TKANSACT10SS OF SECTION H. 92 i 



passed. We are now in the fourth. A great prophet or divine being, called a 

 Napa, exists during each of these eras. The Blackfeet have also a zodiac of 

 twenty-four constellations, something that the Aztecs did not approach in their 

 imperfect zodiac. They also have the same names as we have for the Belt of 

 Orion, Sirius, and the Hyades, the latter stars in Taurus being called the Bull of 

 the Hills. They have sacred vestal virgins, a Lent, or sacred period of forty days, 

 the time of the occultation of the Pleiades, and festivals and rites that seem to 

 belong to the civiiised nations of the Old World. They have also ' their seven- 

 perfect ones,' the Pleiades, which reminds us of the ' seven perfect ones ' of the 

 Chinese Buddhists. 



10. Notes on the Astronomical Customs and Religious Ideas of the 

 Chohitapia or Blaclfeet Indians. By Jean L'Heukeix, M.A. 



They observe the Pleiades, and regulate their festivals by them. At the time- 

 of the disappearance and reappearance of those stars are two festivals ; the first, 

 the solemn planting of the seed, marking the beginning of the agricultural season — 

 the feast of Innissi-man, a festival of the men — and Montoka, the women's festival, 

 when these stars reappear. The first means the grave or burning of the seed, and 

 the other ' the meeting of the absent one.' On the last day of the occultation, 

 there is a women's festival called the Manistam, the flag-pole dance. The vestals 

 of the sun take part in this. Ocan is the autumn festival, always accompanied 

 by a feast of the dead. They call it Stapascan, the dance of the dead. The 

 women swear by the Pleiades, and the men by the sun ; the former are called ' the 

 seven ones,' but the word implies perfection, and therefore means ' the seven per- 

 fect ones.' The calumet is always presented towards them in all sacred feasts- 

 with prayer3 for life-giving blessings. 



These stars were once seven youths guarding by night the sacred seed, and 

 keeping up all night a sacred dance. Epizors, the morning star, pleased with their 

 dance, transported them to the heavens, where they delight the stars by their 

 nightly dance. The sand dance of the Male clan of warriors represents their 

 celestial dance. They are called by the names of different birds. 



In the bath for purification of medicine-men, a hole in the form of a triangle is 

 made ; seven heated stones are placed in it, and cold water poured over it. When 

 their bathing invocation is made, they pray to the Pleiades for help in curing 

 bodily diseases. They have seven bones, balls, or buttons, as talismen. 



The tau cross is the symbol of healiDg, and their paradise is an island in the 

 Pacific where there are many sand-hills. The dead are spoken of as 'gone to the 

 sand-hills.' 



There was a figure found represented on stone — a circle with seven arms extended 

 from it. Also, near tumuli, the figure of a man with his arms extended; from 

 hand to hand is a semi-circle passing over his head. They also believe in the 

 thunder bird, and hold a feast when he returns in the spring. 



11. Notes on the KeJiip Sesoators, or Ancient Sacrificial Stone of the N.W, 

 Territory of Canada. By Jean L'Heokeux, M.A. 



The writer concluded that Hue Hue Tlapalan, or the ancient habitation in the 

 North-west, which Aztec tradition pointed to, was in the Alberta district. He 

 considered that they were the mound-builders, a branch of whom extended up to 

 the Saskatchewan. In the Alberta district are vestiges of this race. The ruins of 

 the Canantzi village, the Omecina pictured rocks, the graded mounds of the third 

 Napa in Bow River, the tumuli of Red River, the walled city of the dead in the 

 Lake of Big Sandy Hill on the south Saskatchewan, and the Sesoators, or sacrificial! 

 stones of the country, to describe which is the object of the paper. 



The Kamuco of the Quiche mourns over a portion of the race whom they left 

 in northern Tullan. The Papid Vuh, speaking of the cult of the morning star 

 among the Toltecs, states that they drew blood from their own bodies, and offered 

 it to their god Tohil, whose worship they first learned in the north. The Napa 



