176 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



flight, that was unlucky. It is so considered still in 

 Italy, and corresponds to our superstitious fear of the 

 beetle called the death-watch. If, therefore, heard on the 

 left, or heart side, it directly menaced life." 



I leave the solution of the general problem of the 

 value of direction in ancient ornithomancy to the 

 Orientalists, advising them that a hint of subtile and half- 

 forgotten reasons for such distinctions may be found in 

 the ideas prevailing among the shamans, or "medicine 

 men," of our southwestern village-Indians; among the 

 Hopi (miscalled Mokis), for example, North is repre- 

 sented in their mystical ceremonies by yellow, West by 

 blue, South by red, and East by white. 



Religious interest in black-hued birds is not confined 

 to the Old World, as was tragically illustrated in that 

 remarkable excitement among the Indians of the Upper 

 Missouri region in 1890, known as the Ghost Dance, of 

 which the crow was the honored symbol. James 

 Mooney, 77 of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, in- 

 vestigated this outburst of sentiment very thoroughly, 

 and explained it at length in the 14th Annual Report of 

 that Bureau, from which I extract the information as to 

 the crow's part in the matter. Dr. Mooney reminds us in 

 advance that the crow was probably held sacred by all 

 the tribes of the Algonquian race. Roger Williams, 

 speaking of the New England tribes, says that although 

 the crow did damage to the corn, hardly an Indian would 

 kill one, because it was their tradition that this bird had 

 brought them their first grain and vegetables, "carrying 

 a grain of corn in one ear and a bean in the other from 

 the field of their great god Cautantouwit in Sowwaniu, 

 the Southwest, the happy spirit-world where dwelt the 

 gods and the souls of the great and good." 



