BOURKE. ] RHOMBUS OR BULL ROARER. ATT 
in faithfully imitating the sound of a gust of rain-laden wind. As ex- 
plained to me by one of the medicine-men, by making this sound they 
compelled the wind and rain to come to the aid of the crops. Ata 
later date I found it in use among the Apache, and for the same pur- 
pose. The season near the San Carlos Agency during the year 1884 
had been unusually dry, and the crops were parched. The medicine- 
men arranged a procession, two of the features of which were the rhom- 
bus and a long handled cross, upon which various figures were depicted. 
Of the latter, I will speak at another time. 
Again, while examining certain ruins in the Verde Valley, in central 
Arizona, I found that the “Cliff Dwellers,” as it has become customary 
to call the prehistoric inhabitants, 
had employed the same weapon 
of persuasion in their intercourse 
with their gods. I found the 
rhombus also among the Rio 
Grande Pueblo tribes and the 
Zuni. Dr. Washington Matthews 
has described it as existing among 
the Navajo and Maj. J. W. Pow- 
ell has observed it in use among 
the Utes of Nevada and Utah. 
As will be shown, its use in all 
parts of the world seems to have 
been as general as that of any 
sacred implement known to prim- 
itive man, not even excepting the 
sacred cords or rosaries discussed 
in this paper. Three forms of the 
rhombus have come under my 
own observation, each and all ap- 
parently connected in symbolism 
with the lightning. The first ter- 
minates in a triangular point, and 
the general shape is either that 
of a long, narrow, parallelogram, 
sapped with an equilateral trian- 
gle, or else the whole figure is that 
ofa slender isosceles triangle. Where the former shape was used, as at 
the Tusayan snake dance, the tracing of a snake or lightning in blue or 
yellow followed down the length of the rhombus and terminated in the 
smnall triangle, which did duty as the snake’s head. The second pattern 
was found by Dr. Matthews among the Navajo, and by myself in the old 
cliff dwellings. The one which I found was somewhat decayed, and the 
extremity of the triangle was broken off. There was no vestige of paint- 
ing left. The second form was serrated on both edges to simulate the form 
Fic. 430.—Rhombus of the Apache. 
