1897.] CUSHIXG — REMARKS ON SHAMANISM. 185 



to the meaning of the nu})iber of its sides or faces and itself. To one 

 of them, a cube would not be representative of six, its number of 

 superfices, but of seven; and a dodecahedron, not of twelve, but 

 of thirteen. For, when an untutored or primitive man like him, 

 contemplates or considers himself or any other distinct thing, in 

 his or its relation to space or the surrounding directions, he notes 

 that there is ever a front or face, a rear or back ; two sides, or a 

 right and a left ; a head and a foot, or an above and a below ; and 

 that of and within all these, is himself or it ; that the essence of 

 all these aspects in anything, is the thing-itself — that is, the thing 

 that contains their numbers or sum, yet is one by itself. 



This is indeed the very key to his conception of himself and of 

 everything, in relation to space and the universe or cosmos. He 

 observes that there are as many regions in the world as there are 

 aspects of himself or sides to any equally separate thing ; that there 

 are as many directions from him or his place in the world (which 

 is his ''midmost " or place of attachment to the Earth-mother) or 

 from anything in the world (which is its midmost or natural sta- 

 tion) toward these corresponding regions. Hence to him a plane 

 would be symbolized not by four, but by five, its four sides and 

 directions thence, and its central self — as was actually the notion of 

 the Prairie tribes; a cube, not by six, but by seven, as was the notion 

 of the Valley-Pueblos and Navahos ; a dodecahedron, not by twelve, 

 but by thirteen, as was the notion of the Zunis, the Aztecs, the 

 Mayas, and apparently — from this example — of the Mound builders 

 as well. 



With all that I have thus far said I cannot yet have made clear to 

 you the relation this supposed connection of beings and things to 

 their surroundings, to the regions in front, behind, at the right and 

 left sides, and above, below and within them, can have to the sub- 

 ject under discussion. It will therefore be necessary for me to 

 crave your patience while I entera little more fully into a considera- 

 tion of the beliefs of primitive man concerning force, life, and 

 form, for it will be seen that these beliefs have a direct bearing 

 on this apparently fantastic and mystic meaning of the numbers 

 se7'en and thirteen. 



To the primitive Shaman, all force necessarily seems to be de- 

 rived from some kind of life, since he continually sees force as mo- 

 tion or stress originated in, or initiated as action by, life in some 

 form — his own, or some other. Now the supreme characteristic or 



