448 THE MOUNTAIN CHANT. 
164. The divine forms are shaped alike but colored differently. They 
lie with heads extended outward, one to each of the four cardinal points 
of the compass, the faces looking forward, the arms half extended on 
either side, with the hands raised to a level with the shouiders. They 
wear around their loius skirts of red sunlight, adorned with sunbeams. 
They have ear pendants, bracelets, and arimnlets, blue and red (of tur- 
quoise and coral), the prehistoric and emblematic jewels of the Navajo. 
Their forearms and legs are black, showing in each a zigzag mark to 
represent lightning on the surface of the black rain clouds. In the 
north god these colors are, for artistic reasons, reversed. Each bears, 
attached to his right hand with a string, a rattle, a charm, and a basket. 
The rattle is of the shape of those used by the medicine men in this par- 
ticular dance, made of raw hide and painted to symbolize the rain cloud 
and lightning. The left hand is empty; but beside each one is a highly 
conventionalized picture of a plant. Theleft hand remains empty, as it 
were, to grasp this plant, to indicate that the plant at the left hand be- 
longs to the god whose corresponding hand is unoccupied and extended 
towards it. The proprietorship of each god in his own particular plant 
is further indicated by making the plant the same color as the god. The 
body of the eastern god is white; so is the stalk of corn at his left, in 
the southeast. The body of the southern god is blue; so is the bean- 
stalk beside him, in the southwest. The body of the western god is 
yellow; so is his pumpkin vine, in the northwest. The body of the 
north god is black; so is the tobacco plant, which is under his special 
protection, in the northeast. 
165. Each of the four sacred plants is represented as growing from 
tive white roots in the central waters and spreading outwards to the 
periphery of the picture. The gods form one cross whose limbs are di- 
rected to the four cardinal points; the plants form another cross having 
a common center wilh the first named cross, but whose limbs extend to 
the intermediate points of the compass. 
166. On the head of each yay is an eagle plume lying horizontally and 
pointing to the right. A similar arrangement of four plumes, all point- 
ing in one direction (contrary to the sun’s apparent course), may be ob- 
served on the baskets carried by the gods. : 
167. The gods are represented with beautiful embroidered pouches, 
each of a different pattern. In old days the most beautiful things in 
art the Navajo knew of were the porcupine quill embroideries of the 
northern races. The art of garnishing with quills, and later with beads, 
seems never to have been practiced to any extent by the Navajo women. 
They obtained embroideries of the Ute and other northern tribes, and 
their ancient legends abound in allusions to the great esteem in which 
they held them. (See, for instance, paragraphs 32, 34.) Hence, to rep- 
resent the grandeur and potency of their gods, they adorn them with 
these beautiful and much coveted articles. 
- See 
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