ANCIENT PUEBLOS OF UPPER GILA EEGION. 



103 



Fia. 211. — Carved head 

 op bird staff feom 

 Blue River. 



The mystery of down which seems to move under the influence of 

 intangible beings and float in the air as though imbued with the 

 power of birds' flight or the lightness of smoke or the buoyancy of 

 clouds has also appealed to uncivilized man and given him, like in- 

 cense, a way to the gods. 



Birds are the most attractive members of the 

 animal kingdom. They are not dangerous to 

 man and they excite neither fear, anger, nor dis- 

 gust; on the contrary, from their strange and 

 wonderful habits, above all that of flight, they 

 excite interest and admiration. Flying, swim- 

 ming, and diving are mysterious, and the feathers 

 being the instruments of this action are symbols 

 of the magic power or orenda of flight. 



The Pueblos have clas- 

 sified feathers, as has 

 been intimated, as hav- 

 ing certain qualities ap- 

 pertaining to their wor- 

 ship. Most feathers are 

 good, but the plumage 



of certain birds is maleficent, that of the owl 

 among the Zuiii being employed in witchcraft. 

 The feathers also of certain birds — the crow, 

 for instance — are not 

 used at all. 



BIRD CIRCUIT SYMBOLISM. 



Examples of the four 



direction bird symbol 



(see figs. 85, 86) are 



common in the Pueblo 

 region, the ancient southern sites, in the 

 Mississippi Valley ruins, and sporadically 

 throughout North America. North of Mexico 

 the symbol is not highly developed, but in 

 Mexico it has become complex, due to calendric 

 progress. An interesting resemblance between 

 the Pueblo and Mexican bird circuit is that in 

 both symbols the parrakeet occupies the four 

 corners of the square.^ 



A few ceremonial staffs having bird effigies carved on the upper 

 end were taken from the deposits of the Bear Creek and Johnson 

 caves on Blue River, Arizona. (Figs. 211-213, Cat. Nos. 552 Gates 



Fig. 212. — Carved head of 

 bird stal'p from bear 

 Creek Cave. 



Fig. 213. — Carved head 

 of bird staff from 

 Bear Creek Cave. 



1 See calendric cross of the Fejervary codex in 3d Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnology, 1882, pi. 

 Ill, facing p. 32. 



