32 [64] TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



"From the East a white fire came to them," etc. This pas- 

 sage on the fires of four colors is understood to be of importance 

 for the study of color symbolism, because the points of the com- 

 pass assigned to each of the variously colored fires are supposed 

 to be connected with the color-shades of the fires. But is there 

 any connection or not? The fires are mentioned here evidently 

 as belonging to ceremonial rites, and the fact that they were sing- 

 ing and could be mingled with other fires shows that their color 

 was the result of the fuel thrown into them. Certain plants or 

 trees containing more moisture than others will sing or sizzle in 

 a manner different from others, and will produce a denser, dus- 

 kier smoke than those whose normal condition approaches that 

 of exsiccation. The fire which the Kasi'hta saw first on the moun- 

 tain was red, and its smoke was red also ; this they mingled with 

 their present ceremonial fire, which is red and yellow. This is 

 the natural color of fire made with dry wood. A black fire is a 

 thing never heard of; "black" can point only to a dense black 

 smoke developed from the herbs thrown into the fire. When the 

 conjurer first lit the nezv sacred Ji re in the annual busk, he threw 

 ears of corn and medicinal herbs into it (cf. i. p. 179, 181), this 

 being referred to by our passage, '' and this is the fire they use 

 to-day." The red smoke and the red fire, as first seen by the 

 Kasi/ta, are referred to again at the end of the legend. The fire 

 they had seen upon the mountain and saved was a red fire, for 

 its smoke was red, and, when they had met the three other na- 

 tions, they gave it a yellow admixture: "a fire came from the 

 North, which was red and yellow." 



The ancient Creeks had a fanciful way of selecting their me- 

 dicinal plants according to the direction in which their stems or 

 roots were running ; thus they, for certain purposes, selected roots 

 running from North to South, or others that ran from West to 

 East. Some plants could only be gathered in four nights of the 

 year, which were fixed by certain rules prescribed by the conju- 

 rers ; others had to be collected in certain four nights of four dif- 

 ferent lunations, or in four lunations each belonging to different 

 years. Rules like these existed in infinite numbers, and were in- 

 creased or modified at will by the inventiveness of the conjurers. 

 The Kasi/ta legend brings the colored fires in immediate connec- 

 tion with the four herbs which were of a medicinal or sacrificial 



