520 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



As the Spaniards did not arrive in New Mexico until 1539, and as 

 America was discovered in 1492, it follows logically that in this case 

 synchronism is out of the question. 



Furthermore, it is very doubtful whether the Navaho knew of 

 scalping in the time of Bandelier's novel, regardless of the question 

 whether they really existed as a distinct tribe at the same time as 

 the Queres of Tyuonyi. In my criticism of Cooper I have already 

 drawn attention to the fact that at the advent of the whites in 

 America the area of the scalping custom was comparatively limited. 

 It would seem that at that period the practice was unknown west 

 of the Mississippi. Moreover, even if the Dinne did scalp, the cus- 

 tom was not very general among them. They probably learned it 

 from other hostile tribes, like the Pueblos. It is even open to doubt 

 whether the Queres and Tehua knew anything about scalping before 

 the discovery of America. 10 We are forced to draw the conclusion 

 that Bandelier errs when, in his novel, he makes the Navaho scalp 

 an old woman from Tyuonyi as well as Topanashka. And probably 

 our author is equally mistaken when he represents his Tyuonyi and 

 Puye warriors as scalp hunters. In describing the shield of Cayamo, 

 Bandelier says that its decoration — a green crescent and four red 

 crosses — had "no heraldic significance," being "but the creation of 

 fancy or taste." This is very improbable. If we may judge from the 

 results of investigations by James Mooney into the heraldry of war 

 shields (of the Kiowas) we can safely believe that shield decoration 

 among the ancient and present sedentary Indians of the Southwest 

 also had and has a deeper significance. 11 



The foregoing remarks show how difficult it is to write an ethno- 

 logic novel answering to the requirements of science. If a specialist 

 like Bandelier could make mistakes, it is obvious that other writers 

 much less familiar with their subject must inevitably err when they 

 venture to treat of Indians in literary works. 



Miss Edna Dean Proctor's poem, The Song of the Ancient People, 

 also relates to the Pueblo Indians, more particularly the Zunis and 

 Moqui (Hopi), both, we might say, harmoniously blended together 

 in treatment. John Fiske wrote the preface and the " Zuni familiar," 

 dishing, a commentary, indorsements which vouch for the ethno- 

 logic value of the poem. Cushing, for instance, speaks of its " strict 

 fidelity of statement " and says that it is " ancient in spirit and 

 feeling." The Song of the Ancient People was published in 1893 

 by the Riverside Press at Cambridge, Mass., with illustrations by 

 Julian Scott. In it Miss Proctor brought together much valuable 

 material concerning the religion, mythology, folk-lore, manners, 



Cf. Friederici, Skalpieren, etc. pp. 13-14. 



J Art. Heraldry and Shields in Handbook quoted. 



