earth or heaven for help and protection.Bear. 3. This is the Bear and the colorsbeneath represent bears of the four directions: Plate VII: A Self-Protection Prayer. 31the Black Bear of the east, the blue one to the1. Witch. This is the witch and the redsouth, yellow to the west and the White Bear coming from him is his pow r er or thoughts.to the north.2. Shield. This is the shield of the singer —4. Big Snake. This is the Big Snake with the power of the singer or the actual ceremony:four colors."Stand your shield before me."3. Shields. The arrow is the power 5. Thunder. The four colored Thundersof theare represented here.witch and the four vertical lines represent27The above representation of the concept of28 Alterations may be made in the order of componentceremonies, for these may be reversed in theirLong Life and Happiness is an interesting and complexone. Why or how the informant used such order as to the need of the patient. Kluckhohn andsymbols to represent these ideas cannot be answered, Wyman, 1940, p. 21.for as Father Berard Haile states, 1947, p. 17, these29 This could be Lifeway for injuries, but there istwo are never reproduced in sand paintings. These nothing in the symbols to suggest it.two may be discussed separately, but as shown in the30 In a sand painting by Oakes, 1943, p. 30, thediagram they are thought of as intimately linked. colors similarly are spotted and represent the seedsNote Fishier, 1953, fn, p. 12, for additional information.Father Berard discusses some aspects of this,This may be Wind Way, Shooting Way orof the earth.Up-

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMThe witch tries to get his powerfour shields.through these shields, but he cannot penetratethem. This shield is of four verses, just likeceremony II, 21 and 22.4. Monster Slayer. This is the First WarTwin who has flints covering him like clothes.Beneath him are the colors of the flints. ThisFirst War Twin's first name represents theSun (i.e., he is the child of the Sun). Theblack color makes it possible to remember thename and which god goes with the stanza.5. Born for Water. This is the Second WarTwin's name.6. Changing Grandchild. This is the FirstWar Twin.7. Raised in the Ground. The Second WarTwin got his name from being raised in theground on top of the mountain.8. Black Flint. This is the black flint thatthe First Twin, Monster Slayer, wears.9. Blue Flint. This is the blue flint thatBorn for Water wears.10. Yellow Flint. This is the yellow flintChanging Grandchild wears.11. White Flint. This is the white flintRaised in the Ground wears.Plate VIII: Blessing Way.Many singers have been making MountainSoil Medicine. They do the ceremony wrongand these singers cannot fix them correctly.Mirage Rock horses and sheep are in it. 32 You82This Mountain Medicine or Mountain Soil, wasgathered from the six Navaho sacred mountains withthe correct prayers and songs. The informant receivedsome of this medicine, along with a BlessingWay story, which he claimed to be six hundred vearsold, with the completion of his apprenticeship. Thebag of Mountain Medicine protects vour propertyand helps to hold onto it — even your wife. It alsokeeps your land moist and helps you gain everythingyou want. The bag gained more power because ithad been owned by powerful singers.M For a number of years, a controversial questionhas been the exact boundary of Navaho country, accordingto the four sacred mountains. There existgood reasons for this confusion, besides those givenby Sleight, 1051, in that many of the Navaho do notknow and that there are many interchangeable names.On ten different occasions lists of from four to elevensacred mountains were gained by the author. Allversions agreed on Mount Tavlor and San FranciscoPeak or Mountains. Some disagreement occurredabout the northern mountain. Two designated it asNavaho Mountain, while the rest used interchangeablyBig Sheep Mountain or San Juan Mountains.should never say a bad word while you havethis medicine for it is like saying a bad wordagainst your medicine. If you should dropyour bag you would go to "c'j-di-" in a fewdays. But if you had this ceremony to usewhen you dropped it, you would be all right."Live longer, deathless forever; happiness andpeaceful." You can also use this ceremony inother ways — if you were to suffer on amountain or to be hurt on the top of a mountain,this ceremony could be used.1. sisna-zini. This mountain is PeladoPeak: 33 "Black Mountain, black; Black Mountain,blue; Black Mountain, yellow; BlackMountain, white." 8* Beneath the mountainare the four colors which are within themountain and all the others do not count (i.e.,the other twelve). These colors also representthe stanzas.2. co-zit. This mountain is Mount Taylor:"Blue Mountain, black; Blue Mountain, blue;Blue Mountain, yellow; Blue Mountain, white."3. do-ko'osli-d. This is San FranciscoPeak: "Yellow Mountain, black; YellowMountain, blue; Yellow Mountain, yellow;Yellow Mountain, white."4. dibenca. This is Hesperus Peak: "WhiteMountain, black; White Mountain, blue;White Mountain, yellow; White Mountain,white."All four mountains are actually black, butwithin each there are other colors so that theFather Berard Haile, 1938b, p. 42, points out thatwhile Matthews and the Franciscan Fathers identifiedthe northern mountain with the San Juan, he believesthis to be Hesperus Peak. My informants, while usingthe name Black Belt Mountain or sisna-zini for theeastern mountain, identified this mountain as PeladoPeak. Father Berard, 1938b, p. 66, identified this asBlanca Peak, while Sleight, 195 1, p. 394, believes theeastern mountain to be Pelado. It may be of interestto mention the drawing of the six sacred mountainsin plate XI. Sisna-zini, as most authors have interpretedit, has a horizontal black belt through its center, plusits being a pointed mountain. This is of interest sincethe photographs of the Jemez Range, in which PeladoPeak is found (Sleight, 1951, p. 391), is an elongated,rather level, range of mountains.31The usual color order of the holy mountains iswhite, blue, yellow and black. Matthews suggested,and Reichard, 1950, p. 221 agreed, that the sequenceof white, blue, yellow and black have to do withgood, while black, blue, yellow and white occurwhere there is danger. Reichard, pp. 221-40, goesinto all the varying color sequences and their ramifications.

THE PICTURE WRITING: FISHLER 69four verses or stanzas also have the colors ofblack, blue, yellow and white. The yellowwhich surrounds the mountains is MountainPollen. This comes from plant and tree pollen.5. Black Rock. This is a black rock orstone. If a person were working with stonesor rocks, or fell from a cliff or rock and washurt, this ceremony would be used. Sometimesa person will dream of falling into acanyon, and not be able to get out, or fallingoff a rock; in all these cases, this ceremony isused to cure.6. Blue Rock. This is blue or wreen rockor stone.7. Yellow Rock.8. White Rock.The colors beneath the rocks represent thecolors of the verses: "Black Rock, black; BlackRock, blue," etc. The yellow surrounding therocks is rock pollen — there may be a rockunder a tree and in this way you can get rockpollen.Pollen can thus be gathered from allof these six mountains and used during theceremony. If a flat rock were used in a ceremonyand it were broken, this ceremonywould have to be used to repair it.9. Plants. This represents all the plantswhich grow all over the earth. Some plantshave needles, poison or burrs. If a personsleeps or steps on one of these, he might getsick. If he did, he would have to have thisceremony. The yellow represents the pollengathered from good plants. Beneath the plantare the four verses represented in color, asabove.10. Trees. This represents all kinds of trees.A young tree should not be cut because ofthe gods or spirits dwelling within it — likethe bear spirit in the pinvon tree. Cuttingtrees will make you sick. If a person werehurt by carrying a post or some wood, or ifa tree fell on you or you tripped over somewood, or if you were to climb up into a treeand eat — all of these things could cause sickness.Then this ceremony would have to bedone. Again there are four colors, representingthe stanzas. The remainder is the same asthe above.Plate IX : Water Way.1. Male Cloud. The vertical lines comingfrom the bottom are rain. Over the top of thecloud is yellow cloud pollen. This pollen isgathered after it has rained. You go to a lakeand at the edge gather the pollen lying on topof the water. This is all kinds of pollen —from trees, plants, rocks, and other things.If it were cloudy and you became blind, ifyou were to catch a cold from a rainstorm,or if you have a heart attack when it is storming,or if you were almost drowned — thisceremony would be used to cure you. Thepollen gained from the water must be usedonly on those who have been scared by suchthings, but not really hurt. Again there arefour stanzas of four colors.2. Female Cloud. This is a female black,blue, yellow, and white cloud. If you werein a fog and became sick from this or if youwere to get sick from the rain or snow inthe wintertime, this ceremony would be used.3. Water Weeds. These are Water Weedswith the four colors with four stanzas below.If a person were to drink water with WaterWeeds in it, he would get a sickness in thestomach. Water Pollen would have to begathered, lying on top of the water near seaweed,and used in the ceremony.4. Water. This is water — any water uponthe earth. If a person dreams he drowns inthe ocean, or a person almost drowns and heis rescued, you have to use this ceremonywithin four days or on the fifth day he willbe dead. If he bleeds from the nose, there isnothing that can be done. If the man has beenin the water four days and has no nose bleed,he is not dead yet. After he is pulled out, agift must be given of five pieces of stone tothe water and a prayer is said. He is thenuncovered to see if he is still bleeding andif he is, there is no hope. If he is not bleedingmore stanzas are sung and soon he will be allright. If this prayer does no good, anotherprayer is said to the Thunder and he cures thesick person. If you had a chance to swim witha girl and have intercourse with her in thewater, you would get sick and this ceremonywould have to be held over you.Plate X: Blessing Way1. Talking God. This represents the TalkingGod. In the Yeibichai the man taking theplace of Talking God, may tear his mask, orclothes or sack, or he may cough in the mask

7° A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMor he may put the costume on wrong or hemay hear a yei (god) at night. 35 If any ofthese things happen, he will get sick and ifthe Yeibichai chant is held over him and itdoes no good, then this song is used.2. Calling God. The same things may happenat the Yeibichai with the man takingCalling God's place. He might also becomeblind for not performing correctly or hismouth might become crooked aspunishmentfor something he did or should not have done.3. Cedar Tree. This represents a youngcedar tree. When you go to a cedar tree topray you use the prayer of the Talking andCalling Gods. The five colored stones are leftas a gift for the favor asked. The reason youdo this is because the young cedar tree isTalking and Calling God.4. Corn Field. This represents a corn field.If there is no cedar tree you can do the sameas above (number 3) in a corn field. As youenter the corn field you can motion with yourhand toward a tree on a distant mountain andthis will bring the tree to the corn field.If aperson were to give away too many things,carry too many things (commit an excess ofany kind) he might get sick and this ceremonywould have to be used. If intercourse were totake place in the corn field, sickness wouldresult. In this last case, in addition to thesongs and prayers, a sand painting must bemade of Pollen Boy and Corn Beetle for acure. 36In all of these ceremonies, a part of the ceremonymay be used on one specific sickness,but all of this portion must be used or theperson will not be cured.a. Tassels.b. Ears of corn.c. Roots.d. Leaves.5. Pollen Boy. This is Pollen Boy with thefour colors beneath. If you were to lose yourpollen bag or if you have intercourse with a36Such mistakes in the Night Chant are believedto cause blindness, warping, crippling, or twistedmouths. Reichard, 1950, p. 94.36Most of Hill's (1938, p. 56) informants believedthat intercourse did no harm to the corn. One informantbelieved such acts to anger the holy beingsand they would cause trouble.87McAUester's (n.d.) informant, has portrayedLong Life as being either a cross or a cross with thewoman and the pollen bag isyou have this ceremony done.in your pocket,Or if you werepraying for a patient and you drop the bag,this ceremony is done.6. Corn Beetle. Beneath her are the fourcolors. She raises all the plants but would notbe able to without Pollen Boy. These two areinseparable and these two are used togetherin ceremonies. The gift of the five stones inthe corn field are for the Corn Pollen Boy andCorn Beetle Girl. In all cases there must befour stanzas as in previous ceremonies. To getpollen from Corn Beetle, pollen is shaken fromher, i.e., corn pollen is placed on a cornbeetle and then used. Pollen Boy representsLong Life and Corn Beetle Girl representsHappiness.Plate XI: Blessing Way orUpward Reaching Way.If a person gets sick and becomes stiff, thisceremony is used. There are rtany songs andprayers used.1. Earth. This represents the earth. Theinformant stated that the green had no specificmeaning. If someone were to get stiffthis song, "Earth," is sung and a massage givento the parts that are stiff.2. Patient and the Singer. This representsthe patient and the singer. "I am the god (anygod) who stands in the earth."3. "He is moving (or rising) with me."4. "He (the god) got up with me."5. "Carry me along and take me home."6. "Coming back soon to my home."7. "He is going back with me. He sitsdown with me. He is starting to tell stories touse (in the ceremony). He has finished tellingthe stories to me."8. "I am Long Life."9. "The Two go together (Long Life andHappiness)." 3710. "I am Happiness."11. Heaven. "I am the god who stands inhorizontal bar the same as the horizontal bar on aswastika, while Happiness is represented by a swastika.It would be interesting to know the motivationbehind the picturing of these concepts in such a manner.Since the completion of the manuscript, Dr. Mc-Allester has informed me that although he did notcheck this point specifically, there was no implicationthat these formed a traditional set of symbols.

the heaven." The red is for remembering whatthe picture is.12. "Mother Mountain."13. "Mother Water," which can be anywater or waves.14. "Pelado Peak," horizontal Black BeltMountain. As each of the six mountains aresaid and as each of the other gods are spokenof, you say, "I am the god who stands insidethe heaven (or inside the earth or mountain,etc.)." This is repeated from two to ten times.15. "iMount Taylor."16. "San Francisco Peak." The mountainlooks like the drawing.17. "Hesperus Mountain," or Big SheepMountain.18. "Huerfano Mountain or ReversibleMountain or Mountain Around Which MovingWas Done." The cross means that youcan look at the mountain from all sides andit still looks that same way from any direction.19. "Gobernador Knob." The Navahoname is that of 66-1'fj- and this is the reasonfor the Lorraine Cross in the center.First Man brought up all six mountains frombelow, after the flood began. It was CrownPoint (Gobernador) and Reversible Mountainsthat were hogans and where the gods, inthe beginning, talked of making the variousanimals. 3820. Mirage Rock.21. Mirage Rock Powder. This is actuallya powder. The small lines represent thepowder.22. Plant Mirage. This represents the mirageof plants.23. Mirage Water. Mirage Water is thatwhich is seen on roads during hot days.24. Talking God.25. Calling God. He has not as manyfeathers and he is not as powerful as TalkingGod. These are "live eagle feathers."26. Corn. This corn represents all corn.The colored tassels represent various coloredcorn.27. Pollen Boy.28. Corn Beetle Girl.29. Long Life and Happiness.THE PICTURE WRITING: FISHLER 7'a. This is where the person, any person,stands to do the prayer and songs.b. "Good pathway in front of me, I willgo by that."c. "Good pathway behind me, I will goby that."d. "Good pathway under me, I will goby that."e. "Good pathway on top of me, I willgo by that."f. "All things around me will be good."g. "My thoughts will be good forever(sa/ah na-yai). I will talk pleasantly (bikehxozq)."These make up part of the Good Way(Blessing Way). As you go from the earth,gods, mountains, and other things, you say,"I am the god who stands inside heaven, etc."Plate XII : Blessing WayThis is a Blessing Way song used to washa patient's hair. This ceremony is called,"This-is-when-they-created- (or layed out)Corn Beetle Girl."1. Corn field.a. Corn field outlines.b. The corn.2. Layed out. "This is the way it has beenlayed out." The gods put her inside the corntassel. Talking God wanted to see if she couldmake a sound and that was why he was there.3. Corn Beetle Girl. When she was layedout, number 2, this song was sung:a. "Her pollen feet."b. "Her pollen legs."c. "Her pollen body."d. "Her pollen face."e. Diamond quartz bag. "Turquoisewings with diamond designs inside the wings."f. "She makes a sound."g. "Pollen feather."h. "The thoughts of Talking God andCorn Beetle Girl are almost the same."i. "Then Talking God said, 'our echoes(voices) are almost the same.' " 39j. This is the corn field Corn Beetle Girlwent to, when she was to hear the sound.38 Fishier, 1953, pp. 27, 33.89The Franciscan Fathers, 1910, pp. 383, 384, statethat when Talking God and Calling God and otherswere created and the spirit of life breathed into them,the Corn Beetle Girl was to give speech or voice tothe others. When he spoke, Talking God could utteronly, "wuuhu," and Calling God could utter only,"quwo, qawo."

7- A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMk. The quartz bag (?).4. Talking God.5. This is exactly the same as XI, 29, except:a. This shows Corn Beetle Boy and CornBeetle Girl layed out together as describedin number 2.6. Corn Field. This also represents a cornfield. Calling God, number 7a, did the sameas Talking God, but he used pumpkins insteadof corn.a. A long narrow corn field.b. Pumpkins.7. Corn Beetle, a girl.a. "Her pollen feet."b. "Her pollen legs."c. "Her pollen body."d. "Her pollen face."e. "Turquoise wings and diamond designsinside the wings."f. "She makes a sound (or echo)."g. "Pollen feather."h. "The thoughts of Calling God andCorn Beetle Girl are almost the same."i. "Then Calling God said, 'Our echoesare almost the same.' "j. This is the corn field that Corn BeetleGirl went to, in order to hear the sound. TheCalling God did the same as the Talking God,but his prayers were with pumpkins.8. Names of the song. These are the namesof the song, such as, "Song about the wingsmaking sounds," or, "The quartz bag," andso on.9. Wings. "The wings are moving."10. Wings and noise. "The wings are makingnoises."1 1. 15 and 5 are the same.12. 13, 14 are the same songs, but have differentstarts, yet finish in the same way as theothers. The informant would say no moreabout this, but said that this would have tobe gained from another singer.All of these designs are used in differentways — prayers for protection or in the BlessingWay. All are used for protection and inthe Blessing Way.

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CONCLUSIONSPICTURE writing as a means of expressingthoughts or noting facts by various meansis a widespread phenomenon in North America.Mnemonic devices or "memory-joggers,"a subdivision of picture writing, are manifestamong primitive groups and while expressedupon anything from feathers to colored"sand," they are used to recount traditions,record treaties, keep accounts, give order ofsongs and for other purposes. 1 Little has beennoted in the published material dealing withthe Navaho as to the use of picture writingof the type shown here. 2The Franciscan Fathers tell us: 3 "By wayof illustration, and as an aid to memory, linesare sometimes drawn on the sand. Variousfigures are designed in blankets and depictedin sand paintings or on prayersticks, and arenow also seen on cloth and paper. The Navahodo not tattoo, neither do they write, draw ordesign on paper or leather." The Franciscanslater state: ". . . is a sample roll of prayerstickswhich is kept by some singers to aid inthe making of the various prayersticks forthe chants, or certain parts of the chants requiringspecial prayersticks, and tracing theorder in which they should follow. Not everysinger is possessed of the sample roll as mostof them rely upon memory in preparing andordering them." 4 No illustrations were given.Reichard, 5 writes of a medicine man whorelied upon paper sketches in the making ofprayer sticks.. Father Berard, 6 has reproducedthe first of two picture writing devices inpublished material similar to the ones owned'Mallery, 1882."This manuscript was completed when MissWheelwright brought to my attention the existenceof a second set of published mnemonic devices. Mc-Allester, n.d.' 1910, p. 74.' 1910, p. 398. Dr. Wyman, in a personal communicationin March, 1954, stated that he checked andcould find no singers who had used such cloths orhad even seen the type described by the FranciscanFathers.' '95°. P- 3°5-" Haile, 1950, p. 256.;N.d.by John Yazzi. While some of the devicesmay be followed in the Liberation Prayer itself,which is also concerned with the curingof witchcraft, no explanation of meaning isgiven for the individual symbols used. Dr.McAllester, 7 in his recording of the Music ofthe Navajo Creation Chants, worked in Arizonain the fall of 1950. The singer recordingfor him did not know the order of the wordsin the creation chant and to aid his memory,the informant drew pictographs. From thecontext of the paper, it would seem the informantdrew the pictographs, gaining theorder of words from songs recorded by anothersinger. Four of the figures were paintedyellow to represent such things as the yellowafterglow, and yellow pollen and corn. Essentiallythese devices of McAllester are similar,in some respects, to those described here inthat thev are used as a means to keep the wordorder. Again, without the interpretation bythe informant only a very few of the devicescould be recognized bv the majority of theNavaho and undoubtedly few, if any, of thestanzas of the songs could be ascertained byanyone other than the maker. 8In a way, it is not strange that picture writingof the type herein described should exist.The range and diversities of Navaho ceremonialismare outstanding when one notes themass of published data, and still much is to bedone. Dry paintings in a permanent mediumwere forbidden to the Navaho. 9 The purposeof the dry paintings was to allow some of the"power" depicted to be absorbed from the'The manuscript was completed when Dr. Mc-Allester informed me in a personal communicationdated March 15, 1954, that I was correct as to theway in which the informant made and used the picturewriting. He further stated that while he hadno statement in his field notes as to whether the informantused pictographs in the usual learning situation,it was his impression the informant had not usedpictographs previously. Dr. McAllester felt that themaking of the picture writing was a response to anunusual situation.'Reichard, 1950, p. 96; Sapir, 1935, p. 609; andWyman, 1952, p. 13.73

74 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMpainting into the patient. 10 The FranciscanFathers n note the following: "Originally,these drawings were made by the gods themselvesupon spreads designated as naskha, asewing, implying that the effigy was stitchedupon some kind of fabric. . . . These werespread out for the ceremony, after which theywere rolled up and carried to their homes bythe divinities." Yet those who made use ofpermanent drawings were gods, and this wasnot for the Earth Surface People to do! Onlywithin relatively recent years have the Navahofelt not only immune to the power of the godsin the making or reproductions of dry paintings,but have gained the understanding thatmuch would be lost, if some permanent mediumwere not used to preserve them. 12 While"sand painting" blankets may be looked uponas blasphemy by many Navaho, 13 equally soare the reproductions in water color, paintsor pencil. 14The Navaho then have on the one handprecedents set by the gods, who forbade thepermanent medium of a dry painting, and onthe other hand the fallibility of the memoryof man who has need of remembering thousandsof verses for one ceremony. Faced bysuch a dilemma it is not too hard to see howa Navaho might defy custom and feel that his"power" was sufficient reason to permanentlyrecord. Finally there is the rationalizationthat, whether the object be dry painting,blankets, or a "memory- jogger," the reproductionis not a real reproduction. This isbecause ideally no two things are made exactlyalike.As is true in picture writing generally, manyof the symbols used are exoteric and thusknown to the mass of people. In the moreideographic subjects, these may give the generalidea of what is represented, but not theexact words, or any words, for that matter. 15So it is with many of the devices describedhere. In the first ceremony, thunder is easilyrecognized, while the words belonging to theverses in the ceremony would not be knownto the majority of the Navaho. Even manyof the objects portrayed would not representexoteric knowledge.Some symbols are known and used over awide area by the Navaho, being very similarto those utilized by the Pueblo and Apache.Examples in published material show greatsimilarities to symbols utilized in petroglyphs,dry paintings, blankets, prayer sticks, sacrificialfigurines and baskets, with some variation asto composition, form and interpretation.Father Berard's picture writing 16 depictingthunder, bear, snake and wind are in formdesign closer to the ones described here thansymbols represented in any of the other Navahopublished material. That the actual formshould be a simplified version of the intricateand painstaking dry painting is natural, due tothe purpose involved. The picture writing isto assist in the remembering of the prayers andtheir order. While the important details aredepicted as reminders, the general form is simplified,easily fulfilling its function.Kluckhohn and Leighton adequately describedthe complexity of ceremonialism usingthe following simile: 17 "Prodigious memoryis demanded of the ceremonialist. The Singerwho knows one nine-night chant must learnat least as much as a man who sets out tomemorize the whole of a Wagnerian opera:orchestral score, every vocal part, all the detailsof the settings, stage business, and eachrequirement of costume." The old men aredying off and due to increased interest inthings non-Navaho, fewer young men are replacingthem. Certainly all the ingredients forsuch an innovation were present as far as thesedevices were concerned — knowledge of symbolsutilized elsewhere for various purposes,and there was certainly the impetus and needdue to the loss of the old men and non-interestof the young. There can be no doubt thatthe origin of the devices was influenced bywhites or acculturated Navaho. The essentialsof writing are well known. Still there was, asin much Navaho ceremonialism, a minimumof obvious white influence and the style still retainsits native flavor and technique. These10Reichard, 1950, p. 112.11 1910, p. 398.I2Wyman, 1952, p. 13.u Sapir, 1935, p. 609." Wyman, 1952, pp. 13-14."Mallery, 1888, p. 225."Haile, 1950, p. 256."Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1948, p. 163.

CONCLUSIONS: FISHLER 75devices were made by and for the informant only by the maker. Other similar devices existand were not to be utilized by others. These on the reservation, 18 and as modern life conare,then, individualistic picture writings of tinues to make inroads into the life of thefairly recent acquisition, with the relations of Navaho, there probably will be an increasedthe symbol to words and verses interpreted utilization of such devices."The informant, John Yazzi, stated that his clanbrother has some similar devices. Father Berard Haile, reported that other mnemonic devices are known toin a personal communication in November of 1953, exist on the reservation.

REFERENCES

REFERENCESDyk, Walter1945. A discussion of five cases of incest amongthe Navaho. Unpublished talk at the VikingFund Conference for Anthropology, October19, 1945.Fishier, Stanley A.1953. In the beginning, a Navaho creation myth.University of Utah, Anthropological Papers,no. 13.Franciscan Fathers1910. An ethnologic dictionary of the Navajo Indians.St. Michaels.Haile, Berardn.d. Prostitution Way and Moth Way. Unpublishedms. Department of Anthropology,University of Chicago.1929. Raised by the owl. Unpublished ms., Departmentof Anthropology, University ofChicago.1938a. Navaho chantways and ceremonials. AmericanAnthropologist, n.s., vol. 30, pp. 639-52.1938b. Origin legend of the Navaho Enemy Way.Yale University, Publications in Anthropology,no. 17.1940. A note on the Navaho visionary. AmericanAnthropologist, n.s., vol. 42, p. 359.1947. Starlore among the Navaho. St. Michaels.1950. Legend of the Ghostway ritual in the malebranch of the Shootingway. St. Michaels.Hill, W. W.1938. The agricultural and hunting methods of theNavaho Indians. Yale University, Publicationsin Anthropology, no. 18.Kluckhohn, Clyde1938. Participation in ceremonials in a Navahocommunity. American Anthropologist, n.s.,vol. 40, pp. 350-69.1944. Navaho witchcraft. Peabody Museum ofHarvard University, Papers, vol. 22, no. 2.Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Leighton, Dorothea1948. The Navaho. Cambridge.Kluckhohn, Clyde, and Wyman, L. C.Kroeber, A. L.1940. An introduction to Navaho chant practice.American Anthropological Association, Memoirs,vol. 53.1 90 1. Ute tales. Journal of American Folklore,vol. 14, pp. 252-85.1934. Walapai ethnology. American AnthropologicalAssociation, Memoirs, vol. 42.Leighton, A. H.1940. Unpublished field notes. Laboratory of SocialRelations, Harvard University, ComparativeStudy of Values.Lowie, Robert H.1909. The northern Shoshone. American Museumof Natural History, Anthropological Papers,vol. 2.1924. Shoshonean tales. Journal of American Folklore,vol. 37, pp. 1-242.Mallery, Garrick1882-83. P'ctographs of the North American Indians.Bureau of American Ethnology,Fourth Annual Report.1888-89. Picture writing of the American Indians.Bureau of American Ethnology, Tenth AnnualReport.Matthews, Washington1885. The origin of the Utes. American Antiquarianand Oriental Journal, vol. 7, pp.271-74.McAllester, David P.n.d. Notes on the music of the Navajo CreationChants. Peabody Museum of Harvard University,Special Publications.Oakes, Maud, and Campbell, J.1943. Where the two came to their father. NewYork.Opler, Morris1938. Myths and tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians.American Folklore Society, Memoirs,vol. 31.Reichard, Gladys1950. Navaho religion. New York.Sapir, Edward1935. A Navaho sand painting blanket. AmericanAnthropologist, vol. 37, pp. 609-16.Schmerler, Henriette193 1. Trickster marries his daughter. Journal ofAmerican Folklore, vol. 44, pp. 196-207.Sleight, Frederick W.1 95 1. The Navajo sacred mountain of the east — acontroversy. El Palacio, vol. 58, no. 12, pp.379-97-Tozzer, Alfred M.1908. A note on starlore among the Navaho.Journal of American Folklore, vol. 21, pp.28-32.79

SoA STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMWheelwright, Mary C.1951. Myth of Mountain Chant, told by HasteenKlah; Beauty Chant, told by Hasteen Gahni.Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, Bulletinno. 5. Santa Fe.Wyman, Leland C.1936. Navaho diagnosticians. American Anthropologist,vol. 38, pp. 236-46.1952. The sand paintings of the Kayenta Navaho.University of New Mexico, Publications inAnthropology, no. 7.Wyman, Leland C, and Harris, Stuart1941. Navajo Indian medical ethnobotany. Universityof New Mexico, Bulletin, vol. 3.no. 5.Wyman, Leland C, and Kluckhohn, Clyde1938. Navaho classification of their song ceremonials.American Anthropological Association,Memoirs, vol. 50.

PART III:NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS INVARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLDbyMary C. Wheelwright

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLSI N VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLDIN THE following pages 1 I have broughttogether references to symbols in variousparts of the world that correspond to somethat are mentioned in Airs. Newcomb's earlierchapters describing Navajo symbols. Theyare presented briefly for their suggestive value,without claim to completeness or comprehensivetreatment, solely as the record of oneperson's reading and observations.As an introduction to the pages that follow,I quote certain notes that I made upon firstreading Christopher Dawson's The Age of theGods. While there is some direct quotation,they reflect chiefly the impression of the earlychapters of the book upon a reader concernedwith the religion of the Navajo."A culture is a common way of life — a particularadjustment of man to his natural surroundingsand his economic needs. Race alonedoes not explain social development, for environment,occupation and thought interact invarying degrees. The history of mankindshows a continuous process of integration byreason, which is a creative power, and by religion,which embodies an attitude of life anda conception of reality. The prophet is perhapsthe greatest of all agents of social change.Thus the great stages of world culture arelinked with changes in man's vision of reality.Aristotle, in a flash of scientific imagination,anticipated modern experimental achievementsin the theory of the Great Summer and theGreat Winter, according to which the earthpasses through a cycle of climatic change,each phase of which is linked with a correspondingchange in the relative area of landand sea. When physical conditions are moststable, man does not progress.The religious impulse has been always andeverywhere present as one of the great permanentforces that make and alter man's destiny.The beginnings of religion are as old as thehuman consciousness.The African Bushmen and Australian abo-rigines are not typical of primitive man inEurope because of the great difference ofphysical type and geographical environment.It is rather in the Northern Steppe region ofAsia and America that we find the closestanalogies to Europe of the later glacial age,owing to parallels in climate, fauna and flora.There is to be found a common religiousfoundation which is the key to the earliestknown human religion — that of hunting people,who live utterly dependent on nature.The hunter sees everywhere behind the outwardappearance a vague supernatural power,showing itself alike in beast and plant, stormand heat, in rock and tree, in the magic of thepriest and in the spirits of the dead. Particularlyin the Indian tribes of North America,the idea lies at the root of primitive magic.Indians see the vague cosmic power above allmanifested in the animals, particularly in regardto the killing of bears. The relation ofthe hunter — the belief in animal guardianspirits — which goes back to late Palaeolithictimes may well have been diffused throughIndia to southeast Asia and Australasia, andthrough Siberia to North America.With the change from the Palaeolithicto the Neolithic culture, man ceased to be aparasite on nature, like the hunter; he learnedto govern and direct nature. Agriculturalpeople tend to matriarchy, for the cultivationof land involves fixed settlements, and it is thewoman who cultivates, not the mobile patriarchalhunter or owner of flocks, that is thestable element in society. A correspondingdevelopment is found in religion. Primitivepeoples regard the earth, which is the motherof the crops, as a female principle — The EarthMother. Her divine son and lover, who is thepersonification of the vegetative life of natureas seen in the trees and the harvest, symbolizeddeath and resurrection, and later gaveimmortality to initiates. While agriculturalpeople have an earth religion, pastoral people11 wish to express my gratitude to Mr. WalterWhitehill for his editing of this section.83

evere the Sun, the Moon and Storms; the SkyGod is supreme. This is possibly an older religionthan that of the Earth, as it was that ofA STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMDEER AND HORNS OF POWERhunting peoples before agriculture. Pastorallife frees men from continual labor and tendsto speculation."Horned animals in Mesopotamia, Assyria,Egypt, China, and among our Indians, eitherin the form of bull, antlered deer or antelope,were considered one of the earliest sourcesof power. From them developed such HornedGods as Pan or Cernunnos, and in the westernMiddle Ages the idea of the Christian Devil.This is suggestive of the fundamental unityof thought in regard to sources of power thatare possibly to be reached by prayer.In Navajo sand paintings the Sun, Moon,Earth-Mother, Sky-Father, and Storms arealways represented with horns of power. Inaddition the most powerful forms of certainpowers, such as snakes, are sometimes representedwith horns.The Navajo's reverence for the deer isshown bv the use of skins from deer killedwithout the shedding of blood in the costumeof the Yehbechai God; by the fact that theirpaintings were originally on deer skins; thatdeer appear in many of their paintings, andthat they use rattles of deer hoofs in theirdances. When I asked the Navajo priest Klahwhy the Navajo revered the deer, he pointedto the veins in his wrist, which suggest deerhorns. In one ceremony of the Red Ant, thewife of the hero is turned into a deer. Hornsdenote power to the Navajo. They also grindup the horns for medicine and burn them inincense.Similarly in primitive Chinese medicine,ground-up deer horn is considered efficaciousfor the blood and is prescribed to increasevirility. In regard to the deer horn as thecontainer of life, from which this medicaltheory probably derives, Mr. John HadleyCox of Washington, D.C., tells me that inManchuria deer horns are so transparent thatone can see the blood enter the new horns inthe spring. As the blood comes up in the deerhorns before the sap comes up in the treesor vegetation begins, to a people familiar withdeer in a country where trees are scarce ornon-existent, the horns give the first premonitionof spring. The deer rut in the autumnwhen their horns have hardened and dried,and the life-force that formerly passed intothe horns passes into the genitals. Mr. Coxtells me that in many early sites in many differentlocalities, ritual horned animals areburied with their horns above ground, andthat on the only documented set of earlyShang bronzes indicating ritual position (inthe Wedel collection), all the life forms, includingthe horns, show progressive growth.The superb Chinese bronze ceremonial vesselbelonging to Airs. Eugene Meyer of Washington,D.C., that is reproduced in plate I, a,shows man emerging from an insect form andevolving progressively through increasinglypowerful animal forms to the culmination ofa great monster with strongly curved hornsof full power.Horned figures appear early in prehistoricart, as in the Palaeolithic painting of the hornedsorcerer in the Caverne des Trois Freres inthe Ariege in southern France. In the fourthcentury b.c. in the Far East one finds a woodenantlered demon head from Ch'angsha in southcentral China, purchased in 1950 by the BritishMuseum (pi. I, b), which should be comparedwith the antlered human masks in theMound Builder culture from Hopewell Moundin Ohio (pi. II). Note also the antlered altarfrom Ch'angsha of the late Chou period, ca.third century B.C., belonging to Mr. JohnHadley Cox (pi. III).Mrs. Bober, in studying the Celtic deityCernunnos, calls attention (pp. 14, 18) to arock carving at Val Camonica, dating frombefore the mid-fourth century b.c. at the timeof the Celtic sojourn in northern Italy. Hereis an erect antlered figure, clothed in a longflowing garment, standing erect in an oranspose. She mentions Dr. Alfred Salmony'stheory that "the antler motive lived on in theart of the steppe people, who carried it intoChina and at the same time bequeathed it tothe Celts." Salmony cites antlered horse masksfrom the Scythian burial at Pazirik, and twogold "shaman" crowns in the Seoul Museum

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT^5from Silla in Korea with tree and antler decorationsthat indicate Siberian connections.An Indus Valley seal of about 3000 B.C.from Mohenjodaro (reproduced by Coomaraswamy,pi. VI, fig. 22) shows a male hornedgod sitting cross-legged — a prototype of thegreat god Shiva of the later Hindu religion —with four beasts around him and two deer athis feet. Warren's translation (p. 46) of theaccount of the birth of the Buddha from theintroduction to the Jataka, tells how theBrahma angels delivered the newly-born child"to the four guardian angels, who receivedhim from their hands on a rug which wasmade of the skins of black antelopes, and wassoft to the touch, being such as is used onstate occasions." It might be noted that inIndia deer are shown on either side of theWheel of the Law, and be recalled that Buddhareceived enlightenment in the Deer Park.In Greece deer were sacred to Apollo atDelphi, as well as to Aphrodite and to Artemis.Actaeon, who surprised Artemis while bathing,was punished by being turned into a stagwho was torn to pieces by his own hounds.Kerenyi mentions (p. 146) an older tale inwhich Actaeon approached Artemis disguisedin the pelt of a stag, her favorite animal, anda later version in which Artemis, when Actaeonattempted to rape Semele, threw a stag'spelt over his shoulders. There seems generalagreement, however, that the unfortunateActaeon was torn to pieces by hounds.The stag was used as a symbol of abundancein the earliest Celtic art, probably before theCelts arrived in Europe. In the west theHorned God, Cernunnos, is most readilyfound through the study of Roman and pre-Roman monuments in Gaul, where this antlereddeity is usually seated cross-legged, andoften accompanied by a ram-headed serpent,or a woman holding a cornucopia. Some ofthese representations go back to the fourthcentury b.c. Such figures have been variouslyinterpreted as personification of night, death,evil or the generator of fecundity. The Romanscalled him Dis Pater, and said that theCelts believed they were descended from him.Alexandre Bertrand (Bober, pp. 21-22) suggestedthat the cross-legged way of sittingcame from India, where it was adopted forthe Buddha about the end of the first millenniuma.d. Although this position is representedin Graeco-Egyptian terra cotta figures,in objects from Cyprus and other circumambientregions affected by the east, it is notused in Greek art.The Gundestrup cauldron (Bober, fig. 3)from the La Tene culture in Jutland showsCernunnos holding a torque in his right hand,and a ram-headed serpent in his left. Nexthim is a stag with five-tined antlers identicalto those of the god. A relief in the museumat Reims (Bober, fig. 13) shows Cernunnos asa bearded old man, with cow horns, with atorque about his neck, holding a bag of acorns,seated cross-legged between Apollo and Mercuryabove a bull and a stag. Similar HornedGods are familiar in Scotland, France, Scandinaviaand South America. At Meigle in Scotlandthere is a composite horned figure withthe head of a bull, a human body with serpentinelegs terminating in fish tails, whoseuplifted hands grasp snakes, flanked bv a boarand a wolf. It will be recalled that SaintMungo of Glasgow made fields fertile byharnessing a wolf and a stag.According to the mediaeval bestiaries, thehart or the stag was said to be the deadlyenemy of dragons or serpents, for he fed onthese to restore his health and to get materialfor a crop of new antlers. Thus this animalcame, in the allegory of the bestiaries, totypify the destruction of evil by Christ.Deer served numerous pious purposes inthe western Middle Ages. For example, suchan animal with a light between its horns meta nun on the Nethberg, the highest hill westof Zurich, and guided her down to the sitewhere the Frauemunster was built in a.d. 853.St . Hubert, while hunting, was convertedthrough meeting a deer bearing the image ofthe crucified Christ between its horns, as onemay see over the entrance to the chapel atAmboise, in a painting by the fifteenth centuryGerman Master of Werden in the NationalGallery in London, and elsewhere. AChartres window shows the similar conversionof St. Eustache. Deer bearing crosses are alsofamiliar in Egypt and South America. Anotherfifteenth century painting in the NationalGallery in London shows St. Giles succoringa wounded deer in his arms.In Ireland there is the curious incident of

.St. Patrick and his companions escaping theirenemies unrecognized, in the guise of deer,while singing the Lorica, known as "St. Patrick'sBreastplate" or "The Deer's Cry" — atranslation of which appears today in Anglicanhymnals as "I bind unto myself today thestrong name of the Trinity." This mysteriousincident was explained by Macalister (pp.144-46) by suggesting that the saint and hiscompanions had the wit to trick themselvesout in the deer skins that were the workingclothes of a formidable secret society knownas the "Fair-lucky Harps." Professor Macalistergave considerable offense in some quartersof Ireland by suggesting a parallel betweenthis ancient Irish magical college and presentdayDuk-Duk dancers of frightening appearancein the Bismarck Archipelago!Deer skins and horns are dancing costumein many parts of the world. The Pueblo Indianshave a deer dance in winter with elaboratehorned headdresses.A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMIn one of the villagesin the Coorg hill country in South India,Whitehead (pp. 91-92) reports that theCoorgs after sacrificing a buffalo, have peculiardances around the temple, in which ornamentsbelonging to and kept in the temple areworn. In the Kombata or horn dance, eachman wears the horns of a spotted deer or stagon his head, while in the Pili-ata, or peacock'sfeather dance, the performers are ornamentedDONTSOwith feathers. In England the Abbots Bromleydeer dance, which is held in October (theseason of the stag's rutting), is one of the oldestfolk customs to have survived. It is of aprocessional type, and the whitened deerhorns, which are held before the faces of thedancers, are kept in the church during the remainderof the year.The Christian devil, both in mediaeval andmodern times, was usually horned. Hornsalso normally appeared on the fool's cap andon the heads of cuckolds. The Marquis deMontespan advertised his condition of royalcuckold after his wife had become the mistressof Louis XIV by driving into the courtyard ofthe palace at Versailles in a coach draped inblack with a stag's antlers wobbling about onthe roof.It might be noted that, whether throughmistranslation of the Old Testament or throughprimitive tradition, Michelangelo's Moses hasbudding horns on his head. Horned headscome down to recent times, as one sees in theterminal figures on certain staffs, made inAfrica of iron and in Persia, and possiblyIndia, of steel inlaid with silver. A nineteenthcentury Persian example from a New Yorkprivate collection is reproduced here (pi. IV,a), and in 1954 Dr. Leland C. Wyman saw inBeirut a Persian helmet topped by a similarhorned human head of steel inlaid with silver.The Navajos call him the Messenger. Althoughhis earthly form is a white-headed fly,he is a powerful agent in the myths, unafraidof any force, who is the comforter and helperof the hero. Every myth tells of the choiceof a prophet to bring a particular message,and thereby give help and healing tomen. During this process the prophet is testedby the gods, and needs the help and adviceof beneficent and wise counsellors such asDontso. While traveling in India I found thatDontso was similar to the Purusha symbol ofthe spirit or soul, and apparently in the mostancient Chinese symbols there is a similarunity of meaning. The similarity of appearancewill be seen in figure 1, where four versionsof Dontso (shown through the kindness ofDr. Leland C. Wyman) are reproduced withexamples of the ancient Chinese calligraphicsymbol of the Cicada (H. Hentze, fig. 1 e, f, g,h). Compare also the Central American goldsymbol from Colombia in the British Museum(fig. 2), and a jade circle from British Honduras(fig. 3), also in the British Museum,which is decorated with four faces, probablytypifying the four directions, beside one ofwhich is a small symbol similar to Dontso.There is the same apparent meaning to theKa of Egypt (fig. 4), which is the symbol ofthe spirit part of man as contrasted with theBa, or physical side (see Gardiner's EgyptianGrammar)Hentze says (p. 15), in relation to the Cicadasymbol, that the Australian aborigines' ideaof the resurrection of their particular deity,the Witchety Grub, is almost identical with

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT 87r-—^JuFigs. 1-4. 1, a, b, c, d, four versions of Dontso. e, f, g, h, ancient Chinese calligraphic symbols for Cicada,(e-h, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.) 2. Gold symbol from Colombia in British Museum. 3. Jadecircle from British Honduras in British Museum. 4. Symbol associated with Ka.the Chinese idea shown in the figure of Cicadalarva on Shang period bronzes. He furtherstates that the Cicada symbol is not only oneof resurrection but of renovation. Hentze'sfirst page of representations of the Cicada somuch resembled the Navajo Dontso that Itried for years to locate the Japanese book byNakashima, Shu-clfieh yuan-yuan, from whichhe quoted on this subject and finally located itin the Freer Gallery in Washington, D. C.Mr. John Hadley Cox, who has lived andstudied in China, and is now making a studyof the Ch'angsha Codex in the Freer Gallery,has given me the following notes on the subject."This character appears generally in inscriptionsand calligraphy; not usually onbronzes. A character which does not fit intoeither calendric nor zodiacal system, unlikethe characters meaning rabbit, turtle, tiger ordragon, it is not associated with any specificorientation or particular time of year. Itmeans only itself, and stands for the precursorof First Man as a symbol of rebirth, accordingto the Ch'angsha Codex. Later it was con-

A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMsidered to be a Cicada, and there are furthersources in Chinese literature showing that,because of the Cicada's apparent death duringa period of ten years, it represents a miraculousform of rebirth. It is the most compactform of the inclusive essence of life. Onbronzes there is a tendency to show the rightside of the figure larger than the left. Laterthis character was considered as meaning'bat.'A book by Kuo Mo-jo, A New Studyin Chinese Bronzes, published in December1952, establishes (despite Communist orthodoxy)connections of Shang characters andcalendrics with the ancient Near East. A littleknown article published by Paul Pelliot in19 1 6, 'Influences Indiennes en Asie Centraleet en Extreme Orient', holds the same theoryof the origin of the earliest characters."The chrysalis and the butterfly have oftenbeen taken as resurrection symbols. Accordingto Sir Arthur Evans (pp. 53-64), butterfliesin Crete represented human souls. Theyappear on the Ring of Nestor, where theunderworld is divided into four regions by agreat tree above the head of the Mother Goddess.The chrysalis as an emblem of life afterdeath is illustrated by amulets found at Mycenae.Plate IV, b shows a crystal insectchrysalis from the Spiro Mound, Le FloreCounty, Oklahoma, reproduced through thekindness of Dr. Ralph B. Shead, Acting Directorof the University of Oklahoma Museum.Two similarly shaped insect chrysalises ofhard granitic stone were included in the pre-Columbian exhibition at the Philadelphia ArtMuseum in January 1954.FEATHER AND OTHER ABSTRACTIONSFor the Navajos, the feathers on headdressesor prayer plumes are their means ofcontact with the sky and its powers. Accordingto Flinders Petrie (p. 56) Shu was, inEgypt, the god of space, who lifted up Nut(the personification of heaven) off the bodyof Seb (the personification of the earth). Shu'semblem uses the ostrich feather, which, as asingularly light and voluminous object, wasappropriate for a god conveying the abstractidea of air or space. Sara Yorke Stevenson(pp. 239-40) observes that "The feather andthe wing in Egyptian myths are always andeverywhere associated with the notion of heatand of light, and form endlessly varied themes.Not only are the goddesses. . . spoken of asmaking light with their feathers or with theirwings, but 'Shu,' the god of the luminous air,who supports the heavenly vault, bears afeather upon his head, and 'rising-, he irradiateslight with his double feather.' " She citesother texts which state "Thou receivest thydouble feather, thy double light" and "Thesun, mighty king, divides the heaven with histwo feathers." Wallis Budge (p. 320) mentionsthe White Crown of Osiris, to whichare attached the feathers indicating Truth,which was his chief characteristic. The ideaapparently comes from the primeval conceptionof the Heaven-Bird, which is discussedat length by Stevenson (pp. 211 ff). In thisconnection one might note the representationof a bird on a pole or staff in the Lascauxcave, reproduced by Brodrick (pis. 44-45,pp. 82-83).According to Heraclitus, eternal fire wasmore than an element; it was primordial essence,the source of all things and superior tothe gods (Stevenson, p. 237).In Father Berard Haile's Emergence Mythof the Navajos, there is much about columnsof light in the First World, and the Fire Godwas one of the seven immortals in the FirstLower World.The Navajos say that the spirit wanders forfour days before finding the way to "the underworld where all unsprouted seeds fall andgrow." The Milky Way is the path of souls.The Navajos fear many powers, but in thehighest God they recognize a Father andPreserver who wants them to do good.

to"Se to.£ £6|"2 5So Ey. cid 2

Plate II. Antlered mask from the Hopewell .Mound, Ohio. See page 84. (Photo, courtesyof the Chicago Natural History Museum.)

Plate III. Antlered altar from Ch'angsha, China, owned by .Mr. John Hadlev Cox, Washington, D. C.See page H4.

)/;, Crystal chrysalis of insect from Spiro Mound,Oklahoma. See pages 86 and 88. (Photo,courtesy of the University o\ Oklahoma \lnseum.Plate IV. a, Antlered human head of steel andsilver, from Persia, 19th century, owned by MissSusan Dwicht Bliss, New York.

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT 89ETHKAY-NAH-ASHI AND ASVINSIn connection with the Navajo Ethkaynah-ashi,2 it is of interest to turn to comparablefigures in the earliest Vedic mythology ofIndia. Of the divine pair of horsemen calledAsvins in the Rigveda, Keith (pp. 30-32)writes: "They are beautiful, strong, and redand their path is red or golden. They havea skin filled with honey and touch the sacrificeand the worshipper with their honey-whip.Their chariot alone is described as honeyhuedor honey-bearing, and it also hasthe peculiarity of possessing three wheels,three felloes, and all the other parts triple.The time of the Asvins' appearance is atdawn; they follow dawn in their car. . . .They are wedded to a deity described asSurya, the sun-maiden, or the daughter ofthe Sun, and it is for her perhaps that theircar has three seats and three wheels. . . .Moreover they are physicians who heal diseases,restore sight to the blind, and ward offdeath from the sick. . . ."The Indian interpreters of the early periodwere at a loss to decide the nature of theAsvins, whom they regarded as heaven andearth, sun and moon, day and night, or even astwo kings who were performers of holy acts.It is clear that in essence thev are one withthe Dioskouroi and with the two sons of theLettic god who came riding on steeds to woofor themselves the daughter of the Sun or theMoon and who, like the Dioskouroi, are recuersfrom the ocean. The older identificationwith sun and moon has been supported, andthey have been regarded merely as succouringgiants who have no mythical basis, butthe more probable view is either that theyrepresent the twilight (half dark, half light),or the morning and the evening star." Guardiansof immortality, who can ward off death,restore life, rejuvenate and make fertile, they2 Their name means "the-two-that-go-together."They are mysterious, and so holv that they are onlyshown on creation paintings and always in whitecolor. In vol. I, Navajo Creation Myth, Navajo ReligionSeries, published by the Museum of Navajo Cerewereonce shut off in a lower rank from othergods because of their healing of men. In theRigveda they rank below Indra, Agni andSoma. When they rejuvenated Cyavana, theancient husband of Sukanya, he obtained forthem the previously denied right to the Somadrink of the gods. In the later epics they arecalled Nasatya and Dasra, and appear in higherstatus as physicians of the gods and healers ofmankind. Some accounts reported one Asvinas bright and the other dark, in as striking contrastas the black and white eagles of Aeschylus.These twins, sometimes alike, sometimeslight and dark, are conceived of both as meansof reinforcement and in opposition; most generallythey are transmitters and healers.Like the Asvins, the Greek Dioskouroi,Castor and Polydeuces (latinized Pollux) — thesons of Zeus by Leda — were handsome horsemen,who rescued many men, especially inbattle and at sea. Kerenyi (p. 87) also tells ofDioskouroi, who were represented in Samothraceby two brazen phallic statues, similarto those of Hermes, at the entrance to themost secret shrine of the Great Mother. Dawson(p. 374) mentions the ruins of an earlyIron Age temple at Nesactium in the south ofIstria which contains remarkable statues oftwin figures — ithvphallic horsemen — and agoddess of birth, and says that the worship ofa triad consisting of the Mother Goddess andtwo divine horsemen was still prevalent inPannonia during the Roman period. In Spartathe Dioskouroi were exponents of virtues andvalor, called by Plutarch "Guardians." Farnell(p. 210) speaks of their worship at Epidauros,where "they were evidently attractedinto the circle of Asklepios as healers, andcame to share with him the ministrations ofhis priest and were — probably in the healingsense — entitled the 'Saviour-gods'."monial Art, they are called transmitters of life to allcreation and are always mystically present at ceremonies.See page 8 in Part I of this study, fig. 3,and section on "Notes on Parallel Symbols and Ritesin India, Tibet and Ancient Persia" in Part III, page 95.

9° A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMBEAR CONSTELLATION OF SEVEN STARSThe Navajo gourd and skin rattles are decoratedwith the Great Bear Constellation. Thehibernation of bears during the winter, andtheir survival through apparent death, hascaused the Bear Constellation keeping watchto become a universal symbol. The Greekshad November ceremonies when the sevenstars were highest, and all over North America,Indians believed the abode of bliss to be amongthe stars of the Great Bear.In the Taoist heaven the Bear Constellationthe throne of Shang Ti, the supreme deity.isThese stars are in China associated with longevityand wealth, and there is a ceremony inwhich a rice measure (rice being the staff oflife, the rice measure is naturally the measureof life) is given to the Mother of the Measure,or Queen of Heaven, who dwells among thestars of the Bear Constellation. The Chinesewords for measure and constellation are muchalike. Goette (p. 149) describes the greenjade Kuei tablet, offered by the Emperor ofChina at the Altar of the East outside Peipingon the morning of the Spring Equinox, whichwas incised with a conventional representationof the seven stars of the Great Bear constellation.Among the Ainu of Japan, the bear isthe particular intermediary between men andtheir God, who is equated with the NorthStar, and to whom they sacrifice the bear.RITUAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NAVAJO CONCEPTS AND OTHERSIn a Navajo ceremony, pebbles are takenfrom the nest of the Rock Wren, painted withsymbols, used in ritual, and then returned tothe birds' nest. MacCurdy (vol. II, p. 6) describespebbles of the Azilian culture, gatheredat Mas d'Azil in the Ariege, on whichdesigns, stylistically similar to Spanish petroglyphsfrom Estremadura and Andalusia, hadbeen painted in red ocher. Levy (pp. 46-48)mentions the relation of these prehistoric designson painted pebbles to the decoration ofsymbolic churingas among present day Australianaborigines.The Bull-Roarer, which is a special implementof the churinga type used in Australiatoday to produce the voice of divinity, is likewiseparalleled among prehistoric Magdalenianobjects. Bayley (vol. I, pp. 85-86) quotesProfessor Haddon's opinion that it is perhaps"the most ancient, widely-spread, and sacredreligious symbol in the world. It is used inmany parts of the world, and the Navajo employit in many ceremonies to banish evil.A CIRCLE WITH A CENTRAL SPOT in it OCCUTSfrequently among the painted pebbles fromMas d'Azil (MacCurdy, vol. II, p. 218). Thisis the original symbol for the sun (great male).It is also used as a symbol for the universe inIndia; and similarly in Masonry.The symbolism of mandala, the Sanskritword for magic circle, according to Jung inthe Integration of Personality "embraces allconcentrically arranged figures, round orsquare, all having a centre; all radial or sphericalarrangements."The Incas and Aztecs took possession ofland by hurling a stone or arrow to thecardinal points, according to Brinton (p. 69).In the Navajo Fire Dance in the MountainChant, the Medicine man throws a burningbrand in the four directions before the racingof the "whitened men" around the big fire.The sunwise swastika is in India sacred tothe male Ganesh, god of prosperity, while thecounter-sunwise female swastika, sacred toKali, typifying the course of the sun belowthe earth from west to east, symbolizes darkness,death, and destruction, according tod'Alviella (p. 68). Similarly the Navajo sunwiseswastika symbol is also beneficent, whilethe counter-sunwise swastika is used only inrites to banish evil.The crescent used in Navajo necklaces(fig. 5) is an ancient Mediterranean protectivesymbol against the "evil eye," brought tothe Southwest by the Spaniards. To theNavajo, the crescent is a fertility and protectivesymbol, and is similar to the Yoni, thefemale fertility symbol of India. The roundbeads of the Navajo necklace are seeds. Theflowers are representations of squash blossoms,considered to be another symbol of fertility.

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT 9'Fig. 5. Squash blossoms and fertility symbol ofNavajo necklaces.Perhaps the Yoni and the Mediterraneancharm had a common origin at some time inthe distant past (fig. 5).The divining by arrow and shaking handin the Navajo Coyote Chant is similar to adivining rite in India.Many examples of the baleful effects oftying knots are cited by Sir James Frazer, andof cures from disease achieved simply by findingand untying the knots in question. Therite of Wohltrahd in Navajo ceremonial,which includes the untying of slip-knots inwoolen cords which are pressed to the bodyof the patient while praying, is reputed to beefficacious in relieving tensions.The fox all over Europe, and particularlyin Japan, stands in much the same relation toman as the coyote does to the Navajo — as avery clever, mischievous magic creature. Elsewherehe is not usually as powerful, however,as the Navajo coyote, who (like Prometheus)is the bringer of fire to man, and is able toimpede the path of the hero, whom he oftenturns from human into coyote shape. Coyoteknows more about the process of creationthan the other animals, but as he is a thief whooverreaches himself by arrogance, he inevitablyfails in his efforts to upset the pattern oflife. But all the world over the fox type isallied to sinister forces.The Navajo Thunderbird is quite similarto the Garuda of India, who is a god, andvery combative, particularly with snakes. Inthe Navajo Creation Myth a great white birdfound flying over this present earth when thepeople reached it from below is nearer to theGaruda: this great bird, the connection betweenearth and sky, is also found in Mexicanmyth.NOTES ON PARALLEL SYMBOLS AND RITES IN INDIA,TIBET AND ANCIENT PERSIAIn 1940 I went to India, partly to see if Icould find any connections there with theNavajo religion. I took with me several smallcolored drawings of sand paintings; one ofthe Thunderbirds, another of Earth and Sky,one of the Whirling Rainbows, one of theFire Gods in. the stars with the sun in thecenter and one of the Hozhonji or BlessingChant. This last painting showed the creationof man with the path of life ascending thecornstalk between the Ethkay-nah-ashi. I alsotook some Navajo sketches of Indian scenes,and some ceremonial stones such as are usedin prayer. I was on the lookout for paralleluses of symbols and rites, and have embodiedin the following notes the results of conversationsand personal observation during this trip.On the steamer out to India I had variousconversations with Commanding GeneralKaisar Shumshu of Nepal, the nephew of theformer Maharaja of Nepal. General Kaisar,who had represented his uncle at the coronationof King George VI, had been travelingin the United States. He was much interestedin the American Indian religion, and expressedthe conviction that it came from the samesource as the ancient religion of India.I had letters to the Vedanta Priests at Belur,near Calcutta, and found them not only mostinterested in my problem but very helpfulwith suggestions and information. They introducedme to the philologist Dr. Suniti KumarChatter jee, Professor of Indian Linguistics atthe University of Calcutta, who was convinced,as were the others whom I consulted,that the Ethkay-nah-ashi and the Asvins, themystical twins of the Vedas, have the samemeaning, both being healers or transmitters oflife. Professor Chatter jee, after examining theNavajo material, expressed the opinion that itwas of a very ancient ritual, and thought thatit might go back to the cradle of the Aryanrace northwest of India.Mrs. Choudhuri, a niece of the poet Tagore,

took me to see a holy man or teacher wholived in a frugal way in the suburbs of Calcutta,Guru Bijay Krishna Chatter jee. TheGuru, who spoke idiomatic English, was amost direct, simple and impressive person.Mrs. Choudhuri, who was a handsome, energeticand vital elderly lady, was not only fullof help for the schools in Calcutta, but alsoan accomplished musician.My information about Persian parallelscomes from Dr. Phyllis Ackerman, formerlyof the Iranian Institute, New York.TibetDuring my stay in India I was able to obtainuseful information on Tibetan worship fromconversations with Air. David Macdonald ofKalimpong, near Darjeeling, who had beenBritish Trade Agent in Tibet from 1905 to1925, had written several books on his experiences,and had married a Tibetan. His familiaritywith Tibetan written sources is indicatedby an acknowledgment by Sir CharlesBell ( 193 1, pp. 199-200) for help in translatingportions of Tibetan histories to Mr. Macdonald,"who speaks and writes Tibetan moreeasily than English."Horses play an important role in Tibet.Sir Charles Bell (1924, p. 11) mentions theTibetan geographical notion that the TsangpoRiver rises from the mouth of a horse andflows through "Tibet, the land of horses." Hefurther observes: "The Tibetan pony is certainlyone of the characteristics of the country.Princes and peasants, men and women,ali ride; and children too, from an early age.And with the mule, the donkey, and the yak,the pony, agile and hardy beyond those ofmost countries, transports their merchandiseand household goods across the plateaux, andup the rough valley and high passes that connectthem."Emil Schlagintweit, in describing Tibetanceremonies for ensuring the assistance of thegods, includes (pp. 253-56) the invocation ofLungta, "the airy horse, the horse of wind,"who permits his rider "the king of the goldenwheel, the governor of the four continentsA STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISM(in Sanskrit Maha Chakravartin Raja)" totraverse the world between morning and nightwithout experiencing fatigue. Lungta is thesymbol of harmony, for it unites in harmonythe three conditions of human existence —Srog (the vital principle breath), Lus (body)and Vang (power or moral energy) — uponthe union of which happiness depends; itstrengthens these conditions so as to cause aunion salutary to man. As the efficacy of anyDharani, or mystical sentence, for happinessin this existence is made more certain by thepresence of Lungta, the likeness of the airyhorse appears on many such Tibetan blockprints, as well as on the Derchaks, or prayerflags (p. 199), that are met with in front ofreligious buildings along the roads. The invocationof Lungta ensures a safe and pleasantjourney. He also defends against maleficentplants, and deprives hostile constellations ofthe planets of their obnoxious influence.At Lhasa in the spring, during a ceremonydesigned to hasten the coming of the Buddhaof the Future, known to Indians as Maitreyaand to Tibetans as Gye-wa. Cham-pa (ConqueringLove), there is a race of riderlesshorses, the emblem of speed, and wrestling,the emblem of strength. Bell describes thisfestival in The People of Tibet, pp. 272-84.The wild ass appears in Persia in the decorationsof Susa I (3500 b.c.) before the horse,and in the Navajo creation story he was personallycreated by the great god Begochiddy,whose favorite he was.Sir Charles Bell ( 193 1, pp. 8-20) describesthe pre-Buddhist P6n religion of Tibet as aform of Shamanism or Nature worship, similarto that formerly followed by different tribesof Turkish stock, by the Finns, Lapps anddwellers in the north of Asia on the bordersof the Arctic circle, as well as the Manchusand the Indians of North America. OfficialChinese histories of the fifth and sixth centuriesa.d., when the Ponist religion was in fullforce, mention sacrifices of men, horses, oxenand asses in Tibet. In spite of the introductionof Buddhism in Tibet, the Ponist faith still survivesamonor the Lepcha, Limbu, Lolo, Lissuand Moso tribes east and southeast of Lhasa,while the epic of Ke-sar is still recited ineastern Tibet. Bell mentions men and womenwho can recite this epic of Ponist Tibet forten days without repeating themselves. Mr.David Macdonald told me that offerings ofhorses and fowl were given to the war godKe-sar in Lhasa, and that now two images of

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT 93horses stand near his shrine and many livefowl are kept there.Mr. Macdonald's Tibetan priest servant,when I showed him a picture of an Apache,said that years ago the Tibetans sent away alot of wicked men called Lii. On 15 Marchof each year this sending away is commemoratedby the Lii-tsang ceremony in whichthere is a scapegoat, and for which images ofdough, similar to the Apache picture I showedhim, are made. He thought that the Lepchasand people of Sikkim were descendants ofthose sent away, but that others went further,such as the people of Hor in Turkestan, who(like the Navajo) wear big silver plaquesaround their waists. In Tibet today the Liiare powerful serpent deities, who have a chapelimmediately below the walls of the Potala aswell as others in other parts of Lhasa.In the bazaar at Kalimpong cranes' heads,which are used in Navajo medicine ceremonies,were on sale for medicinal use. Mr. Macdonaldtold me that Tibetans use conch shellspierced as bracelets, similar to prehistoricNavaho excavated bracelets, and that they alsouse coral and turquoise in ornaments and earrings,as the Navajos do. The name Sipaho ofthe painting carried in front of Tibetan weddingsand funerals is curiously reminiscent ofSipapu, the name of the lower world in Pueblomythology.Schlagintweit (pp. 260-63) describes Tibetandivination ceremonies with arrows that aresimilar to Navajo uses.In the Thugdam Kantsaiceremony in Tibet, an arrow, to which fivesilken strips of the five sacred colors are fastened,as well as feathers and charms, is stuckperpendicularly into the ground. In anotherrite Nagpo Chenpo is invoked by the ceremonyof "moving; the arrow" both as protectionfrom the hostility of mischievous spiritsin general and to detect thieves. An arrow,trimmed with feathers, strips of silk and invocationsto Nagpo Chenpo, is handed by thehead Lama of the monastery to a novice, who,after taking a seat on a carpet, holds the arrowwith one hand, the point resting perpendicularlyon the palm of his other hand. By aslight shaking and turning, he brings the pointinto motion, and gradually lets the arrow fallto the ground. He then seizes it with bothhands, and by convulsive shakings keeps itconstantly moving, although the spectatorsbelieve that the arrow is shaking him. He continuesuntil he is exhausted, when the halt ofthe arrow is taken as a sign that the evil spiritshave been driven away. If used for the detectionof thieves, the culprit may be lookedfor in the direction that the arrow points whenit ceases to move. Ritual arrows are similarlyused by the Navajo in the Coyote Chant andan almost identical rite occurs in the Red AntChant of the Navajo.Each year the Tibetan government sendsout to the governors of districts a proclamationcalled Tsa-tsik. This root word for generalrules of conduct recalls the Navajo wordTsa-tlai, which appears in the Creation Storyof the First World as one of the first lawsgiven there.Flame is honored as one of the indestructibleelements among both Tibetans and Navajos.IndiaGeneral Kaisar thought the mythic birdGaruda — the "vehicle" of Vishnu, lord ofthe birds, the charioteer of Surya — is theorigin of the Navajo Thunderbird. The stepbrothersof the Garuda are Nagas, or snakepeople. The Garuda image is always put oppositean outside door of the temple of Jagernath,"Lord of the Universe," the sky type ofVishnu. Garuda is a sky symbol in Persia,and related to Nagas, as they represent thewater symbol on the world below the sky.General Kaisar thought that the referenceto the underworld as Nagaboka (abode ofsnakes) means the North American continent.He also believed that Aztec equals Astik, thesaviour and protector of snakes mentioned inthe Puranas. Ganesha, the Indian elephant god,figures in Mayan sulpture.The name of Surya, or Sun God, is masculinein India, America, Mexico and the MiddleEast. Savitr is also the Sun God, the Enlivener,and God of Morning, as well as Evening. Hischariot is drawn by seven horses (seven raysof light). Surya is often spoken of as a birdin the Vedas, and is also described as All-Seeing.The Sun God in Germany and Japan isfeminine.Professor Chatterjee says that the originalform of Surya was represented with two arms,

94 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMtKWAS=HOft$EFig. 6. Derivation of words from pre-Sanskrit.and accompanied by a dawn maiden on eachside and by two Asvins on horses. In the CalcuttaMuseum are three images of Surya withone pair of arms, and one in a "kudu" (niche).They have one flower in each hand. SwamiOonkarananda of Ramakrishna Math, Belur,near Calcutta, said that Surya must have fourarms and seven horses, and two wives, andthat below him there must be a god with acoach who prevents the world from beingburned up with too much light. At Anuradapurain Ceylon is a bas-relief cut in livingrock of a warrior with crest, and horse's headat the side, that is reputed to represent Iswara,a pre-Buddhistic Sun God, above a relief ofelephants and other figures. Temples therefaced East and had four altars. Bands of figuresof fat gods of fortune, of horses or sacredswans went around the temples, moving insunwise direction, as is the custom in circlingBuddhist temples.Professor Chatter jee told me that he believedthe word Asvin to be derived from pre-Sanskrit, as indicated in figure 6. Asvin twinswith similar attributes, and connected withSurya, the Sun, are also known in Persia. DanGopal Mukerji, a Brahman whom I knew inthe United States and consulted about theNavajo material which I was collecting, toldme that the Navajo word Ethkay-nah-ashiseemed to him to be similar to a Sanskrit wordmeaning "the substance through which Godcreates," and the earthly form "twins that rideon horses."Swami Oonkarananda, after examining myNavajo material commented on a variety ofsubjects. He said that the string hand-drillis used to make holy fire; that it is the customto make a Mandala of Perusha (Dontso) wheneverthey make Puja (prayer) and to place onit a vessel of water containing a mango twigthat has three or five leaves on it; that boysare whipped during their initiation; and thatthere is fire walking in South India. Mandalasare all memorized, and not made into pictures.These mandalas or Rangole patterns are madeby holding a rag soaked in rice liquid in thehand, and letting the liquid run down to earthon the first finger. Swami Oonkarananda feltthat there is a possible connection with theAryans of Mesopotamia or Egypt or Sumeriathrough paintings. The mandala pattern isused for meditation with no figures placed init, for the pattern suggests the powers, thecenter is often Mount Meru, the white innerrings for the initiated (such as Christ), thenext circle for active good people, and thenext for worldly ones. He mentioned thetradition found in the Vedas and also oftenin the Mahabarata of an expedition to a distantland, where there were "fair daughtersof serpent kings." He spoke of Ardhanariswar,the half male and half female god of theVedas.He observed that while in Tibet one heldstones in the hand while praying, in India onerather held two long ritual sticks of wood.While pouring butter on a fire with the righthand, it was customary to hold a bunch oftied grasses or fifty kinds of herbs in the lefthand. This use of a bundle of herbs which isalso a practice in Zoroastrianism, recalled tome the use of bundles of herbs in Navajoceremonies, particularly in the rite of Wohltrahd,or the untying of knots on a sick person.Swami Oonkarananda said that the Navajoword Sahanahray, which ends many Navajoprayers, was possibly connected with theword Swaha which is said at the end of theoblation of fire in sacrifice; also that Ethkaynah-ashi(fig. 7) was probably like Stohas inVedic during sacrifice.Professor Chatterjee showed me a paintingmade in red on a wall (fig. 8) when his son

NOTES ON CORRESPONDING SYMBOLS: WHEELWRIGHT 952JFig. 8. Design on wall with Perusha on top. Fig. 9.Idealized form of man.Fig. 7. Ethkay-nah-ashi figures at bottom.was initiated.on the earth. This painting, with the PurushaSuch paintings used to be madeat the top, is very much like the prehistoricPersian symbol of the conventionalized birdof the sky, and is identical with the Navajorepresentation of Dontso, the Messenger.The Guru Bijay Krishna Chatterjee, afterstudying the Navajo sand painting of theCreation, found it absolutely correct and understandable,although he had different interpretationsfrom the Navajo. To him Dontsowas Purusha, the symbol of the spirit or soul(Logos), which was made under a sacred vesselof water during the Puja, or prayer ceremonial.The position with upraised hands ofthis figure is identical with that in Egypt ofKa, who is the spirit form of existing man orof any living substance. To him the rainbowand lightning were sensory and motor activities,the cornstalk equilibrium; the wholepainting; represented development of character.The Ethkay-nah-ashi or Asvins representedhealers and, beyond that, the feminineand masculine form of the breathing and outbreathingof God. By creating all forms ofShaktra, leading up to the gunas, or flowersof corn, which are the qualities of characterdesired, and then up to Hamsa (the swan ofpure spirit level) at the top of the picture,through sensory and motor activities andthrough the corn stalk of direct growth orequilibrium, the whole form represented thebody of man (fig. 7), with matter passing upthrough form to spirit. He laughed with joyat it. He said that everything was done fourtimes in ceremonies; that from his point ofview the colors used by the Navajo in thispainting were correct, except that they hadsubstituted black for blue.The Guru mentioned the legend in theVedas of King Bali to whom God manifestedhimself. God, when asked by King Bali whatHe wanted, said that He wished to put hisfoot (set his seal) on Creation. God put onefoot on the world, one on the spirit, and thenasked King Bali where else to put His foot."On me," said the King, showing his willingnessto be used by God, and was thereuponsent to Amors or Antipolis, to make it alwaysholy. The East Indians think this was America.Swami Nikhilananda of the Vedanta Center

"9 6 A STUDY OF NAVAJO SYMBOLISMin New York gives this version of the legendof King Bali: "There was a very charitableKing, but he had great pride in his charityand the Lord wanted to calm his pride. TheLord came to the King in the guise of a dwarfand the King asked him what he wanted; theLord said as much land as he could cover withthree steps, and the King agreed to give himthis. With one step the dwarf covered thewhole earth, and with the second he coveredthe heavens; and King Bali said to the Lord,'Where can you step now?' And the Lordstepped on his head making him helpless, andsaid to him, 'Be still, there is no place left exceptAntipolis.'I have seen patterns, of the type used in theceremony held in honor of King Bali, beingmade by housewives in southern India atsunset outside their front doors on the earth,after work was over. Outdoors they are madeout of rice water squeezed out of a piece ofcotton held in the hand. When used indoors,for weddings and other festive occasions, theyare painted on the floor in wet color with afinger. In southern India these are calledRangole patterns; in northern India Alpona.Near Puri similar decorations are made on theoutside walls of houses of Brahmins.In the Kandy Museum in Ceylon were examplesof painted plaques one and one-halffeet long with a handle at the bottom, usedin ceremonies that were similar to plaquesused in the Navajo Water, Shooting and otherceremonies.

REFERENCES

REFERENCESBarth, A.1882. The religions of India. London.Bayley, Harold1913. The lost language of symbolism. London.Bell, Sir Charles1924. Tibet past and present. Oxford.1928. The people of Tibet. Oxford.1 93 1. The religion of Tibet. Oxford.Bober, Phyllis P.1951. Cernunnos: origin and transformation of aCeltic divinity. American Journal of Archaeology,vol. 55, pp. 13-51.Brinton, Daniel G.1868. The myths of the New World. New York.Broderick, Alan Houghton1949. Lascaux, a commentary. London.Budge, E. A. Wallis191 1. Osiris and the Egyptian resurrection. London.COOMARASWAMY, ANANDA K.1935. Elements of Buddihst iconography. Cambridge.Cox, Rev. Sir George W.1881. An introduction to the science of comparativemythology and folklore. New York.Dawson, Christopher1928. The age of the gods. London.Evans, Sir Arthur1925. "The Ring of Nestor": a glimpse into theMinoan after-world. Journal of HellenicStudies, vol. 45, pp. 1-75.Farnell, Lewis R.192 1. Greek hero ctults and ideas of immortality.Oxford.Frazer, Sir James191 1. Taboo and the perils of the soul. In: "TheGolden Bough," vol. 3. London.Gardiner, Sir Alan1950. Egyptian grammar. 2nd ed. London.Goblet dAlviella, Count Eugene1894. The migration of symbols. London.Goette, Johnn.d. Jade lore. New York.Hentze, Carl1937. Friihchinesische Bronzen und Kultdarstellungen.Antwerp.Jung, Carl G.1939. The integration of the personality. NewYork.Keith, A. Berriedale1917. Indian mythology. In: "The Mythology ofall Races," vol. 6, ed. by L. H. Gray andGeorge Foot More. Boston.Kerenyi, C.1 95 1. The gods of the Greeks. London.Levy, Gertrude R.1948. The gate of horn, a study of the religiousconceptions of the Stone Age and their influenceupon European thought. London.Macalister, R. A. S.1935. Ancient Ireland, a study in the lessons ofarchaeology and history. London.MacCurdy, George Grant1926. Human origins, a manual of prehistory. 2vols. New York.Murdoch, Florence1932. Trailing the bestiaries. A?nerican Magazineof Art, vol. 24, pp. 5-12.Museum op Navajo Ceremonial Art1942-49. Navajo religious series. 3 vols. Santa Fe.Petrie, W. M. Flindersn.d. The religion of Ancient Egypt. Chicago.Piggott, Stuart1950. Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. Harmondsworth:Penguin Books.Schlagintweit, Emil1863. Buddhism in Tibet. Leipzig.Stevenson, Sara Yorke1894. The feather and the wing in early mythology.Oriental Studies, a Selection of the Papersread before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia18S8-18P4, pp. 202-41.Warren, Henry Clarke1896. Buddhism in translations. Harvard OrientalSeries, vol. 3.Whitehead, Rt. Rev. Henry1916. The village gods of South India. London.99

PRONUNCIATION la as in ah ay as in saye as in end ai as in aislei as in inn g always hard, as in goo as in old as in Englishju as in Yule zh soft z, like French in JulietNASAL SOUNDSanh, anse like French an in tanteonh, onse as in French toninh like French in in intimeHyphens in middle of words to denote a separation of tone between two vowels or separatingsyllables, and to help in pronouncing long compound words. Proper accenting is very importantin pronunciation.In the spelling and pronunciation of Navajo words, an attempt has been made to approximateas closely as possible to an English or Latin equivalent.1Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, Navajo ReligionSeries, vol. i, Navajo Creation Myth, p. 210.

(Continued fro?>i inside front cover)PAPERS OF THE PEABODY MUSEUMVOLUME XI, continuedNo. 2. Official Reports on the towns of Tequizistlan,Tepechpan, Acolman, and San Juan Teotihuacan,sent by Francisco de Castefieda to His Majesty,Philip II, and the Council of the Indies in 1580.1926. 45 pages, 2 plates, and 2 illustrations in thetext. 75 cents. Translated and edited, with an introductionand notes, by Zelia Nuttall.No. 3. An Anthropometric Study of Hawaiians ofPure and Mixed Blood. By Leslie C. Dunn. 1928.122 pages and tables. $1.25. Based upon data collectedby Alfred M. Tozzer.No. 4. Azilian Skeletal Remains from Montardit(Ariege), France. By Ruth Otis Sawtell. 1931.55 pages and 7 plates. 75 cents.No. 5. The Evolution of the Human Pelvis in Relationto the Mechanics of the Erect Posture. ByEdward Reynolds. 1931. 100 pages, 3plates, and10 illustrations in the text. $1.20.VOLUME XII complete, $6.80; bound in cloth, $9.80.No. 1. Explorations in Northeastern Arizona. BvS. J. Guernsey. 1931- 120 pages, 1 color plate, 65plates, map, and 30 illustrations in the text. $3.50.No. 2. Notes on the Archaeology of the Kaibito andRainbow Plateaus in Arizona. By Noel Morss.193 1. 28 pages and 7plates. 50 cents.No. 3. The Ancient Culture of the Fremont Riverin Utah. By Noel Morss. 1931. 112 pages, 43plates, and 5 illustrations in the text. $2.80.No. 2. Contributions to the Racial Anthropologyof the Near East. By Carl C. Seltzer. Based ondata collected by Henry M. Huxley. 1940. 72pages, 8 plates, and tables. $1.00.No. 3. Fossil Man in Tangier. By Muzaffer SiileymanSenyiirek. Introduction by Carleton S. Coon.1940. 35 pages, 3plates, and tables. 50 cents.The page size of Volume I-XVI is 6!4 X 9V2 inches,trimmed; beginning with Volume XVII, 7% X 10%inches, trimmed.VOLUME XVII complete, $5.25; bound in cloth,$8.25.No. 1 . Navaho Pottery Making. By Harry Tschopik,Jr., 1 94 1. 85 pages, 16 plates, and 7 illustrations inthe text. Si. 75.No. 2. Archaeological Investigations in CentralUtah. Bv John Gillin. With an analysis of theanimal bones by Glover M. Allen. 1941. 50 pages,9 plates, 5 tables, and 6 illustrations in the text.$1.50.No. 3. Flint Quarries — the sources of tools and, atthe same time, the factories of the AmericanIndian. By Kirk Bryan. 1950. 40 pages, 1 plate,and 20 illustrations in the text. $2.00.VOLUME XVIII, $5.85; bound in cloth, $8.85.Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan. A translation.Edited with notes by Alfred M. Tozzer.1 941. 400 pages.VOLUME XIII complete, $5.25; bound in cloth, $8.25.No. 1. Maya-Spanish Crosses in Yucatan. By GeorgeD.Williams. 1931. 250 pages, 47 plates, and tables.$3.50.No. 2. The Phonetic Value of Certain Charactersin Maya Writing. By B. L. Whorf. 1933. 48pages, frontispiece, and 13illustrations in the text.75 cents.No. 3. The Racial Characteristics of Syrians andArmenians. By Carl C. Seltzer. 1936. 77 pages,2 maps, and tables. $1.00.VOLUME XIV complete, $6.00; bound in cloth, $9.00.No. 1. The Stalling's Island Mound, ColumbiaCounty, Georgia. By William H. Claflin, Jr.1931. 60 pages and 72 plates. $2.75.No. 2. The Bahama River Caribs of British Guiana.By John Gillin. 1936. 288 pages, 30 halftones, and13 illustrations in the text. $3.25.VOLUME XV, S5.85; bound in cloth, $8.85.The Swarts Ruin: A Typical Mimbres Site inSouthwestern New Mexico. By H. S. and C. B.Cosgrove. With a section on the skeletal materialby W. W. Howells. 1932. 178 pages, 239 plates,and 17 illustrations in the text.VOLUME XVI complete, $2.75; bound in cloth, $5.75.No. 1. Anthropometry of the Natives of ArnhemLand and the Australian Race Problem. Analysisby W. W. Howells; Data collected by W. L.Warner. 1937. 96 pages, frontispiece, and 2 maps.$1.25.VOLUME XIX complete.No. 1. The Prehistoric Archaeology of NorthwestAfrica. By Frederick R. Wulsin. 1941. 173 pagesand 92 illustrations in the text. $3.25.No. 2. Notes on the Poro in Liberia. By George W.Harley. 1941. 36 pages, 14 plates, and 3 illustrationsin the text. $1.50.No. 3. Early Man and Pleistocene Stratigraphy inSouthern and Eastern Asia. By Hallam L. Movius,Jr. 1944. 126 pages, 6 tables, and 47 illustrationsin the text. $3.25. Out of print.VOLUME XX, $4.25; bound in cloth, $7.25.The Dlxon Memorial Volume. Studies in the anthropologyof Oceania and Asia presented in memoryof Roland B. Dixon by fourteen former students.1943. 220 pages, 20 plates, 10 maps, and 7 illustrationsin the text.VOLUME XXI, $7.50; bound in cloth, $10.50.Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah.By John O. Brew. 1946. 346 pages, 13 tables, 2colored figures, 1 1 1 collotypes, and 80 illustrationsin the text.VOLUME XXII complete.No. 1. Old Oraibi. A study of the Hopi Indians ofThird Mesa. By Mischa Titiev. 1944. 274 pages,4 plates, frontispiece, 11 charts, 10 tables, and 13illustrations in the text. Offset edition, 1951. $5.25.No. 2. Navaho Witchcraft. By Clyde Kluckhohn1944. 150 pages. $2.25. Out of print (revised editionin preparation).

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( VOLUMES1.-j-1042. 86 pages. H plates, frontispiece, and 54illustrations in the test, 5 -No. 2. Prehistoric Coal Mining m the Jeddtto Valley.Arizona. By John T. Hack. 1942. 24 pages,plates, and 10 illustrations in the text. -5 cents.5No. 3. Part I: Mammals Food at the AwatovtSite; Part LI: Post-Crantal Skeletal Charactersof Deer. Pronghorn. and Sheep-Goat, wtth Noteson Bos and Bison. By Barbara Lawrence. 1951.44 pages and 20 illustrations in the text. $2x10.VOLUME XXXVI, $5.85: bound in cloth.: -Franciscan Awatovi: the Excavation and CONJEC-TURAL RECONSTRrcnON OF A I -TH-CeNTURY" SPAN-ISH Mission Establishment at a Hopi ITown ln Northeastern Arizona. By Ross GordonMontgomery, Watson Smith, and J. O.Brew. 1949. 362 pages, 1- plates, 1 color plate,and 45 illustrations in the text.VOLUME XXXVLL S-.50; bound in cloth, $10.50.Ktva Mural Decorations at Awatovi and Kinntirn ft-With a Survey" of Other Wall Paintings in thePueblo Southwest. By Watson Smith. 195:pages. 64 collotype figures, 9 color plates, and28 illustrations in the texr.XXX\TH. XXXLX reserved for the;:ovi Series.)VOLUME XL complete.No. 1. Gregorio, the Hand-trembler: A PsychobioloqcalPersonality Study of a Navaho Indian.By Alexander H. and Dorothea C. Leighton.1949. 172 pages and 7 charts. 5:jNo. 2. Some Sex Beliefs and Practices ln a NavahoCommunity - , with comparative material fromother Navaho areas. By Flora L. Bailey. 1950.108 pages. $5.00.No. 3. Three Navaho Households: A ComparativeStudy n Small Group Culture. By John M.Roberts. 1951. 88 pages, 6 tables, and 14 collotypefigures. S3 -oo. Out of print.No. 4. Ethnobotany of the Raniah Navaho. By PaulA. VestaL 1952. 94 pages. 52.50.VOLUME XLI complete. $8.65; bound in cloth.$".65.No. 1. Navaho Veterans: A Study of ChangingValues. By Evon Z. Vogt. 195 1. 124 pages, 3tables, and 11 charts. $3x10.No. 2. Changing Navaho Religious Values: a studyof Christian Missions to the Rimrock Navahos.By Robert N. Rapoport. 1954. 152 potables,and 1 illustration in the text. S3 -00.No. 3. Enemy - Way- Music: a study of social andesthetic values as seen in Navaho music. BvDavid P. McAllester. 1954. 96 pages, 52 pages ofmusic and 6 illustrations in the text |VOLUME XLn complete.No. 1. Land-Use ln the Ra\uh Area of New Mexico:an anthropological approach to area!-_•By John L. Landgraf. 1954. 98 pages, and 18illustrations in the text. \:.i-.No. 2. A Study of Rorschach Responses ln FourCultures. By Bert Kaplan. 1954. 44 pages and25 table-:. 3: .35. O-t of print-No. 3. Navaho Acquisitive Values. Bv Richard Hobson.1954. 38 pages and 6 rabies. $i.:o. Out of..- ..-.-.VOLUME XLLnNo. 1. Zuni Law: a field of values. By Watson Smithand John M. Roberts, with an appendix. A PracticalZuni Orthography, by Stanley Newman.1954. 176 pages. $3.00.(VOLUMES XLIV-XLV reserved for Studies in theSocial Anthropology and Ethnology of the 6ican South" 1VOLUME XLVI complete, $13.35; bound in cloth,Bt E7HROPOLOGT OF IRAQ.No. i. The Northern Jazt2a. .95:. 116 pages, 196tables. 49 collotvpes. and 5 illustrations in the text.- S . _ 3type$6.50.Noa :-• and Conclusions. :;-:es, 9 : b ms, 1 tables, 29 gra; he nd jfigures. $cVOLUME XLVLINo. 1 . Culture: A Critical Review of Concz;Definitions. By A. L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluck-.5: ;: • - ..VOLUME XLVLTINo. 1. Contributions to the Anthropology of theCaucasus. Bv Henry Field. 15 tjj ''hies,9 graphs, and 24 collotype figures. $6.50.No. 2. An Anthropological Reconnaissance ln theNia3 East. .--•--. By Henr. Field -'-- 119-pases. 88 tables and 2 maps. £ :VOLUME XLLXNo. 1. Clay - Figurines of the American Southwest,with a description of the new Piffings find inNortheastern Utah and a comparison with certainother North American figurines. Bv Noel Morss.1954. -4 pages. 2 maps, 18 collotype figure13 illustrations. 5;No. 2. The Monagrtllo Culture of Panama. BvGordon R.With an appendix on Archaeological MarineShells by Robert E. Greengo. 1954. 158 potjtables. 34 illustrations in the text, and 20 ha.-figures. $4-65.No. 3. Tee Archaeology of Central and SouthernHonduras. Bv Doris Z. Stone. In preparation.VOLUME LNo. 1. A Chancay-Style Grave at Zapallan. Peru.An analysis of its textiles, pottery and otfc:.-nishings. By S. K. Lothrop 1preparation.

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ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE PEABODY MUSEUMReports of the Peabody Museum's activities have beenpublished annually since the year 1868. From thatdate through 1890, 24 Annual Reports were printed,embodying not only the routine accounts and summariesbut also the expedition and research reportsof the type which since that time has been incorporatedin the Papers and Memoirs. The 8th, nthand 15th are now out of print. The others are availableat 75 cents each with the exception of the following:Tenth Report, containing the following articles:Discovery of supposed Palaeolithic Implementsfrom Glacial Drift in Delaware Valley, near Trenton,New Jersey, by C. C. Abbott. (Illustrated);Age of Delaware Gravel Bed Containing ChippedPebbles, by N. S. Shaler; Exploration of Ash Cavein Benton Township, Hocking County, Ohio, byE. B. Andrews; Exploration of Mounds in SoutheasternOhio, by E. B. Andrews. (Illustrated);Exploration of Mound in Lee County, Virginia,by Lucien Carr. (Illustrated); Art of War andMode of Warfare of the Ancient Mexicans, byA. F. Bandelier. $2.00.Twelfth and Thirteenth Reports (under one cover),containing the following articles:Measurements of Crania from California, by LucienCarr; Flint Chips, by C. C. Abbott. (Illustrated);Method of Manufacturing Pottery and Basketsamong Indians of Southern California, by PaulSchumacher; Aboriginal Soapstone Quarries inDistrict of Columbia, by Elmer R. Reynolds;Ruins of Stone Pueblo on Animas River, NewMexico, by Lewis H. Morgan. (Illustrated); SocialOrganization and Mode of Government ofthe Ancient Mexicans, by A. F. Bandelier. $2.00.Sixteenth and Seventeenth Reports (under onecover), containing the following articles:Social and Political Position of Woman amongHuron-Iroquois Tribes, by Lucien Carr; Notesupon Human Remains from Coahuila Caves, byCordelia A. Studley; White Buffalo Festival ofUncpapas, by Alice C. Fletcher; Elk Mystery orFestival, Ogallala Sioux, by Alice C. Fletcher; ReligiousCeremony of the Four Winds or Quarters,as observed by the Santee Sioux, by Alice C.Fletcher. (Illustrated); The Shadow or GhostLodge, Ogallala Sioux, by Alice C. Fletcher. (Illustrated);The "Wawan" or Pipe Dance of theOmahas, by Alice C. Fletcher. (Illustrated);Report on Meteoric Iron from Altar Mounds,Little Miami Valley, by Leonard P. Kinnicutt.$2.00. (Signatures only.)Eighteenth and Nineteenth Reports (under onecover), containing the following articles:Notes on the Anomalies, Injuries, and Diseases ofBones of the Native Races of North America, bvWilliam F. Whitney; Marriott Mound and its Contents,by F. W. Putnam. (Illustrated.) $2.00.The 25th and following brief Reports are printed inthe Annual Reports of the President of Harvard University.Reprints of all but the 25th, 26th and 27thmay be obtained by applying to the Peabody Museum.Price, 35 cents each.HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIESVOLUME I, $7.00.Varia Africana I. Edited by Oric Bates. AssistantEditor, F. H. Sterns. 1917. M. M. 'Abd Allah,Siwan customs; E. A. Hooton. Oral surgery inEgypt during the Old Empire; J. Roscoe, Worshipof the dead as practiced by some Africantribes; F. H. Sterns, The paleoliths of the EasternDesert; H. F. Mathews, Notes on the Nungutribe, Nassawara Province, etc.; Abercromby,A study of the ancient speechJ.of the CanaryIslands; E. A. Hooton, Benin antiquities in thePeabody Museum; A. Werner, The utendi ofMwana Kupona; R. H. Blanchard, Notes onEgyptian Saints; F. H. Sterns, Darfur gourds; G.A. Reisner, An inscription from Gebel Barkal;O. Bates, Ancient Egyptian fishing; R. F. Carroll,Selected bibliography of Africana for 191 5.VOLUME II, $7.50.Varia Africana II. Edited by Oric Bates. 1918. G.A. Reisner, Preliminary report on the Harvard-Boston excavations at Nuri, etc.; A. W. Hoernle,Certain rites of transition and the conception of!nau among the Hottentots; E. A. Hooton, Someearly drawings of Hottentot women; E. A.Hooton, Note on a deformed skull from SiwahOasis; C. G. and B. Z. Seligman, The Kababish, aSudan Arab tribe; O. Bates and E. A. Hooton,On the origin of the double -bladed swords of theWest Coast; F. H. Sterns, Some Bisharin basketsin the Peabody Museum; W. S. Ferguson, TheZulus and the Spartans: a comparison of theirmilitary systems: A, van Gennep, Recherchessur les poteries peints de l'Afrique du nord franchise(Tunisie, Algerie, Maroc); O. Bates, Siwanpottery; C. Ashenden, Selected bibliography ofAfricana for 191 6. Out of print.VOLUME III, $6.50.Varia Africana III. Edited by E. A. Hooton andNatica I. Bates. Assistant editor, Ruth OtisSawtell. 1922. V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri, The actualstate of the question of the most ancient Egyptianpopulations; E. Cerulli, The folk-literature of theGalla of Southern Abyssinia; H. S. Stannus, TheWayao of Nyasaland; C. Peabody, Note on prehistoriccollections from Northwest Africa inthe Peabody Museum of Harvard University.VOLUME IV, $3.50.English-Nubian Comparative Dictionary. By G. W.Murray. Edited by E. A. Hooton and Natica I.Bates. 1923.

VOLUME V, $9.00.Excavations at Kerma (Parts I—III) . By George A.Reisner. Edited by E. A. Hooton and Natica I.Bates. 1923.VOLUME VI, $9.00.Excavations at Kerma (Parts IV-V). By George A.Reisner. Edited by E. A. Hooton and Natica I.Bates. 1923.VOLUME VII, $7.50.The Ancient Inhabitants of the Canary Islands.By E. A. Hooton. 1925.VOLUME VIII, $9.00.Varia Africana IV. Edited by E. A. Hooton andNatica I. Bates. 1928. O. Bates and DowsDunham, Excavations at Gammai; O. Bates, Excavationsat Marsa Matruh; D. E. Derry, A studyof the crania from the Oasis of Siwah; H. H.Kidder, Notes on the pigmentation of the skin,hair, and eyes of the Kabyles.VOLUME IX, $10.00.Tribes of the Rif. By Carleton S. Coon. 193 1.VOLUME X, $7.00.Varia Africana V. Edited by E. A. Hooton andNatica I. Bates. 1932. F. R. Wulsin, An archaeologicalreconnaissance of the Shari Basin; C. B.Day, A study of some negro-white families inthe United States; W. Cline, Anthropometricnotes on the natives of Siwah Oasis.Reprint from Volume X: A Study of Some Negro-White Families in the United States. By CarolineBond Day. 1932. 126 pages, 57 plates. $3.25.AMERICAN SCHOOL OF PREHISTORIC RESEARCHPUBLICATIONSBulletins i and 2. Out of print.Bulletin 3. Report by the Director on the work ofthe Sixth Season (1926) in England, Holland, Germany,Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland andFrance. By George Grant MacCurdy. 1927. 22pages, 26 illustrations. $.50.Bulletin 4. Out of print.Bulletin 5. Report by the Director of the work ofthe Eighth Season. By George Grant MacCurdy.Report on Field Work in France, Season of 1928.By J.Townsend Russell, Jr. The Past, Present andFuture of Old World Prehistory. By GeorgeGrant MacCurdy. The Palaeolithic Period inCentral Europe. By Vladimir J. Fewkes. TheNeolithic Period in Bohemia and adjacent Countries.By Robert W. Ehrich. 1929. 34 pages. $.50.Bulletins 6 Through 14.Out of print.Bulletin 15. Report of the Director. By GeorgeGrant MacCurdy. A Report of the 1938 SummerCourse. By Vladimir J. Fewkes. Report on theA.S.P.R. Expedition to Anatolia. By D. A. E.Garrod, James H. Gaul and Bruce Howe. Noteson Some Hiiyiiks in Central Anatolia. By JamesH. Gaul. Excavation in the Cave of Bacho Kiro,Bulgaria. By D. A. E. Garrod, Bruce Howe andJames H. Gaul. The Pottery from the Cave ofBacho Kiro. By James H. Gaul. Reports on Cavesin Northern Bulgaria. By D. A. E. Garrod andBruce Howe. 1939. 126 pages, 44 illustrations.$1.50.Bulletin 16. The Neolithic Period in Bulgaria. ByJames H. Gaul. 1948. 252 pages, 69 illustrations.$4-75-Bulletin 17. George Grant MacCurdy. By E. A.Hooton. The Ancient Palestinian: Skhul V Reconstruction.By Charles E. Snow. The MousterianCave of Teshik-Tash, Southeastern Uzbekistan,Central Asia. By Hallam L. Movius, Jr.1953. 71 pages, 21 illustrations. $2.45.Bulletin 18. The Stone Age Races of NorthwestAfrica. Bv L. Cabot Briggs. 1955. 98 pages, 22illustrations. $3.00.Bulletin 19. The Rock-Shelter of La Colombiere.Bv Hallam L. Movius, Jr., Sheldon Judson, andHenri Gauthier, with a resume in French by FrancoisH. Bordes. 1956. 176 pages, 52 illustrations.$4.85.Bulletin 20. The Prehistory of Eastern Europe.Part I: Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper AgeCultures in Russia and the Baltic Area. By MarijaGimbutas. In preparation.Old World Bibliographies. Hallam L. Movius, Jr.(Compiler). Recent Publications, mainly in OldWorld Palaeolithic Archaeology and Palaeo-Anthropology. No. 1 (1948), out of print; No. 2(1949), out of print; No. 3 (1950); No. 4 (1951);No. 5 (1952); No. 6 (1953); No. 7 (1954) (withRosamond R. Field); No. 8 (1955) (with RosamondR. Field). $1.00 each.(Continued on inside back cover)

11(Continued from last page)SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE PEABODY MUSEUMNOT AVAILABLE FOR EXCHANGEThe following works, some of which were not originallypublished by the Peabody Museum, are for salebut are not available for exchange.A Journal of American Ethnology and Archaeology.Containing Papers of the Hemenway SouthwesternArchaeological Expedition. The MaryHemenway Collection is exhibited in the Museum.Square octavo. Maps and illustrations. (Discontinuedafter Vol. V.)VOLUME I. i. A Few Summer Ceremonialsat Zuni Pueblo. By J. Walter Fewkes. 2. ZuniMelodies. By Benjamin Ives Gilman. 3. Reconnaissanceof Ruins in or near the Zuni Reservation.By J. Walter Fewkes. $2.00.VOLUME II. 1. A Few Summer Ceremonialsat the Tusayan Pueblos. By J. Walter Fewkes.2. Natal Ceremonies of the Hopi Indians. ByJ. G. Owens. 3. A Report on the Present Conditionof a Ruin in Arizona called Casa Grande.By J.Walter Fewkes. Out of print.VOLUME III. 1. An Outline of the DocumentaryHistory of the Zuni Tribe. By A. F. Bandeher.2. Somatological Observations on Indiansof the Southwest. By H. F. C. Ten Kate.$2.25.(No. 1, of this volume may be obtained separately.$1.75.)VOLUME IV. The Snake Ceremonials atWalpi. By J. Walter Fewkes, assisted by A. M.Stephen and J. G. Owens. $2.00.VOLUME V. 1. Hopi Songs. By BenjaminIves Gilman. 2. The Hemenway SouthwesternExpedition. By Benpamin Ives Gilman andKatherine H. Stone. Out of print.(Concluding volume of the Journal, publishedNovember, 1908.)Human Bones in Hemenway Collection (SouthwesternArchaeological Expedition) . Described byD. Washington Matthews.1890. Quarto. 286 pages, 59 plates, and illustrationsin the text. $3.25.(Reprint from Vol. VI, Memoirs of the NationalAcademy of Science.)Hemenway Southwestern Expedition. By A. F.Bandelier. 1. Contributions to the SouthwesternPortion of the United States. 1890. Papers of theArchaeological Institute of America, AmericanSeries, vol. V. $2.15. 2. An Outline of the DocumentaryHistory of the Zuni Tribe. 1890. Journalof American Ethnology and Archaeology, vol.HI, pages 1-115. $2.00.The Archaic Maya Inscriptions. Bv J. T. Goodman.1897. Quarto. 149 pages. $4.25.(Appendix to Biologia Central-Americana.) TheArchaic Annual Calendar with tables for 52 years;Archaic Chronological Calendar with 77 pages oftables; Perpetual Chronological Calendar withtable; Working Chart.The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. WithIntroduction by G. B. Gordon.Published by the University of Pennsylvania Museum,Philadelphia, 1913. Photographic reproductionof the 107 pages of the book. $7.50.Contributions to the Archaeology of Missouri. ByProfessor W. B. Potter and Dr. Edward Evers.1880. Quarto. 30 pages, 5 plans, and 24 plates containing148 figures of ancient Missouri pottery.$2.35.Codex Nuttaix.(Continued on outside back cover)1902. (Small edition.) In sheets only. $20.00.An ancient Mexican Codex (84 pages of facsimilereproductions of the manuscript in its originalcolors; with an explanatory introduction by ZeliaNuttall.Papers by Lucien Carr. (Assistant Curator of thePeabody Museum, 1877-1894.)Observations on the Crania from the SantaBarbara Islands, California. 15 pages. 50 cents.Dress and Ornaments of Certain AmericanIndians. 76 pages. 50 cents.Papers by Charles P. Bowditch. Three Papers Relattingto Maya Subjects: 1. Was the Beginning Dayof the Maya Month Numbered Zero (or Twenty)or One? (1901.) 50 cents. 2. A Method which mayhave been used by the Mayas in Calculating Time.(1901.) 50 cents. 3. Maya Nomenclature. (1906.)50 cents.Antiquities of the New England Indians, withNotes on the Ancient Cultures of the AdjacentTerritory. By Charles Clark Willoughby.1935. Octavo. 322 pages, fully illustrated. Paperbound, $4.00; cloth, $7.00. Out of print.DicrioNNAiRE Francais-Montagnais, GrammaireMontagnaise. By Geo. Lemoine. (W. B. Cabotand P. Cabot, Boston.) 1901. 346 pages. $3.25.Excavations in Mesopotamia and Western Iran(Sites of 4000-500 B.C.). Graphic Analyses byHenry Ware Eliot, Jr.; Art Work by TheresaGarrett Eliot, 1950. Portfolio of 32 charts. $17.50.Navajo Creation Chants. From the collection recordedfor the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art,Santa Fe, New Mexico. An album containing recordingsof sixteen chants from Navajo cosmogony.Five ten-inch unbreakable records, includinga pamphlet containing translations by Dr. HarryHoijer of the texts, notes on the myth by MaryC. Wheelwright, and descriptive and analyticalnotes on the music by Dr. David P. McAllester.$10.00 postpaid.

(Continued from inside back cover)PHOTOSTAT REPRODUCTIONS OF OLD MANUSCRIPTSNOT AVAILABLE FOR EXCHANGEThese relate principally to the native languages ofMiddle America. Reproduced under the directionand through the generosity of the late Charles P.Bowditch. The edition of these reproductions islimited to a few copies.Doctrina en Lengua Quiche. Catechism in Quiche.165 pages. Out of print. (Original in the libraryof Professor M. H. Saville, New York.)Arte dela Lengua Szinca, Vocabulario dela LenguaSzinca. By Maldonado de Matos. Szinca grammar,with some critical reflections on the Kakchiquelgrammar. 2 vols., 1770: Vol. 1, 219 pages;Vol. II, 91 pages. Vol. I, $24.00; Vol. II, $12.00.(Original in the library of the Peabody Museumof Harvard University.)Ydioma Zapoteco del Valle. Contains some commonrules of grammar, a copious vocabulary, aconfessionary, and other things which the Christianreader may see. 2 vols., 1793; Vol. I, 286pages; Vol. II, 292 pages. Vol. I, $33.00; Vol. II,$33.00. (Original in the John Carter Brown Library,Providence, R. I.)Series publications, with the exception of out of print numbers, may be bought as complete sets, eitherpaper or cloth bound. Write to the museum for current prices.I

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