GENERAL MEETING. 15 
prophet, he who, according to their mythology, instituted the latter 
ceremonies. The symbolism of the pictures was explained, and such 
portions of the myths as directly referred to the pictures were 
related. 
The first picture showed the house of the great snakes. The 
second represented the gods of the domestic plants, with the prin- 
cipal domestic plants of the Indians, corn, bean, pumpkin, and to- 
bacco, indicated by highly conventionalized figures. The third pic- 
ture was of certain goddesses of great height, called the Bitsihi-nez 
or Long-bodies, which the prophet is said to have seen in a house 
made of dewdrops. The fourth drawing depicted the sacred arrows 
used in the dance, which the medicine men pretend to swallow. 
The lecturer explained the trick by which this imposture was car- 
ried out. The fifth picture represented the peculiar myth of the 
tsis-naole or whirling sticks. It represents two logs placed in the 
center of a lake so as to form across. Eight divine beings sat on these 
logs, which were kept constantly whirling by other gods who poked 
the logs with plumed staves. There were twelve apotheosized human 
figures in the picture. The sixth picture showed the kledje qacal as 
it took place in the abodes of the gods when the Navajo*prophet 
first saw it, and is a fair representation of the dance as it is per- 
formed among the Navajos to-day. The seventh painting repre- 
sented a portion of the dance among the gods, at a time when a spell 
had been cast upon them by the angry Coyote-god. 
The figures in the east of the pictures are painted in white, those 
in the south blue, those in the west yellow, those in the north black. 
This is the usual order of Navajo color symbolism; but sometimes 
the white is assigned to the north and the black to the east; instances 
were given where this interchange took place. 
The gods in many cases are shown standing on rafts made of sun- 
beams, such rafts being favorite vessels of the gods when they make 
their aerial journeys. The gods are depicted with round heads, the 
goddesses with quadrangular heads. In the dances, the actors wear 
masks of corresponding shapes to indicate males and females. 
Seven of the pictures were surrounded with symbols of the rain- 
bow deity, which with the Navajos, as with the Greeks, is a goddess. 
The sanded floor on which the pictures are drawn is slightly 
sprinkled with charcoal; this is to convey the idea of a surface of 
clouds, for it is said that in the houses of the gods these pictures 
were drawn on sheets of clouds. 
