IKirRKK.] 



KIIOMHUS OR HULL KOAREK. 



477 



iu faithfully imitating the sound of a gust of ruin laden wind. As ex 

 plained to me by one of the medicine-men, by making this sound they 

 compelled the wind and rain to come to the aid of the crops. At a 

 later date I found it in use among the Apache, and for the same pur 

 pose. The season near the San Carlos Agency during the year 1884 

 had been unusually dry, and tho crops were parched. The medicine 

 men arranged a procession, two of the features of which were the rhom 

 bus and a long handled cross, upon which various figures were depicted. t 

 Of the latter, I will speak at another time. 



Again, while examining certain ruins in the Verde Valley, in central 

 Arizona, I found that the &quot;( lift Dwellers,&quot; as it has become customary 

 to call the prehistoric inhabitants, 

 had employed the same weapon 

 of persuasion in their intercourse 

 with their gods. 1 found the 

 rhombus also among the Rio 

 Grande Pueblo tribes and the 

 Zufii. Ur. Washington Matthews 

 has described it as existing among 

 the Xavajo and MajTJT W. Pow 

 ell has observed it in use among 

 the Utes of Nevada and I tali. 

 As will be shown, its use in all 

 parts of the world seems to have 

 been as general as that of any 

 sacred implement known to prim 

 itive man, not even excepting the 

 sacred cords or rosaries discussed 

 in this paper. Three forms of the 

 rhombus have come under my 

 own observation, each and all ap 

 parently connected in symbolism 

 with the lightning. The first ter 

 minates in ii triangular point. and 

 the general shape is eirher that 

 of a long, narrow, parallelogram, 

 capped with an equilateral trian 

 gle, or else the whole figure is that 

 of a slender isosceles triangle. Where the former shape was used, as at 

 the Tusayau snake dance, the tracing of a snake or lightning in blue or 

 yellow followed down the length of the rhombus and terminated in the 

 small triangle, which did duty as the snake s head. The second pattern 

 1 was found by Dr. Matthews among the Xavajo, and by myself in the old 

 clitf dwellings. The one; which I found was somewhat decayed, and the 

 extremity of the triangle was broken off. There was no vestige of paint 

 ing left. The second form was serrated on both edges to simulate the form 



FIG. 430. Khulnbus of the Apache. 



