6oo 



NATURE 



[October i8, 1900 



radiation of a blackened vessel of boiling water ; this gave no 

 decisive result. 



On repeating the experiment with a smoothing iron at the 

 temperature ordinarily used, the surface in about a minute 

 glowed brightly. There is this difference from the excitement 

 by bright daylight, or gaslight, that the glow is comparatively 

 transient. 



This renders it probable that a cylinder of iron heated by a 

 • spirit flame duly concealed would act as M. le Bon's dark 

 lamp does. A. M. M. 



MEXICAN SYMBOLISM} 

 A RESIDENCE for some years among the Huichol 

 ■^~*- Indians of Mexico has enabled Dr. Carl Lumholtz 

 to enrich ethnology with a wonderfully detailed and 

 exhaustive memoir on their symbolism, and our thanks 

 are due, not only to the author, but to the authorities of 

 the American Museum of Natural History for the 

 appearance of this most valuable study, which is lavishly 

 illustrated by more than three hundred figures in the text 

 and four plates, three of which are coloured heliotypes. 



It is extremely fortunate for students of American 

 archaeology and comparative religion that the symbolism 

 of pagan Mexican Indians should be minutely studied, 

 as this will throw light on the meaning of the inscrip- 

 tions on ancient Mexican monuments, and will afford 

 illustrations for the comparative studies of cults. 



All sacred things are symbols to primitive man, writes 

 Dr. Lumholtz, and the Huichols seem literally to have no 

 end of theiTi. Religion is to them a personal matter, not 

 an institution, and therefore their life is religious, and 

 from the cradle to the grave wrapped up in symbolism. 

 From their symbolism it may be inferred that the main 

 thought of their prayers is food — corn, beans and 

 squashes. Even in the hunting of the deer, the primary 

 consideration is that the success of the chase means good 

 crops of corn. Agriculture depends upon rain, therefore 

 most of the symbolic objects express, first of all, prayers 

 for rain, and, by implication, for food, and then prayers for 

 health, good fortune and long life. In many cases the 

 supplicant himself is represented on symbolic objects in 

 the shape of a human figure or a heart ; but in others the 

 god is thus depicted. 



The act of sending a prayer to a god is symbolised by 

 attaching a representation of the prayer to an arrow, the 

 painting of the rearshaft of the arrow is symbolic of the 

 special deity to whom the prayer is offered. In other 

 cases, the prayer is directed to the god by placing the 

 symbolic object representing the prayer to the temple of 

 the deity, or by tying it to his chair, or placing it in his 

 votive bowl. 



Speaking in a general way, individual or personal 

 prayers are conveyed by arrows or back-shields ; these 

 latter are symbols of the rectangular shield that the 

 Huichol warrior wore to protect his back. The main idea 

 of the back-shield is that it protects against the heat of 

 the sun, and prayers expressed by it are largely for health, 

 but also for protection against evil, sickness, accident, 

 &c. Back-shields represent prayers of all kinds, such as 

 prayers for rain, good crops, and even that the supplicant 

 may have children ; it should be remembered that the 

 sarne mat served the warrior as back- shield and bed. 

 Tribal prayers were mostly conveyed by the usually 

 circular front-shields. Personal and tribal prayers may 

 also be conveyed by " eyes." These are crosses of 

 bamboo splints, or straw interwoven with coloured 

 threads in the form of a diamond, The eye is the symbol 

 of the power of seeing and understanding unknown 

 things ; the prayer expressed by this symbolic object is 

 that the eye of the god may rest on the supplicant. 



The diminutive sandals of an ancient pattern that are 



1 " Symbolism of the Huichol Indians," by Carl Lumholtz. Memoirs 

 of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. iii. Anthropology II. 

 4to. Pp. 228. (iqoo.) 



attached to a prayer-arrow may be taken as an example 

 of symbolism. Such sandals are now only worn by 

 shamans at the greatest feast of the Huichols— that which 

 is held for the underworld. They therefore become the 

 symbol of a prayer that this feast may come off; also 

 that nothing untoward may happen to the shaman at this 

 feast ; but as the feast cannot be celebrated unless a 

 deer has been killed, a pair of such sandals also expresses 

 a prayer for luck in killing deer. In olden time only men 

 wore sandals, which at that time were of the ancient 

 pattern referred to ; thus these sandals are also used to 

 express a woman's prayer for a husband. 



Practically the same design may be the symbol of 

 various objects, for example, curved lines in general 

 indicate serpents, but when there are dots between 

 curved lines they mean ears of corn in the fields. Bands 

 of curved lines with dots between them are the tracks of 

 wind, rain and water in the fields. Zigzag lines stand 

 not only for rain-serpents but also for lightning, the sea 

 surrounding the world, hills and valleys projected on the 

 horizon, bean plants and squash vines. A cross refers 

 to the four cardinal points, but also signifies money, 

 sparks, &c. 



There is a further complication in the strong tendency 

 to see analogies, even the most heterogeneous phenomena 

 are considered as identical. For instance, the following 

 are some of the objects that are believed to be serpents : 

 most of the gods and all the goddesses, the pools of 

 water and springs in which the deities live, the wind 

 sweeping through the grass, the moving sea and ripples 

 of water, flowing rivers, darting lightning, rain, fire, 

 smoke, clouds, their own flowing hair, their girdle rib- 

 bons, pouches, wristlets, anklets, maize, bow, arrow, 

 tobacco gourd, trails of men on the land— all are 

 considered as serpents. 



On reading this suggestive memoir, one is struck with 

 the fact that the religion of the Huichols contains ele- 

 ments appropriate to two distinct stages of culture. In 

 former ages their ancestors were evidently nomad 

 hunters, who subsisted mainly on the meat of deer, 

 which they killed with bows and arrows. Probably at 

 this period they shot their arrows in the air in magical 

 rites, so as to ensure the killing of deer ; possibly also 

 they attached pictographs or symbols to the arrows as 

 messages or prayers to the gods, but this was almost 

 certainly a later phase. On acquiring the art of agri- 

 culture, they continued the old practices for ensuring a 

 sufficient food supply. According to the Huichol myths, 

 corn was once deer, and at the feast preparatory to the 

 clearing of the cornfields the Huichols drink the broth 

 of deer-meat, which they call " making corn," and the 

 blood of deer is sprinkled on the grains of corn before 

 they are sown, that they may become equally sustaining, 

 for the deer is the symbol of sustenance and fertility. 



Departmental gods generally originate when a people 

 become settled and take to agriculture. The prayer 

 arrows would then be deposited in the houses of the gods. 

 At this time, as at present, the moving principle in the 

 religion of the Huichols was the desire of producing 

 rain, and thus successfuljy raising corn, which now is 

 their principal food ; therefore is it that most of the 

 symbolic objects express first of all prayers for rain and 

 then for other blessings. Since the deer represents 

 sustenance, it may easily be perceived why in their 

 myths water sprang from the forehead of a deer. 



There is no space to enter into the cult of that re- 

 markable plant the "Hikuli" {Anhalonium lezvinii), 

 which is to them the plant of life — the life of the deer 

 and the corn— and adds a further mystical element to 

 this instructive transitional religion. The philosophy of 

 life of these people may be best summed up in a state- 

 ment by one of themselves. " To pray for luck to the 

 god of fire and to put up snares for the deer — that is, to 

 lead a perfect life." Alfred C. Haddon. 



NO. 1 61 6, VOL. 62] 



