ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 141 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. DoRSEY said, referring to the mystic qualities attributed to 

 the number four among the Navajos, that among the northern Atha- 

 bascans the number five held the place accorded to four by the 

 Indians of the Missouri river and Southwest. 



Maj. Powell said that great elaboration was to be observed in 

 the myths of the North American Indian. The speaker at one 

 time witnessed a ceremony in a Moqui village that lasted four days, 

 including one day of feasting. A constant succession of nude 

 figures with highly colored faces formed a marked feature of all the 

 ceremonies. He saw different colored sands, meal, corn, and peb- 

 bles used in many ways in connection with the incantations of the 

 Shaman, which were performed, as the speaker believed, to the end 

 that rain and abundant crops might follow. The falling rain was 

 represented by sprinkling the floor of the estufa. Among the 

 Utes and Shoshones fully one-half of the nights, during six months 

 of the year, is taken up with ceremonial gatherings and the rela- 

 tion of myths. 



Col. Mallery said that he found in Thomas V. Keam's Cata- 

 logue of Relics of the Ancient Builders of the Southwest Table 

 Lands, a somewhat different arrangement of colors in symbolizing 

 the cardinal points from that observed by Dr. Matthews : White, 

 signified north ; yellow, the east ; red, the south ; and blue, the 

 west. 



Ninety-Fifth Regular Meeting, April 21, 1885. 



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



The Secretary of the Council announced the election of Prof. A. 

 H. Thompson, of the Geological Survey, and Mr. Charles N. 

 Adams, of the Civil Service Commission, as active members of the 

 Society ; and informed the Society of the death of Dr. Harrison 

 Wright, on February 20, 1885, at Wilkes Barre, Pa., and Col. P. 

 W. Norris, on Jan. 14, 1885, at Rockland, Ky., corresponding 

 members of the Society. Appropriate remarks upon the death of 

 Col. Norris were made by President Powell, followed by Col. Mal- 

 lery, who delivered a brief eulogy upon Dr. Wright. 



