MATTHEWS. ] GREAT PICTURES OF DSILYIDJE QACAL. 445 
as he wishes. Some parts of the figures, on the other hand, are meas- 
ured by palms and spans, and not a line of the sacred design can be 
varied. Straight and parallel lines are drawn by aid of a tightened cord. 
The mode of applying the colored powder is peculiar. The artist has 
his bark trays laid on the sand where they are convenient of access. He 
takes a small quantity of the powder in his closed palm and allows it to 
pass out between his thumb and forefinger, while the former is moved 
across the latter. When he makes a mistake he dves not brush away 
the pigment. He obliterates it by pouring sand on it, and then draws 
the corrected design on the new surface. The forms of the gods do not 
appear as I have represented them in the first coat of color. Thenaked 
figures of these mythical beings are first completely and accurately 
drawn and then the clothing is put on. Even in the pictures of the 
“Long-bodies” (Plate XVII), which are drawn 9 feet in length, the 
naked body is first made in its appropriate color—white for the east, 
blue for the south, vellow for the west, and black for the north—-and 
then the four red shirts are painted on from thigh to axilla, as shown in 
the picture. : 
157. The drawings are, as a rule, begun as much towards the center 
as the nature of the figure will permit, due regard being paid to the 
order of precedence of the points of the compass, the figure in the 
east being begun first, that in the south next, that in the west third in 
order, and that in the north fourth. The periphery is finished last of 
all. The reason for thus working from within outwards is that the men 
employed on the picture disturb the smooth surface of the sand with 
their feet. If they proceed in the order described they can smooth the 
sand as they advance and need not cross the finished portions of the 
picture. 
158. I have learned of seventeen great healing dances of the Navajo 
in which pictures of this character are drawn. There are said to be, 
with few exceptions — only one exception that lam positively aware of— 
four pictures appropriate to each dance. Some of the dances are prac- 
ticed somewhat differently by different schools or orders among the 
medicine men, and in these divers torms the pictures, although agreeing 
in general design, vary somewhatin detail. Thus there are, on an aver- 
age, probably more than four designs, belonging to each of the seventeen 
ceremonies, whose names I have obtained. If there were but four to 
each, this would give us sixty-eight such paintings known to the medi- 
cine men of the tribe, and thus we may form some conception of the 
great number of these sacred pictures which they possess. But I have 
reason to believe, from many things I have heard, that besides these 
seventeen great nine days’ ceremonies to which I refer, there are many 
minor ceremonies, with their appropriate pictures; so that the number 
is probably greater than that which I give. 
159. These pictures, the medicine men aver, are transmitted from 
teacher to pupil in each order and for each ceremony unaltered from 
