182 MOERIS— PENTAG. DODECAHEDRON AND SHAMANISM. [Ap. 23, 



shores, of the New World as it did in the Old ; that mystic dances, 

 rites and symbols abound among them — that Nature speaks to them 

 with myriad tongues : that they should try to penetrate her secrets 

 by methods of divination more or less analogous or identical with 

 those of similar races. But here comes in a factor which is too often 

 disregarded — the influence of race. Truth, absolute truth, must 

 always remain the same : not so our appreciation of it, which must in 

 every case be more or less partial, more or less incomplete. Some 

 races have little or no idea of harmony — others of lapse of time — 

 others of liberty — others of home. The Western races of the Old 

 World view things objectively, the Eastern subjectively. The Indian 

 resembles the latter — the world is in him and he is of it. Our 

 Aryan brains take readily the idea of three dimensions in space. To 

 the Indian, and to the Eastern mind, there is another — the fullness. 

 It is hard for us to grasp this — it is not the length and breadth and 

 thickness of a cube for instance, but the whole of it, which is as 

 much to be considered as any one of its sides. A cube would, there- 

 fore, be represented numerically by 7 : a dodecahedron by 13. 

 Among the Mexicans the thirteen lunar months would thus corre- 

 spond in the year with the twelve zodiacal signs and the earth 

 which passed under and embraced them all. Again, the five digits 

 on each hand came to be a measure of a man's power or individu- 

 ality, and thus a sacred number. It would then require but little 

 stretch of imagination to suppose that a pentagonal dodecahedron, 

 were such a form known to them, inscribed with zodiacal char- 

 acters, might be the emblem of the world : and the best time for 

 the activity of a man in some pursuit in which he might wish to 

 engage might be shown by the zodiacal sign which came uppermost 

 when the dodecahedron was thrown or rolled with appropriate cere- 

 monies. 



Such is the hypothesis which I would offer as to the character and 

 uses of this curious stone dodecahedron, which was sent to the Soci- 

 ety on October 19,1 792, and has since been lying in the Cabinet. The 

 record shows it to have been taken from a bluff on the Ohio river, 

 about thirty miles above Marietta; and it was sent here with other 

 Indian relics. The edges show slightly conchoidal fracture : the 

 sides are finely polished, showing also indistinctly drawings of figures 

 upon them which have been made, Mr. Gushing thinks, with stone 

 tools: it is black, of moderate hardness, sp. grav. about 2.78, and 

 effervesces with dilute acid. 



