1897.] CUSHIXG — REMARKS OX SHAMANISM. 183 



In Vol. xxi, Pis. i, ii and iii, of the Proceedings, some drawings 

 are given of the Pictured Rocks on the Monongahela, showing good 

 examples of the Shamanistic symbol writing of the tribes which 

 roamed there before the advent of the white man, and I have the 

 pleasure also of exhibiting casts made from impressions in plaster 

 taken from some rocks in the Susquehanna at Safe Harbor, Lan- 

 caster county, Pa., and presented through Prof. T. C. Porter, by 

 the Linnsean Society of Lancaster county, figured in the Froc, 

 Vol. X, pp. 30, 255, and Pis. i and xiii. These figures, cut by 

 stone implements in the limestone rock, give striking representa- 

 tions of the sacred dances participated in by Indians wearing 

 masks, and of various mythic creatures such as the thunder-bird, 

 etc. 



The 12 faces of the figure maybe divided into 4 groups of 3 

 faces each, forming 4 solid angles, which may be connected so 

 as to form the four-legged Sphastica : or those may be united 

 to form a triskele. There are in all 30 dividing edges and 



12 X 30 = 360 ; add a 5 and you have the days of the year. The 



13 (sum of the faces and the object itself) multiplied by the 

 4 points above noted gives the number 52, the Aztec cycle — while 

 4 adjacent faces, each with 5 sides, would give 20, the unit of a 

 man. Or, again, 3 edges unite so as to form 20 three-sided points. 

 Thus the cube and pentagonal dodecahedron might be used to rep- 

 resent all the mystic numbers. While those of the cube were con- 

 nected more with the extreme orient, those of the dodecahedron 

 may be found there as also in Egypt and Mexico. 



I cannot refrain from the suggestion that perhaps this dodecahe- 

 dron may throw some light on the customs and civilization of the 

 mound builders of Ohio. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Frank Hamilton Gushing, in response to a request of 

 the President, commented upon and discussed the subject at con- 

 siderable length. 



After a few general remarks relative to Shamanism, or, more prop- 

 erly, Primitive Priestcraft, which he defined as the outgrowth of 

 the ''Religion and Philosophy of Mystery," of the attempted 

 explanation of the unknown, — the realm of which, he stated, grew 

 greater and greater as we progressed farther and farther backward 



