454 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 39 



things for the Earth and sky and given them stability, he selected 

 the Gourd Children * * * to carry the Sun and Moon. These 

 he placed on their left shoulders, leaving their right hand free to 

 enable them to eat when traveling. Thirty-two trails were assigned 

 to the Sun for his daily travels. To compensate themselves both 

 the Sun and the Moon (carriers) stipulated one human life for every 

 journey." This sounds like human sacrifice, but the actual ritual 

 of sun worship may be hinted at in a song of the Mountain Chant : 



Where the Sun rises Where the Sun sets 



The Holy Young Man The Holy Young Woman 



The Great plumed arrow The Cliff rose arrow 



Has swallowed Has swallowed 



And withdrawn it. ^nd withdrawn it. 



The Sun The Moon 



Is satisfied. Is satisfied. 



A sober analysis of Navajo ideas of the sun contained in their 

 mythology and reinforced by the fine body of sand paintings and 

 song sequences used in their ceremonies shows little in common with 

 the ideas of other Athabascan tribes living in the north but much 

 in common with ideas found among their Pueblo Indian neighbors. 

 These in turn have elements in common with artistic conventions 

 prevailing in Mexico and Central America before the Spanish con- 

 quest, in each case the inspiration resulting in an incomplete transfer. 

 The Mexican nations accepted little of the science of the Mayas, the 

 Pueblo Indian communities little of the astrology of the Mexicans, 

 the Navajo bands little of the agricultural aim developed in the 

 Pueblo community — in each case there had been a step-down trans- 

 formation. Yet enough had been implanted to assure a new growth 

 under color of a new collective personality. This can be illustrated 

 objectively by the way in which representations of suns succeed 

 each other in Maya, Toltec, Aztec, Pueblo, and finally Navajo art. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF ASTRONOMY 



The reader will understand that the nature of the available evi- 

 dence on sun worship prevents a steady advance in the argument. 

 It is necessary to move backward to archeological beginnings, for- 

 ward to ethnological stages that seem to present a recapitulation of 

 developmental stages, and then test the whole in the light of history. 



Anthropology combines arguments from many sources to reveal 

 the truth concerning man — a medley from all sciences and all arts 

 brought to bear on the animal with a flowering psyche. Heliotrop- 

 isms, or unintelligent responses to stimuli of the light and heat of the 

 sun, relieve many lower forms of life from the necessity of thinking. 

 Man alone in the animal kingdom makes rational and ceremonial 



