Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/654

wimóka), to whom belong deer, corn, and the raven; Mother South-Water (Tāté Rapawiyéma), to whom belongs the seed-corn; Mother North-Water (Tāté Haútse Kūpúri, "mother cotton-wool, rain and fog hanging in the trees and grass"), to whom belong corn, squashes, beans, flowers, cattle, mules, horses, and sheep; Young Mother Eagle (Tāté Vêlika Uimáli), whose dress is the stars, and who holds the world in her talons. The moon (not highly venerated by the Huichols) is a grandmother, and has to do chiefly with making native beer and protecting against the god of death (Tokákami). The stars are all gods or goddesses and the morning-star (these Indians bathe in the morning at dark) is the one from which they "gain knowledge" and "medicine" for rain. Another figure in Huichol mythology is Grandfather Kauyumáli, the god who "put the world into shape." The motif of Huichol religion is "the desire of producing rain, and thus of successfully raising corn, their principal food" (p. 24). According to their myths, "corn was once deer, the deer having been the chief source of food in earliest times," hence they have come to look upon their later acquisitions, cattle and sheep, as corn also,—hikuli (Anhalonium lewinsii) is likewise corn. The mythology of the Huichols moves about "a conception of the four elements,—fire and air (male), earth and water (female)." The main thought of their prayers is "food, corn, beans, and squashes." Even in hunting the deer, "the primary consideration is that the success of the chase means good crops of corn." An interesting point brought out is that "arrows and back-shields seem to convey mostly individual (or personal) prayers, while front-shields mostly serve to convey tribal ones. 'Eyes' cover both purposes to an almost equal extent." The richness and elaborateness of all this symbolism, with its ambiguity, etc., is well portrayed in the shields, discs, drums, bowls, arrows, sticks, "toy" implements, etc., of which figures with detailed explanations are given in the text. The following comment of the author deserves reproduction here: "Although the gods are obviously natural phenomena personified, and besides represent the four elements, they are also, to the Indian, human; in fact, ancient Huichols engaged in much the same occupations as the tribe of to-day, whose customs and religion they originated" (p. 212). Of the front-shield we are told that it is "the most important symbol of the Huichols, and specially adapted to serve as a kind of sign-language between man and god, conveying prayers and adoration, as well as religious and cosmic ideas." The comprehensive use of the word nealíka = "front- shield," "face," "appearance," "picture," suggests, Dr. Lumholtz thinks, that "the Huichols have in it a veritable word for 'symbol.'" Dr. Lumholtz points out some interesting resemblances between Huichol symbolism and that of the Zuñis, besides a striking likeness between the Dresden Codex God of Death and the Huichol God of Death,—the locust and tiger being associated with each. These facts open the way for further comparative study which it is to be hoped Dr. Lumholtz will undertake.