MATTHEWS. ] SECOND GREAT PICTURE. 449 
168. Surrounding the picture on about three-fourths of its cireum- 
ference is the anthropomorphic rainbow or rainbow deity. It consists 
of two long stripes, each about two inches wide in the original picture, 
one of blue, one of red, bordered and separated by narrow lines of 
white. At the southeastern end of the bow is a representation of the 
body below the waist, such as the other gods have, consisting of pouch, 
skirt, legs, and feet. At the northeastern end we have head, neck, and 
arms. The head of the rainbow is rectangular, while the heads of the 
other forms in this picture are round. In the pictures of the Yaybichy 
dance we frequently observe the same difference in the heads. Some 
are rectangular, some are round; the former are females, the latter 
males; and whenever any of these gods are represented, by characters, 
in a dance, those who enact the females wear square stiff masks, like 
our dominoes, while those who enact the males wear roundish, baglike 
masks, of soft skin, that completely envelop the head. The rainbow 
god in all these pictures wears the rectangular mask. Iris, therefore, is 
with the Navajo as well as with the Greeks a goddess. 
169, All the other gods bear something in their hands, while the 
hands of the rainbow areempty. This is not withoutintention. When 
the person for whose benefit the rites are performed is brought in to 
be prayed and sung over, the sacred potion is brewed in a bowl, which 
is placed on the outstretched hands of the rainbow while the ceremony 
is in progress and only taken from these hands when the draught is to 
be administered. Therefore the hands are disengaged, that they may 
hold the gourd and its contents when the time comes (paragraph 106). 
170. In the east, where the picture is not inclosed by the rainbow, 
we see the forms of two birds standing with wings outstretched, facing 
one another, their beaks close together. These represent certain birds 
of blue plumage called by the Navajo coli (Sialia arctica). This blue- 
bird is of the color of the south and of the upper regions. He is the 
herald of the morning. His call of ‘coli, oli” is the first that is heard 
when the gray dawn approaches. Therefore is he sacred, and his 
feathers form a component part of nearly all the plume sticks used in 
the worship of this people. Two bluebirds, it is said, stand guard at 
the door of the house wherein these gods dwell; hence they are repre- 
sented in the east of the picture. 
171. Here is an appropriate occasion to speak of a part of Navajo 
symbolism in color to which reference has already several times been 
made. In the majority of cases the east is represented by white, the 
south by blue, the west by yellow, the north by black; the upper world 
by blue and the lower by a mixture of white and black in spots. The 
colors of the south and west seem to be permanent: the south is always 
blue and the west is always yellow, as far as I can learn; but the colors 
of the east and north are interchangeable. The cases are rare where 
white is assigned to the north and black to the east; but such cases 
5 ETH——29 
