BOURKE.] THE CEOSS. 479 



The Kaffirs have the rhombus among their playthings : 



The nodiwn is a piece of wood about 6 or 8 inches long, aud an inch and a half 

 or 2 inches wide, and an eighth or a quarter of an inch thick in the middle. 

 Towards the edges it is beveled otf, so that the surface is convex, or consists of two 

 inclined planes. At one end it has a thong attached to it by which it is whirled 

 rapidly round. * * * There is a kind of superstition connected with the nodi wu, 

 that playing with it invites a gale of wind. Men will, on this account, often prevent 

 boys from using it when they desire calm weather for any purpose. This supersti 

 tion is identical with that which prevents many sailors from whistling at soa. 1 



Of the Peruvians we are informed that &quot; their belief was that there 

 was a man in the sky with a sling and a stick, and that iu his power 

 were the rain, the hail, the thunder, and all else that appertains to the 

 regions of the air, where clouds are formed.&quot; 2 



The sacred twirler of the snake dance is found in Greece, America, 

 Africa and New Zealand. It survives as a toy in England and the 

 United States. 3 The same peculiar instrument has been noticed in the 

 religious ceremonials of the Australians, especially in the initiatory 

 rites of the bora.&quot; It is called the &quot; tirricoty.&quot; 4 The twirling of the 

 tzi-ditindi in medicine or prayer corresponds to the revolution of the 

 prayer wheel of the Lamas. 



THE CEOSS. 



The sign of the cross appears in many places in Apache symbolism. 

 The general subject of the connection of the cross with the religion of 

 the aborigines of the American continent has been so fully traversed by 

 previous authors that I do not care to add much more to the subject 

 beyond saying that my own observation lias assured ine that it is re 

 lated to the cardinal points and the four winds, and is painted by warriors 

 upon their moccasins upon going into a strange district in the hope of 

 keeping them from getting on a wrong trail. 



In October, 1884, I saw a procession of Apache men and women, led 

 by the medicine-men bearing two crosses, made as follows : The verti 

 cal arm was 4 feet 10 inches long, and the transverse between 10 and 

 12 inches, and each was made of slats about 1 inches wide, which looked 

 as if they had been long in use. They were decorated with blue polka 

 dots upon the unpainted surface. A blue snake meandered down the 

 longer arm. There was a circle of small willow twigs at top ; next below 

 that, a small zinc-cased mirror, a bell, aud eagle feathers. Nosey, the 

 Apache whom I induced to bring it to me after the ceremony, said that 

 they carried it in honor of Guzanutli to induce her to send rain, at that 

 time much needed for their crops. It is quite likely that this particu 

 lar case represents a composite idea; that the original beliefs of the 



1 Theal, Kaffir Folk-lore, pp. 200-210. 



1 Clemimts R. Markham, Note on Garcilasso do la Vega, in Hakluyt Sor., vol. 41, p. 183, quoting 

 Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 4. 



3 Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, New York, 1885, chapter entitled &quot; The hull roarer,&quot; pp. 29-44. 



4 John Fraser. The Aborigines of Australia; their Ethnic Position and Relations, pp. lfil-162. 



