BOURKE. ] THE CROSS. 479 
The Kaflfirs have the rhombus among their playthings: 
The nodiwu is a piece of wood about 6 or 8 incheslong, and an inch and a half 
or 2 inches wide, and an eighth or a quarter of an inch thick in the middle. 
Towards the edges it is beveled off, so that the surface is convex, or consists of two 
inclined planes. Atone end it has a thong attached to it by which it is whirled 
rapidly round. * * * There is a kind of superstition connected with the nodiwn, 
that playing with it invites a gale of wind. Men will, on this account, often prevent 
boys from using it when they desire calm weather for any purpose. This supersti- 
tion is identical with that which prevents many sailors from whistling at sea.! 
Of the Peruvians we are informed that ‘ their belief was that there 
was aman in the sky with a sling and a stick, and that in his power 
were the rain, the hail, the thunder, and all else that appertains to the 
regions of the air, where clouds are formed.” 
The sacred twirler of the snake dance is found in Greece, America, 
Africa and New Zealand. It survives as a toy in England and the 
United States. The same peculiar instrument has been noticed in the 
religious ceremonials of the Australians, especially in the initiatory 
rites of the “bora.” It is called the “ tirricoty.”*- The twirling of the 
tzi-ditindi in medicine or prayer corresponds to the revolution of the 
prayer wheel of the Lamas. 
THE CROSS. 
The sign of the cross appears in many places in Apache symbolism, 
The general subject of the connection of the cross with the religion of 
the aborigines of the American continent has been so fully traversed by 
previous authors that I do uot care to add muck more to the subject 
beyond saying that my own observation has assured me that it is re- 
lated to the cardinal points and the four winds, and is painted by warriors 
upon their moccasins upon going into a strange district in the hope of 
keeping them from getting on a wrong trail. 
In October, 1884, I saw a procession of Apache men and women, led 
by the medicine-inen bearing two crosses, made as follows: The verti- 
eal arm was 4 feet 10 inches long, and the transverse between 10 and 
12 inches, and each was made of slats about 14 inches wide, which looked 
as if they had been long in use. They were decorated with blue polka 
dots upon the unpainted surface. A blue snake meandered down the 
longer arm. There was acircle of small willow twigs attop; next below 
that, a small zine-cased mirror, a bell, and eagle feathers. Nosey, the 
Apache whom I induced to bring it to me after the ceremony, said that 
they carried it in honor of Guzanutli to induce her to send rain, at that 
time much needed for their crops. It is quite likely that this particu- 
lar case represents a composite idea; that the original beliefs of the 
1 Theal, Kaftir Folk-lore, pp. 209-210. 
2Clements R. Markham, Note on Garcilasso dela Vega, in Hakluyt Soc., vol. 41, p. 183, quoting 
Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 4. 
3 Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, New York, 1885, chapter entitled ‘* The bull roarer,” pp. 29-44. 
4John Fraser, The Aborigines of Australia; their Ethnic Position and Relations, pp. 161-162. 
