440 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [eru. ann. 24 
Sun. The Four-Old-Men are considered as ever-present, ever-watching sentinels, 
always alert to guard the people from harm and injury. The same word, 
hitanni, is also applied to certain markings used in the Old-Woman’s lodge, 
the meaning of which is given variously as the four elements of life, the four 
courses, the four divides. Thus it is said that when one traveling the trail of 
life gets over the fourth divide he has reached the winter of old age. The 
Morning Star is the messenger of the Four-Old-Men, as are also the young men 
during ceremonies. 
The four clusters of feathers also represent the Four-Old-Men. The feathers 
collectively represent the Thunderbird, which gives rain, and they therefore 
represent a prayer for rain, consequently for vegetation. . . . The wheel,asa 
whole, then, may be said to be symbolic of the creation of the world, for it 
represents the sun, earth, the sky, the water, and the wind. In the great 
Sun Dance dramatization the wheel itself is represented in the person of the 
grandfather of the Lodge-Maker, or the “ Transferer” as he is called. 
In the course of the same paper Doctor Dorsey tells how the wheel 
is wrapped in calico and buckskin and suspended on a pole or tripod 
at the back of the lodge of the owner or keeper. It is his duty to 
preserve the wheel inviolably sacred. The wheel under certain cir- 
cumstances may be unwrapped by the keeper. This is usually done at 
the instance of some individual who has made a vow. A new wrap- 
per must be furnished by the person making the vow; hence the term 
“wrap the wheel” applied to the ceremony. A detailed account is 
given of this performance. Stories are told of the miraculous move- 
ments of the wheel. On one occasion it was seen flying, and changed 
into an eagle.“ 
The wheel was first kept in the Rabbit tipi.2 On the second day of 
the ceremony the wheel was carried into the sweat lodge and placed 
to the west of the fireplace, the head of the snake facing the east.° 
Later it was carried back to the Rabbit tipi.? Here it was placed on 
its support, a small willow stick, sharpened at one end and split at 
the other to form a crotch. While it was in the Rabbit tipi a heal- 
ing ceremony was performed by its aid.f On the fifth day it was 
placed on its support behind the buffalo skull on the sod altar (figure 
574).2 Here, on the seventh day, it was held up to the center pole 
during the dance, and placed over the head of one of the chief partic- 
ipants." In the origin myth of the wheel ‘ the maker of the original 
is said to have painted it and placed the Four-Old-Men at the cardinal 
points. Not only were these Old-Men located upon the wheel, but also 
the morning star (cross) ; a collection of stars sitting together, per- 
haps the Pleiades; the evening star (Lone Star); chain of stars 
(seven buffalo bulls) ; five stars called a “ hand,” and a chain of stars 
which is the lance; a circular group of seven stars overhead, called 
the “old camp; ” the sun, moon, and Milky Way. 
«The Arapaho Sun Dance, p. 21, Chicago, 1903. 4 Tbid., p. 49. #Tbid:, p, 122: 
»Tbid., p. 38. © Ibid., p. 68. *Tbid., p. 142. 
© Ibid, p. 47. f Ibid., p. 87. ‘Tbid., p. 205. 
