star of morning, the white the evening star,--is surrounded
by the symbols of the principal phenomena in nature that are regarded as
essentially beneficent to mankind. Thus the terraced pyramids are the
clouds, for the clouds appear to the Indian as staircases leading to
heaven, and they in turn support the rainbow. The two principal beasts
of prey, who feed upon game, like man, and whose strength, agility, and
acute senses man hopes to acquire, are represented as the bear in the
colour symbolic of the east, and the panther in that of the south.
Farther away from the sun-father are the two monstrous water-snakes,
genii of the fish-bearing and crop-irrigating water-courses. The
sun-father stands surrounded by all these elements and beings; he fixes
his blissful magic gaze upon the nourishing maize-plants, that they may
grow and that their ripe fruit may sustain the tribe. Thus much for the
allegory on the wall.

But in order that the wish and hope which this allegoric painting
expresses on the part of man may become realized, invocation rises
before the picture in the shape of the screen, denoting an altar on
which the rainbow has again settled down as a messenger from above. Both
are green, since it is summer; and the summer sun, or summer home of the
sun-father, is green also, like the earth, covered with luxuriant
vegetation.

Invocation alone does not suffice to incline the hearts of Those Above
kindly toward mankind; gratitude is required as an earnest of sincere
worship. But this gratitude can be expressed by words as well as by
deeds, and prayers must precede, accompany, or follow the offering. In
front of the altar a row of bunches artistically composed of snow-white
down are placed on the floor. Each of these delicate fabrics has sacred
meal scattered about its base, and each of them symbolizes the soul of
one household. They are what the Queres Indian calls the _yaya_, or
mother, dedicated to the moon-mother, who specially protects every
Indian home. All these stand below the altar in token of the many
prayers that each household sends up to the moon, painted above, that
the mother of all, who dwells in the silvery orb, may thank her husband
in the sun for all the good received, and implore him to further shed
his blessings on their children. Between these feather-bushes and the
embers, a great number of other objects are placed,--fetiches of stone,
animal figures, prayer-plumes, sacrificial bowls painted with