DORSEY.] SYMBOLIC COLORS. 527 



being on the scalp, its edge was ]iut against one of the four corners made by the 

 previous incisions (1, 2, 3, and 4), beginning witli Xo. 1. He cnt under each corner 

 four times, siaging a sacred song each time that he changed the position of the knife. 

 * * " The scalp -vvas stretched and fastened to a bow, -which was bent and formed 

 into a hoop. This hoop was tied to u pole, which was carried liy the princi|)al kettle- 

 bearer. ' 



Observe that in this ceremouy the Soutli and East ^vere the mystic 

 quarters, answeriug to the "bad winds" of the Inke-sabe tradition. 



When the Dakota '-priest," referred to in § 307, wi.shed to rotate the 

 phite coutainiug- the cherries aud down, he grasj^ed the plate with his 

 right hand (note that the right side of the Osage circle was the war 

 side) between the east and south piles of cherries and his left hand 

 (compare with custom of Tsiou gens of Osage, § 368) held the plate 

 between the west and north piles.- 



In the Hede-watci, the Omaha women and girls danced from the east 

 to the south, and thence to the west and north, while the meu and boys 

 proceeded in a different order, beginning at the west, and dancing 

 toward the north, and thence toward the east and south.^ 



SYMBOLIC COLORS. 



§ 373. On the tent of Hupefa (PI. xliv, e), a black bear man, were 

 represented four kinds of lightning — blue, red, black, and yellow. This 

 BLUE was a mystery decoration (§ 45), and 



if the colors were associated with the 

 four (piarters, the jtowers were proba- 

 bly invoked in the order shown in Pig. 

 I'OO. (See §§ 340, 369.) 



§ 374. Blue is assumed to be the 

 earth symbol for two reasons: (1) In 

 the decorations of those who have had 

 visions of bears, there is a broad blue 

 band, representing the earth, out of 

 ^"^^ which the bear is sometimes depicted 



Fig. 201} — Omaha lijilitiiiii^s iiuil the luur . ■ ,r»\ i ^ j.i ,1.1 



qmniers. as issuiug; (2) and, furthermore, the 



Indians seldom distinguish between blue and green, hence, blue may 

 symbolize grass and other vegetation, springing from the earth. In 

 apparent contradiction of this use of blue, we are told by Lynd that 

 "the Tunkan is painted red as a sign of active worship" (see § 132), 

 and by Riggs (§ 133) that large bowlders were adorned with red and 

 green paint, though the use of the two colors may have depended on a 

 composite cult. In this connection attention is called to the battle 

 standards represented on the tent of ^jejequta, an Omaha. These 

 painted standards had red aud blue stripes, denoting the stripes of 



N I 



* s 



s 3 



veujOw ::^__— _ , *• red 



'Osage War Customs, in Am. Xaturalist. Feb., 1884. pp. 131, 132. 



^The west and north are supposed to Ije the peace quarters, and theeast and south the warquarters. 

 See Fig. 194 and § 3T8. 

 30m..Soc.,p.299. 



