ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 139 



Ninety-Fourth Regular Meeting, April 7, 1885. 



Major J. W. Powell, President, in the Chair. 

 Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A., read a paper entitled, 

 " Mythological Dry-Painting of the Navajos." 



abstract. 



These are pictures of large size (10 to 12 feet in diameter) drawn 

 in powdered substances on the sanded floors of the medicine lodges 

 of the Navajo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. They repre- 

 sent various gods and other mythical conceptions of this tribe. 

 The pigments used are five in number: white, made of powdered 

 white sandstone; yellow, of yellow sandstone; red, of red sand- 

 stone; black, of charcoal ; and a so-called blue^but really a gray 

 — of black and white niLxed in proper proportions. To apply them 

 the artist grasps a little in his hand and allows it to flow out between 

 the thumb and the opposed fingers. When he makes a mistake he 

 does not brush away the color, he obliterates it by pouring sand on 

 it, and then draws the corrected design on the new surface. 



The drawings are begun as much towards the center as the nature 

 of the picture will permit, due regard being paid to the precedence 

 of the points of the compass, / e., the figure of the god in the east is 

 begun first; that in the south, second; that in the west, third; 

 that in the north, fourth. While the work is in progress the chief 

 shaman does little more than direct and criticise ; a dozen or more 

 young men, who have been initiated into the mysteries, perform the 

 manual labor. The pictures are drawn in accordance with estab- 

 lished rules, except in certain well-defined cases where the painter 

 is allowed to indulge his fancy. This is the case with the embroi- 

 dered pouches, which the gods are represented as carrying. On the 

 other hand some parts are measured by palms and spans, and not 

 a line of the sacred design can be varied in them. Straight and 

 parallel lines are drawn on a tightened cord. The naked forms of 

 the mythical persons are first drawn, then the clothing is put on. 



When the picture is finished it is the duty of the shaman to put 

 corn-pollen on the lips and breast of each divine form and to set 

 certain plumed wands around the picture. Then the sick person 

 for whose benefit the whole ceremony is performed enters and has 

 the colored dust from various parts of the pictured forms applied to 



