malleky.] SVMBOL OF THE CROSS 253 



"The extended index, palm upward, is drawn across the forefinger of 

 the left hand, palm inward, several times, left hand stationary; right 

 hand is drawn toward the body until the index is drawn clear off; then 

 repeat. Some Cheyenues believe this to have reference to the former 

 custom of cutting the arm as offerings to spirits, while others think that 

 it refers to a more ancient custom, the cutting of the enemy's lingers 

 for necklaces." The pictograph is simply a graphic representation of 

 this gesture sign. See also the Moki use of the Maltese cross, page 232, 

 the form of which in a rock painting appears in x on Plate II, page 35. 



There is no doubt that among the Egyptians and several of the peo- 

 ples of the eastern hemisphere, ancient and modern, the form of the 

 cross was used symbolically, and there is no more "doubt that it was 

 employed in a similar manner by many American tribes with reference 

 to the points of the compass, or rather the four winds. It was also 

 used with many differing significations. See in this paper Figure 60, 

 page 158, Figure 143, page 220, Figure 154, page 230, Figure 105, page 

 238, and Figure 108, page 240. The ease with which the desigu was made 

 would tend to its early adoption as a sign, an emblem, or a symbol. 



Rev. S. D. Hin man states that among the Dakota, symbolic crosses 

 always have the members equal, or of the "Greek" pattern, and are 

 always worn resting on one foot, not two as in the St. Andrew's cross. 

 They represent the four winds issuing from the four caverns in which 

 the souls of men existed before, embodiment. The top of the cross is 

 the cold, all-conquering giant, the north wind. As worn on the body it 

 is nearest the head, the seat of intelligence. The top arm, covering the 

 heart, is the east wind, coming from the seat of life and love. The foot 

 is the burning south wind, indicating as it is worn the seat of passion 

 and fiery lust. The right is the gentle west wind, blowing from the 

 spirit land, covering the lungs, from which at last the breath goes out. 

 The center of the cross is the earth and man, sometimes indicated at 

 that point by a circle surrounding a dot. On the npper arm an arrow 

 is sometimes drawn, ou the left a heart, on the right a star, and on the 

 lower a sun. 



