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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life
Directional world trees are also associated with the four Yearbearers in Mesoamerican calendars, and the directional colors and deities. Mesoamerican codices which have this association outlined include the Dresden, Borgia and Fejérváry-Mayer codices.[27] It is supposed that Mesoamerican sites and ceremonial centers frequently had actual trees planted at each of the four cardinal directions, representing the quadripartite concept.
The concept of world trees is a prevalent motif in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cosmologies and iconography. World trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which represented also the fourfold nature of a central world tree, a symbolic axis mundi connecting the planes of the Underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial world.[28]
Depictions of world trees, both in their directional and central aspects, are found in the art and mythological traditions of cultures such as the Maya, Aztec, Izapan, Mixtec, Olmec, and others, dating to at least the Mid/Late Formative periods of Mesoamerican chronology. Among the Maya, the central world tree was conceived as or represented by a ceiba tree, and is known variously as a wacah chan or yax imix che, depending on the Mayan language.[29] The trunk of the tree could also be represented by an upright caiman, whose skin evokes the tree's spiny trunk.[28]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_wheel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_wheel
In some Native American cultures, the medicine wheel is a metaphor for a variety of spiritual concepts. A medicine wheel may also be a stone monument that illustrates this metaphor.
Historically, the monuments were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground oriented to the four directions. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone, and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes" (lines of rocks) radiating from the center to the cardinal directions (East, South, West and North). These stone structures may or may not be called "medicine wheels" by the people whose ancestors built them, but may be called by more specific terms in that nation's language.
MAPUCHE- CREATOR GOD HAS FOUR COMPONENTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche_religion
Central to Mapuche cosmology is the idea of a creator called ngenechen, who is embodied in four components: an older man (fucha/futra/cha chau), an older woman (kude/kuse), a young man and a young woman
KOGI RELIGION- FOUR QUADRANTS- FOUR PRINCIPAL CLANS- FOUR ENTRANCES- FOUR SACRED OFFERINGS- FOUR WORLDS WITHIN MANKIND
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kogi_people
The two hemispheres are then divided into four segments: North/South/East/West. Within these four points of reference, the Kogi have associated the orientation of their religious framework into South/East as good/light and North/West as evil/dark. This cosmic structure has influenced four entrances to each village, four principal clans, and has divided the Sierra Nevada into four sections. Following this concept, the Kogi have structured the ceremonial houses and sacred offering sites into four quadrants. In the ceremonial house, a line is drawn down the middle of a circle, which divides the men into a left side where men “know more”, and a complementary right side of men who “know less.”
In a system of four quadrants, the four lines inevitably meet in the center creating a fifth dimension to the cosmic universe. The central point holds great significance to the Kogi people. It represents the center of the universe, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria. During the ceremony, this is the point where the mama buries the four sacred offerings and “speaks with god.” In the center of the circle, he places a tiny stool upon the spot where he receives and answers questions of the cosmic universe.
In Kogi cosmology, they have added three dimensions to the standard N/S/E/W: Zenith, Nadir and the Center. This fixed system of points resembles an egg and is formulated into nine stages/layers of development. Mother Goddess, the creator of the universe and mankind, created the cosmic egg. The horizontal layers of the egg are divided into two sections of 4 four worlds with mankind (the 5th layer) residing in the center. The cosmic egg also represents the uterus of Mother Goddess and the Sierra Nevada. Because of this, the Kogi have built the structure of the ceremonial house as a replica of the cosmos.
NAVAJO WITCH CALLED "HE GOES ON ALL FOURS"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker
In the Navajo language, yee naaldlooshii translates to "by means of it, [he or she] goes on all fours".[1] While perhaps the most common variety seen in horror fiction by non-Navajo people, the yee naaldlooshii is one of several varieties of Navajo witch, specifically a type of ’ánti’įhnii.[1] The legend of the skin-walkers is uncertain, mostly due to reluctance to discuss the subject with outsiders (in part because strangers may be witches themselves), thus people are led to draw their own conclusions from the stories they hear.[2]
http://www.livescience.com/47954-geoglyphs-discovered-in-kazakhstan.html
SWASTIKA IS QUADRANT
QMRArchaeologists call them the Nazca lines of Kazakhstan – hundreds of giant geoglyphs formed with earthen mounds and timber found stretched across the landscape in northern Kazakhstan. They are designed in a variety of geometric shapes, including crosses, squares, rings, and even a swastika
Quaternary fourfold depiction of Ahura Mazda
http://www.21pw.com/dictionary/Zoroastrian-calendar_127951
The tradition of naming the days and months after divinities was based on a similar Egyptian custom, and dates from when the calendar was set up."The last evidence for the use ... with Old Persian month-names ... comes from 458BCE, ... after which the Elamite tablets cease." No dated West-Iranian documents from this period survive, but the fact that the Zoroastrian calendar was created at this time can be inferred from its use in a number of far-flung lands which had formerly been parts of the Achaemenid Empire.
The oldest (though not dateable) testimony for the existence of the day dedications comes from Yasna 16, a section of the Yasna liturgy that is – for the most part – a veneration to the 30 divinities with day-name dedications. The Siroza – a two-part Avesta text with individual dedications to the 30 calendar divinities – has the same sequence.
1. Dadvah Ahura Mazdā, 2. Vohu Manah, 3. Aša Vahišta, 4. Khšathra Vairya, 5. Spenta Ārmaiti, 6. Haurvatāt, 7. Ameretāt
8. Dadvah Ahura Mazdā, 9. Ātar, 10. Āpō, 11. Hvar, 12. Māh, 13. Tištrya, 14. Geuš Urvan
15. Dadvah Ahura Mazdā, 16. Mithra, 17. Sraoša, 18. Rašnu, 19. Fravašayō, 20. Verethragna, 21. Rāman, 22. Vāta
23. Dadvah Ahura Mazdā, 24. Daēna, 25. Aši, 26. Arštāt, 27. Asmān, 28. Zam, 29. Manthra Spenta, 30. Anaghra Raočā.
The quaternary (fourfold) dedication to Ahura Mazda (the highest God) was perhaps a compromise between orthodox and heterodox factions, with the 8th, 15th and 23rd day of the calendar perhaps originally having been dedicated to Apam Napat, Haoma, and Dahmān Afrīn. The dedication to the Ahuric Apam Napat would almost certainly have been an issue for devotees of Aredvi Sura Anahita, whose shrine cult was enormously popular between the 4th century BC and the 3rd century AD and who is (accretions included) a functional equal of Apam Napat. To this day these three divinities are considered 'extra-calendary' divinities inasfar as they are invoked together with the other 27, so making a list of 30 discrete entities.
Faravahar, believed to be a depiction of a Fravashi (guardian spirit), to which the month and day of Farvardin is dedicated
The 2nd through 7th days are dedicated to the Amesha Spentas, the six 'divine sparks' through whom all subsequent creation was accomplished, and who – in present-day Zoroastrianism - are the archangels.
Days 9 through 13 are dedications to five yazatas of the litanies (Niyayeshes): Fire (Atar), Water (Apo), Sun (Hvar), Moon (Mah), the star Sirius (Tištrya) that here perhaps represents the firmament in its entirety. Day 14 is dedicated to the soul of the Ox (Geush Urvan), linked with and representing all animal creation.
Day 16, leading the second half of the days of the month, is dedicated to the divinity of oath, Mithra (like Apam Napat of the Ahuric triad). He is followed by those closest to him, Sraoša and Rašnu, likewise judges of the soul; the representatives of which, the Fravashi(s), come next. Verethragna, Rāman, Vāta are respectively the hypostases of victory, the breath of life, and the (other) divinity of the wind and 'space'.
The last group represent the more 'abstract' emanations: Religion (Daena), Recompense (Ashi), and Justice (Arshtat); Sky (Asman) and Earth (Zam); Sacred Invocation (Manthra Spenta) and Endless Light (Anaghra Raocha). (the fourth square is always the most abstract)
In present-day use, the day and month names are the Middle Persian equivalents of the divine names or the concepts, but in some cases reflect Semitic influences (for instance Tištrya appears as Tir, which Boyce (1982:31–33) asserts is derived from Nabu-*Tiri). The names of the 8th, 15th, and 23rd day of the month – reflecting Babylonian practice of dividing the month into four periods – can today be distinguished from one another: These three days are named Dae-pa Adar, Dae-pa Mehr, and Dae-pa Din, Middle Persian expressions meaning 'Creator of' (respectively) Atar, Mithra, and Daena.
What might loosely be called weeks are the divisions of days 1–7, 8–14, 15–22 and 23–30 of each month – two weeks of seven days followed by two weeks of eight. The Gatha days at the end of the year do not belong to any such week
TAMA INDIANS THE ONE APEARS TO BE THE FOURTH
Quadrant
HOPI QUADRANT LABARYNTHS
http://gothicimage.co.uk/gi3/index.php/component/k2/item/90-labyrinths/90-labyrinths
http://gothicimage.co.uk/images4/labyrinths13.jpg
Quadrant
Quadrant TAPAFUTU ONE OF FOUR GODS RULED EARTH VAITUPU
NAVAJO FOUR GENDERS BASED ON TWO DICHOTOMIES QUADRANT MODEL
Nádleehí directly translates in English to "one who constantly transforms." Navajo and some other Native cultures embrace the concept of four genders, abandoning the binary dichotomy of male and female and the Western construction of what those two genders mean.
In traditional Navajo culture, Martinez's two-spirit identity would have been revered as a special gift.
"In Navajo teaching, in the old traditional world, there were four basic genders," explains Wesley Thomas, Navajo scholar from Tsaile, Arizona, in the Two Spirits documentary. "Women are the first gender, because Navajo is a matrilineal society. Men are the second gender; and the third gender is the nádleehí, who is born as a male person but functions in the role of a girl in early childhood and in the role of a woman in adulthood. And it's just the opposite for the fourth gender, where they were born biologically female but functioned in the role of a boy in early childhood and matured into a man, and conducts their life in that gender identity."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiphala
The Wiphala (Quechua pronunciation: [wɪˈpʰɐlɐ]) is a square emblem, commonly used as a flag, representing some native peoples of all the Andes that include today's Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and parts of Argentina, Chile and Colombia. It is composed of quadrants.
The suyu wiphalas are composed of a 7-by-7 square patchwork in seven colours, arranged diagonally. The precise configuration depends on the particular suyu represented by the emblem. The colour of the longest diagonal line (seven squares) determines which of the four suyus (regions) the flag represents: white for Qullasuyu, yellow for Kuntisuyu, red for Chinchaysuyu, and green for Antisuyu. There is also an alternate pattern for the Wiphala for Antinsuyu. Additionally a Wiphala also exists for Tupac Katari and the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakana Mentore
The chakana (or Inca Cross) is a stepped cross made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square. The square is suggested to represent the other two levels of existence. The three levels of existence are Hana Pacha (the upper world inhabited by the superior gods), Kay Pacha, (the world of our everyday existence) and Ukhu or Urin Pacha (the underworld inhabited by spirits of the dead, the ancestors, their overlords and various deities having close contact to the Earth plane). The hole through the centre of the cross is the Axis by means of which the shaman transits the cosmic vault to the other levels. It is also said to represent Cusco, the center of the Incan empire, and the Southern Cross constellation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceremonial_pipe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceremonial_pipe
With the Native Americans a tubular smoke tip projects from each of the four cardinal directions on the bowl.
IT DESCRIBES HOW THE NAVAJO SEE CALL THE FIRST FOUR WORLDS "THE FOUR DARK WORLD" AND THEY LIVE IN THE FIFTH WORLD--- NAVAJO AND AZTECS BOTH HAD FIRST FOUR WORLDS AND FIFTH WORLD AZTECS SAW FIVE AS EXCESS- FIFTH IS ALWAYS QUESTIONABLE
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/nav/omni/omni02.htm
FOUR DARK CLOUDS FOUR WHITE CLOUDS FOUR SNOW COVERED MOUNTAINS
OK CHECK OUT THE REPETITION OF FOURS IN NAVAJO CREATION MYTH FOUR DOMINATES ALL OF THE MYTHOLOGIES OF EVERY CULTURE AND DOMINATES A LOT- FOUR WORLDS (THE NAVAJO SAW THE FIFTH AS CHAOS FOURTH IS DIFFERENT FIFTH CHAOS- I DESCRIBED THE AZTECS SAW THE SAME THING THEY SAW FIVE AS EXCESS- FIFTH IS ALWAYS QUESTIOANBLE)---- WORLD HAD FOUR CORNERS FOUR CLOUDS FOUR COLORS- FOURTH TIME DIFFERENT- FOUR BEINGS CAME TOGETHER THEN FOUR MORE BEINGS- THE FIRST FOUR- THE FOUR OTHERS- THE FOUR HOLY ONES FOUR KERNALS OF CORN FOUR SEEDS- FOUR CHIEFS FOUR TIMES CLOUD- FOUR DAYS FOURTH DIFFERENT- BREATHED ON HIM FOUR TIMES
These stories were told to Sandoval, Hastin Tlo'tsi hee, by his grandmother, Esdzan Hosh kige. Her ancestor was Esdzan at a', the medicine woman who had the Calendar Stone in her keeping. Here are the stories of the Four Worlds that had no sun, and of the Fifth, the world we live in, which some call the Changeable World.
The First World, Ni'hodilqil,[1] was black as black wool. It had four corners, and over these appeared four clouds. These four clouds contained within themselves the elements of the First World. They were in color, black, white, blue, and yellow.
First Man burned a crystal for a fire. The crystal belonged to the male and was the symbol of the mind and of clear seeing. When First Man burned it, it was the mind's awakening. First Woman burned her turquoise for a fire. They saw each other's lights in the distance. When the Black Cloud and the White Cloud rose higher in the sky First Map. set out to find the turquoise light. He went twice without success, and again a third time; then he broke a forked branch from his tree, and, looking through the fork, he marked the place where the light burned. And the fourth time he walked to it and found smoke coming from a home.
"Here is the home I could not find," First Man said.
First Woman answered: "Oh, it is you. I saw you walking around and I wondered why you did not come."
Again the same thing happened when the Blue Cloud and the Yellow Cloud rose higher in the sky. First Woman saw a light and she went out to find it. Three times she was unsuccessful, but the fourth time she saw the smoke and she found the home of First Man.
Then four beings came together. They were yellow in color and were called the tsts'na. or wasp people. They knew the secret of shooting evil and could harm others. They were very powerful.
This made eight people.
Four more beings came. They were small in size and wore red shirts and had little black eyes. They were the naazo'zi or spider ants. They knew how to sting, and were a great people.
The First Four found an opening in the World of Blue Haze; and they climbed through this and led the people up into the Third or Yellow world.
THE THIRD WORLD
The bluebird was the first to reach the Third or Yellow World. After him came the First Four and all the others.
Now beyond Sis na' jin, in the east, there lived the Turquoise Hermaphrodite, Ashton nutli.[18] He was also known as the Turquoise Boy. And near this person grew the male reed. Beyond, still farther in the east, there lived a people called the Hadahuneya'nigi,[19] the Mirage or Agate People. Still farther in the east there lived twelve beings called the Naaskiddi.[20] And beyond the home of these beings there lived four others--the Holy Man, the Holy Woman, the Holy Boy, and the Holy Girl.
farther on there lived another twelve beings, but these were all females.[22] And again, in the Far West, there lived four Holy Ones.
Within this land there lived the Kisa'ni, the ancients of the Pueblo People. On the six mountains there lived the Cave Dwellers or Great Swallow People.[23] On the mountains lived also the light and dark squirrels, chipmunks, mice, rats, the turkey people, the deer and cat people, the spider people, and the lizards and snakes. The beaver people lived along the rivers, and the frogs and turtles and all the underwater people in the water. So far all the people were similar. They had no definite form, but they had been given different names because of different characteristics.
Now the plan was to plant.
First Man called the people together. He brought forth the white corn which had been formed with him. First Woman brought the yellow corn. They laid the perfect ears side by side; then they asked one person from among the many to come and help them. The Turkey stepped forward. They asked him where he had come from, and he said that he had come from the Gray Mountain.[24] He danced back and forth four times, then he shook his feather coat and there dropped from his clothing four kernels of corn, one gray, one blue, one black, and one red. Another person was asked to help in the plan of the planting. The Big Snake came forward. He likewise brought forth four seeds, the pumpkin, the watermelon, the cantaloup, and the muskmelon. His plants all crawl on the ground.
26. Informant's note: Some medicine men call them the chiefs of the Four Directions.]
p. 7
in the morning[27] for First Man to come out of his dwelling and speak to the people. After First Man had spoken the four chief s told them what they should do that day. They also spoke of the past and of the future. But after First Man found his wife with another he would not come out to speak to the people. The black cloud rose higher, but First Man would not leave his dwelling; neither would he eat or drink. No one spoke to the people for 4 days. All during this time First Man remained silent, and would not touch food or water. Four times the white cloud rose. Then the four chiefs went to First Man and demanded to know why he would not speak to the people. The chiefs asked this question three times, and a fourth, before First Man would answer them.
He told them to bring him an emetic.[28] This he took and purified himself. First Man then asked them to send the hermaphrodite to him. When he came First Man asked him if the metate and brush[29] were his. He said that they were. First Man asked him if he could cook and prepare food like a woman, if he could weave, and brush the hair. And when he had assured First Man that he could do all manner of woman's work, First Man said: "Go and prepare food and bring it to me." After he had eaten, First Man told the four chiefs what he had seen, and what his wife had said.
At this time the Great-Coyote-Who-Was-Formed-in-the-Water came to First Man and told him to cross the river. They made a big raft and crossed at the place where the Male River followed through the Female River. And all the male beings left the female beings on the river bank; and as they rowed across the river they looked back and saw that First Woman and the female beings were laughing. They were also behaving very wickedly.
In the beginning the women did not mind being alone. They cleared and planted a small field. On the other side of the river First Man and the chiefs hunted and planted their seeds. They had a good harvest. Nadle[30] ground the corn and cooked the food. Four seasons passed. The men continued to have plenty and were happy; but the women became lazy, and only weeds grew on their land. The women wanted fresh meat. Some of them tried to join the men and were drowned in the river.
This they did, living apart for 4 days. After the fourth day First Woman came and threw her right arm around her husband. She spoke to the others and said that she could see her mistakes, but with her husband's help she would henceforth lead a good life. Then all the male and female beings came and lived with each other again.
When all the people were halfway up Sis na' jin, First Man discovered that he had forgotten his medicine bag. Now this bag contained not only the earth from the six sacred mountains, but his magic, the medicine he used to call the rain down upon the earth and to make things grow. He could not live without his medicine bag, and be wished to jump into the rising water; but the others begged him not to do this. They went to the kingfisher and asked him to dive into the water and recover the bag. This the bird did. When First Man had his medicine bag again in his possession he breathed on it four times and thanked his people.
[39. Informant's and interpreter's note: The Four Worlds were really 12 worlds, or stages of development; but different medicine men divide them differently according to the ceremony held. For the narrative they call them the Four Dark Worlds, and the Fifth World, the one we live in. An old medicine man explained that the Sixth World would be that of the spirit; and that the one above that would be "cosmic," melting into one.
First Man and his people saw four dark clouds and four white clouds pass, and then they sent the badger up the reed. This time when the badger returned he said that he had come out on solid earth. So First Man and First Woman led the people to the Fifth World, which some call the Many Colored Earth and some the Changeable Earth. They emerged through a lake surrounded by four mountains. The water bubbles in this lake when anyone goes near.[44]
Matthews (1897, p. 135): place of emergence. Franciscan Fathers (1910, pp. 347-354): The First or Dark World: ants, beetles, dragonflies, locusts, bats, frogs. The Second or Blue World: blue heron, swallow people. They lived in rough, lumpy houses with the entrance in a hole in the top of the roof or in eaves. The Third or Yellow World: grasshoppers, etc. The Fourth or Larger World was of All Colors: four snow-covered mountains; the Pueblo People; corn, pumpkins.
16 is the squares of the quadrant model
In the ancient Hawaiian religion, the Kumulipo is a chant in the Hawaiian language telling a creation story.It also includes a genealogy of the members of Hawaiian royalty.
The Hawaiian creation myth the Kumulipo is a total of 2102 lines long, in honor of Kalaninuiamamao, who created peace for all when he was born. There was a lot of fighting between his ʻI and Keawe family, who were cousins so his birth stopped the two from feuding. The Kumulipo is a cosmogonic genealogy, which means that it relates to the stars and the moon. Out of the 2102 lines, it has 16 "wā" which means era or age. In each wā, something is born whether it is a human, plant, or creature.
The 16 wa bring to mind the 16 squares of the quadrant model.
The births in each age include:
In the first wā, the sea urchins and limu (seaweed) were born. The limu was connected through its name to the land ferns. Some of these limu and fern pairs include: ʻEkaha and ʻEkahakaha, Limu ʻAʻalaʻula and ʻalaʻalawainui mint, Limu Manauea and Kalo Maunauea upland taro, Limu Kala and ʻAkala strawberry. These plants were born to protect their sea cousins.
In the second wā, 73 types of fish. Some deep sea fish include Naiʻa (porpoise) and the Mano (shark). Also reef fish, including Moi and Weke. Certain plants that have similar names are related to these fish and are born as protectors of the fish.
In the third wā, 52 types of flying creatures, which include birds of the sea such as ʻIwa (frigate or man-of-war bird), the Lupe, and the Noio (Hawaiian noddy tern). These sea birds have land relatives, such as Io (hawk), Nene (goose), and Pueo (owl). In this wā, insects were also born, such as Peʻelua (caterpillar) and the Pulelehua (butterfly).
In the fourth wā, the creepy and crawly creatures are born. These include Honu (sea turtle), Ula (lobster), Moʻo (lizards), and Opeopeo (jellyfish). Their cousins on land include Kuhonua (maile vine) and ʻOheʻohe bamboo.
In the fifth wā, Kalo (taro) is born.
In the sixth wā, Uka (flea) and the ʻIole (rat) are born.
In the seventh wā, ʻĪlio (dog) and the Peʻapeʻa (bat) are born.
In the eighth wā, the four divinities are born: Laʻilaʻi (Female), Kiʻi (Male), Kane (God), Kanaloa (Octopus), respectively.
In the ninth wā, Laʻilaʻi takes her eldest brother Kiʻi as a mate and the first humans are born from her brain.
In the tenth wā, Laʻilaʻi takes her next brother Kane as a mate after losing interest in Kiʻi, she then had four of Kane's children: Laʻiʻoloʻolo, Kamahaʻina (Male), Kamamule (Male), Kamakalua (Female). Laʻilaʻi soon returned to Kiʻi and three children are born: Haʻi(F), Haliʻa(F), and Hākea(M). Having been born during their mothers being with two men they become "Poʻolua" and claim the lineage of both fathers.
The eleventh wā pays homage to the Moa.
The twelfth wā is very important to Hawaiians because it honors the lineage of Wākea, whose son Hāloa is the ancestor of all people.
The thirteenth wā is also very important to Hawaiians because it honors the lineage of Hāloa's mother Papa.
In the fourteenth wā Liʻaikūhonua mates with Keakahulihonua, and have their child Laka.
The fifteenth wā refers to Haumeanuiʻāiwaiwa and her lineage, it also explains Māui's adventures and siblings.
The sixteenth wā recounts all of Maui's lineage for forty-four generations, all the way down to the Moʻi of Maui, Piʻilani.
There is even qualitative differences between each four was. Again, notice how the number four and forty four and forty and anything with four is prominent
Notice the repetition of fours
In Hawaiian religion there are
the four gods (ka hā) – Kū, Kāne, Lono, Kanaloa
the forty male gods or aspects of Kāne (ke kanahā)
the four hundred gods and goddesses (ka lau)
the great multitude of gods and goddesses (ke kini akua)
the spirits (na ʻunihipili)
the guardians (na ʻaumākua)
notice how the number four is prominent. Even in the forty and the four hundred. Similarly in the Bible the number 40, bringing to mind the four of the quadrant, is pervasive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_religion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_religion
from sacred swastika website
"The two forms of swastika seem to testify that, in Tiahuanaco also, the idea of the Above and Below prevailed and that the angular form symbolized the subdivision of the earth and the rounded one that of the heavens."
^^^The Tiahuanaco swastika makes a reappearance
... and in fact the more swastika evidence I dig up, the more embarassing it will be for CPAK and ALL the presenters thus far who have never studied this most critical piece of archaic evidence.
http://i.imgur.com/vxEkptF.png
Swastika evidence can be found in or in the vicinity of many of the ancient aLIEn sites like this one from Tiahuanaco.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is what the scholar Zelia Nuttall wrote about it in about 1900
"What is more, on the fragment of a finely carved hollow stone object, which is preserved at the British Museum and was found at Tiahuanaco by Mr. Richard Inwards, there are the finest representations of the swastika which have as yet been found on the American Continent, and each of its branches terminates in a tiger's head, resembling those sculptured on the monolithic doorway. The fragment consists of the half of what seems to me to have been the top or handle of a staff or sceptre. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. C. H. Read of the British Museum, for a rubbing of the carved fragment and for the permission to reproduce it here (fig. 49). The central swastika is angular and its form recalls that of the Mexican Calendar swastika (fig. 9). At each side of it are portions of what originally were two rounded swastikas, which also terminate in tigers' heads. These and the size of the fragment seem to justify the inference that another square swastika was originally sculptured on the opposite side, making two rounded and two square swastikas in all.
It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this fragment, for it proves to us that in Tiahuanaco, the swastika was a sacred symbol. Its association with the puma or ocelot, links it to the central figure on the monolithic doorway and, possibly, connects this with the Mexican identification of the ocelot with the Ursa Major, with “the lord who walks around,” or the lord of the underworld, Tezcatlipoca. The two forms of swastika seem to testify that, in Tiahuanaco also, the idea of the Above and Below prevailed and that the angular form symbolized the subdivision of the earth and the rounded one that of the heavens. The rows of personages sculptured on the doorway at each side of and facing the central figure seem to indicate that this commemorates an establishment of tribal organization.
page 166
http://www.mirrorservice.org/…/0/6/320…/32066-h/32066-h.html
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Ancient aLIEns eh?
well then it appears that the aLIEns liked to use the swastika as a marker wherever they left their mark???
like in Baalbek too ...
and I ponder if the aLIEn does the goosestep as yer arse is being goosed from behind? ;)
16 IS THE SQUARES OF THE QUADRANT MODEL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_of_May
In Argentina, the Sun of May is the radiant golden yellow sun bearing the human face and thirty-two rays that alternate between sixteen straight and sixteen wavy.
In Uruguay, the Sun of May is the yellow sun bearing the human face and sixteen triangular rays that alternate between eight straight and eight wavy.
FOUR STAGES OF PURIFICATION
Get to know the culture of Mexico by taking part in a unique experience: an ancient Mayan 'temazcal' ceremony, led by an authentic shaman. For the Mayan people, this ritual in the 'home of hot stones' was a source of health and energy. Learn about the power of volcanic stones and the aromas of herbs as you are guided by a shaman through four stages of purification. After finding peace and relaxation, kick back in a hammock with a light dinner of tropical fruits and natural drinks.
Breathe in the aromas of herbs and copal as your body is purified of physical and energetic toxins. Be guided through four intervals of increasing and decreasing heat by the temazcalero using aromatic herbs, mud, honey, aloe vera, and refreshing teas.
ALLIGEWI REPETITION OF FOUR
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaman-of-the-alligewi-michael-r-hall/1119892367
It had been raining all day. As evening approached, it began coming down in sheets of water. To most clans of the Alligewi people, this would be a bad omen for such an important ceremony, but to the Frog Clan, it was an excellent sign. Water, after all, was their element. Today was the eve of the first day of the summer solstice ceremonies. Twice a year, a portal opened for seven days between this world and the spirit world, three days before and three days after the summer solstice (June 21) and the winter solstice (December 21).
The spirits of the underworld and of the world above were said to roam the earth on these days, and they must be appeased with ceremonies and offerings. Perhaps the spirits of the deceased were offended during or after their lifetimes by someone, or maybe they wanted to bring one or more of their living relatives with them to the spirit world. Either way, they must be bribed to leave the living alone. That was the role of the shaman and his assistants. At this time in AD 250, magic and sorcery were very real, and the consequences of error or miscalculation could be fatal.
But Spotted Elk wasn't thinking about all that right now. He was thirteen years old, and against his uncle's better judgment, he had volunteered to be one of the four adult males to perform the spirit dance. Only adult males may dance in the spirit dance, and thirteen was considered by the Alligewi to be the age adulthood began, but never before had someone so young volunteered for this potentially dangerous ritual. Spotted Elk had not even attained warrior status yet, but the shaman, whose name was Black Panther, had decided to permit it.
In preparation for this ritual, Spotted Elk had been chanting and praying for the last four days. He had a special reason for volunteering this year to endure the intense pain of this ritual for the amusement of the spirits: he was not popular because he was considered by the rest of the clan to be a source of bad luck. His mother had died giving birth to him, and his father had died when he was only three years old. Since his parents' deaths, he had lived with his aunt and uncle, but the clan members couldn't help but notice that the aunt and uncle's family had suffered a lot of illness, accidents, and just plain misfortune ever since Spotted Elk had come to live with them. His adoptive family's life had become a life of poverty.
Although the Alligewi believed that a person can improve their life with hard work and fortitude, ultimately, one cannot escape their fate, and some people's destiny was to be unlucky. Indeed, there was a saying that if somebody's fate was unlucky, even their stored salt would have worms in it. The safest thing to do was to avoid such people lest their bad luck rub off on you.
When someone dances the spirit dance, it is said that the spirits will grant a special wish if they are pleased by the dancer's performance. Spotted Elk wished for good luck for his aunt and uncle's family, but most of all, he wanted his brave and painful dance to so impress his clan's members that he would no longer be avoided by them and so that he could be a warrior. Anyway, if he died during the dance, his aunt and uncle would be rid of the source of their bad luck.
The shaman understood Spotted Elk's motivation for volunteering, and that is why he had approved of it. Perhaps the gods would lift the curse off this family. It was worth a try.
While the four volunteers had been praying, the site for the dance inside the clan's sacred octagon enclosure was prepared. Everything had to be done meticulously if the ceremony was to be successful. A sacred white cedar tree was cut down by a virtuous woman selected by the shaman, and then stripped of its branches and carried by unmarried girls to the spot to serve as the center pole.
The site around the pole had been cleared of topsoil, and three layers of material were placed upon the substrate soil: first, one layer of fresh light river clay representing the water element; then one layer of black muck representing mother earth; and then a final layer of sand and gravel representing a final water element. This was the sequence of materials used to construct their mounds for the dead. The souls of the dead couldn't cross through such water elements.
The cedar pole represented the air element as cedar was burned in sacred ceremonies. The cedar pole also connected the upperworld, this world, and the lowerworld together. This allowed the prayers of the dancers access to all three realms. It was carved with the clan's symbols. Last year's cedar pole was cut up and burned in pieces during the four-day ceremony to represent the fire element and the transition from life to death (i.e., cremation) and rebirth (i.e., the new cedar pole). The cedar pole was treated as a living being once it was carved.
During the four days of prayer by the four dancers, the shaman instructed them on the Alligewi's complex religion so that they would pray to the appropriate gods. He explained that of all the sacred numbers of the Alligewi, the number four was the most sacred and was the chief of all the other numbers, except the number one (which was said to include within it all the other numbers, including the number four).
There was one all-inclusive god with four titles: the Chief God, the Great Spirit, the Great Creator, and the Great Executive. Under this Chief God were four classes of gods: superior, associate, subordinate, and godlike or spirits. There were four elements above earth: sun, moon, sky, and stars. There were four cardinal directions: west, north, east, and south. There were four parts to time: day, night, month, and year.
There were four parts to all plants: roots, stem, leaves, and fruit. There were four classes of animals on earth: crawling, flying, four-legged, and two-legged. There were four stages of a person's life: infancy, childhood, maturity, and old age. There were also four stages of a person in the spirit world: death, the journey to the spirit world, residing in the spirit world, and becoming a star. There were also four attributes to all things: personality, vitality, essence, and power. Such was the power of "four" that it controlled all things living and dead (figure 1).
The four superior gods are the Rock, the Earth, the Sky, and Sun. The Rock is the ancestor of all gods and all things. He is the advocate of authority and the patron of the arts. The Earth is the protector of the household and is the mother of all living things. The Sky is the source of all force and power and would sit in judgment of all the gods and all the spirits. The Sun ranks first as the all-powerful, great god and is the defender of bravery, fortitude, generosity, and fidelity.
Each of the superior gods is aligned with an associate god. The Moon, associated with the Sun, sets the time for important undertakings and is a feminine element. The Wind is associated with the Sky and controls the seasons and admits to the spirit trail those whom the Sky has judged to be worthy. The Beautiful One, associated with the Earth, is the daughter of the Sun and the Moon. She is a great mediator and the patron of harmony and pleasure, and she is the defender of chastity. The Thunderbird is the associate of the Rock and is possessed of the voice of thunder with a glance of lightning; and he is the patron of cleanliness.
There are four subordinate gods: Elk, Bear, Four Winds, and Whirlwind. There are also four godlike spirits or philosophical concepts: the spirit, the ghost, the spirit-like, and the potency (figure 2). There was so much for the dancers to remember, but each god must be prayed to so as not to be offended.
Just as there were sixteen gods or benevolent aspects in the above-world, so also there were sixteen gods or forces of malevolence in the underworld that had to be respected. These included Cyclone, the chief of all evil, as well as the lesser gods of evil: monsters, water spirits, forest dwellers, goblins, evil mannequins, and various other noxious things. The gods collectively were referred to as the Controllers.
With so many spirits to placate and please, together with the spirits of dead relatives and ancestors, it was no wonder that the ceremonies of the Alligewi must be carried out with the utmost of care and precision of detail. This was a great responsibility for the chosen dancers as missteps could result in disaster for the whole clan. For protection from the wandering spirits during the seven days the portal was open, the clan stayed inside their sacred geometric enclosure consisting of a circle attached to an octagon.
CHAPTER 2
Suspended Between Heaven and Earth
At first light on the first morning of the summer solstice ceremonies, the four volunteer dancers (which included Spotted Elk and three twenty-something-year-old warriors) purified their bodies by drinking the "black drink" from a shell called the lightning whelk. This drink consisted of tea made from the leaves of the yaupon holly. Drinking this potion in concentrated form forced them to vomit. Then the dancers, after being cleansed by smoke from the shaman, were attached one by one to the sacred pole by two copper skewers twisted into their flesh just below their nipples that were tied to leather straps. This was extremely painful, and if Spotted Elk's uncle, Yellow Lark, had not given him meadowsweet to chew just before the ceremony started, Spotted Elk would have fainted from the pain. Thus attached to the pole by leather straps, like living, breathing, and bleeding marionettes, each dancer took a six-hour shift dancing and singing to the spirits. Dancing was a form of prayer as was singing.
The Alligewi believed that the earth was actually a large round island held on top of a great sea by four tethers to the sky. The festival for the spirits was a reenactment of this relationship with the gods and a way of thanking them for maintaining the earth for the benefit of all. It was a form of prayer for the preservation of world harmony as well as a form of suffering to appease the spirits for the sins of humans.
A drummer sat outside the dance circle and kept a steady beat for the dancers. The drummers too took six-hour shifts. The idea was to maintain a continuous dance for four days for the pleasure of the spirits. The leather straps were just long enough to allow each dancer to sit down at his appointed station to rest in between his shifts.
No food or water was permitted to the dancers during this four-day period of time. Their fate was in the hands of the gods. No one could intervene to help them should they need it. The dance must continue uninterrupted at all costs. If one dancer passed out or died, one of the other dancers or a new dancer must dance in his place.
The gods were merciful this year as the first two days were cloudy with intermittent rain. The dancers could drink the rain as it fell on them as this was considered to be the decision of the gods themselves. Spotted Elk's face was painted all black with a red zigzag painted on each cheek, representing the Thunderbird, while his uncle had painted a timber rattlesnake on Spotted Elk's forehead as it represented good medicine and as the snake was Spotted Elk's birth sign.
The color black could represent intense devotion to the gods, but it was a color that could also represent or attract evil forces. Spotted Elk's uncle worried over all these little details as he second-guessed each decision he had made in preparing Spotted Elk for this ceremony. If Spotted Elk died during this ceremony—as occasionally had happened to dancers in the past—wouldn't the spirits of Spotted Elk's mother and father seek retribution from him or his family for allowing Spotted Elk to dance the spirit dance?
The sun came out on the third day, and the temperatures rose above eighty degrees Fahrenheit. By midnight, when it was Spotted Elk's turn to dance, he was a little delirious. Still he must sing and dance with pain in every step. The night sky sparkled with the blinking lights of a million fireflies and a billion stars that gave the whole scene a surreal feeling.
He let his mind wander over what he had done in the spring as if in a dream state. He remembered harvesting the last of the maygrass crop with his aunt just a few weeks before. Then he recalled searching for the wild eggs of birds as a source of protein. The eggs of pigeons, greater prairie chickens, and meadowlarks were particularly good. The trick was to harvest the eggs as soon as they were laid to ensure their freshness and so the birds would lay a new clutch of eggs to brood. The eggs were wonderful boiled and then served with fresh chives or wild leeks.
Then there was the collection of morel mushrooms and the delicious new shoots of cattails. Earlier, his family had gone to the swamps to harvest the leaves of the skunk cabbage that they washed and dried to remove the toxins. These leaves would be great later served in soups.
He also thought of the wonderful wild blackberries and black raspberries that were ripe this time of year. Earlier, the mulberries had been ripe. In his hunger, he remembered all these foods. Suddenly, a change in the drummer's beat signaled the end of his dance, and he sat down and drifted off into the half sleep of the exhausted.
By the late morning of the fourth day, he had revived somewhat, and a pleasant breeze that afternoon helped sustain him. He had little memory of that final day as his family set up a prayer vigil to watch his trance-like dancing. He was with the spirits now and talking directly to them. The affairs of mortal men were oblivious to him. He danced on his leather tether, suspended between heaven and earth, speaking for his people to the spirits. If the spirits took him now, he would be one of them, but would it be today?
Long after time had ceased to have any meaning for him, Spotted Elk was finally detached from his leather ties to the spirit world, and his skewers were removed and thrown into the fire as a gift to the gods along with the remains of the old white cedar pole. The new pole was taken down and replaced the old cedar pole before the ceremonial lodge. The new pole would be used as the new year's calendar. The old pole had been burned as a kind of incense to the gods, and the cuttings and shavings from the new pole were burned over the remaining four days of the dancers' recovery and purification period.
The dancer must be brought back to earth gradually. At first, Spotted Elk was given only a wet cloth to suck on, and then later, a bowl of thin broth was his lunch. On the third day after the solstice, the chiefs and the shaman sat in the ceremonial lodge with each dancer and asked them what each had dreamed, if anything. Dreams or visions during such ceremonies were considered to have special meaning for the dancer or the clan. The other three dancers had a few dreams concerning their own sickness or dreams related to their families.
Spotted Elk told of having a dream on the third night of the ceremony that he was approached by deer people. They invited him to chase them through the forest until he suddenly came to a great and wide pit. The forest closed in all around the pit, and as he looked down into it, he was suddenly struck by a flash of lightning. He fell into the pit but floated just above the deep bottom, which was all a green polished sheet of rock. This green rock reflected the brightness of the sky above and his own image as a ghost, and then he woke up.
The shaman was a bit puzzled by the dream. It was obviously a dream about death as the forest represented the log sides used in their burials, and occasionally, special people such as chiefs or famous craftsmen are buried under a tall mound that can seem like a pit if viewed from above. What confused the shaman was the shiny green floor of this tomb in the dream. It was clearly a shiny rocklike substance called mica, but this kind of burial, on mica sheets, was reserved for a special shaman, and Spotted Elk had never seen such a burial. Was Spotted Elk dreaming of the shaman's own death? He wasn't sure.
Dreaming of lightning meant the dreamer was destined to be a "spirit clown" in the clan. A spirit clown is one who has some special power either for good or for evil. They exist in a kind of backward world that might lead to their own poverty or hardship. They exit lodges backward, say good-bye as an initial greeting, and enter structures from the west door (the doorway of death) rather than the normal east entrance. In so doing, they represent the opposite world of spirits for the clan. On some rare occasions, being the spirit clown could be the first step to becoming a shaman, but there were many other steps to shamanism, such as being an herbalist and becoming a dreamer.
Would Spotted Elk represent a good force for the clan or an evil one? It was too soon to tell. An Alligewi must also dance the spirit dance as a prerequisite to becoming a shaman, but few dancers of the spirit dance ever went on to become a shaman. In any event, such dancers wore their scars from the skewers as a badge of courage and honor for the rest of their lives. In future battles, as warriors, they were considered to have been given extra protection by the spirits.
http://www.whirlingrainbow.com
16 SQUARES QMR
16 is the squares of the quadrant model
Traditional Native Drums
Region: Nationwide
Location: made in Alaska
Email: thewhirlingrainbowfoundation@gmail.com
Website: http://www.whirlingrainbow.com
Description:
Our Traditional Hoop Drum Kits are made in the 16 hoop design, representing the Lakota Sioux understanding of the 16 hoops or grids of Mother Earth. Making this drum is an enacted ceremony of the medicine wheel, connecting us with the four elements, the four directions, the four seasons and the four stages of life. Our drums are made from the highest quality cedar, hickory and maple hoops and the hides of elk and buffalo and come with a drumstick and care of drum instructions. Your drum is numbered and can be registered into our DRUM FOR CHANGE GLOBAL NETWORK. Join over 360 cities in 60 countries drumming for unity and peace on all solstices and equinoxes! Sale of our drums support the travels of the Grandmother Drum International Peace Project. Grandmother Drum is the largest crystal inlaid healing drum in the world and has traveled in 20 countries promoting cultural unity, sustainability and peace.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sha/sis/sis07.htm
FOUR STAGES
The Altaians. The kams (shamans) of the Turkic tribes of the Altai have preserved with great strictness the ancient shamanistic ceremonial forms. Potanin[1] gives a curious description of the performance of a young shaman, Enchu, who lived by the River Talda, about six versts from Anguday. Four stages, each marked by a different posture of the shaman, characterized his performance: in the first, he was sitting and facing the fire; second, standing, with his back to the fire; third, a sort of interlude, during which the shaman rested from his labour, supporting himself with his elbow on the drum, which he balanced on its rim, while he related what he had learned in his intercourse with the spirits; and fourth, a final shamanizing, with his back to the fire, and facing the place where the drum usually hangs. Enchu declared afterwards that he had no recollection of what happened while he was shamanizing with his back turned to the fire. While he was in that position he had been whirling about madly in circles on one spot, and without any considerable movement of his feet; crouching down on his haunches, and rising again to a standing posture, without interrupting the rotating movement. As he alternately bent and straightened his body from the hips, backwards and forwards and from side to side, with lively movements or jerks, the manyak (metal pendants) fastened to his coat danced and dangled furiously in ill directions, describing shining circles in the air. At the same time the shaman kept beating his drum, holding it in various positions so that it gave out different sounds. From time to time Enchu held the drum high above his head in a horizontal position and beat upon it from below. The natives of Anguday explained to Potanin that when the shaman held the drum in that way, he was collecting spirits in it. At times he would talk and laugh with some one apparently near by, but invisible to others, showing in this manner that he was in the company of spirits. At one time Enchu fell to singing more, quietly and evenly, simultaneously imitating on his drum the hoof-beats of a horse. This was to indicate that the shaman, with his accompanying spirits, was departing to the underworld of Erlik, the god of darkness.
APACHE AND NUMBER FOUR- ALL RITES DONE IN FOURS
http://members.tripod.com/archaeology_man/religion.html
In Apache religion there is one main Creator, Ussen, and then lesser gods. Some of these lesser gods are called ga’ns, and they are protective mountain spirits. They are represented in religious rights like the puberty ceremony for girls.1 Like many other religions, the Apache religion has a creation story that includes a flood. There are also four sacred colors, black, blue, yellow, and white which have guided the Apaches in their prayer to the Creator.2 The four colors symbolize the colors of the threads Tarantula used to pull and stretch the earth. During creation, the Creator made the gods, heavens, earth, plants, and animals all from his sweat.3
The Apaches have many things that are very important and sacred to them. Their ceremonies the practitioner interacts with his particular power alone. Some other rituals need a priest to officiate. Also, the number four is sacred to them, they sing all their songs and prayers in sets of four. All rites last four nights.4 Among the Apache people’s ceremonies and rituals, there are several dances. These are the rain dance, to promote rainfall, the harvest dance in order to have a plentiful harvest and most fascinating, the unique medicine dance.5 The Jicarillas, a group of Apaches, is know for its ceremony of the medicine dance. Today there are no members among the Jicarillas, in active practice, who have the power to heal the sick and perform other miracles that would earn them the title of medicine men or medicine women. Because or this, medicine dances have not been held for several years on the reservation. But in August 1898, such a ceremony was conducted by an old Apache woman named Sotli.6
MAYA FOURFOLD UNIVERSE
http://www.maya-portal.net/blog/ken/mayan_philosophy_of_numbers
The number 4 symbolizes wholeness. It is associated with Ahau, the Sun God as cosmic lord (the word ahau literally means lord). Why is this a solar number? The word for “day” (k’in in Yucatec or q’ij in K’iche’) is the same as the word for “sun”; a day is a complete passage of the sun. The sun or the day has four stations: dawn, noon, sunset and midnight. These four components of each day, each “sun,” can be conceptually expanded to include the solstices and equinoxes; thus the year is also a 4. There is evidence that the Classic Maya divided the universe into four sections marked by the two intersections of the Milky Way with the ecliptic. Thus we live in a fourfold universe. The Maya still lay out their ritual altars in a fourfold pattern.
If 1 and 7 are the beginning and the end, then 1 + 7 = 8, making 8 a number of completion or wholeness, much like the number 4. This is why there is some sort of ritual for almost every 8 day, and why some extremely traditional communities have a special local shrine dedicated to the number 8. Of course, 4 + 4 = 8, so the wholeness implied in the number 4 is doubled here, as if the wholeness of the fourfold universe were seen from the viewpoint of both polarities: night and day, light and darkness, sun and moon, yin and yang.
Vision Quest and Medicine Wheel
MIDDEWINS FOUR DEGREES/LODGES
http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-144745-post-6583557.html
Midewiwin, of the Chippewa and neighboring tribes, was a secret society of four degrees, or lodges, into which one could be successively inducted by the expenditure of a greater and greater amount of property on the accompanying feasts. As a result of these initiations the spiritual insight and power, especially the power to cure disease, was successively increased, while on the purely material side the novitiate received instruction regarding the medicinal virtues of many plants. The name of this society in the form medeu occurs in Delaware, where it was applied to a class of healers. In the neighborhood of New York Bay there was a body of conjurers who "had no fixed homes, pretended to absolute continence, and both exorcised sickness and officiated at the funeral rites." Their name is interpreted by Brinton to mean " Great Snake," and they participated in certain periodical festivals where "a sacrifice was prepared, which it was believed was carried off by a huge serpent."
The medicine wheel is the primary healing model of western shamanism. It symbolizes the synergy of chaos and order, spirit and matter. This sacred circle has four primary stations, corresponding to the four cardinal direction, and four elements (earth, air, fire and water). It is therefore a mythic model of the creation and a device for magical orientation, purification, and protection. Its mandala-shaped motif lays out the phase of a healing process:
1). INITIATION corresponds with the East and psychologically means recognition, insight, or seeing the problem and the need for healing, breaking through inertia, dormancy, latency, ignorance, or denial. The keyword is Arousal.
2). LETTING GO corresponds to the South, and means surrendering to the Higher Power, spirit, or the transformational process. This ego-death leads directly into a period of primal chaos before the new visions is found. The keyword is Conception.
3). NEW VISION arises within the place of dreams and creative imagination. Self esteem is expressed in creative solutions, connecting with spiritual powers without and within which are seen as One. Guiding visions "work" because we are not separate from the universe, nature, each other, our bodies, or hidden aspects of ourselves. It is the West; keyword Gestation.
4). ACTUALIZATION is a phase of fruition, integration, empowerment. In the North quadrant you make your dreams come true. Rebirth heralds a new emotional maturity. Newly-learned skills and intuition are put into fruitful practice, connecting one to self, community, and Universe, restoring balance and rectifying karma. The Rebirth experience symbolizes the renewal of perpetual potential.
https://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Aboriginal_Medicine_e.htm
The Four Sacred Medicines
Sweetgrass (the North) is used by almost all Aboriginal peoples in North America for ritual cleansing. When Sweetgrass is walked on, it bends but does not break. Hence, it has been associated with virtue: an injustice can be returned by a kindness, by bending, not breaking.
Tobacco (the East) is held as a scared plant by most First Nations peoples. Tobacco connects us to the spirit world; it absorbs prayers and carries them to the spirit world. If a request is accompanied by an offer of tobacco that is accepted, the promise must be honoured. Tobacco can also be used to thank the Creator for his gifts: if you enjoyed good weather, you could leave some tobacco on the ground, and say thank you for the gift. Tobacco is generally not smoked, except on special ceremonial occasions.
Cedar (the South) is used for purification and (taken as a tea) to attract positive energy, feelings, emotions and for balance. Its vitamin C content helped prevent scurvy when fruits and vegetables were unavailable during the winter months.
Sage (the West) is a women's medicine, conferring strength, wisdom, and clarity of purpose. It is a powerful purifying medicine that drives away negative energies. Sage can be found braided and hung in people’s homes, perhaps tied with a ribbon in one of the colours of the medicine wheel. The threefold braid represents body, mind and spirit.
Smudging
A 'smudge' is smoke used for ritual cleansing. Smudging is a ceremony traditionally practiced by some Aboriginal cultures to purify or cleanse negative energy, feelings or thoughts from a place or a person. Sacred medicines such as cedar, sage, sweetgrass or tobacco are burned in an abalone shell. The shell represents water, the first of four elements of life; the medicines represent gifts from mother earth and the burning represents fire, the next two elements. The person puts their hands in the smoke and carries it to their body, especially to areas that need spiritual healing (mind, heart, body). The smoke represents air, the final element. Perhaps the smell of the burning medicines stimulates the brain to produce beta-endorphins and promote healing processes.
Healing circles
Meetings held to heal physical, emotional and spiritual wounds. A symbolic object, often an eagle feather, may be given to a person who wishes to speak, and then it is passed around the circle in sequence to others who wish to speak. Shamans may conduct the ceremony.
Sweat Lodge (a.k.a. Purification Lodge)
A ceremonial sauna used for healing and cleansing. It made of a wooden framework covered by blankets or skins, usually igloo-shaped, about 1.5 metres high and large enough for eight people to sit in a circle on the ground. Hot stones are placed in a shallow hole in the centre of the lodge. A medicine man pours water on the stones to produce steam and participants may spend an hour sweating in the lodge. The lodge combines the four elements of fire, water, air and earth. Ceremonies include offerings, prayers, and reverence. At times, excessive exposure to the heat of the lodge may have health effects; also toxins can be released if grasses that have been exposed to pesticides are placed on the rocks. Further information.
Sun Dance (a.k.a. Rain Dance, Thirst Dance, Medicine Dance)
A ritual that celebrates the harmony between man and nature, and spiritual dedication. Originally practiced at the summer solstice, the sun dance represents continuity between life, death, and regeneration. The symbolism often involved the buffalo, on which plains Indian groups depended, so deserving reverence, but which they also had to kill. Four days before the ceremony, the dancers prepare by purifying themselves, at times in a sweat lodge, by meditating and collecting ceremonial items of dress to use in the sun dance. The sun dance itself takes another four days, and generally involves drumming, singing, and dancing, but also fasting and, in some cases, self-inflicted pain. This symbolized rebirth and often involved piercing the skin and attaching cords that the person had to tear out. This element led governments to suppress the sun dance around 1880, but it has been re-introduced.
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THE COVER OF THE CODEX IS A QUADRANT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xiuhtecuhtli_1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Fejérváry-Mayer
quad
FOUR SECTIONS- ON THE TITLE PAGE IS A QUADRANT- THE FOURTH SECTION IS DIFFERENT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CodexMendoza01.jpg
The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, created fourteen years[1] after the 1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico with the intent that it be seen by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain
Written on European paper, it contains 71 pages, commonly said to be divided into three sections:
Section I, 16 pages, is a history of the Aztec people from 1325 through 1521 — from the founding of Tenochtitlan through the Spanish conquest. It lists the reign of each ruler and the towns conquered by them.
Section II, 39 pages, provides a list of the towns conquered by the Triple Alliance and the tributes paid by each.
Section III, 16 pages, is a pictorial depiction of the daily life of the Aztecs.
However, there is a fourth section:
Section IV, 20 pages, is an encoded accounting of the value of both the cargo of the ship and assets in the new colony.
MAPUCHE BELIEVE THAT THEIR CREATOR GOD IS EMBODIED IN FOUR COMPONENTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche
Central to Mapuche cosmology is the idea of a creator called ngenechen, who is embodied in four components: an older man (fucha/futra/cha chau), an older woman (kude/kuse), a young man and a young woman. They believe in worlds known as the Wenu Mapu and Minche Mapu. Also, Mapuche cosmology is informed by complex notions of spirits that coexist with humans and animals in the natural world, and daily circumstances can dictate spiritual practices.[41]
FOUR CREATOR GODS- RELATED TO THE FOUR ELEMENTS
TRAVEL AROUND FOUR TIMES- FOUR WORLD TREES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mictlan
Mictlan also features in the Aztec creation myth. Mictlantecuhtli set a pit to trap Quetzalcoatl. When Quetzalcoatl entered Mictlan, Mictlantecuhtli was waiting. He asked Quetzalcoatl to travel around Mictlan four times blowing a conch shell with no holes. Quetzalcoatl eventually put some bees in the conch shell to make sound. Fooled, Mictlantecuhtli showed Quetzalcoatl to the bones. But Quetzalcoatl fell into the pit and some of the bones broke. The Aztecs believed this is why people's height are different.
The higher part was supported by four gigantic trees, growing in each corner of the Tlalocán (the central part of the universe).
As they organized the universe horizontally and vertically, the four creator gods forged the pairs[5] of gods who would control each area of power: the water (Tlaloc and Chalchiuhticuhtlicue), the earth (Tlaltecuhtli and Tlalcíhuatl), fire (Xiuhtecuhtli and Chantico) and the dead (Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacíhuatl).
FOUR HUNDRED- I WENT THROUGH THE TALMUD AND MIDRASH AND POSTED THE STUFF RECENTLY WITH YOU ALL AND SHOWED YOU HOW FOUR WAS DOMINANT AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYWHERE WAS FOUR AND THE QUADRANT PATTERN- SAME THING IN AMERINIDAN MYTHOLOGY BUT IT IS MAYBE EVEN MORE INTENSE IN AMERINDIAN WHERE IT IS EVEN A CONCEPT BY SOCIOLOGISTS WHERE THEY CALL IT "THE SACRED FOUR"- AMERINDIAN MYTHOLOGY I WENT THROUGH THE MYTHS HOPEFULLY MAYBE I CAN GO THROUGH THEM AND POST THEM LIKE I DID THE TALMUD BUT THEY ARE FOUR HERE FOUR THERE FOUR THIS FOUR THAT FOUR FOUR FOUR FOUR FOUR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centzonhuitznahua
In Aztec mythology, the Centzonuitznahua Nahuatl pronunciation: [sent͡sonwiːtsˈnaːwa] (or, in plural, Centzon Huitznauhtin Nahuatl pronunciation: [sent͡sonwiːtsˈnaːwtin]) were the gods of the southern stars. They are the evil elder sons of Coatlicue, and their sister is Coyolxauhqui. They and their sister tried to murder their mother upon learning of her pregnancy with Huitzilopochtli; their plan was thwarted when their brother sprang from the womb—fully grown and garbed for battle—and killed them all.
The Centzonhuitznaua are known as the "Four Hundred Southerners"; the gods of the northern stars are the Centzonmimixcoa.
QUETZALCOATL ON CROSS- I POSTED A LONG TIME AGO HOW THE AMERINDIANS SAY THAT QUETZALCOATL SHOT A TREE WITH AN ARROW MAKING A CROSS AND HE SAID WHEN HE RETURNS THE CROSS/QUADRANT WILL BE THE SIGN OF HIS RETURN
http://afewshotstoshaman.blogspot.com/2009/07/for-dead-or-dying-pt-2.html
This is the ol' feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl crucified upon the X like cross. Echoing of course Christ. So lets take a closer look at the X's or ten's iconography.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DeutwC_pLZ0/SltZYDEiwfI/AAAAAAAACSo/l8HrMtvwTkU/s1600-h/18400.jpg
quadrant
THE SHAMANS DRUM OF THE MAPUCHE IS A QUADRANT
http://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/patagonia/177322.html
http://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/infinityofnations/images/patagonia/177322_1000.jpg
Mapuche Machi’s kultrung (shaman’s drum)
The circular shape of the kultrung symbolizes the world infinitum. The cross on its surface indicates the spaces into which the world is divided—the four natural and spiritual positive and negative strengths that correspond to the land of the east, north, sea, and south.
As the Machi’s tongue is pierced, the kultrung-maker draws the design of the rainbow and the four parts of the world
VAITUPU FOUR GODS RULED EARTH
Quadrant
FOUR CONCEPTIONS OF GOD TIKI
Quadrant
THE FOUR ONE RELATIONSHIP IN NAVAJO ONE AND FOUR REPRESENTED AS IDENTICAL THE QUADRANT IS ONE
Quadrant
HOPI FOUR GROUPS OF KACHINAS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachina
The Hopi have four groups of clowns, some are sacred. Adding to the difficulty in identifying and classifying these groups, there are a number of kachinas whose actions are identified as clown antics. Barton Wright’s Clowns of the Hopi identifies, classifies, and illustrates the extensive array of clown personages.[10]
THE FOUR GODS OF EASTER ISLAND
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangata_manu
In the Rapa Nui mythology, the deity Make-make was the chief god of the birdman cult, and the other three deities associated with it were Hawa-tuu-take-take (the Chief of the eggs, a male god), his wife Vie Hoa, and another female deity named Vie Kanatea. Each of these four also had a servant god who was associated with him/ her. The names of all eight would be chanted by contestants during the various rituals preceding the egg hunt.
The Four Mothers Society is a religious, political, and traditionalist organization of Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw people, as well as the Natchez people enrolled in these tribes, in Oklahoma. It was formed as an opposition movement to the allotment policies of the Dawes Commission and various US Congressional acts in the 1890s. The society is religious in nature and opposed allotment because dividing tribal lands broke up tribal communities and resulted in "surplus" lands being seized and made available to non-Natives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungusic_creation_myth
The Tungusic creation myths are traditional stories of the creation of the world belonging to the Tungusic peoples of Siberia. Buga, the central deity of the Tunguisic collected four materials to make mankind. He gathered from the four directions. From the east he gathered iron; from the south fire; the west, water; and from the north, earth. He then gathered from the four elements. From the earth he made flesh and bone; from the iron he made heart; from the water he made blood; and from the fire he gave them vitality, and thus he made two beings, a man and a woman.
Eliade points out that for all peoples the creation myth is the most central myth of their mythologies and all of their other myths point back to the creation and reference it. It is no wonder these creation myths reflect the quadrant model pattern. Because the quadrant model pattern is the form of Being.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Venta
Colossal heads[edit]
Certainly the most famous of the La Venta monumental artifacts are the four colossal heads. Seventeen colossal heads have been unearthed in the Olmec area, four of them at La Venta, officially named Monuments 1 through 4.
Kuterastan is the creator in a creation myth of the Kiowa Apache from the southern plains of North America. His name means One Who Lives Above.
According to them Four Deities created creation.
The story of his creation tells that in the beginning, before there were earth or sky there was only darkness. Into it came a small and thin disc with yellow and white on its alternate sides, and inside it sat Kuterastan, a small bearded man no larger than a frog. Kuterastan is described as awakening and rubbing his eyes. When he peers above him into the darkness it filled with light and illuminated the darkness below. When he looked east the light became tinged with the yellow of dawn, and when he looked west the light was shaded with the amber tones of dusk. As he glanced about himself clouds in different colors appeared. Then again Kuterastan rubbed his eyes and face, and as he flung the sweat from his hands another cloud appeared with a tiny little girl Stenatliha sitting on top. Stenatliha's name translates as the Woman Without Parents. Kuterastan and Stenatliha were puzzled where the other had come from, and where were the Earth and Sky. After thinking for some time, Kuterastan again rubbed his eyes and face, then his hands together, and from the sweat flying as he opened hands first Chuganaai, the Sun, and then Hadintin Skhin, or Pollen Boy, appeared. After the four sat a long time in silence on a single cloud, Kuterastan finally broke the silence to say, "What shall we do?" and started the creation.
In the story of creation for the Kuterstan four deities appear. Then these four deities create creation.
After the Earth has been created Kuterastan sang a repeating refrain, "The world is now made and it sits still" and the four Gods were finished.
Book
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Insights-Wisdom-Power-Earthkeepers/dp/1401910467
The Four Insights: Wisdom, Power, and Grace of the Earthkeepers (2007)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuni_mythology
Zuni mythology is the oral history, cosmology, and religion of the Zuni people. The Zuni are a Pueblo people located in New Mexico
The Zunis also have four worlds
In a version of the Zuni creation story, people initially dwelt crowded tightly together in total darkness in a place deep in the earth known as the fourth world.
Awonawilona took pity on the people and his two sons were stirred to lead them to the daylight world. The sons, who have human features, located the opening to the fourth world in the southwest, but they were forced to pass through the progressively dimming first, second and third worlds before reaching the overcrowded and blackened fourth world. The people, blinded by the darkness, identified the two brothers as strangers by touch and called them their bow priests. The people expressed their eagerness to leave to the bow priests, and the priests of the north, west, south and east who were also consulted agreed.
To prepare for the journey, four seeds were planted by Awonawilona's sons, and four trees sprang from them: a pine, a spruce, a silver spruce and an aspen.
Notice again the recurrence of four. There are four worlds four seeds and four trees in the primordial myth.
The bow priests then get four sticks. These four sticks are prayers sticks, one from each tree.
Notice again the common recurrence of four sticks four days four worlds. There is the characteristic recurrence of the fours. And again, notice how the fourth is always different from the previous three. That is the nature of the quadrant model pattern.
On their fourth day in the first world, the bow priests planted the last prayer stick, the one made of aspen. And this is about the end of the creation myth.
http://www.indigenouslenses.org/productions/completed/fate-of-the-lhapa/
FOUR STAGES OF LIFE
Fate of the Lhapa occurs in four chapters. Each man’s life as a lhapa has four stages. This corresponds to the four main components of a healing ceremony. Visual images of each ceremony component will introduce the viewer to the corresponding stage of the men’s lives as lhapas. Fate of the Lhapa also looks at the lhapas lives through three contexts: Their daily life in exile in the Tibetan refugee camp, their roles as seasoned healers, and the possible disappearance of “sucking doctors” in the Tibetan culture. At their request, they are telling the story of being a Lhapa as if the next heir was sitting at their feet listening to their grandfathers. The refugee camp sits at the base of the Annapurna range of the Himalayan Mountains, in the shadow of Macchapuchre, a mountain considered sacred to both the Tibetan and Nepali people. The beauty of the Nepali countryside and the scope and pageantry of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions will appear throughout the film. Images will include the ornate icons and thanka paintings of the camp’s monastery, the costumes and paraphernalia of healing ceremonies wherein the lhapas become possessed by deities in order the suck the illness out of the patient, and footage of the Tibetan men and women of the camp struggling to maintain their culture in the midst of poverty, oppression, and exile.
excerpt from qmr
There are four Mayan codices. Again the fourth is always different from the previous three. The fourth codex is strange like the fourth gospel. They are
square 1- The Madrid codex
square 2- The Dresden codex
square 3: The Paris codex
Square 4: the Colier codex
The Navajos belief is that their Creator placed them on the land between the following 4 mountains representing the 4 cardinal directions:
Mount Blanca (Tsisnaasjini' - Dawn or White Shell Mountain)
Sacred Mountain of the East
near Alamosa in San Luis Valley, Colorado
Mount Taylor (Tsoodzil - Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain)
Sacred Mountain of the South
north of Laguna, New Mexico
San Francisco Peaks (Doko'oosliid - Abalone Shell Mountain)
Sacred Mountain of the West
near Flagstaff, Arizona
Mount Hesperus Dibé Nitsaa (Big Mountain Sheep) - Obsidian Mountain
Sacred Mountain of the North
La Plata Mountains, Colorado
The Navajo creation myth is centered around the number four. Scholars who study Amerindian tribes have noticed the phenomena and titled it "the Sacred Number 4" seen among Amerindians- I pointed out it is everywhere not just Amerindians. Here is an excerpt, but all of the mythology is full of fours.
"in the fourth world First Woman, First Man, Great Coyote, and the Four Holy People did a ceremony. Then Turquoise Boy entered the glowing Turquoise. First man used his crystal to heat the White Shell, and White Shell Girl entered the White Shell. Four circles were made around the inside of the hogan to complete the ceremony. In this way, Turquoise Boy became the sun, Jóhonaaʼéí, The One Who Rules the Day. And White Shell Girl became the moon, Tłʼéhonaaʼéí, The One Who Rules the Night. Níłchʼi Haʼaʼaahdę́ęʼgo, the East Wind, asked to carry the newly formed sun to his land so that it could begin its journey there.
FOUR MAN RITUAL- IF WORKS MAN DIES IN FOUR DAYS
http://americanindianoriginals.com/kachina-dolls.html
The Seminole of Oklahoma and Florida used clay human effigies to avenge murders. FOUR male
relatives of a homicide victim participated in this ritual. The doll maker, joined by the other
three men, placed the doll in the center of a hot fire. If the clay figure fell over as it turned
red, the murderer would die in FOUR days. If the effigy remained erect, the murderer had
strong counter-powers and would probably become ill but not die.
http://americanindianoriginals.com/kachina-dolls.html
Rain priests are associated with each of the six directions, that is, the four cardinal
directions plus zenith and nadir. They live on the shores of oceans and in springs. They come to
Zuni on the winds in the form of clouds, rainstorms, fog, and dew.
FOUR GROUPS OF MAPUCHE- FOR DIALECT GROUPS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche_language
When the Spanish arrived in Chile, they found four groups of Mapuche speakers in the region of Araucanía, from which the Spanish called them araucanos: the Picunche people (from pikum 'north' and che 'people'), the Huilliche people (from willi 'south'), the Pehuenche people (from pewen "monkey puzzle tree" Araucaria araucana), and the Moluche people (from molu "west"). The Picunche were conquered quite rapidly by the Spanish, whereas the Huilliche were not assimilated until the 18th century. Mapudungun was the only language spoken in central Chile. The sociolinguistic situation of the Mapuche has changed rapidly. Now, nearly all of Mapuche people are bilingual or monolingual in Spanish. The degree of bilingualism depends on the community, participation in Chilean society, and the individual's choice towards the traditional or modern/urban way of life.[6]
Another excerpt from Navajo creation myth- the fourth is always different
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diné_Bahaneʼ
"on the morning of the fourth day, Talking God and Water Sprinkler appeared with a large bowl of white shell and a large bowl of blue shell. The people gathered around them. They placed the bowls at the water's edge, and started to spin them. The spinning bowls created an opening in the water which led downward to a large house with four rooms. First Man and First Woman traveled down the passage and into the house, and behind them crept the Coyote named First Angry. In the north room of the house, they found Big Water Creature asleep in a chair. Her own two children were there, and also the two missing daughters. First Man and First Woman took the hands of the girls and led them back through the passage and on to the bank. Behind them, Coyote carried the two children of Big Water Creature, wrapped in his big skin coat with white fur lining. There was great celebrating because the lost girls were returned.
The next morning, animals began running past the village from the east. Deer ran by, and turkeys, and antelopes, and squirrels. For three days, animals ran past, fleeing from something. On the morning of the fourth day, the people sent locusts flying to the east to find out what was happening. The locusts returned and told that a great wall of water was coming from the east, and a tide of water from the north and from the south. The people ran to the top of the mountain Sisnaajiní. First Man ran to each of the other Sacred Mountains, took dirt from each, and summoned the Holy People, and returned to Sisnaajiní. Turquoise Boy came bearing the great Male Reed, and First Man planted it in the top of the mountain. All the people began to blow on the reed, and it began to grow and grow until it reached the canopy of the sky. Woodpecker hollowed out a passage inside the reed, and the people and Turquoise Boy and the four Holy People all began to climb up until they came out in the Fourth World.
The Navajo creation myth consists of four worlds.
Diné Bahaneʼ (Navajo: "Story of the People"), the Navajo creation myth, describes the prehistoric emergence of the Navajo, and centers on the area known as the Dinétah, the traditional homeland of the Navajo. This story forms the basis for the traditional Navajo way of life. The basic outline of Diné Bahaneʼ begins with the Niłchʼi Diyin (Holy Wind) being created, the mists of lights which arose through the darkness to animate and bring purpose to the four Diyin Dineʼé (Holy People), supernatural and sacred in the different three lower worlds. All these things were spiritually created in the time before the Earth existed and the physical aspect of humans did not exist yet, but the spiritual did.
Square 1: The First or Dark World was small and centered on an island floating in the middle of four seas. The inhabitants of the first world were the four Diyin Dineʼé, the two Coyotes, the four rulers of the four seas, mist beings and various insect and bat people, the latter being the Air-Spirit People. The supernatural beings First Woman and First Man came into existence here and met for the first time after seeing each other's fire. The various beings started fighting with one another and departed by flying out an opening in the east.
Square 2: They journeyed to the Second or Blue World, Niʼ Hodootłʼizh, which was inhabited by various blue-gray furred mammals and various birds, including blue swallows. The beings from the First World offended Swallow Chief, Táshchózhii, and they were asked to leave. First Man created a wand of jet and other materials to allow the people to walk upon it up into the next world through an opening in the south.
Square 3: In the Third or Yellow World, Niʼ Hałtsooí, there were two rivers that formed a cross and the Sacred Mountains but there was still no sun. More animal people lived here too. This time it was not discord among the people that drove them away but a great flood caused by Tééhoołtsódii when Coyote stole her two children.
Square 4: When the people arrived in the Fourth or White World, Niʼ Hodisxǫs, it was covered in water and there were monsters (naayééʼ) living here. The Sacred Mountains were re-formed from soil taken from the original mountains in the Second World. First Man, First Woman, and the Holy People created the sun, moon, seasons, and stars. It was here that true death came into existence via Coyote tossing a stone into a lake and declaring that if it sank then the dead would go back to the previous world.
The first human born in the Fourth World is Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé who, in turn, gives birth to the Hero Twins called Naayééʼ Neizghání and Tóbájíshchíní. The twins have many adventures in which they helped to rid the world of various monsters. Multiple batches of modern humans were created a number of times in the Fourth World and the Diyin Dineʼé gave them ceremonies which are still practiced today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diné_Bahaneʼ.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mexico.Tab.OlmecHead.01.jpg
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec
Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This one is nearly 3 metres (9 ft) tall
http://www.ghosthuntingtheories.com/…/hopi-legend-portal-be…
Hopi legend tells that the current earth is the Fourth World to be inhabited by Tawa's creations. The story essentially states that in each previous world, the people, though originally happy, became disobedient and lived contrary to Tawa's plan; they engaged in sexual promiscuity, fought one another and would not live in harmony. Thus, the most obedient were led (usually by Spider Woman) to the next higher world, with physical changes occurring both in the people in the course of their journey, and in the environment of the next world. In some stories, these former worlds were then destroyed along with their wicked inhabitants, whereas in others the good people were simply led away from the chaos which had been created by their actions.
Their creation myth details the journey through each of the four worlds, which fits the quadrant pattern.
According to Aztec mythology the present world is a product of four cycles of birth, death, and reincarnation.
The Navajo have the same patterned story with four worlds reflecting the quadrant model pattern. I already detailed this in my book
http://anonhq.com/americans-traditionally-recognized-four-genders-not-two/
“In Navajo teaching, in the old traditional world, there were four basic genders. Women are the first gender, because Navajo is a matrilineal society. Men are the second gender; and the third gender is the nádleehí, who is born as a male person but functions in the role of a girl in early childhood and in the role of a woman in adulthood. And it’s just the opposite for the fourth gender.” Thomas adds, “where they were born biologically female but functioned in the role of a boy in early childhood and matured into a man, and conducts their life in that gender identity.”
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: Ἄνεμοι, "Winds")[n 1] were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were sometimes represented as mere gusts of wind, at other times were personified as winged men, and at still other times were depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the Odyssey. The Spartans were reported to sacrifice a horse to the winds on Mount Taygetus.[2] Astraeus, the astrological deity sometimes associated with Aeolus, and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod.
Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas (Septentrio in Latin) was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Zephyrus or Zephyr (Favonius in Latin) was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early summer breezes, and Notos (Auster in Latin) was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn; Eurus (Subsolanus in Latin), the east wind, was not associated with any of the three Greek seasons, and is the only one of these four Anemoi not mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony or in the Orphic Hymns. Additionally, four lesser Anemoi were sometimes referenced, representing the northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest winds.
The deities equivalent to the Anemoi in Roman mythology were the Venti (Latin, "winds"). These gods had different names, but were otherwise very similar to their Greek counterparts, borrowing their attributes and being frequently conflated with them.
SACRED FOUR APACHE
All rites of passage were celebrated through powwows and dances and lasted for four days(wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_Apache_believe_in). The most common rite of passage celebrated by Apache people was the Sunrise Dance, and it was meant for when girls entered womanhood at around the age of 13 or 14. During the Sunrise Dance, the Apache woman was dancing almost constantly to very precise choreography and almost 100 different songs throughout the four days. She was expected not to falter or stop as the Sunrise Dance was a test of her strength and endurance (greatdreams.com/apache/apache-tribe.htm). Since the Apaches weren’t quite sure about the meaning of their life, they expressed and celebrated themselves as much as possible.
http://socialsproj2010-2011.blogspot.com
Apache people grew up knowing the creation story for their religion very well. There were at least two different versions of the story, and both are equally common and very similar. One version of the Apache people’s creation story was that in the beginning of the universe when nothing existed, a man came flying on a yellow and white disc. This man was Ussen (or sometimes spelled Ysen). He rubbed his eyes and looked into the eternal darkness, and he created light. Ussen wiped his sweaty forehead with his hands. The sweat that fell off of his hands became a girl. This girl was the first mother on earth and known as the girl with no parents. Ussen sang a song four times and was able to create more things. Four was a magic number.
Ussen created a boy and a sun god in addition to the girl with no parents. The four of them shook hands and Ussen rubbed his together, and their sweat became the earth. Earth was a round ball and as small as a bean. The gods took turns kicking it until it was as massive as it is now. Then the tarantula Ussen created it pulled on the earth from the four directions with white, black, blue and yellow cords, which is why those are the four sacred colours in Apache religion today. The gods found people on the earth with no faces, toes or fingers, and so they gave them faces, toes and fingers. The earth developed and was added to from then on by the gods. Today Apache people believe in Ussen, ga’ans, the mountain spirits, and Di-yin spirits who are the moon, sun and earth. All of the lesser spirits are believed to protect and provide for the people. When the earth was finished, Ussen left. Before he left, he gave the people fire (manataka.org/page87.html).
BORN OF FOUR PARTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudras
Ashwatthama, the powerful son of Drona, though known as the part incarnate of Rudra, was really born of the four parts of Yama(death), Rudra(destruction), Kama(love) and Krodh(anger).
16 FIGURINES 16 SQUARES OF THE QUADRANT MODEL- IT IS DESCRIBED THAT FIFTEEN OF THE FIGURINES SEEM TO BE LISTENING TO 1 IT IS UNKNOWN WHY THERE ARE 16- THE ANSWER IS THE QUADRANT MODEL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec_figurine
Offering 4 consists of sixteen male figurines positioned in a semicircle in front of six jade celts, perhaps representing stelae or basalt columns. Two of the figurines were made from jade, thirteen from serpentine, and one of reddish granite. This granite figurine one was positioned with its back to the celts, facing the others. All of the figurines had similar classic Olmec features including bald elongated heads. They had small holes for earrings, their legs were slightly bent, and they were undecorated – unusual if the figurines were gods or deities – but instead covered with cinnabar.[15]
Interpretations abound. Perhaps this particular formation represents a council of some sort—the fifteen other figurines seem to be listening to the red granite one, with the celts forming a backdrop. One of the most striking offerings found at La Venta, the celts in Offering Number 4, depict a person with a ceremonial headdress “flying” and also the maize deity. There appears to be a definite symbolic link here, but it is unclear whether it is tied to the Olmec rudimentary writing system.[16] To the red granite figurine's right, there seems be a line of three figurines filing past him. Another researcher has suggested that the granite figure is an initiate.
As the name implies, Offering 4 is one of many ritual offerings uncovered at La Venta, including the four Massive Offerings and four mosaics. Why such works would be buried continues to generate much speculation.
NAVAJO FOUR SONGS RITUALS DONE IN FOURS ALL OF THAT
http://www.discovernavajo.com/navajo-culture.aspx
The Navajo people, the Diné, passed through three different worlds before emerging into this world, The Fourth World, or Glittering World. The Diné believe there are two classes of beings: the Earth People and the Holy People. The Holy People are believed to have the power to aid or harm the Earth People. Since Earth People of the Diné are an integral part of the universe, they must do everything they can to maintain harmony or balance on Mother Earth.
It is believed that centuries ago the Holy People taught the Diné how to live the right way and to conduct their many acts of everyday life. They were taught to live in harmony with Mother Earth, Father Sky and the many other elements such as man, animals, plants, and insects. The Holy People put four sacred mountains in four different directions, Mt. Blanca to the east, Mt. Taylor to the south, San Francisco Peak to the west and Mt Hesperus to the north near Durango, Colorado, thus creating Navajoland. The four directions are represented by four colors: White Shell represents the east, Turquoise the south, Yellow Abalone the west, and Jet Black the north.
The number four permeates traditional Navajo philosophy. In the Navajo culture there are four directions, four seasons, the first four clans and four colors that are associated with the four sacred mountains. In most Navajo rituals there are four songs and multiples thereof, as well as Navajo wedding basket and many other symbolic uses of four.
http://navajopeople.org/blog/the-navajo-four-sacred-colors/
In the Emergence, the Navajo creation story, First Man took four stones.
jet, which represents black;
white shell, which symbolizes white;
turquoise, which is tied to blue; and
abalone, which represents yellow
—and placed them at the four directions.
He blew on the stones four times and they grew into a hogan. For the Navajos, the hogan is more than simply their traditional form of shelter; it has sacred meanings and still plays a vital role in Navajo spiritual and community life. In the story of the Emergence, First Man’s hogan became the world. First Man also created the four sacred mountains in this world.
These are just two examples of the four colors in the Navajo creation story; myriad other references to color appear throughout this and other Navajo traditions. Given their many connections to Navajo tradition, these four colors are an important part of the way culture and spirituality is passed from one generation to the next. One venue for the transmission of culture is art, and the four colors appear frequently in Navajo spiritual objects and works of art.
http://www.navajovalues.com/natani/navajovalues.htm
To Navajos, rain is one of the four main elements of Earth; light, air, and pollen are the others.
http://www.navajovalues.com/natani/navajovalues.htm
Traditional Wedding Basket
Used in religious ceremonies at traditional Navajo weddings, the woven wedding basket has a distinct pattern of representation. The edge of the basket, a lighter color, represents the brightening skies as dawn approaches. The center design features four points to represent the Navajo's four sacred mountains
There are only four codices whose authenticity is beyond doubt. These are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices
The Dresden Codex also known as the Codex Dresdensis (74 pages, 3.56 metres (11.7 feet));[5]
The Madrid Codex, also known as the Tro-Cortesianus Codex (112 pages, 6.82 metres (22.4 feet));
The Paris Codex, also known as the Peresianus Codex (22 pages, 1.45 metres (4.8 feet)).
The Grolier Codex, also known as the Sáenz Codex.[6]
APACHE WORLD CREATED FOUR DAYS- I DISCUSSED GENESSIS IN BIBLE FITS QUADRANT PATTERN- 4 plus 3
http://classroom.synonym.com/beliefs-apache-native-americans-6291.html
Women have a central role in the Apache community and serve as family leaders. The Apache believe that women become more powerful at the onset of puberty. A special ceremony called the sunrise dance is used to celebrate puberty and get a girl ready for motherhood and adult life. Once a four-day ritual, it is now more commonly held in two days. The Apache believe that for four days following the ceremony, girls have significant power that can promote healing or incite rainfall.
The Apache people believe in a Creator called Ussen. They use their voices and drums to call to the Creator for help and guidance. Apache spiritual teachings reflect the Creator as the life-giver that created all parts of the Earth in four days. Four is considered a sacred number and is reflected in the four cardinal directions, song, dance and the beat of the spiritual drum. The Apache call their main god Ussen but they also recognize spirits that inhabit the mountains, moon, sun and Earth.
"EVERYTHING TO THE APACHE, EVEN THE PARTS OF THE DAY, WERE MEASURED USING THE NUMBER FOUR" (not just Apache every Amerindian group- and actually every group in world I showed through quadrant model)
Quad
FOUR
http://www.horsekeeping.com/jewelry/NavajoIndians.htm
The number four is sacred to many Native Americans. There are four sacred mountains, four directions, four colors, four worlds, four sacred plants, and four times of day.
Time and space are defined by the four cardinal light phenomena: Dawn (white, east); Midday (blue, south); Evening Twilight (yellow, west), and Night (black, north).
The four cardinal light phenomena are results of the sun's apparent daily motion. These phenomena are a composite of the four directions, the four times of day, and the four sacred colors linked with them.
A Navajo thinks of the east, Dawn, and the white color of the sky at the beginning of the day. This is the thinking direction.
At midday, the association is with the south which is usually "horizon blue" or "blue haze" in reference to the band of relatively darker blue that lies on the horizon at midday. This is the planning direction.
Evening twilight is associated with the west and "around the area becomes yellow". This is the evaluation direction.
Darkness is associated with the north and with the blackness of the night sky. This is the direction of change.
THE FOUR WORLDS OF THE NAVAJO
First/Black World:
The beginning of time. In the First World, there lived various spiritual beings. They were given Navajo names describing certain insects and animals. Altse Hastiin (First Man) and Altse Asdzaa (First Woman) were created. The beings couldn't get along with one another so they decided to leave through an opening in the east into the Second World.
Second/Blue World:
This world was already occupied by the Blue Birds, animals and other beings who were in disagreement and couldn't get along with one another. There was severe hardship so they decided to leave this world. First Man made a want of white shell, turquoise, abalone, and jet. This wand carried everyone through an opening in the south into the Third World.
Third/Yellow World:
This world was entered first by Bluebird, First Man, First Woman, Coyote, and other beings. This land had great rivers crossing from east to west and north to south. One day, Coyote stole Water Baby from the river, causing a great flood. First Man ordered everyone to climb into the reed to escape the rising waters. As the beings climbed out of the reed into the Fourth World, the people discovered Coyote was the one who had stole Water Baby. Coyote took the Water Baby back to its mother and the flooded waters began to recede.
Fourth/White World:
Locust was the first to enter the fourth world. He saw water everywhere and other beings living there. The beings in the Fourth World would not let the beings from the Third World to enter unless the Locust passed certain tests. Locust passed all the tests and the people entered into the Fourth World. Later, First Man and First Woman formed the four sacred mountains. The sacred dirt was brought from the First World to form these mountains.
NAVAJO LIFE
Navajo legend says that Dine had to pass through three different worlds before emerging into the present world - the Fourth World or Glittering World. So, the Holy People put four sacred mountains in four different directions. Mt. Blanca in the east. Mt. Taylor in the south, San Francisco Peaks in the west, and Mt. Hesperus in the north, thus creating the boundaries of Navajoland.
The Navajo (Diné) and Apache tribal groups of the American Southwest speak dialects of the language family referred to as Athabaskan. The Navajo people are very dynamic and creative people who strongly believe in the power of the mind to think and create; finding expression in the myriad symbolic creations of the Navajo language, art and ritual ceremonies.
Aside from being the mother tongue of the Navajo Nation, the Navajo language also has played a highly significant role in helping the entire nation. During World War II, the Navajo language was used as a code to confuse the enemy. Navajo bravery and patriotism is unequaled. Navajos were inducted and trained in the U.S. Marine Corps to become "code talkers" on the front-line. Shrouded in secrecy at the time, these men are known today as the famed Navajo Code Talkers, proved to be the only code that could not be broken during World War II.
Family is very important to the Navajos. There is the immediate family, and the extended family. The extended family is broken up into clans, which were created by the Holy Ones. The four original clans are 'Towering House', 'Bitterwater', 'Big Water' and' One-who-walks-around'.
Today there are about 130 clans. When one Navajo meets another for the first time they tell each other what clan they are from.
A Navaho house is called a "hogan" and is made of logs, brush, and earth. Summer houses are also utilized and made of brush with a windbreak.
Each symbol has specific meaning with its own story.
NAVAJO NUMBER FOUR
http://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/history_nativecultures_navajo.html
The Diné believe they passed through four worlds before entering this, the Fifth World. Their ancestral lands are bounded by what often are referred to as the four sacred mountains — to the east, Blanca Peak near Alamosa, Colorado; to the south, Mount Taylor near Grants, New Mexico; to the west, the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona; and to the north, Mount Hesperus in the La Plata Mountains near Durango, Colorado. Likewise, the Navajos have an affinity to four rivers — Rio Grande, Little Colorado, Colorado, and San Juan — that loosely encircle their land. The number four is prevalent in Navajo culture, with the four directions, four seasons, four colors and the first four clans all associated with the four sacred mountains.
Highslide JS
Navajos ride horses in Canyon de Chelly. The eastern Arizona canyon, part of the current Navajo Reservation, was the heart of their homeland in the 1800s. Many of the niches in the cliffs held ruins, evidence of an even more distant past. Photo by Edward S. Curtis, circa 1904. Courtesy of Northwestern University Library, Edward S. Curtis's 'The North American Indian': the Photographic Images, 2001.
Highslide JS
Several Navajos stand near an unhitched wagon in Shiprock, New Mexico, around 1900. Photo by H.S. Poley. Courtesy of Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library
Diné tradition tells of two types of beings, the Earth People and the Holy People. The Holy People placed the four sacred mountains here and instructed the Earth People how to live in a way that maintains harmony and balance. The Navajos still perform more than fifty healing ceremonies designed to meet particular ritual purposes and keep that important balance in life. Some of the ceremonies include visits to sacred sites in the Grand Canyon.
I FORGOT ABOUT THIS BUT MY DAD WILL SAY ITS TRUE HE REMEMBERED THIS MY MOM TOO BECAUSE SHE WOULD GET ANGRY WITH ME BECAUSE IT WOULD SOMETIMES MAKE ME LATE but when I was younger before I left the basketball court I had to make one layup on the right side one layup in the middle one on the left side and then make a shot outside (actually I shot the shot on the outside firt maybe) of the key THEN I COULD GO IN or leave----- I was subconsciously performing the quadrant
THE CHEROKEE HOLD FOUR AND SEVEN TO BE SACRED- BUT AGAIN IT IS A 4+3 PATTERN WHERE THE CHEROKEE SEE FOUR AS THE FOUR DIRECTIONS OF THE QUADRANT- AND THEY SEE SEVEN AS THE FOUR DIRECTIONS PLUS UP DOWN AND CENTER
http://thunder-fox.com/colors3.htm
Sacred Colores & Sacred Numbers
2-med-wh.gif
The mythological significance of different colors were important in Cherokee lore.
Red (EAST)
Red was symbolic of success. It was the color of the war club used to strike an enemy in battle as well as the other club used by the warrior to shield himself. Red beads were used to conjure the red spirit to insure long life, recovery from sickness, success in love and ball play or anyother undertaking where the benefit of the magic spell was wrought.
Black (WEST)
Black was always typical of death. The soul of the enemy was continually beaten about by black war clubs and enveloped in a black fog. In conjuring to destroy an enemy, the priest used black beads and invoked the black spirits- which always lived in the West,-bidding them to tear out the man's soul and carry it to the West, and put it into the black coffin deep in the black mud, with a black serpent coiled above it.
Blue (NORTH)
Blue symbolized failure, disappointment, or unsatisfied desire. To say "they shall never become blue" expressed the belief that they would never fail in anything they undertook. In love charms, the lover figuratively covered himself with red and prayed that his rival would become entirely blue and walk in a blue path. "He is entirely blue," approximates meaning of the common English phrase, "He feels blue." The blue spirits lived in the North.
White (SOUTH)
White denoted peace and happiness. In ceremonial addresses, as the Green Corn Dance and ball play, the people symbolically partook of white food and, after the dance or game, returned along the white trail to their white houses. In love charms, the man, to induce the woman to cast her lost with his, boasted, "I am a white man," implying that all was happiness where he was. White beads had the same meaning in bead conjuring, and white was the color of the stone pipe anciently used in ratifying peace treaties. The White spirits lived in the South.
There are three additional sacred directions:
Up Above = Yellow
Down Below = Brown
Here in the Center = Green
Sacred Numbers
It is the numbers four and seven that are sacred to the Cherokee. The number four is significant of the four directions and of wholeness, but it is the number seven which seems to be the most prominant. There are seven clans; seven councillors presided over regular festivals; there was a regular sacrifice every seventh day, and in "remote times" a sacrifice was held once every seven years
Cherokee Color Words
black: gv-ni-ge
blue: sa-go-ne-ge
brown: u-wo-di-ge
green: i-tse-i-yu-s-di
yellow: da-lo-ni-ge
red: gi-ga-ge
white: u-ne-ga
Cherokee Moons
CHEROKEE SEE 4 AND 7 AS THEIR SACRED NUMBERS BUT AGAIN USE A 4+3 PATTERN WHERE 7 IS THE FOUR DIRECITONS PLUS UP DOWN AND CENTER
http://www.cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/Culture/General/The-Traditional-Belief-System
Certain numbers play an important role in the ceremonies of the Cherokee. The numbers four and seven repeatedly occur in myths, stories and ceremonies. The number four represents all the familiar forces, also represented in the four cardinal directions. These directions are east, west, north and south. Certain colors are also associated with these directions. The number seven represents the seven clans of the Cherokee, and are also associated with directions. In addition to the four cardinal directions, three others exist. Up (the Upper World), down (the Lower World) and center (where we live and where you always are).
CHEROKEE MEDICINE WAS FOUR PARAGRAPHS FOUR FORMULAS FROM FOUR FERNS
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24788/24788-h/24788-h.htm
(Prescription.)—Lay a terrapin shell upon (the spot) and keep it there while the five kinds (of spirits) listen. On finishing, then blow once. Repeat four times, beginning each time from the start. On finishing the fourth time, then blow four times. Have two white beads lying in the shell, together with a little of the medicine. Don’t interfere with it, but have a good deal boiling in another vessel—a bowl will do very well—and rub it on warm while treating by applying the hands. And this is the medicine: What is called Yâ´na-Utsĕ´sta ("bear’s bed," the Aspidium acrostichoides or Christmas fern); and the other is called Kâ´ga-Asgû´ntagĭ ("crow’s shin," the Adianthum pedatum or Maidenhair fern); and the other is the common Egû´nlĭ (another fern); and the other is the Little Soft (-leaved) Egû´nlĭ (Osmunda Cinnamonea or cinnamon fern), which grows in the rocks and resembles Yâna-Utsĕ´sta and is a small and soft (-leaved) Egû´nlĭ. Another has brown roots and another has black roots. The roots of all should be (used).
Begin doctoring early in the morning; let the second (application) be while the sun is still near the horizon; the third when it has risen to a considerable height (10 a.m.); the fourth when it is above at noon. This is sufficient. (The doctor) must not eat, and the patient also must be fasting.
[pg 347]
Explanation.
As this formula is taken from the manuscript of Gahuni, who died nearly thirty years ago, no definite statement of the theory of the disease, or its treatment, can be given, beyond what is contained in the formula itself, which, fortunately, is particularly explicit; most doctors contenting themselves with giving only the words of the prayer, without noting the ceremonies or even the medicine used. There are various theories as to the cause of each disease, the most common idea in regard to rheumatism being that it is caused by the spirits of the slain animals, generally the deer, thirsting for vengeance on the hunter, as has been already explained in the myth of the origin of disease and medicine.
The measuring-worm (Catharis) is also held to cause rheumatism, from the resemblance of its motions to those of a rheumatic patient, and the name of the worm wahhĭlĭ´ is frequently applied also to the disease.
There are formulas to propitiate the slain animals, but these are a part of the hunting code and can only be noticed here, although it may be mentioned in passing that the hunter, when about to return to the settlement, builds a fire in the path behind him, in order that the deer chief may not be able to follow him to his home.
The disease, figuratively called the intruder (ulsgéta), is regarded as a living being, and the verbs used in speaking of it show that it is considered to be long, like a snake or fish. It is brought by the deer chief and put into the body, generally the limbs, of the hunter, who at once begins to suffer intense pain. It can be driven out only by some more powerful animal spirit which is the natural enemy of the deer, usually the dog or the Wolf. These animal gods live up above beyond the seventh heaven and are the great prototypes of which the earthly animals are only diminutive copies. They are commonly located at the four cardinal points, each of which has a peculiar formulistic name and a special color which applies to everything in the same connection. Thus the east, north, west, and south are respectively the Sun Land, the Frigid Land, the Darkening Land, and Wă´hală´, while their respective mythologic colors are Red, Blue, Black, and White. Wáhală is said to be a mountain far to the south. The white or red spirits are generally invoked for peace, health, and other blessings, the red alone for the success of an undertaking, the blue spirits to defeat the schemes of an enemy or bring down troubles upon him, and the black to compass his death. The white and red spirits are regarded as the most powerful, and one of these two is generally called upon to accomplish the final result.
In this case the doctor first invokes the Red Dog in the Sun Land, calling him a great adáwehi, to whom nothing is impossible and who never fails to accomplish his purpose. He is addressed as if [pg 348] out of sight in the distance and is implored to appear running swiftly to the help of the sick man. Then the supplication changes to an assertion and the doctor declares that the Red Dog has already arrived to take the disease and has borne away a small portion of it to the uttermost ends of the earth. In the second, third, and fourth paragraphs the Blue Dog of the Frigid Land, the Black Dog of the Darkening Land, and the White Dog of Wáhală are successively invoked in the same terms and each bears away a portion of the disease and disposes of it in the same way. Finally, in the fifth paragraph, the White Terrapin of Wáhălă is invoked. He bears off the remainder of the disease and the doctor declares that relief is accomplished. The connection of the terrapin in this formula is not evident, beyond the fact that he is regarded as having great influence in disease, and in this case the beads and a portion of the medicine are kept in a terrapin shell placed upon the diseased part while the prayer is being recited.
The formulas generally consist of four paragraphs, corresponding to four steps in the medical ceremony. In this case there are five, the last being addressed to the terrapin instead of to a dog. The prayers are recited in an undertone hardly audible at the distance of a few feet, with the exception of the frequent ha, which seems to be used as an interjection to attract attention and is always uttered in a louder tone. The beads—which are here white, symbolic of relief—are of common use in connection with these formulas, and are held between the thumb and finger, placed upon a cloth on the ground, or, as in this case, put into a terrapin shell along with a small portion of the medicine. According to directions, the shell has no other part in the ceremony.
The blowing is also a regular part of the treatment, the doctor either holding the medicine in his mouth and blowing it upon the patient, or, as it seems to be the case here, applying the medicine by rubbing, and blowing his breath upon the spot afterwards. In some formulas the simple blowing of the breath constitutes the whole application. In this instance the doctor probably rubs the medicine upon the affected part while reciting the first paragraph in a whisper, after which he blows once upon the spot. The other paragraphs are recited in the same manner, blowing once after each. In this way the whole formula is repeated four times, with four blows at the end of the final repetition. The directions imply that the doctor blows only at the end of the whole formula, but this is not in accord with the regular mode of procedure and seems to be a mistake.
The medicine consists of a warm decoction of the roots of four varieties of fern, rubbed on with the hand. The awkward description of the species shows how limited is the Indian’s power of botanic classification. The application is repeated four times during the same morning, beginning just at daybreak and ending at noon. Four is the sacred [pg 349] number running through every detail of these formulas, there being commonly four spirits invoked in four paragraphs, four blowings with four final blows, four herbs in the decoction, four applications, and frequently four days’ gaktun´ta or tabu. In this case no tabu is specified beyond the fact that both doctor and patient must be fasting. The tabu generally extends to salt or lye, hot food and women, while in rheumatism some doctors forbid the patient to eat the foot or leg of any animal, the reason given being that the limbs are generally the seat of the disease. For a similar reason the patient is also forbidden to eat or even to touch a squirrel, a buffalo, a cat, or any animal which “humps” itself. In the same way a scrofulous patient must not eat turkey, as that bird seems to have a scrofulous eruption on its head, while ball players must abstain from eating frogs, because the bones of that animal are brittle and easily broken.
28 IS ALSO SIGNIFCANT TO THE CHEROKEE BECAUSE IT IS FOUR TIMES SEVEN- SEVEN BEING THE QUADRANT PLUS UP DOWN AND CENTER
On the authority of one of the same informants, he also mentions the veneration which “their physicians have for the numbers four and seven, who say that after man was placed upon the earth four and seven nights were instituted for the cure of diseases in the human body and the seventh night as the limit for female impurity.”6
In like manner, biliousness is called by the Cherokees dalâ´nĭ or “yellow,” because the most apparent symptom of the disease is the vomiting by the patient of the yellow bile, and hence the doctor selects for the decoction four different herbs, each of which is also called dalânĭ, because of the color of the root, stalk, or flower. The same idea is carried out in the tabu which generally accompanies the treatment.
8. GÛ´NĬGWALĬ´SKĬ=“It becomes discolored when bruised”—Scutellaria lateriflora—Skullcap. The name refers to the red juice which comes out of the stalk when bruised or chewed. A decoction of the four varieties of Gûnigwalĭ´skĭ—S. lateriflora, S. pilosa, Hypericum corymbosum, and Stylosanthes elatior—is drunk to promote menstruation, and the same decoction is also drunk and used as a wash to counteract the ill effects of eating food prepared by a woman in the menstrual condition, or when such a woman by chance comes into a sick room or a house under the tabu; also drunk for diarrhea and used with other herbs in decoction for breast pains. Dispensatory: This plant “produces no very obvious effects,” but some doctors regard it as possessed of nervine, antispasmodic and tonic properties. None of the other three species are named.
A curious instance of this prohibition is given in the second Didûnlĕ´skĭ (rheumatism) formula from the Gahuni manuscript (see page 350), where the patient is required to abstain from touching a squirrel, a dog, a cat, a mountain trout, or a woman, and must also have a chair appropriated to his use alone during the four days that he is under treatment.
The scratching is usually done according to a particular pattern, the regular method for the ball play being to draw the scratcher four times down the upper part of each arm, thus making twenty-eight scratches each about 6 inches in length, repeating the operation on each arm below the elbow and on each leg above and below the knee
The bather usually dips completely under the water four or seven times
FOUR DAYS
The Cherokees have a dance known as the Medicine Dance, which is generally performed in connection with other dances when a number of people assemble for a night of enjoyment. It possesses no features of special interest and differs in no essential respect from a dozen other of the lesser dances. Besides this, however, there was another, known as the Medicine Boiling Dance, which, for importance and solemn ceremonial, was second only to the great Green Corn Dance. It has now been discontinued on the reservation for about twenty years. It took place in the fall, probably preceding the Green Corn Dance, and continued four days.
Additional cloth is thus given each time the ceremony is repeated, each time a second four days’ course of treatment is begun, and as often as the doctor sees fit to change his method of procedure
CEREMONIES FOR GATHERING PLANTS AND PREPARING MEDICINE.
There are a number of ceremonies and regulations observed in connection with the gathering of the herbs, roots, and barks, which can not be given in detail within the limits of this paper. In searching for his medicinal plants the shaman goes provided with a number of white and red beads, and approaches the plant from a certain direction, going round it from right to left one or four times, reciting certain prayers the while. He then pulls up the plant by the roots and drops one of the beads into the hole and covers it up with the loose earth. In one of the formulas for hunting ginseng the hunter addresses the mountain as the “Great Man” and assures it that he comes only to take a small piece of flesh (the ginseng) from its side, so that it seems probable that the bead is intended as a compensation to the earth for the plant thus torn from her bosom. In some cases the doctor must pass by the first three plants met until he comes to the fourth, which he takes and may then return for the others. The bark is always taken from the east side of the tree, and when the root or branch is used it must also be one which runs out toward the east, the reason given being that these have imbibed more medical potency from the rays of the sun.
INCA EMPIRE WAS CALLED FOUR SUYUS AND THE ORIGIN MYTH SAYS THAT THE INCAS BEGAN WITH FOUR BROTHERS AND FOUR SISTERS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Empire
The Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "The Four Regions"[2]), also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America,[3] and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century.[4] The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.
The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu,[2] "the four suyu". In Quechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix naming a group, so that a tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together, in this case representing the four suyu ("regions" or "provinces") whose corners met at the capital. The four suyu were: Chinchaysuyu (north), Antisuyu (east; the Amazon jungle), Qullasuyu (south) and Kuntisuyu (west). The name Tawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu.
The Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Incan oral history tells an origin story of three caves. The center cave at Tampu T'uqu (Tambo Tocco) was named Qhapaq T'uqu ("principal niche", also spelled Capac Tocco). The other caves were Maras T'uqu (Maras Tocco) and Sutiq T'uqu (Sutic Tocco).[12] Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave. They were: Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Awqa (Ayar Auca) and Ayar Uchu; and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaco and Mama Qura (Mama Cora). Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the Inca clans.
Manco Cápac, First Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings, Probably mid-18th century. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum
Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would live. They traveled for a long time. On the way, Ayar Cachi boasted about his strength and power. His siblings tricked him into returning to the cave to get a sacred llama. When he went into the cave, they trapped him inside to get rid of him.
Ayar Uchu decided to stay on the top of the cave to look over the Inca people. The minute he proclaimed that, he turned to stone. They built a shrine around the stone and it became a sacred object. Ayar Auca grew tired of all this and decided to travel alone. Only Ayar Manco and his four sisters remained.
Finally, they reached Cusco. The staff sank into the ground. Before they arrived, Mama Ocllo had already borne Ayar Manco a child, Sinchi Roca. The people who were already living in Cusco fought hard to keep their land, but Mama Huaca was a good fighter. When the enemy attacked, she threw her bolas (several stones tied together that spun through the air when thrown) at a soldier (gualla) and killed him instantly. The other people became afraid and ran away.
After that, Ayar Manco became known as Manco Cápac, the founder of the Inca. It is said that he and his sisters built the first Inca homes in the valley with their own hands. When the time came, Manco Cápac turned to stone like his brothers before him. His son, Sinchi Roca, became the second emperor of the Inca.[13]
It describes Wakan Tanka as like "sixteen persons" and it claims that "all shamans" saw sixteen aspects of the godhead or sixteen deities
FOUR STATIONS OF VENUS (THE MORNING STAR)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grolier_Codex
The Venus almanac in the Dresden Codex documents the planet after inferior conjunction as the morning star, the Grolier Codex documents all four of the stations of Venus: rising after inferior conjunction as morning star in the east, disappearance before superior conjunction, reappearance as evening star in the west and disappearance before inferior conjunction
THE FOUR DAY SIGNS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Magliabechiano_11R.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Magliabechiano
The reverse of folio 11 of the Codex Magliabechiano, showing the day signs Flint (knife), Rain, Flower, and Crocodile.
GROUPS OF FOUR COMPLETENESS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_deities
Other divine groups were composed of deities with interrelated roles, or who together represented a region of the Egyptian mythological cosmos. There were sets of gods for the hours of the day and night and for each nome (province) of Egypt. Some of these groups contain a specific, symbolically important number of deities.[89] Paired gods can stand for opposite but interrelated concepts that are part of a greater unity. Ra, who is dynamic and light-producing, and Osiris, who is static and shrouded in darkness, merge into a single god each night.[90] Groups of three are linked with plurality in ancient Egyptian thought, and groups of four connote completeness.
FOUR GREAT GODS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptah
With the Nineteenth Dynasty, his cult grew and he became one of the four great gods of the empire of Ramses. He was worshipped at Pi-Ramesses as master of ceremonies and coronations.
LOOK AT THE REPETITIONS OF FOUR IN HAWAIIAN MYTHOLOGY AND THEIR MAIN TEXT HAS 16 PARTS THEIR MAIN SONG/RITUAL HAS 16 PARTS THE QUADRANT 16
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_religion
Hawaiian religion is polytheistic, with four deities most prominent: Kāne, Kū, Lono and Kanaloa.[5] Other notable deities include Laka, Kihawahine, Haumea, Papahānaumoku, and, most famously, Pele.[5] In addition, each family is considered to have one or more guardian spirits known as ʻaumakua that protected family.[5]
One breakdown of the Hawaiian pantheon[6] consists of the following groups:
the four gods (ka hā) – Kū, Kāne, Lono, Kanaloa
the forty male gods or aspects of Kāne (ke kanahā)
the four hundred gods and goddesses (ka lau)
the great multitude of gods and goddesses (ke kini akua)
the spirits (na ʻunihipili)
the guardians (na ʻaumākua)
Another breakdown[7] consists of three major groups:
the four gods, or akua: Kū, Kāne, Lono, Kanaloa
many lesser gods, or kupua, each associated with certain professions
guardian spirits, ʻaumakua, associated with particular families
DEPICITON OF EIGHT DEER MEETING FOUR JAGUAR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oaxaca_ocho_venado.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Deer_Jaguar_Claw
Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (right) Meeting with Four Jaguar, in a depiction from the Codex Zouche-Nuttall. His name glyph (a deer head and eight red dots) is above his head.
AMERINDIAN NUMBER FOUR
https://americanindianshistory.blogspot.com/2011/08/native-american-myths-sacred-numbers.html
Native American Numerology of the Number Four
Native American Numerology of the Number Four
The Talenton Cross, constructed by the Hopewell Sioux is one of many earthworks that evolve around the number 4. This earthwork is aligned to the cardinal points.
The number Four sacred in all American religions, and the key to their symbolism.—Derived from the Cardinal Points.—Appears constantly in government, arts, rites, and myths.—The Cardinal Points identified with the Four Winds, who in myths are the four ancestors of the human race, and the four celestial rivers watering the terrestrial Paradise.—Associations grouped around each Cardinal Point.—From the number four was derived the symbolic value of the number Forty, and the Sign of the Cross.
EVERY one familiar with the ancient religions of the world must have noticed the mystic power they attach to certain numbers, and how these numbers became the measures and formative quantities, as it were, of traditions and ceremonies, and had a symbolical meaning nowise connected with their arithmetical value. For instance, in many eastern religions, that of the Jews among the rest, seven was the most sacred number, and after it, four and three. The most cursory reader must have observed in how many connections the seven is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, occurring, in all, something over three hundred and sixty times, it is said. Why these numbers were chosen rather than others has not been clearly explained. Their sacred character dates beyond the earliest history, and must have been coeval with the first expressions of the religious sentiment. Only one of them, the FOUR, has any prominence in[67] the religions of the red race, but this is so marked and so universal, that at a very early period in my studies I felt convinced that if the reason for its adoption could be discovered, much of the apparent confusion which reigns among them would be dispelled.
Such a reason must take its rise from some essential relation of man to nature, everywhere prominent, everywhere the same. It is found in the adoration of the cardinal points.
The assumption of precisely four cardinal points is not of chance; it is recognized in every language; it is rendered essential by the anatomical structure of the body; it is derived from the immutable laws of the universe. Whether we gaze at the sunset or the sunrise, or whether at night we look for guidance to the only star of the twinkling thousands that is constant to its place, the anterior and posterior planes of our bodies, our right hands and our left coincide with the parallels and meridians. Very early in his history did man take note of these four points, and recognizing in them his guides through the night and
[68] the wilderness, call them his gods. Long afterwards, when centuries of slow progress had taught him other secrets of nature—when he had discerned in the motions of the sun, the elements of matter, and the radicals of arithmetic a repetition of this number—they were to him further warrants of its sacredness. He adopted it as a regulating quantity in his institutions and his arts; he repeated it in its multiples and compounds; he imagined for it novel applications; he constantly magnified its mystic meaning; and finally, in his philosophical reveries, he called it the key to the secrets of the universe, “the source of ever-flowing nature.”68-1
Proximity of place had no part in this similarity of rite. In the grand commemorative festival of the Creeks called the Busk, which wiped out the memory of all crimes but murder, which reconciled the proscribed criminal to his nation and atoned for his guilt, when the new fire was kindled and the green corn served up, every dance, every invocation, every ceremony, was shaped and ruled by the application of the
[ number four and its multiples in every imaginable relation. So it was at that solemn probation which the youth must undergo to prove himself worthy of the dignities of manhood and to ascertain his guardian spirit; here again his fasts, his seclusions, his trials, were all laid down in four fold arrangement.
Not alone among these barbarous tribes were the cardinal points thus the foundation of the most solemn mysteries of religion. An excellent authority relates that the Aztecs of Micla, in Guatemala, celebrated their chief festival four times a year, and that four priests solemnized its rites. They commenced by invoking and offering incense to the sky and the four cardinal points; they conducted the human victim four times around the temple, then tore out his heart, and catching the blood in four vases scattered it in the samedirections.72-2 So also the Peruvians had four principal festivals annually, and at every new moon one of four days’ duration. In fact the repetition of the number in all their religious ceremonies is so prominent that it has been a subject of comment by historians. They have attributed it to the knowledge of the solstices and equinoxes, but assuredly it is of more ancient date than this. The same explanation has been offered for its recurrence among the Nahuas of Mexico, whose whole lives[73] were subjected to its operation. At birth the mother was held unclean for four days, a fire was kindled and kept burning for a like length of time, at the baptism of the child an arrow was shot to each of the cardinal points. Their prayers were offered four times a day, the greatest festivals were every fourth year, and their offerings of blood were to the four points of the compass. At death food was placed on the grave, as among the Eskimos, Creeks, and Algonkins, for four days (for all these nations supposed that the journey to the land of souls was accomplished in that time), and mourning for the dead was for four months or four years.
It were fatiguing and unnecessary to extend the catalogue much further. Yet it is not nearly exhausted. From tribes of both continents and all stages of culture, the Muyscas of Columbia and the Natchez of Louisiana, the Quichés of Guatemala and the Caribs of the Orinoko, instance after instance might be marshalled to illustrate how universally a sacred character was attached to this number, and how uniformly it is traceable to a veneration of the cardinal points. It is sufficient that it be displayed in some of its more unusual applications.
It is well known that the calendar common to the] Aztecs and Mayas divides the month into four weeks, each containing a like number of secular days; that their indiction is divided into four periods; and that they believed the world had passed through four cycles. It has not been sufficiently emphasized that in many of the picture writings these days of the week are placed respectively north, south, east, and west, and that in the Maya language the quarters of the indiction still bear the names of the cardinal points, hinting the reason of their adoption.74-1 This cannot be fortuitous. Again, the division of the year into four seasons—a division as devoid of foundation in nature as that of the ancient Aryans into three, and unknown among many tribes, yet obtained in very early times among Algonkins, Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Aztecs, Muyscas, Peruvians, and Araucanians. They were supposed to be produced by the unending struggles and varying fortunes of the four aerial giants who rule the winds.
We must seek in mythology the key to the monotonous repetition and the sanctity of this number; and furthermore, we must seek it in those natural modes of expression of the religious sentiment which are above the power of blood or circumstance to control. One of these modes, we have seen, was that which led to the identification of the divinity with the wind, and this it is that solves the enigma in the present instance. Universally the spirits of the cardinal points were imagined to be in the winds that blew from them. The names of these directions and[75] of the corresponding winds are often the same, and when not, there exists an intimate connection between them. For example, take the languages of the Mayas, Huastecas, and Moscos of Central America; in all of them the word for north is synonymous with north wind, and so on for the other three points of the compass. Or again, that of the Dakotas, and the word tate-ouye-toba, translated “the four quarters of the heavens,” means literally, “whence the four winds come.”75-1 It were not difficult to extend the list; but illustrations are all that is required. Let it be remembered how closely the motions of the air are associated in thought and language with the operations of the soul and the idea of God; let it further be considered what support this association receives from the power of the winds on the weather, bringing as they do the lightning and the storm, the zephyr that cools the brow, and the tornado that levels the forest; how they summon the rain to fertilize the seed and refresh the shrivelled leaves; how they aid the hunter to stalk the game, and usher in the varying seasons; how, indeed, in a hundred ways, they intimately concern his comfort and his life; and it will not seem strange that they almost occupied the place of all other gods in the mind of the child of nature. Especially as those who gave or withheld the rains were they objects of his anxious solicitation. “Ye who dwell at the four corners of the earth—at the north, at the south, at the east, and at the west,” commenced the Aztec prayer to the Tlalocs, gods of the showers.75-2 [76]For they, as it were, hold the food, the life of man in their power, garnered up on high, to grant or deny, as they see fit. It was from them that the prophet of old was directed to call back the spirits of the dead to the dry bones of the valley. “Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come forth from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” (Ezek. xxxvii. 9.)
In the same spirit the priests of the Eskimos prayed to Sillam Innua, the Owner of the Winds, as the highest existence; the abode of the dead they called Sillam Aipane, the House of the Winds; and in their incantations, when they would summon a new soul to the sick, or order back to its home some troublesome spirit, their invocations were ever addressed to the winds from the cardinal points—to Pauna the East and Sauna the West, to Kauna the South and Auna the North.
As the rain-bringers, as the life-givers, it were no far-fetched metaphor to call them the fathers of our race. Hardly a nation on the continent but seems to have had some vague tradition of an origin from four brothers, to have at some time been led by four leaders or princes, or in some manner to have connected the appearance and action of four important personages with its earliest traditional history. Sometimes the myth defines clearly these fabled characters as the spirits of the winds, sometimes it clothes them in uncouth, grotesque metaphors, sometimes again it s weaves them into actual history that we are at a loss where to draw the line that divides fiction from truth.
I shall attempt to follow step by step the growth of this myth from its simplest expression, where the transparent drapery makes no pretence to conceal its true meaning, through the ever more elaborate narratives, the more strongly marked personifications of more cultivated nations, until it assumes the outlines of, and has palmed itself upon the world as actual history.
This simplest form is that which alone appears among the Algonkins and Dakotas. They both traced their lives back to four ancestors, personages concerned in various ways with the first things of time, not rightly distinguished as men or gods, but very positively identified with the four winds. Whether from one or all of these the world was peopled, whether by process of generation or some other more obscure way, the old people had not said, or saying, had not agreed.
It is a shade more complex when we come to the Creeks. They told of four men who came from the four corners of the earth, who brought them the sacred fire, and pointed out the seven sacred plants. They were called the Hi-you-yul-gee. Having rendered them this service, the kindly visitors disappeared in a cloud, returning whence they came. When another and more ancient legend informs us that the Creeks were at first divided into four clans, and alleged a descent from four female ancestors, it[78] will hardly be venturing too far to recognize in these four ancestors the four friendly patrons from the cardinal points.
The Navajos are a rude tribe north of Mexico. Yet even they have an allegory to the effect that when the first man came up from the ground under the figure of the moth-worm, the four spirits of the cardinal points were already there, and hailed him with the exclamation, “Lo, he is of our race.”
79-1 It is a poor and feeble effort to tell the same old story.
Wherever, in short, the lust of gold lured the early adventurers, they were told of some nation a little further on, some wealthy and prosperous land, abundant and fertile, satisfying the desire of the heart. It was sometimes deceit, and it was sometimes the credited fiction of the earthly paradise, that in all ages has with a promise of perfect joy consoled the aching heart of man.
It is instructive to study the associations that naturally group themselves around each of the cardinal points, and watch how these are mirrored on the surface of language, and have directed the current of[] thought. Jacob Grimm has performed this task with fidelity and beauty as regards the Aryan race, but the means are wanting to apply his searching method to the indigenous tongues of America. Enough if in general terms their mythological value be determined.
When the day begins, man wakes from his slumbers, faces the rising sun, and prays. The east is before him; by it he learns all other directions; it is to him what the north is to the needle; with reference to it he assigns in his mind the position of the three other cardinal points. There is the starting place of the celestial fires, the home of the sun, the womb of the morning. It represents in space the beginning of things in time, and as the bright and glorious creatures of the sky come forth thence, man conceits that his ancestors also in remote ages wandered from the orient; there in the opinion of many in both the old and new world was the cradle of the race; there in Aztec legend was the fabled land of Tlapallan, and the wind from the east was called the wind of Paradise, Tlalocavitl.
From this direction came, according to the almost unanimous opinion of the Indian tribes, those hero gods who taught them arts and religion, thither they returned, and from thence they would again appear to resume their ancient sway. As the dawn brings light, and with light is associated in every human mind the ideas of knowledge, safety, protection, majesty, divinity, as it dispels the spectres of night, as it
defines the cardinal points, and brings forth the sun and the day, it occupied the primitive mind to an extent that can hardly be magnified beyond the truth. It is in fact the central figure in most natural religions.
The west, as the grave of the heavenly luminaries, or rather as their goal and place of repose, brings with it thoughts of sleep, of death, of tranquillity, of rest from labor. When the evening of his days was come, when his course was run, and man had sunk from sight, he was supposed to follow the sun and find some spot of repose for his tired soul in the distant west. There, with general consent, the tribes north of the Gulf of Mexico supposed the happy hunting grounds; there, taught by the same analogy, the ancient Aryans placed the Nerriti, the exodus, the land of the dead. “The old notion among us,” said on one occasion a distinguished chief of the Creek nation, “is that when we die, the spirit goes the way the sun goes, to the west, and there joins its family and friends who went before it.”
In the northern hemisphere the shadows fall to the north, thence blow cold and furious winds, thence come the snow and early thunder. Perhaps all its primitive inhabitants, of whatever race, thought it the seat of the mighty gods. A floe of ice in the Arctic Sea was the home of the guardian spirit of the Algonkins;92-3 on a mountain near the north star the Dakotas thought Heyoka dwelt who rules the seasons; and the realm of Mictla, the Aztec god of death, lay where the shadows pointed. From that cheerless[ abode his sceptre reached over all creatures, even the gods themselves, for sooner or later all must fall before him. The great spirit of the dead, said the Ottawas, lives in the dark north,93-1 and there, in the opinion of the Monquis of California, resided their chief god, Gumongo.93-2
Unfortunately the makers of vocabularies have rarely included the words north, south, east, and west, in their lists, and the methods of expressing these ideas adopted by the Indians can only be partially discovered. The east and west were usually called from the rising and setting of the sun as in our words orient and occident, but occasionally from traditional notions. The Mayas named the west the greater, the east the lesser debarkation; believing that while their culture hero Zamna came from the east with a few attendants, the mass of the population arrived from the opposite direction.93-3 The Aztecs spoke of the east as “the direction of Tlalocan,” the terrestrial paradise. But for north and south there were no such natural appellations, and consequently the greatest diversity is exhibited in the plans adopted to express them. The north in the Caddo tongue is “the place of cold,” in Dakota “the situation of the pines,” in Creek “the abode of the (north) star,” in Algonkin “the home of the soul,” in Aztec “the direction of Mictla” the realm of death, in Quiché and Quichua, “to the right hand;”93-4 while for] the south we find such terms as in Dakota “the downward direction,” in Algonkin “the place of warmth,” in Quiché “to the left hand,” while among the Eskimos, who look in this direction for the sun, its name implies “before one,” just as does the Hebrew word kedem, which, however, this more southern tribe applied to the east.
We can trace the sacredness of the number four in other curious and unlooked-for developments. Multiplied into the number of the fingers—the arithmetic of every child and ignorant man—or by adding together the first four members of its arithmetical series (4 + 8 + 12 + 16), it gives the number forty. This was taken as a limit to the sacred dances of some Indian tribes, and by others as the highest number of chants to be employed in exorcising diseases. Consequently it came to be fixed as a limit in exercises of preparation or purification. The females of the Orinoko tribes fasted forty days before marriage, and those of the upper Mississippi were held unclean the same length of time after childbirth; such was the term of the Prince of Tezcuco’s fast when he wished an heir to his throne, and such the number of days the Mandans supposed it required to wash clean the world at thedeluge.94-1
[95]No one is ignorant how widely this belief was prevalent in the old world, nor how the quadrigesimal is still a sacred term with some denominations of Christianity. But a more striking parallelism awaits us. The symbol that beyond all others has fascinated the human mind, THE CROSS, finds here its source and meaning. Scholars have pointed out its sacredness in many natural religions, and have reverently accepted it as a mystery, or offered scores of conflicting and often debasing interpretations. It is but another symbol of the four cardinal points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously appear by a study of its use and meaning in America.
When the rain maker of the Lenni Lenape would exert his power, he retired to some secluded spot and drew upon the earth the figure of a cross (its arms toward the cardinal points?), placed upon it a piece of tobacco, a gourd, a bit of some red stuff, and commenced to cry aloud to the spirits of the rains.
96-3 The Creeks at the festival of the Busk, celebrated, as we have seen, to the four winds, and according to their legends instituted by them, commenced with making[97] the new fire. The manner of this was “to place four logs in the centre of the square, end to end, forming a cross, the outer ends pointing to the cardinal points; in the centre of the cross the new fire is made.”97-1
As the emblem of the winds who dispense the fertilizing showers it is emphatically the tree of our life, our subsistence, and our health. It never had any other meaning in America, and if, as has been said,97-2 the tombs of the Mexicans were cruciform, it was perhaps with reference to a resurrection and a future life as portrayed under this symbol, indicating that the buried body would rise by the action of the four spirits of the world, as the buried seed takes on a new existence when watered by the vernal showers. It frequently recurs in the ancient Egyptian writings, where it is interpreted life; doubtless, could we trace the hieroglyph to its source, it would likewise prove to be derived from the four winds.
While thus recognizing the natural origin of this consecrated symbol, while discovering that it is based on the sacredness of numbers, and this in turn on[98] the structure and necessary relations of the human body, thus disowning the meaningless mysticism that Joseph de Maistre and his disciples have advocated, let us on the other hand be equally on our guard against accepting the material facts which underlie these beliefs as their deepest foundation and their exhaustive explanation. That were but withered fruit for our labors, and it might well be asked, where is here the divine idea said to be dimly prefigured in mythology? The universal belief in the sacredness of numbers is an instinctive faith in an immortal truth; it is a direct perception of the soul, akin to that which recognizes a God. The laws of chemical combination, of the various modes of motion, of all organic growth, show that simple numerical relations govern all the properties and are inherent to the very constitution of matter; more marvellous still, the most recent and severe inductions of physicists show that precisely those two numbers on whose symbolical value much of the edifice of ancient mythology was erected, the four and the three, regulate the molecular distribution of matter and preside over the symmetrical development of organic forms. This asks no faith, but only knowledge; it is science, not revelation. In view of such facts is it presumptuous to predict that experiment itself will prove the truth of Kepler’s beautiful saying: “The universe is a harmonious whole, the soul of which is God; numbers, figures, the stars, all nature, indeed, are in unison with the mysteries of religion”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cusco
Cusco was long an important center of indigenous people. It was the capital of the Inca Empire (13th century-1532). Many believe that the city was planned as an effigy in the shape of a puma, a sacred animal.[13] How Cusco was specifically built, or how its large stones were quarried and transported to the site remain undetermined. Under the Inca, the city had two sectors: the urin and hanan. Each was divided to encompass two of the four provinces, Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Kuntisuyu (SW) and Qullasuyu (SE). A road led from each of quarter to the corresponding quarter of the empire.
The Medicine Wheel
The medicine wheel symbolizes the interconnection of all life, the various cycles of nature, and how life represents a circular journey. The number four is sacred to the many Aboriginal peoples of North America and can represent many things: the four seasons, the four parts of a person (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual); the four kingdoms (animal, mineral, plant and human); the four sacred medicines (sweetgrass, tobacco, cedar and sage). Hence, you may see the medicine wheel presented in several different ways:
(1) The four points of the compass, each with a guiding spirit, symbolize stages in the life journey. The East, direction of the daily birth of the sun, represents a person's birth and early years. The South relates to childhood and intellectual growth. The West symbolizes adulthood and introspection, while the North represents the old age, wisdom and the spiritual aspects of life. The centre of the wheel is symbolic of Mother Earth and the Creator, and their role in the beginning and continuation of life.
Medicine Wheel Chart
http://www.webpanda.com/There/uot_directions-colors.htm
(2) The four points can also represent the balance between spiritual (East), mental (North), physical (West) and emotional (South) aspects of health.
(3) The wheel can also represent values and decisions. Here, values (drawn in the East, where the sun rises) influence decisions taken in the mental realm (drawn in the North, at the top). Then, decisions are implemented in the physical realm (West), and actions produce reactions in the emotional realm (South). Finally, these reactions provide feedback into the value system, completing the circle of value - action - evaluation.
(4) The quadrants of the wheel are often coloured red, yellow, black, white or green.
https://www.med.uottawa.ca/s…/data/Aboriginal_Medicine_e.htm
QUADRANTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
There were also additional calendric cycles, such as an 819-day cycle associated with the four quadrants of Maya cosmology, governed by four different aspects of the god K'awiil
THREE STRUCTURES FACING A FOURTH STRUCTURE- THE FOURTH IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets.[239] E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region;[240] they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun.[241] They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes.
AZTEC FOUR EPOCHES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_R%C3%ADos
Cosmological and mythological traditions with emphasis on the four epochs.
THE TOVAR MANUSCRIPT CONSISTS OF FOUR MANUSCRIPTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%ADrez_Codex
The Tovar manuscript was created using traditional indigenous techniques and consists of four manuscripts that narrate the history of the Aztecs, from their peregrination into the Anahuac valley to the fall of Tenochtitlan. It also discusses some aspects of the Aztec religion.
AGTA FOUR MANIFESTATIONS OF THE GREAT CREATOR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deities_of_Philippine_mythology
Agta Deities[edit]
There are four manifestations of the "great creator" who rules the world: Tigbalog is the source of life and action; Lueve takes care of production and growth; Amas moves people to pity, love, unity, and peace of heart; while Binangewan is responsible for change, sickness, and death.
Gutugutumakkan – The Supreme Being.
Kedes - The god of the hunt.
Pawi - The god of the forest.
Sedsed - The god of the sea.
REPETITION OF FOURS
http://www.hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.CreationOfWorld.html
Version 1 (of the Medicine Rite). When our Father came to consciousness, no one can say upon what he was seated. There was nothing about, so he began to weep. He took a small portion of what he sat upon and created a mound of earth which he cast below. And it began to look like this earth, only it was not quiet, but spun about incessantly. The earth was devoid of covering, so he took a pinch of weed where he was sitting and made grass as a pelt for the bare earth. Yet the earth continued to spin around. So he created four brothers to stand at the four corners of this creation, yet they too could not stop it from spinning. Then he made four Waterspirits and placed them as Island Weights at its corners, and to give it added weight, he cast down female spirits who went deep into the earth until only their heads showed above the surface. These spirits were the rocks and stones. Thus at last did the earth become quiet. In this cosmos Day stood still and no cloud floated in the sky, only the waves of heat drifted by like air born cobwebs. He next made the birds of the sky and the animals, and even the insects. Only last of all did he make man, and so it is that humans are weak, weaker even than the fly.1 [story continued]
Version 2 (of the Thunderbird Clan). Earthmaker came to consciousness and found that he was alone in the void, and he began to weep. As the tears fell below, they began to collect and formed the sparkling waters. Earthmaker then wished for solid ground to appear, and in the midst of the waters land arose. Yet the creation was not quiet, but moved as waves in the sea. He then covered the land in stones and grass, yet it was still not quiet. Next he made the four winds and placed them at the cardinal points, but the earth was still not at rest. Finally he made four giant serpents and cast them headlong each into one of the four corners of the earth. Then the earth at last came to rest.2
This story was related by Šoǧogᵋnįka, a chief in the tribe.
Šoǧogᵋnįka
Version 3, of the Buffalo Clan. The Great Spirit awoke as from a dream, and found that he was alone. He created the four winds by taking a piece of flesh from near his heart and mixing it with the substance upon which he sat. For these brothers he created a woman, our Grandmother the earth. She was sent down below, but she was unstable, and rocked about violently. To steady the world below, the Great Spirit sent down four giant snakes and four giant animals of another kind, and they were able to hold down the corners of the earth (see inset3). However, when the winds blew across this creation, it fell back into unsteady motion again; so he created a gigantic buffalo, who is the land, and placed it in the center of the earth to make it steady.4
Version 4 of Taninuka (the Smoker). "The Great Spirit created the Earth, and looked down upon it, and it was bare. He then made the trees and grass and herbs to grow. After the Earth was made, it rolled about, and the Great Spirit made four Spirits, and placed these under the four corners of the Earth to keep it steady. He then put four kings under the Earth, to support it. The four kings were two Snakes and two Waw-chuk-kaws [Wákąčą́ka]."5
Version 5 (of the Bear Clan). Earthmaker created everything. First among living things, he made all the plants, then the animals, and only last did he make man. The newly formed world spun so fast that its rotation could not be stopped. So he created four Island Weights who were the four great bear spirits. They are one and the same as the four winds, and were the first animals created: White Bear is in the North, Blue Bear is in the east, Black Bear is in the south, and Red Bear is in the West. These wind-bears helped stop the spinning of creation. Then he created all the other kinds of animals, giving each a peculiar power all its own. The Creator fashioned all living things that man might use them, and tobacco was given to him alone as a special sacrament.6
CUSCO THE CAPITAL OF THE INCAS WAS DIVIDED INTO FOUR DISTRICTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manco_Cápac
The recently founded city was divided into four districts; Chumbicancha, Quinticancha, Sairecancha and Yarambuycancha
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To acquire the ability to be a shaman you must go through four stages. The first one is that someone is chosen by the spirits to be a shaman and then you go through several vision quests and then when you have completed these the spirit will come and communicate with you. 10. What are the six sacred directions for the Sioux? The six sacred directions are east, north, south, west, above, and below.
According to this book the "shamanic rite of passage had to be taken in four stages, be it four days, four weeks, or four hours" in order to reclaim the "four losses"
FOUR STAGES SHAMANIC TRANCE
http://www.shamanicmysteries.com/altered-states-and-shamanism.php
THE STAGES OF SHAMANIC TRANCE
The shamanic trance, of all that a shaman does, is the most often discussed and is frequently viewed as the ultimate experience in shamanism. The shamanic trance is not something that can be achieved with one lesson from some internet site nor can it be thoroughly learned from a summer course in the Arizona deserts, or a three week seminar. Practice makes perfect is the credo.
Generally speaking there are four basic levels of a shamanic trance. Stages might be the more appropriate term. It is not the intent or is it the suggestion that a shaman goes through each of these four stages each time he or she goes into a trance. Well practiced and experienced shaman may very well go directly into the fourth stage of the trance.
The first stage is common among beginners. One has a sense of being physically relaxed; even drowsy. There is a tendency to just stare off into space, unseeing. The pulse rate slows.
The second stage produces a feeling that the whole body is heavy; a sense of detachment occurs. There may be visual illusions and one is aware that one is in a trance.
The third stage brings full recognition that one is in a trance. Here, you may actually choose a part of your body not to feel pain. There is a greater sensitivity to temperature changes as well as to atmospheric pressure. There will be a loss of voluntary motion and reaction to external stimuli.
The fourth and final stage or level of the shamanic trance is the deepest. Here one eyes may be open and this will not cause any ill effect during the length of the trance. Control over several body functions such as heart beat, blood pressure, and body temperature becomes possible. Memories will be recalled and age regression may come into play. There will be a feeling of lightness, of floating or flying. Visual and auditory hallucinations are possible while at this stage of the trance.
THE ALLIGEWI HAD 16 GODS IN THE ABOVE WORLD AND 16 GODS IN THE BELOW WORLD
16 IS THE SQUARES OF THE QUADRANT MODEL
AZTEC MYTH OF THE 400 DRUNKEN RABBITS- IN AMERINDIAN MYTHOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IT IS LITERALLY COMPLETELY CONSTANT REPETITION OF FOUR AND THE QUADRANT MODEL
The Aztec myth of the 400 drunken Rabbit Gods explains all levels of intoxication
Micky Bumbar (Lords of the Drinks) / May 13, 2015
A drawing of Tezcatzoncatl, God of the Drunkards and one of the 400 Drunken Rabbits.
A drawing of Tezcatzoncatl, God of the Drunkards and one of the 400 Drunken Rabbits.
Many old civilizations had Gods for almost everything: the sun, the sea, lightning and often also quite a few for alcohol related matters. The Aztecs were no exception. Even though they had very strict laws on alcohol use and abuse, no other tribe or culture had as many ‘Booze Gods’ as the ancient habitants of Mexico. Thanks to their 400 drunken Rabbit Gods, the children of the Goddess of Alcohol Mayahuel and Petecatl (God of Medicine). These 400 thirsty bunnies stood for the infinite ways in which people could intoxicate themselves. Infinite? Yes, in the Aztec numbering 400 was such a big number that it also meant infinity. So when someone got absolutely smashed, people would say he was ‘drunk as 400 rabbits’. But there’s a lot more to this legend, since some of the rabbits actually had names and background stories. Time for a closer look…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacab
Bacab (Mayan pronunciation: [ɓaˈkaɓ]) is the generic Yucatec Maya name for the four prehispanic aged deities of the interior of the earth and its water deposits. The Bacabs have more recent counterparts in the lecherous, drunken old thunder deities of the Gulf Coast regions. Among the Classic Maya, Bakab was an important quadripartite deity associated with urban architecture.[1]
The Bacabs are also referred to as Pauahtuns.[pronunciation?]
Contents [hide]
1 Yucatec traditions
1.1 Myth
1.2 Ritual
2 Gulf Coast traditions
3 Earlier representations
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
Yucatec traditions[edit]
Myth[edit]
The Bacabs "were four brothers whom God placed, when he created the world, at the four points of it, holding up the sky so that it should not fall. [...] They escaped when the world was destroyed by the deluge." [2] Their names were Hobnil, Cantzicnal, Saccimi, and Hosanek.
According to Francisco Hernández (quoted by Las Casas and Diego López de Cogolludo), the Bacabs were the sons of the creator god, Itzamna, and of the goddess Ixchebelyax; he had once been humbled, killed, and revived.
The Bacabs played an important role in the cosmological upheaval associated with Katun 11 Ahau, when Oxlahuntiku 'Thirteen-god' was humbled by Bolontiku 'Nine-god'. According to the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, "then the sky would fall, it would fall down, it would fall down upon the earth, when the four gods, the four Bacabs, were set up, who brought about the destruction of the world."[3]
Ritual[edit]
The veneration of the Bacabs was closely connected to that of the so-called Year Bearers and their prognostics. Each Bacab ruled one of the directions and the associated Year Bearer day (one of four New Year days), as follows:
Name Direction Color Years
Cantzicnal North White Muluc
Hosanek South Yellow Cauac
Hobnil East Red Kan
Saccimi West Black Ix
The Bacabs were invoked in connection with rain and agriculture, since they were intimately associated with the four Chaacs, or rain deities, and the Pauahtuns, or wind deities, all located in the four directions. The Maya of Chan Kom referred to the four skybearers as the four Chacs (Redfield and Villa Rojas).
Since they were Year Bearer patrons, and also because of their meteorological qualities, the Bacabs were important in divination ceremonies; they were approached with questions about crops, weather, or the health of bees (Landa).
In addition, the "Four Gods, Four Bacabs" were often invoked in curing rituals that had the four-cornered world and its beaches for a theatre (which is the basic reason why the most important early-colonial collection of Yucatec curing texts, the Ritual of the Bacabs, has been named after them).
Gulf Coast traditions[edit]
Of the 'Grandfathers' of the Gulf Coast corresponding to the Bacabs, the most powerful one is responsible for opening the rainy season. The four earth-carrying old men are sometimes conceived as drowned ancestors who are serving for one year; then, other drowned men are substituted for them. Together with this comes the concept that the powerful 'Grandfather' only grows old over the course of the year.
Earlier representations[edit]
In earlier representations (which are not restricted to the Yucatán), the Bacabs who carry the sky are represented by old men carrying the sky-dragon. They can have the attributes of a conch, a turtle, a snail, a spider web, or a bee 'armour'. In the rain almanacs of the Post-Classic Dresden Codex, the old man with the conch and the turtle is put on a par with Chaac. This old man corresponds to god N in the Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube classification, a god of thunder, mountains, and the interior of the earth.
In Classic Maya iconography, the Bacab occurs in various stereotypical situations:
Fourfold, the Bacabs are repeatedly shown carrying the slab of a throne or the roof of a building. In this, young, princely impersonators can substitute for them (see fig.), a fact reminiscent of the drowned ancestors serving as earth-carriers mentioned above. On a damaged relief panel from Pomona, four of these young Bacab impersonators appear to have held the four Classic Year Bearer days in their hands.[4]
A Bacab inhabiting a turtle (perhaps representing the earth) is part of the scenes with the resurrection of the Maya maize god.
Still unexplained is a recurring scene depicted on Chama vases, in which a young man holds the Bacab, half-hidden in his conch, by the wrist, apparently to sacrifice him with a knife.
The Bacab has a peculiar netted element as a distinguishing attribute serving as a headdress, which might conceivably belong to the sphere of the hunt or of beekeeping. It recurs as a superfix in his hieroglyphical names; its reading is uncertain. Hieroglyphically, one finds conflations of Itzamna (god D) and Bacab (god N), recalling the mythological filiation of the Bacab mentioned above.
https://books.google.com/books…
According to this book "Cree teachings are based on a circular pattern with four seasons, four stages of life, four aspects of self"
According to this book the shaman describes the Allegewi saw "the number four was the most sacred and was the chief of all the other numbers"- there were "four days of the ceremony" and "four dancers". There was "one inclusive God with four titles- Chief God, Great Spirit, Great Creator, and Great Executive". There are "four classes of Gods, superior, associate, subordinate, and godlike or spirits" (I discussed that the Cannanites had four levels of Gods and El and Yaw (Allah and YHW and H were on the top level). There are "four elements above the Earth- Sun, moon, sky, and stars". There were "four parts of the plant- stem, root, leaves, and fruit", "four classes of animals- crawling, flying, four-legged, and two-legged", four stages of a person in the spirit world "death, journey to the spirit world, residing in the spirit world, and becoming a star" "four attributes of all things- personality, vitality, essence, power", the "four superior Gods are the Rock, the Earth, the Sky, the Sun", "the four subordinate gods Elk, Bear, Four Winds, and Whirlwind". There were "sixteen gods/benevolent gods in the above world" and "sixteen malevolent forces/gods in the underworld"
I would skim through books and see quadrant stuff everywhere but that was before I recorded it all on Facebook just take my word
They believed the Earth was held by "four tethers" and the "ceremonial dances were four days long". The "Spirit Old Man", and the Four Winds had quadruplets North, South, East, West". Like in all Amerindian mythology everything was centered around four like "the four men on the journey" and everything
EACH DEITY HAD FOUR MANIFESTATIONS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
Each deity had four manifestations, associated with the cardinal directions, each identified with a different colour. They also had a dual day-night/life-death aspect.[347]
Itzamna was the creator god, but he also embodied the cosmos, and was simultaneously a sun god;[347] K'inich Ahau, the day sun, was one of his aspects. Maya kings frequently identified themselves with K'inich Ahau. Itzamna also had a night sun aspect, the Night Jaguar, representing the sun in its journey through the underworld.[358] The four Pawatuns supported the corners of the mortal realm; in the heavens, the Bacabs performed the same function. As well as their four main aspects, the Bakabs had dozens of other aspects that are not well understood.[359] The four Chaacs were storm gods, controlling thunder, lightning, and the rains.[360]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzamna
The San Bartolo murals have a Principal Bird Deity seated on top of each of four world trees, recalling the four world trees (together with a fifth, central tree) which, according to some of the early-colonial Chilam Balam books, were re-erected after the collapse of the sky. These world trees were associated with specific birds. Four world trees also appear in the Mexican Borgia Codex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Maya_art
FOUR RULERS
The Early Classic walls of the 'Temple of the Night Sun' in El Zotz consist of a series of subtly varied deity mask panels, whereas the frieze of a Balamku palace, also from the Early Classic, originally had a series of four rulers enthroned above the open ophidian mouths of four different animals (a toad among them) associated with symbolic mountains.
THEY ARE QUADRANTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-pyramid_complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twin_pyramid_complex_plan.png
Twin-pyramid complexes had identical radial pyramids on the east and the west sides of a small plaza;[6] these pyramids had a stairway climbing each of its four sides
FOUR YEARBEARERS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_religion
The Maya calendar, connected to networks of sacrificial shrines, is fundamental for ritual life. The rites of the 260-day cycle are treated below ('Sciences of Destiny'). Among the highland Maya, the calendrical rites of the community as a whole relate to the succession of the 365-day years, and to the so-called 'Year Bearers' in particular, that is, the four named days that can serve as new year days. Conceived as divine lords, these Year Bearers were welcomed on the mountain (one of four) which was to be their seat of power, and worshipped at each recurrence of their day in the course of the year.[27]
The calendrical rites include the five-day marginal period at the end of the year. In 16th-century Yucatán, a straw puppet called 'grandfather' (mam) was set up and venerated, only to be discarded at the end of the marginal period, or Uayeb (Cogolludo). In this same interval, the incoming patron deity of the year was installed and the outgoing one removed. Through annually shifting procession routes, the calendrical model of the four 'Year Bearers' (New Year days) was projected onto the four quarters of the town.[28] Landa's detailed treatment of the New Year rites – the most important description of a pre-Hispanic Maya ritual complex to have come down to us – corresponds on essential points to the schematic depiction of these rites in the much earlier Dresden Codex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_religion
In the northwestern Maya highlands, the four days, or 'Day Lords', that can start a year are assigned to four mountains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_religion
Young men, perhaps princes, can impersonate the four deities carrying the earth (Bacabs) while holding the four associated Year Bearer days in their hands[25] or carrying a throne; they may also substitute for the principal rain deity (Chaac).
FOUR BACABS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_religion
The main collection of ancient Yucatec curing rituals is the so-called Ritual of the Bacabs. In these texts, the world with its four trees and four carriers of earth and sky (Bacabs) located at the corners is the theatre of shamanic curing sessions, during which "the four Bacabs" are often addressed to assist the curer in his struggle with disease-causing agents. Many of the features of shamanic curing found in the 'Ritual of the Bacabs' still characterize contemporary curing ritual. Not represented amongst these early ritual texts is black sorcery.
THE FOURTH IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT
Native Americans throughout North America are known for growing variations of Three Sisters gardens.[8] The milpas of Mesoamerica are farms or gardens that employ companion planting on a larger scale.[9] The Ancestral Puebloans are known for adopting this garden design in a drier environment. The Tewa and other peoples of the Southwestern United States often included a "fourth Sister", Rocky Mountain bee plant (Cleome serrulata), which attracts bees to help pollinate the beans and squash.[10]
GODDESS IN CENTRAL MEXICO HAD 400 BREASTS
In central Mexico the goddess was known as Mayahuel and usually depicted as a beautiful young woman. She was associated with fertility and sometimes referred to as ‘the woman of 400 breasts’ no doubt in reference to the milk-like sap of the plant. Pulque was also personified as a goddess known as 2 Flower. In addition, the god 3 Alligator was closely associated with the drink.
POPUL VUH IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR PARTS AND THEIR ARE FOUR DEITIES THAT CREATED THE WORLD AND CREATED THE FIRST FOUR MEN--- FOUR MEN WERE CREATED AND THEN FOUR WIVES- THE FOURTH DEITY IS DIFFERENT THREE ARE CELESTIAL ONE IS TERRESTRIAL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh
Popol Vuh encompasses a range of subjects that includes creation, ancestry, history, and cosmology. There are no content divisions in the Newberry Library's holograph, but popular editions have adopted the organization imposed by Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1861 in order to facilitate comparative studies.[3] Though some variation has been tested by Tedlock and Christenson, editions typically take the following form:
Preamble
A brief statement attesting to the antiquity of the mythistory, its perpetuation in oral form, and its post-conquest writing.
Part 1
Account of the creation of living beings. Animals are created first followed by humans. The first humans of earth and mud soak up water and dissolve. The second humans are created from wood, "but they did not have souls, nor minds."[4] They lose favor with the gods who cause them to be beaten and disfigured before receiving a deluge of heavy resin.
Hero twins. Exploits of hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué also known as Hunter and Jaguar deer.
Their defeat of Vucub-Caquix and his sons Zipacná and Cabracán, presentation of ball-game motif.
Part 2
Lineage of principal figures. Xpiyacoc and Xmucané beget Hun Hunahpú and Vucub Hunahpú; Hun Hunahpú and Xbaquiyalo beget Hunbatz and Hunchouén.
Demise of Hun Hunahpú and Vucub Hunahpú and origin of hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué. They are summoned to the underworld of Xibalbá for playing their ball game too noisily. They are killed; Hun Hunahpú's head is placed in a calabash tree. This skull later impregnates Xquic, daughter of a Xibalbé lord, by spitting into her hand. She flees the lords and lives with Xmucané where she gives birth to "Hero Twins" Hunahpú and Xbalanqué. Mistreated by their half-brothers Hunbatz and Huchouén, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué trick them into climbing a tree. Hunbatz and Huchouén transform into monkeys.
Rediscovery of ball game and defeat of the lords of Xibalbá. Upon finding the father's equipment suspended from the ceiling, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué are also summoned to Xibalbá for playing too boisterously. They outwit the lords and ascend to the night sky as constellations.
Part 3
Creation of humans, migration, and first dawn. Animals gather white and yellow corn from which the gods create Balam-Quitze, Jaguar Night, Naught, and Wind Jaguar. Their four wives are later created while they sleep. Their descendants travel to Tulán Zuiva to await the first dawn. The god Tohil gives fire, but it is extinguished by hail. Tohil requires concessions to restore their fire, but the K'iche' hide themselves in smoke and obtain their fire without conditions. The K'iche' rise to prominence over the other tribes. The first dawn appears, dries out the land, and turns original animals to stone. Distinct languages evolve.
Part 4
Migration and division. The K'iche' travel into the mountains, find Q'umarkaj where Q'uq'umatz (the feathered serpent lord) raises them to dominance. Q'uq'umatz institutes elaborate rituals. Cities are founded, significant architectural structures emerge to which fortifications are later added. Inter-tribal strife ensues. Anthropological correlation to terminal classic period (roughly 790 - 1000 CE).
Genealogy. States the lineages of several tribal rulers leading up to the Spanish conquest.
Creation myth[edit]
Chapters 1-3 contain Popol Vuh's creation myth. There are four deities, three in a celestial realm collectively called Tepeu and Heart of Heaven and another on the terrestrial plane called Gucumatz.
FOUR MASSIVE MONUMENTS QUADRANTS ON THEM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teopantecuanitlan_monolith.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teopantecuanitlan
QUADRANT ON FOREHEAD
One of the four massive Olmec-style monoliths that greet visitors to El Recinto (the Sunken Patio).
400 RABBITS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centzon_Totochtin
In Aztec mythology, the Centzon Totochtin (Nahuatl pronunciation: [sent͡son toːˈtoːt͡ʃtin] "four-hundred rabbits"; also Centzontotochtin) are a group of divine rabbits who meet for frequent drunken parties. They include Tepoztecatl, Texcatzonatl, Colhuatzincatl, Macuiltochtli ("five-rabbit"), and Ometochtli ("two-rabbit"). Their parents are Patecatl and Mayahuel, and they may be brothers of Ixtlilton.
400 GODS 400 VICTIMS
THE 400 PULQUE GODS
There was also a group known as the pulque gods who were almost always males. These were particularly important to the Aztecs who called them the Centzon Totochtin (400 Rabbits) as it was believed a rabbit had first discovered the juice of the maguey by nibbling on a leaf. The mother of the pulque gods was Mayahuel and their father Patecatl. Taking on many forms, their exact significance has been difficult to determine. Many were associated with specific towns, days, and time periods. They were also representative of drunkenness and sexual lust and so wore half-moon nose rings, symbol of Tlazolteotl, the goddess of lust and filth.
Mesoamerican God 2 Rabbit
Mesoamerican God 2 Rabbit
As a group the pulque gods were represented as either the god Ome Tochtli or 2 Rabbit. Several pulque gods have been identified as ceremonially buried beneath the Templo Mayor temple at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. Historian Mary Miller suggests this was in homage to the 400 victims killed by the god Huitzilopochtli in Aztec mythology.
THE HAWAIIAN MAIN PRAYER HAS 16 PARTS 16 WU I POSTED THIS STUFF A LONG TIME AGO
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/hm/hm09.htm
HAWAIIANS HAD FOUR MAIN GODS- THEN THEY HAD FORTY GODS SUBORDINATE TO THEM AND FORTY SUBORDIANTE TO THEM (SOME SAY FIFTY BUT OTHERS SAY FORTY AGAIN FOUR DOMINATE- WIKIPEDIA SAYS 40)--- THEIR INVOCATION ARE TO THE "40,000 GODS, AND THE 4,000 GODS"- AGAIN REPETITIONS OF FOUR- four seabirds fourth different- MOTHER GODDESS MAUI HAS FOUR DAUGHTERS- REPETITIN IN HAWAIIAN MYTHOLOGY OF THE 40000 AND THE 4000 GODS- THERE WERE "40 OR TWICE 40 IDOLS"
(a) Lokai version. The breadfruit tree grew up from the testes of a man who died for his family at Kaawaloa in Kona, Hawaii. The forty thousand and the four thousand gods first tried the fruit green, then cooked, and found it palatable, but when they heard where it came from they began to vomit and so spread the tree all the way between Kona and their home at Waipio. 54
Some worshiped their gods in the form of images. "There were many of them, about forty or twice forty of feather idols," says one describing the ceremonial of a royal sacrifice
millions," whom he divides into the bodiless spirits of the air (uhane lewa) created by Kane to serve the gods, and the bodiless spirits of the dead who have become guardian spirits (aumakua) for their descendants on earth. 6 In order not to omit any one of the host of lesser deities formed out of the spittle of the god when he was shaping the earth, it was customary to add to or open an invocation with the formula, "Invoke we now the 40,000 gods, the 400,000 gods, the 4,000 gods" (E ho‘oulu ana i kini o ke akua, Ka lehu o ke akua, Ka mano o ke akua), and to add to these ritual numbers expressive of an innumerable multitude such identifications as, "the ranging of the gods by rank, the circle of the gods, the coming together by twos, the coming together by threes, the murmur of the gods," with reference to "that countless rout of little gods . . . whose shouts (ikuwa) were at times distinctly to be heard." 7
A fourth seabird known in myth as the Aaia-nukea-nui-a-Kane (Great white albatross of Kane), also written with the termination a-ku-lawaia (standing fishing), is the white albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) which used to be seen commonly along the island coasts and was called "Kane's bird." 43 So in Tahiti the common albatross is spoken of as the "shadow" of Ta‘aroa. 44
(c) Westervelt version. Hina, mother of Maui the demigod, has four kupua daughters, Hina-ke-ahi, Hina-ke-kai, Hina-mahuia, Hina-kuluua (Kuliva). The first has power over fire, the second over the sea, the last over the rain (ua); Hina-mahuia is the fire goddess of southern Polynesia, Mafuie. After Hina has prepared the oven and is covered over, she journeys under-ground and emerges first at a still pool of fresh water called Moe-wa‘a, then from a great spring of water which bubbles up at the very shore [such as old Hawaiians used for a fresh-water bath after swimming (auau-wai)]. She commands them to open the oven and enough food is found within to last until the famine is ended. Her sister Kulu-ua repeats the experiment but lacks the power. Her body is burnt to ashes but her spirit escapes and appears as a cloud over the peaks in sign of rain. In some versions Maui is represented as seeking his sister's destruction. 50
THE AGE OF THE ANIMAL HEROES
FOUR DARK AND FOUR LIGHT CLOUDS---- THERE WERE FIVE STONES BUT BADGER SAID HE WOULD HEAT FIVE AND LEAVE ONE--- THE FIFTH IS LEFT THE FIFTH IS ALWAYS QUESTIONABLE EXCESS--- THERE ARE FOUR PARTS TO THE NAVAJO CHANT
FOUR TIMES FOUR DARK SPACES FOUR GUARDS
FOUR CIRCLES ARE MADE AND FIVE LINES- BUT THE FIRST THREE LINES ARE TOGETHER AND THE NEXT TWO LINES ARE SEPARATE- THAT IS THE QUADRANT PATTERN WHERE THERE IS 5 BUT FIRST THREE IS SIMILAR FOURTH DIFFERENT FIFTH ULTRA TRANSCENDENT FOURTH POINTS TO FIFTH- FOUR POSTS FOUR DIRECTIONS FOUR TIMES
FOUR HOLY BOYS- BEAR REPEATS FOUR TIMES
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/nav/omni/index.htm
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/nav/omni/omni03.htm
Now after the first hogan was built and they had seen four dark and four light clouds rising First Man said that they were tired and that they must rest. He asked if anyone had brought the river stones. The badger said that he had five. First Man said that he would heat four and leave one. He had a plan to build two sweat houses out of the remaining poles.[48]
There are four parts of a chant sung at this time. It is the Sweat House Chant. One part is like this:
He made it. He made it. He made it.
At the place where the people emerged from the underworld,
Near the Lake of Emergence, he made it.
He made it with the female wood and the male wood.
He made it with the Black Mesa rock.
He made it with the hard river rock.
He made it with the help of The-Most-High-Power-Whose-Ways-Are-Fearful.
This happened four times, then First Boy stood and said: "What is this secret thing that you plan? We have lost our sleep through four dark spaces."
Now, although they had stationed four guards to he on the lookout for the Coyote, Atse'hashke', he came and asked them what they were doing. They told him: "Nothing whatsoever". He said: "So I see," and went away.
After everything was finished and four circles made around the whole, the Coyote, Atse'hashke', went to the great yei, Hasjelti, and demanded to know why he had not been allowed to have a part in the planning. He said that the others had tried to keep it a secret, but that he had known all that had happened. This made Hasjelti very angry, and seeing this, the Coyote ran away. He ran straight to the place where the others were planning and appeared in their midst. He asked First Man why he had kept everything a secret. He turned to First Woman and asked her why she had kept this thing from him. Then he told them everything that they had planned. He said that they had even set the month when he should visit his woman. He warned them that be had come for the purpose of spoiling their plan.
Atso'haske' drew five lines over other marks he had made in the sand. He told the people that unless they could guess their proper meanings they would suffer greatly. Now the little Breeze whispered in First Man's ear and told him what to say. The first line was made of turquoise and it represented the green leaves. The second line drawn was of white shell. First Man said that he thought of ripe leaves and falling leaves. The third mark was made of jet; and he said that it stood for the dark, black mountains after the leaves had fallen. The fourth line was made of white bead. First Man said that it was the snow on the mountains. The fifth mark was of crystal, and its meaning was of snow and ice on the frozen rivers and lakes. (See fig. 2.)
After the Coyote had departed the others spread the blue sky above the earth. In the East they placed a black pole to hold up the eastern end of the sky. A blue one was planted in the South, a yellow one in the West, and a white one in the North. A hole was placed in the sky and sealed with water. Around the outer edge of the sky was placed a white ring, a yellow ring, a blue ring, and a black ring. They formed the border. They were placed there for the purpose of protecting the sky so that it would remain solid forever. No power on the earth or above the earth should harm it. And around the four posts they placed the same colors.
There were four Holy Boys. These beings First Man called to him. He told the White Bead Boy[66] to enter the mountain of the East, Sis na' jin. The Turquoise Boy[67] he told to go into the mountain of the South, Tso dzil. The Abalone Shell Boy[68] entered the mountain of the West, Dook oslid. And into the mountain of the North, Debe'ntsa, went the Jet Boy.[69]
The bear was the next chief to be called. He was given a name but be was not satisfied. He became so angry that First Man used the word "shash" to quiet him. The bear repeated it four times, and he said that it had a strange sound, and when one said it aloud one had an awesome feeling. So he went off well content that "shash" should be his name.
FOUR PLAGUES FOUR STICKS - KILLS HIM FOUR TIMES - ANSWERS FOUR TIMES- THINGS KEEP HAPPENING DIFFERENT ON THE "FOURTH TIME"- FOUR GAMES FOUR VAPORS- FOUR LINES- COSTS HIM FOUR
FOUR TIMES FOUR ARROWS- FOUR BITS FOUR DOLLARS FOUR POINTS- FOUR FEATHERS FOUR SECTIONS OF CHANT- FOUR PRAYERSTICKS FOUR HAILSTONES
THE STORY OF THE FOUR LAST ILLS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/nav/omni/omni04.htm
a lot of chili,[87] and they dried and ground bile from eagles, hawks, mountain sheep, and mountain lions. This they mixed together to use as a poison. When the time came to go into the kivas, they, the good people, threw the mixture into the fire, and their relatives closed the smoke hole outside. The bad people were killed and the good ones remained unharmed. Now when the relatives of the bad people found what had happened they turned against First Man. They said that it had been his plan. "Now kill us," they said, "for we have lost our brothers and sisters." First Man heard them and he sent diseases which killed still more of the wicked ones. After the fourth plague was sent among them almost all who practiced black magic were destroyed.[88] The good people went south and grew their corn in other canyons; but after these evil things passed away many of the good people returned to the mesas to live.
It was at this time that they first played the game of the kicking of the stick. The people of the canyon came to play against the mesa people. The mesa people cleared a track on which they were to hold the stick races.[90] There were eight men from the mesa and eight men from the canyons; young men, and good runners all. Each team had four sticks, about a finger-length long and rubbed very smooth, which they kicked. There was always heavy betting. They bet arrows, corn, pottery, turquoise, shell and stone beads, arrow points, and, in fact, everything they owned. First the runners were barefoot; but one cheated and got the stick between his toes and kept running. After that the runners had to wear sandals. The soles of these sandals were of woven yucca fiber and the tops were of buckskin. They covered the soles with a kind of pitch. These running sandals were the first moccasins.
But she answered: "No, four times I must kill you." This time the Coyote went to the north and built a white mountain. He cut a tunnel, as before. At its end he left his heart and lungs wrapped in the White Wind. His body returned to the maiden. "Now do with me whatever you wish," he said. This time, after she killed him, she cut him into pieces, ground the pieces with earth and threw it in all directions. Satisfied, she returned to her home; but after a little while the Coyote came in and said: "Now are you my wife?" The maiden asked him how he could do these things. He told her that after she became his wife he would show her his magic. She let the Coyote come. He became her husband and she became his wife. Then he took her to the east and showed her the mountain and the tunnel that he had made. And he took her to the south, and west, and north. She learned to do what the Coyote had done. He taught her his ways.
But she answered: "No, four times I must kill you." This time the Coyote went to the north and built a white mountain. He cut a tunnel, as before. At its end he left his heart and lungs wrapped in the White Wind. His body returned to the maiden. "Now do with me whatever you wish," he said. This time, after she killed him, she cut him into pieces, ground the pieces with earth and threw it in all directions. Satisfied, she returned to her home; but after a little while the Coyote came in and said: "Now are you my wife?" The maiden asked him how he could do these things. He told her that after she became his wife he would show her his magic. She let the Coyote come. He became her husband and she became his wife. Then he took her to the east and showed her the mountain and the tunnel that he had made. And he took her to the south, and west, and north. She learned to do what the Coyote had done. He taught her his ways.
[2. Recorder's note: There is a pictograph in Navaho canyon, mesa Verde. It is believed to be the place where the Swallow People killed him.
3. Matthews (1897, pp. 90-103); Lummis (1910, p. 200).]
p. 45
killing her husband. Four times they gave the same answer. Then she went to the rainbow path and there she found the meat. From there she tracked the Coyote to the canyon's edge and she found where he had been killed by the Swallow People.
The Bear Woman spoke kind words to him. "Come out, my brother," she said, "your hair looks dirty; it needs washing and dressing; let me care for it." The little breeze whispered in the boy's ear: "She has killed your 11 brothers, and now she wants your life." The little breeze stayed on the boy's ear and told him to have weapons ready when she began to comb his hair. It told him also, to loosen the string ties of his loin cloth. "She will place you facing the sun when she starts to comb your hair; but you must sit so that. you can see her shadow." The woman made her brother sit facing the sun; but be said: "Sister, the sun is too bright for my eyes." After four times she agreed to let him sit where he chose. He sat where he could watch her shadow. She got the grass brush, which they used for the hair, and she brushed his hair once or twice; and out grew her lips to the shape of a bear's mouth with long teeth. The boy turned and said: "What is it, sister?" She said: "Oh, I am just sleepy." The breeze was now busy in the boy's ear telling him what would happen and what he should do. He was to be saved; but the price paid was the lives of his 11 brothers.
The boy was told that the fourth time that he caught her changing into the form of a bear he must jump up and run as fast as he could to the place where she had hidden her heart and lungs. "About the moment when she is about to catch you, you will jump over a big cactus. She will have to go around it and you will gain ground. The second time you will jump over a big growth of yucca; the third time, over a log; and the fourth time you will jump over a big boulder."
Now the boy watched her shadow, and each time that he caught her changing into the bear form he turned and looked at her and she became the woman. After the fourth time he had his muscles set, and jumped away from her. Sure enough she grabbed his belt; but the tie loosened. She was near him when he reached the cactus. He jumped over it; she ran around it. The second time she was near him he jumped over the yucca; the third time he jumped over the fallen log; and the fourth time, over the great boulder. Then her heart became nervous, and the chipmunk who was guarding it screamed. The heart and the lungs were beating up and down just
Next the young man was to take white shell to na'at e'e, the brown rat. This rat was to enter the youth's ball used in the fourth game, so that the ball would roll into the hole. The youth was told not to hit the ball, but just behind it; then the ball would roll into the hole, and he would win.
The sign the Gambler used in the guessing game is shown in figure 5. It was a picture of one of the chief sacred beings that the Gambler had won. Ash'ke chili was his name.21 He had a bill like a crow, and in his hands he held pretty flowers, four in each. The first four circles are the water jars--the black, the blue, the yellow, and the white. They contain the Male Rain. The next four contain the
FIGURE 5.--The sign the great Gambler used In the Guessing Game.
[21. Interpreter's note: Ash'ke chili, the Guard of the water jars, is the Zuni God of Dew.]
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vapors--black, blue, yellow, and white. They were the Female Rain. The ninth jar contained all the bad medicine that the Gambler used, his black magic.
The Gambler covered all that he had lost and all that the young man possessed. This time they went outside for the game of the kicked stick.
Everyone went outside. Four lines were drawn across the track far enough apart so that a good runner could kick the stick from one
[28. Recorder's note: The game of the Kicked Stick is number four in the first list.]
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line to the other. The Gambler placed these marks on his track. The young man was to kick the stick to the first line, from the first to the second line, from the second to the third, and from the third clean over the house. When all was ready the young man kicked his stick and it reached the first line, for the woodpecker was in the stick. He kicked it again and it reached the second line. The third time he kicked it, it reached the third line. And the fourth time he kicked it, over the house it flew. The Gambler said: "I lose, I lose."
[37. Informant's note: The counting was explained a second time: If the guesser hits a moccasin once, any moccasin, and the ball is in the second one from it, it costs him ten points. If he hits once outside, and the ball is Inside, it costs him four. If the guesser taps outside more than once, and there is no ball, and he goes to the next outside and taps more than once on one and two, and he is wrong on three, It costs him four. If he taps, or "kills", more than once on one, two and three and the ball is in three, it costs him six points.
As the race track formed a circle the two started from the place where they were to finish. They were to go around the hill and return. Four times the Gambler was in the lead; but the fifth time that the young man caught up and passed the little breeze whispered in his ear: "Jump high, be is going to shoot." The young man jumped high and the arrow went under him. He picked it up. The next time the little breeze whispered: "He is shooting high. Lay flat." The young man lay flat on the ground and the arrow passed over him. He jumped up, ran on and picked it up. Then the little breeze said: "He aims at your heart. Lie down." The young man did this and the arrow passed above him. He recovered the third arrow. The fourth time the little breeze said: "He aims at your head. Press the earth." Again the arrow passed over the young man; and the little breeze said: "He has no more arrows. Now let him get ahead of you; and you must do the same to him that he did to you." When the Gambler passed him the young man took aim and shot him in the leg, just below the knee. The next time he shot him halfway up the body. The third arrow he shot between the shoulders. The fourth arrow he sent behind the head. Then the little breeze said: "Do not run near him. If he catches you he will be whole again, and he will beat you." So the young man circled around the Gambler and ran on ahead.
Then comes the story of the game being taken to the mountain near Zuni, To'waya'lane or Tse'hogan. This is the Hunters' Story. There are chants here, and sometimes other stories are told. After this, strong medicine was taken, and men became as they are today. They must work for their living, and there is much suffering.]
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next outside moccasin the count is four. It can be four of anything bet, four "bits," four dollars, etc. If the ball is next outside, and the guesser guesses outside, the count is six. It costs the guesser six points. If the ball is inside, and the guesser guesses next inside, it costs him four points. If the ball is next inside and the guess is inside, the cost is six. Now if the guesser taps more than once on a moccasin and the ball happens to be in it, it costs him ten points. One tap means "in there." More than one tap means nothing in the moccasin. If the ball is in the moccasin when he taps once he takes it out and throws it to his friends. It is then their turn to bury the ball.[37]
from you." The Sun did not answer them. They repeated their statement four times, but still the Sun did not answer them. He reached up and took down his turquoise pipe. He brought out a sack of tobacco and, filling his pipe, he lighted the tobacco and handed the pipe to the boys. They smoked the pipe until all the tobacco was burned. They shook out the ashes. The Sun filled the pipe again and the boys smoked it a second time. He asked them how they felt, and they said that they felt well. Then their father filled it a third time, and he filled it a fourth time, and they had their fourth smoke. He asked them how they felt, and they answered: "We feel well." The Sun said: "I see you are my sons." He received them as his sons. But still he was not sure that they were his children. He said: "I will take you outside now."
The Sun prepared a sweat house for the two boys and he placed two, big, heated flint stones inside it. The grandmother gave the Twins four feathers," and said: "Your father has not much mercy on you. Put these feathers under each arm when you enter the sweat house." They stripped themselves and went into the sweat house. They sang four sections of a chant. And then they heard someone calling: "Are you warm by now?" They answered: "No, we are not warm yet." The question was asked a second, third, and fourth time. After the fourth time the boys said: "Yes, we are warm now." The Sun turned water on the stones which exploded the sweat house; but the boys, with the help of the feathers, landed to one side. The Sun then knew for certain that they were his sons. He took them inside his house, and calling his daughter, said: "These are your brothers, wash them."
The Twins spoke to the three in the home. "Yesterday our father told us that we must act together." They planted four prayer sticks and four hailstones in the hogan (fig. 13). The Younger Brother was
When she returned she said that all was in readiness. She had chewed away the hair over the Giant Elk's heart. She told the Elder Brother to follow her; but when he tried to enter the hole which was the entrance to her home he found that it was too small. He hesitated a moment. The mother gopher said: "Raise your right leg." And she puffed into the entrance of her tunnel four times. It was now large enough for the Elder Brother to walk into it. When he reached the end directly over him lay the Giant Elk. He could hear his heart beating: tap, tap, tap. The Elder Brother had with him the weapon which the Sun had given him, the lightning how and arrow. He aimed and shot. The Giant Elk leapt way up in the air, and when he fell, he fell horns first. He started to tear up the tunnel. The Elder Brother ran back as fast as he could. He ran back to almost the mouth of the tunnel when he heard the Giant Elk drop. Then the Elder Brother walked out onto Bikelialzi'n, the Red Plain.
THE STORY OF THE FOUR LAST ILLS[99]
The White Bead Woman and First Woman told the Eldest Brother that the four last ills could be found south of their home.
He traveled southward and he found a ragged old man. He was just a bundle of rags. The Elder Brother was about to kill him when he said: "No, my Grandson, you must not kill me, even though I am Tie en, Poverty, for in six months people will have good clothing, and at the end of that time, called autumn, they will use it for the winter, in order to keep themselves warm." The Elder Brother, knowing that the virtue accompanying poverty is appreciation, let him live.
He walked on and he found an old, old woman. He was about to kill her for she was San, Old Age, but she stopped him and said: "No, no, my Grandson, do not kill me. People will grow old. Know that it will be the old people who will tell the young people what happened in years past. It would not be well if there were only young people on the earth. Every growing thing, including human beings will grow old." The Elder Brother knew that wisdom walked with old age, and he let her live.
Then he traveled on and he found the two E ya a', lice,[100] and he was about to kill them when they said: "No, don't kill us. We shall be seen on animals at different times. When we get on people they will say: 'Sister,[1] there is something on me. Look for it.' Let us live." The Elder Brother let them live, for although they were evils they brought with them compassion.
The fourth ill that the Elder Brother met was a creature of bluish color. "Do not kill me," he said. "I am death, Grandson. Spare me, for if every creature lived there would be no place on earth for youth and laughter." The Elder Brother left him with the others.
FOUR EARS OF CORN FOUR CLOUDS FOUR VAPORS THE FOUR BECOME THE FIRST FOUR HUMANS- FOUR DANCERS FOUR WORDS- REPEATED FOUR TIMES- DEPARTURE OF THE FOUR HOLY BEINGS- THE FOUR HOLY ONES- THE FOUR COYOTE CHIEFS THE FOUR SACRED MOUNTAINS- FOUR WATER JARS SENT FOUR PERSONS- CEREMONY REPEATED FOUR MORNINGS- CIRCLE THE TREE FOUR TIMES THE FOURTH TIME DIFFERENT- FOUR MEN FOUR WOMEN FOUR UPRIGHT POLES- SIGN OF THE SCALP IS A CROSS- HE SENT "THREE FOUR" - FOUR LOGHOUSES FOUR ANTELOPE- FOUR DAYS- FOUR CIGARETTES- FOUR SEEDCAKES- FOUR FOOTPRINTS- SING TO THE FOUR DIRECTIONS- THE FOUR PLANTS- TRAVELLED 40 MILES- HAIL FALLS FOUR DAYS- FOUR DAYS PASS SEND FOUR MORE CHILDREN- ANOTHER FOUR DAYS PASS SEND ANOTHER FOUR MORE CHILDREN- NURSE IT FOR FOUR DAYS- FOUR TURQUOISE BEADS- FOUR TIMES FOUR ROOMS "FOUR SECTIONS TO THE SONG TO BE CHANT"- FIRST THE FOUR CHIEFS SEND THREE MEN OUT- THE NEXT DAY THE FOUR CHIEFS SEND FOUR MEN OUT (the dynamic between three and four) - MUST MAKE FOUR SOUNDS LIKE A FROG- FOUR BUNDLES OF STRINGS- FOUR TORCHES FOUR BABIES FOUR MOTHERS- CHANTED THE FOUR SECTIONS OF THE CHANT SANG TO THE FOUR DIRECTIONS- THE FOUR STONES- FOUR LEAVES FOR HEALING- FOUR MEN AND FOUR WOMEN IN CEREMONIAL ROBES
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Here the chanting begins.[6] It covers the two fetishes and the two ears of corn and the four clouds and the four vapors. There are many chants sung here. They were sung before the fetishes could move. Then the two fetishes, the Turquoise Man and the White Bead Woman, and also, the two ears of corn, white and yellow, moved.[7]
When they began to move the Coyote[8] came. He jumped on the bodies and put something first up one nostril and then up the other nostril. He said to the first nostril: "You shall be saved by this." To the second nostril he said: "This shall be your shield." The first turned out to be the trickery of men; the second, the lies that they tell. But once in a while they are saved by their own lies. That was what the Coyote had in mind.
The fetishes and the ears of corn moved but they were not able to rise. So word was sent to all the Holy Beings and to the Upper World where the Five Chiefs of the Wind dwelt. Gifts were offered to the Winds and they accepted them, They sent the Little Breeze down, and it entered the bodies of the two fetishes and the two ears of corn. Little, fine hairs appeared over the bodies, for it is through these that air comes out of the body. It was after that, that the four, the two fetishes and the two ears of corn, became human beings.
These 12 people first made their home around Dzil na'odili, which means "The People Move Round Me." After so many years they multiplied. Then there were four who carne to them, two men and two women. They came from a place called Tqo toda sihee, which was on the top of mountain Tso dzil. When night came the people gave these four a blanket to sleep on, but they would not accept it. They sat down and, crossing their arms tightly over their breasts, slept that way. From these four started the clan called Bit an he or Bita'ni, meaning, their arms folded under.
My grandchildren, you are not to live in this part of the country. You must go to other people and join them. I have shown you how this dance must be danced. It will be a sacred dance for you. It will be a holy dance for you. The first four dancers will have four words that they must use. These words will be the names of the corn which will grow from the earth.
He continued:
Secondly, they will name the water, the same being the rain from above. Thirdly, they will name the plants, all the plants on the earth. And last, they will name the pollen.
If a mistake is made in the first dance, it will be an evil thing and people will suffer from it. So the dancers must take great care from the beginning to the end. The first four (lancers that come out in this dance will be called "at sal tle." When these first four go out, and the people are well satisfied with them, they will open their medicine bags and sprinkle pollen on their heads as an offering, and they will call on Hasjelti saying: "May it be so from this day on. May we have corn. May we have rain. May we have all the growing plants with all their pollens. May we have the beautiful earth on which we can gather corn, beautiful goods and precious stones and all the animals that we use for food. May the sheep and the horses increase, and may our children increase. May their days be beautiful and may all be beautiful around us. Thus they must pray after the four dancers leave."
So the Elder Brother rolled up the water and went to the home of the Great Buffalo and said: "I want all of my people." The Buffalo said: "No, you cannot have them." The Elder Brother then asked: "Do you mean what you say?" The Water Buffalo answered: "I mean what I say." This was repeated four times. "Very well," said the Elder Brother and he turned and walked away. He then put fire to the water and it sputtered like oil. When the Water Buffalo saw this he went to the Elder Brother and told him that he would have his people returned to him. Now the Water Buffalo had taken all the people who had been drowned, killed by lightning, and lost in quicksand or marshes. In other words he was building himself a kingdom with the people of the earth.
THE DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST FOUR HOLY ONES
Again the Sun spoke: "First Man and First Woman, the Coyote-Who-Was-Formed-in-the Water and the Coyote called Atse'hashke', First Angry, these First Four must go to the East beyond the place of the sunrise. They must travel to a place called To dotsos." He said that they were to sit there with their backs toward the Sun. The Sun was not to look upon First Woman again because he had married her daughter. For even though she had not given birth to the White Bead Baby she was considered her mother. The Sun said to his people: "This must become your custom. You must not look upon your mother-in-law. If you disobey me and you see each other the punishment will be blindness, weak heart, and even death."
THE DEPARTURE OF THE HOLY BEINGS
After the Four First Beings started for the East, First Woman turned back and said: "When I wish to do so I will send chest colds and disease among the people; when I wish to do so I will send death, and the sign will be the coyote." (The old men say that when a coyote howls many people cough. The belief is current that certain appearances of a coyote foretell death.)
So the Four First Ones went East and they took all their powers with them.
The Sun spoke again: "When anyone thinks he sees me he will see me, because it will mean that there is an enemy in the country. The people will suffer from enemies." And the Sun returned to his home and he took all his powers with him.
And Hasjelti and all of his Holy People said: "If anyone sees us it will also be a sign that an enemy is coming into the country. If he hears us call, that same person will be killed by an enemy before the day is over." And so saying they all returned to their homes and all their powers went with them. They were never seen again. (Now if anyone thinks he sees one of the Holy Beings it will not be for the good of the people. It is considered a bad omen.)
Then the time came for the White Bead Woman to depart. Before her stood two persons, one was Niha oni gay hasjelti, and the other was Niha oni gay hasjohon. There were also 12 male beings, the De'n'yeinaki zatana queye hahoni'gay denae e, the Four Rain Clouds, and all the flowers, and another 12 persons, female beings, and with them were the Four Vapors. The White Bead Woman spoke to these people. She said that it was her plan to have all tribes, other than her own people, move beyond the sacred mountains. She said that she wanted her children to live on the land within these sacred mountains. Then she rose up in the clouds and went to a place called Ta'delth hilth tzes taan Ta'dottliztzes taan, and with her went all her power, and there was no more of her power left on the earth. Now people have to work in order to live; they know hardship.
After that time the White Bead Woman's[21] home was called the Floating White Bead House, also, the Floating Turquoise House. Around her home is flat country called the White Bead Plain. To the East of her home is the Most High Power to whom she goes and becomes young again, and by whose power she knows all things. In the four directions from her house she undergoes a change. She comes out of her house an old woman with a white bead walking stick. She walks towards the East and returns middle aged; and she carries no walking stick. To the South she walks and she returns a young woman. She walks to the West and comes back a maiden. She goes North and returns a young girl. She is called the White Bead Woman, Yol'gai esdzan. She has three names, and the second is the
[20. Informant's note:
21. Franciscan Fathers (1912, p. 88): Esdza na'dle, Changing Woman; Yol gai'esdzan, White Shell Woman; Esdza na'dle esdzan, the Changing Woman, the wife of the Sun.
Whitman (1925, p. 99): The White Bead Woman went West to the Great Water; she vent to dwell in her floating house beyond the shore.
Matthews, (1897, p. 133): I want all precious stones, etc., etc., animals (later, horses).]
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Changeable Woman, Atsan a'layee. The third is Yol'gai atate, the White Bead girl. She has these three names, that is her power. Only one person knows the origin of her power, he is the Most High Power Whose Ways Are Beautiful.
This was the next plan: four coyote chiefs stood in the four directions. The White Bead Coyote fetish stood in the East; the Turquoise Coyote fetish stood in the South; the White Shell Coyote fetish stood in the West; and the Black Jet Coyote fetish stood in the North. When the Coyote called from the home of the First Man and First Woman the White Bead Woman knew what he called for.[22]
Then there were the Four Sacred Mountains.[23] The first mountain was called Yol gay dzil, White Shell Mountain, and the Changeable Wind called Nlchi de zos was placed inside it. Dotl'ish dzil, the Turquoise or Blue Mountain, was the second mountain, and Nlchi'dotl'ish, the Blue Wind was put inside it. The third mountain was De'chili dzil, the White Shell Mountain, and the Yellow Wind, Nlchi litso, was placed inside it. The fourth mountain, called Baa chini dzil, Black Jet Mountain, had Nlchi'dilqil, the Black Wind, placed inside it.
Then there were the Four Sacred Mountains.[23] The first mountain was called Yol gay dzil, White Shell Mountain, and the Changeable Wind called Nlchi de zos was placed inside it. Dotl'ish dzil, the Turquoise or Blue Mountain, was the second mountain, and Nlchi'dotl'ish, the Blue Wind was put inside it. The third mountain was De'chili dzil, the White Shell Mountain, and the Yellow Wind, Nlchi litso, was placed inside it. The fourth mountain, called Baa chini dzil, Black Jet Mountain, had Nlchi'dilqil, the Black Wind, placed inside it.
When the first wind, the Changeable Wind, shakes the mountain all the sleeping plants and animals awaken from their winter's sleep. When the Blue Wind shakes the mountain the leaves come out. When the Yellow Wind shakes the mountain all plants become greener and all animals come out of hiding. When the Dark Wind shakes the mountain all the animals are slick and shed their winter coats. This applies to the snakes and lizards.
Inside the home of the White Bead Woman, on a shelf running east to West on the South side, were four water jars. The first was the Black Water Jar which contained the Black Cloud and the Male Rain. The second was the Blue Water Jar which contained the Blue Cloud and the Male Rain. The third was the Yellow Water Jar which contained the Yellow Cloud and the Male Rain. The fourth was the White Water Jar which contained the White Cloud and the Male Rain. On the north side of the home was a shelf running west to east, and on it were also four jars. The first was a Black Water Jar which contained the Black Vapor and the Female Rain. The second, the Blue Water Jar, contained the Blue Vapor and the Female Rain. The third, the Yellow Water Jar, contained the Yellow Vapor and the Female Rain. And last, the White Water Jar, which contained the White Vapor and the Female Rain. Also, there were jars filled with the seeds of plants and all the beautiful flowers.
[22. Interpreter's note: Coyotes were as the telephone is today.
23. Franciscan Fathers (1910, pp. 136-137): The ceremonial names of the four sacred mountains: Pelado Peak, Sisnajini, Yolgai'dzil (East); Mt. Taylor, Tsodzil, Yo dotl'izh'i dzil (South); San Francisco Mountains, Dookoslid, Dichi'li dzil (West); San Juan Mountains, Debentsa, Bash zhini dzil (North).]
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The White Bead woman can use only one kind of seeds during a season[24] for the people's use. These are the seeds used for food. It would cause her sorrow if the people did not eat the ripened seeds of plants whose seeds she planted for them. She has all the seeds of all the plants with her. She has great power over the people.
There stand around her house a white bead walking stick to the East, a turquoise walking stick to the South, a white shell walking stick to the West, and a black jet walking stick to the North. Then all the white beads, turquoise, white shell, and black jet are placed under the water, and from them she gathers corn.
The White Bead Woman sent four persons back to the center of the earth to see how her people were getting along, and how the mountains were standing. The Four who went back were Niha onigai hasjelti and Niha onigai hasjohon and two from the same people.[25] They were to travel around the mountaintops and chant as they went. They went first to the top of the mountain called Yol gay dzil. The chant begins there.[26]
After that they went to the mountains and gathered the herbs for medicine and the plants whose berries are used for food. They brought them back and ground them together and they boiled them. The Holy Young Man drank the beverage before he was put through the Heat Fire Ceremony. He vomited all that he had eaten among the enemies. This treatment was repeated inside the hogan on four mornings.
The enemy searched the country for their captive but they could not find him, Later he left the home of the otter and set out for his own land. He traveled a great distance, but he went in a circle and he found that he had returned to the place he had started from, and again the enemy had found his track. He ran along, and he cried as be went. Someone called to him from a tree. It was the owl. The owl asked him why he was weeping, and the young man said: "Oh, the enemy is after me. They are after my scalp." The owl said: "Come up here, Grandchild. They do not come up here." The young man climbed the tree, and the owl circled the tree four times; and he used his medicine, schan'dine,[38] which is the rays of the sun, the rays which one cannot see through. The Northern Indians hunted around and around this tree; then they went away.
The young man set out again toward his own country. He traveled very far, but finally enemy Indians were near him, and he found that for a third time he had traveled in a circle. He was running along with tears in his eyes when someone spoke to him. It was the whitish ground squirrel, hasjel'kaeye.[39] This ground squirrel pulled up a greasewood bush and blew four times under it. He went down into the hole and called to the young man to follow him. He held the greasewood bush on top of them, and they remained hidden until the enemy went away. Then the young man came out of the hole and started off again. He traveled for a long time, when, to his surprise, he found that for the fourth time he had lost his way and become turned about. He was running along weeping when a mountain rat
The elder sister came to a great cave, and, being very weary, she wished to enter it. She saw two bears guarding the entrance. They were fierce and she knew that she could not pass. Just then she heard a whistling and she saw a chipmunk. He said: "Follow me." She did this, and he whistled so lively a tune that the two bears listened to him and let her pass. Next they came to a second cave, and guarding the entrance were two dlo'ee, [59] animals with faces like dogs, one was white and one was yellow. The chipmunk whistled his tune again, and again they passed unharmed. The entrance of the third cave was guarded by two cranes, male and female. From there the elder sister and the chipmunk went into the big kiva of the Yei'bichai. Four men and four women in ceremonial robes came forward to meet her. The women took her aside and bathed her; they rubbed her first with cornmeal and then with pollen and she was beautiful. They dressed her in ceremonial robes and led her into a room lined with fur. And there her little baby girl was born. The child had little tufts of hair back of its ears and downy hair on its arms and legs.
Tqo ba'ches chini was painted red with the red paint, hematite. He had the closed cross, queue, representing the scalp drawn upon him (fig. 16). They marked the sign of the scalp on his legs and arms, chest and back, just as the bow had been marked on the Elder Brother.
Hasjel na'yei nazone was to he the shaman. The friends of the young man took the skin of a deer not killed by a weapon to the Yei, but he would not look at it. Then the young man sent two buckskins, but the Yei would not accept them. He sent three, four, but Hasjel na'yei nazone would not look at them. Then the same person who told them that Hasjel na'yei nazone would act as shaman came and said: "My children, did you use him?" The young man and his wife both said: "We sent gifts but he would not look at them. We do not understand." So then Dotso, the All-Wise Fly (and here given as the old Man of the Mountain) showed them how to make the medicine stick to take to Hasjel na'yei nazone. They did this, and they took it and presented it to the Yei. Then he asked: "Who thought of the medicine stick?" They said: "We did, ourselves." He said: "No. Only Dotso could have thought of it. He is the only one who knows. Nevertheless I will come tomorrow." They begged him to come that day, but he said: "No. Nothing shall happen. I will come tomorrow."
On the third morning he killed three antelope for each doorway. And when he returned to the village he told the people to send three men from each dwelling. He received four longhouses. The fourth day he killed four antelope for each doorway, and four men from each house went out for them. He was given five longhouses. Then all
[79. Informant's note: This is the song that is sung as they wash the baby; but not all know about it.
80. Recorder's note: A beda consists of the head and hide of an animal. It is explained in the second hunting story.]
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the people said: "Our son-in-law is very great. We will have plenty of meat.
On the fifth day San'hode'di', the Beggar's son, set out for the home of the Mountain People called Tqo che o whee tso. He started to hunt, as before, but when he neared an antelope herd, a coyote hit him with his hide and blew four times upon him. The coyote then took his beda, the antelope headdress, and placed it on his own head. He went away after the antelope, while the poor young man was left behind in the form of a skinny coyote.
Now the coyote was unable to kill one antelope, even with the beda. He took the discharge from his eyes and laid it in a row and stepped over it four times and it turned into fat. This he took to the two young wives. But the younger of the two sisters told the elder that the man who came to them was not their husband.
The Beggar's son in the coyote's skin turned to the East and lay that night under a cedar tree.[81] He ate the berries of the cedar tree. The second night he traveled to the South and he laid under the bush called kin jilth ie'[82] and he ate its berries. The third night he went to the West and he stayed under an iron bush.[83] Its berries are called maida to this day because he ate them. He traveled to the North on the fourth day, and he lay under a wild-rose bush[84] that night, and he ate its berries.
After the fourth day he went out and fell down for he was almost dead by that time. Now the person called Dotso went to the place called Tqo che o whee tso and told the people living there that the young man had been hit by the coyote's hide, and that he lay in the open almost dead. Then the same Holy Young Man, who had called him brother in his mother's home, went to him. When he found the skinny coyote, he said: "What are you doing here, Tqo che o whee tso tsel kee?" The poor coyote got to his feet and tried to say something, but all he could do was howl like a coyote. Then his "brother" made a ring out of a young cedar, big enough so that he could push the coyote through it. When he pushed the coyote through the cedar ring the skin ripped open and the head of the young man could be seen. Then the Holy Being made a ring out of the bush called kin jilth ie and the hide fell down and exposed half of the young man's body. The third ring was made from the iron bush, and after it was passed over the young man the skin fell down to his knees. The fourth time the ring was made from the wild-rose bush, and this freed the young man.
I was sitting here today when all of a sudden everything inside our shelter turned white. I looked and someone stood out there. It was a man who asked about you. I told him that you stay away all day because the girls come and tease you. He asked me about our food and about our bedding. I had baked four little seed cakes. I showed him those four and I told him we ate seed cakes and the rabbits you killed. I showed him the woven grass mats which we use for bed and cover. The man then took a piece of the bread and ate it and said: "This is my food also."
The two sisters went through the singing to the four directions, and they went to the river.
tche'whee a te'he'. This prayer is told from the East, from the home of the four plants of Tqo che o whee tso. It is also told from the South home, from the West home, and from the North home; but it is called "From the East back to the home of the Tqo che o whee tso people and the four plants." They say that it comes from the South, from the home built with cholchin ilt a'i;[87] from the West it is from the home built with aze bi'ni i;[88] from the North it is from the home built with aze tlo'hi,[89] the laughing medicine. This was the prayer of the White Bead Girl, and this prayer is very long. This prayer was given by the White Bead Girl herself and was to be used for any person who became possessed or insane. It was also to be used over any young man or woman who became mad over drink, gambling, or sex. They were the medicines of the Great Gambler, and had only now been made known to the young man. They were the medicines that the Great Gambler had used against the people.
After that they traveled to the Black Mountain near Ignacio, about 40 miles from Durango--the Turkey Clan lived there. They had snowshoes on their feet, the snow being deep. Here another dance was held. And the old Mountain Woman and the Bear Maiden danced with the young men. Then they took them into the mountain and they either starved to death or sickened and died, having sores on their bodies.
After they had done this the hail fell for 4 days, and through some of the hailstones were little young spruce trees. The hail became soft when it fell on those people who had listened to the warning; but the hard hail, and the little spruce trees, like arrows, destroyed those who would not listen. All those who were willing to leave the country were saved.
After 4 days had passed Chief Ba'nee' sent four more children, two boys and two girls, to the cornfields. He said: "There may be more young corn by now." The children went to the fields, but only the two girls returned bringing the young corn. They told the people that after they had gathered the young corn they were playing hide-and-seek. They could not find the boys. Their tracks ended right out in the open where they had stood side by side. So then Chief p. 176 Ba'nee' told the people that he could guess that the boys had returned to their Grandmother. So nothing more was done about the missing boys.
After 4 days passed Ba'nee' sent four more children to gather the young corn. This time a boy and a girl came running back and said: "The missing boys have returned, and they say that they have lots to tell. But first, they want a brush shelter built. The main poles must be touched with corn pollen. You must lay a branch of mountain mahogany,[18] tses ta'zee,[19] and a branch of joint pine, tlo ho'zee'e, crossing each other. And you must make four footprints from the entrance to the inner side with corn pollen."
The White Bead Woman then sent the two boys to the Twelve Holy Beings, the Dîné na' kiza'tana gaeye. They were to teach the two boys more chants. They were to show them how to make the medicine for a male colt and a female colt. They were to run strings through a white bead for a female, and a turquoise bead for a male colt. And they were shown how to tie it in the mouth of a colt and run the string around the lower jaw. The colt must nurse with it for 4 days. The umbilical cord must be tied and left until it dries and drops off. The sacred earth from the mountains must be used for the female, and for the male colt, the crystal. Four turquoise beads must be placed in the medicine bag for the male colt. The same is done for the female, but white beads replace the turquoise. The sacred earth from the mountains and the banded male stone (agate), hada'huniye, are used when there are prayers for horses. And when they ask for any goods or rain this banded stone is used.
At that moment all outside and inside the shelter turned white. In the midst of the glow there stood a young man. This Holy Being told the woman that he was going to take his younger brother, her son, but that he would return. The poor mother said: "No, you cannot take my child. He is all that I have in this world, and I would starve to death without him." The mother was asked to let her son go four times. Then the youth said: "Let me go, mother. Did you not hear him say that I would come back to you?" So the woman gave her consent.
A white rainbow flashed to the youth's feet, and the Holy Being told him to raise his right foot. With the first step they were on top of the mountain called Sis jin de'lea. The second step brought them to Natsi'lid be'tqo, Rainbow Springs. From there they went to Bitda'ho chee, Red Mountain, then to the top of Tqo jin whee tsa. There they stepped into a house whose first room was filled with trash. They entered another room and someone called out: "Um-m-m, I smell earthly people." And this person added: "The fool-hearted youth must be bringing someone home." When the two young men got to the fourth room they saw a man, a woman, and a girl. They were called Tqo jin whee tsa hastin, Tqo jin whee tsa esdzan, and Tqo jin whee tsa chike'. They were the people of the mountain, the man and his wife and daughter.
They washed the youth, and the maiden gave him a white bead basket. He was washed four times. He was also given a turquoise basket, a white shell basket, and a black jet basket. And each time that he was washed he was dried with corn pollen. Then he was trimmed and formed like the maiden herself. She put her head p. 148 beside his and he was formed like her, all except the feet. He had big feet.
Then the Sun came.
Now the Man of the Mountain wanted to dress the youth, and his wife wanted to dress him. But the Sun said: "No, he is my son, and I will dress him myself." Then the White Bead Woman came, and she said: "If he is the son of the Sun he is my son also. I will dress him myself." The four Holy Beings had different minds. Their thoughts were changeable. There are four sections to the chant sung while he was being dressed by the White Bead Woman.
After this happened the four chiefs. sent three men out. They returned and reported having seen smoke rising up in the distance. The following day the four chiefs sent four men out, each with two quivers full of arrows. The scouts were told to be careful when they neared the other people's camp, to stay hidden until dark, and then for one man only to go into the camp. When the men got to within sight of the camp, two went on and two stayed behind. Then one stayed just outside and one went in. It was very dark, but he could see the light of the fires. He was making his way slowly, like a mountain lion after its prey, when he touched something that rattled. He reached
Then the scout told of his people who were coming, and he named his chiefs, Tan jet gaeye, Atsel gaeye, Yot aysel gaeye, and the last whose name is forgotten. Those were the four chiefs bringing with them a company of men and women. He told them to what clans the different ones belonged. Then the people in the dwelling spoke up and said: "I belong to that clan." "I belong to that clan."
He must then sit down and make four sounds like a frog. The mud from the sacred water is called tlah la'haddan, gotten from under the water.
Then the White Bead Girl brought four bundles of strings and placed them before her. She took a string from each bundle and threaded four white beads on it; and she laid the string, with the four beads, from the first bundle on the first bundle, and in like manner, the others on the other bundles. She placed the white bead walking stick on the first bundle. On top of the second bundle she laid the turquoise walking stick. On the third bundle she placed the white shell walking stick. And on the fourth she placed the walking stick of ha'dan'y yei, male banded stone. Now the first bundle went to the first chief, and the second, third, and fourth to the respective chiefs as they were named.
They first made four torches of cedar bark, from a tree struck by lightning. When the dancers entered for the first time they spat the medicine on the first torch and threw it to the East. This is done in order to spread the medicine. They repeat this for the four different directions. They make a strange buzzing noise as they throw the torch. They dance with other torches in their hands. They posture, they circle the great fire, and they put the burning torches under each other. They have the medicine and they are not hurt by the fire. When they end the dance and retire, the people rush in and gather up the medicine (the ashes fallen from the dancers' torches), which is used when children are burned.
In the beginning, when the dance was over and finished for the Holy Young Man captured by the Northern People, and it was morning, the mother frog and the mother turtle and the mother fish and the mother duck all placed a complaint. "Our babies have been crushed in the dance," they said. So all the people returned and the four babies were restored to life and made whole. The four mothers went away satisfied. A powerful medicine was used. Medicine men can cure animals of certain ailments. But an expectant mother must not see a sandpainting, for it harms the baby after it is born.
When the man returned to the earth he obeyed the Sun. He chanted four sections of the chant that he sang when he went to the four directions.
I came upon it.
I came upon it.
I came upon it.
I am the White Bead Woman,
I came upon it.
In the center of my home,
I came upon It.
Right where the white bead basket sits,
I came upon it.
The basket has four turquoise decorations,
I came upon it.
The white bead basket has a turquoise finishing around the edge,
I came upon it.
The white bead horses stand toward the basket from the four directions,
Now they take four leaves from the poison ivy, East, South, West, and North, and they cut a hole through the four leaves. They chew the leaves of the poison ivy mixed with powder of ground chips of stones. Whoever receives this medicine gets it through the holes in these leaves. Afterward he can travel around poison ivy and other poisonous plants. This was San'hode'di's medicine, and with it he cured himself.
The elder sister came to a great cave, and, being very weary, she wished to enter it. She saw two bears guarding the entrance. They were fierce and she knew that she could not pass. Just then she heard a whistling and she saw a chipmunk. He said: "Follow me." She did this, and he whistled so lively a tune that the two bears listened to him and let her pass. Next they came to a second cave, and guarding the entrance were two dlo'ee, [59] animals with faces like dogs, one was white and one was yellow. The chipmunk whistled his tune again, and again they passed unharmed. The entrance of the third cave was guarded by two cranes, male and female. From there the elder sister and the chipmunk went into the big kiva of the Yei'bichai. Four men and four women in ceremonial robes came forward to meet her. The women took her aside and bathed her; they rubbed her first with cornmeal and then with pollen and she was beautiful. They dressed her in ceremonial robes and led her into a room lined with fur. And there her little baby girl was born. The child had little tufts of hair back of its ears and downy hair on its arms and legs.
FOUR POLES FOUR DAYS- FOUR KINDS OF WOOD- SWEAT THEMSELVES FOUR TIMES- "IT ALWAYS TAKES FOUR TRIALS BEFORE YOU SUCCEED"- FOUR DAYS- FOUR MOUNTAINS FOUR TIMES- WENT AROUND TENT FOUR TIMES- FOUR BAGS FOUR PIPES- FOUR PEGS HOVERED FOUR TIMES- FOUR SPRAYS- STOPPED FOURTH ROOM- FOUR TRACKS- FOUR APARTMENTS FOUR ROOMS- FOUR CHAMBERS- FOUR PEBBLES FOUR BAGS FOUR BEARS FOURTH WHIFF- FOUR DEMANDS- FOUR WEASELS FOUR MEN- FOUR EARS FOUR TRIBES- FOUR DOORWAYS FOUR KETHAWNS
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12. They had a stone ax-head, with a groove in it. Around this they bent a flexible twig of oak and tied it with the fibers of the yucca, and thus they made a handle. The first day after the spring was found the young men went out and chopped all day, and in the evening brought home four poles, and while they were gone the old man dug in the hillock. The next day the young men chopped all day, and at night returned with four more poles, while their father continued his digging. They worked thug for four days, and the lodge was finished. They made mats of hay to lie on and a mat of the same material to hang in the doorway. They made mats of fine cedar bark with which to cover themselves in bed, for in those days the Navajo did not weave blankets such as they make now. The soles of their moccasins were. made of bay and the uppers of yucca fibers. The young men were obliged to go bunting every day; it was only with great labor they could keep the house supplied with meat; for, as has been said, they lived mostly on small animals, such as could be caught in fall traps. These traps they set at night near the burrows, and they slept close to the traps when the latter were set far from home. They hunted thus for four days after the house was finished, while their sisters scoured all the country round in search of seeds.
15. They moved on next day and came close to ¢epéntsa, to a soil covered with tracks of deer and of other great animals of the chase. Here they encamped, and on the following morning the young men set out by different ways in the direction of the mountain to hunt; but at night they returned empty handed. Thus they hunted four days unsuccessfully. Every day while his sons were gone the old man busied himself cutting down saplings with his stone ax and building a house, and the daughters gathered seeds, which constituted the only food of the family. As the saplings were abundant and close to the camp, the old man built his house fast, and had it finished at nightfall on the fourth day, when his sons returned from their fruitless labors. They entered the lodge and sat down. They were weary and hungry and their bodies were badly torn by the thorns and thick copse of the mountains. Their father spoke not a word to them as they entered; he did not even look at them; he seemed to be lost in deep contemplation; so the young men said nothing, and all were silent. At length the old man looked up and broke the silence, saying, "Aqalàni cactcini!" (Welcome, my children.) "Again you have returned to the lodge without food. What does it avail that you go out every day to hunt when you bring home nothing? You kill nothing because you know nothing. If you had knowledge you would be successful. I pity you." The young men made no reply, but lay down and went to sleep.
16. At dawn the old man woke them and said: "Go out, my children, and build a sweat-house, and make a fire to heat stones for the bath, and build the sweat-house only as I will tell you. Make the frame of four different kinds of wood. Put kaç (juniper) in the cast, tse`isçázi (mountain mahogany) in the south, ¢estsìn (piñon) in the west, and awètsal (cliff rose) in the north; join them together at the top and cover them with any shrubs you choose. Get two small forked sticks, the length of the forearm, to pass the hot stones into the sweat-house, and one long stick to poke the stones out of the fire, and let all these sticks be such as have their bark abraded by the antlers of the deer. Take
of all the plants on which the deer most like to browse and spread them on the floor of the sweat-house, that we may sit on them." So they built the lodge as he directed, and lit the fire and heated the stones. While they were transferring the hot stones from the fire to the lodge the old man brought out the mats which they used for bedding, and when all the stones had been put in he hung the mats, one on top of another, over the doorway. This done the three men went into the sudatory and sat down to sweat, uttering not a word. When they had perspired sufficiently they came out and sat down in silence until they were again ready to submit themselves to the heat. In this way they sweated themselves four times, keeping all the time a perfect silence, until they emerged for the last time, when the old man directed his daughters to dig some soap root and make a lather. In this he bade his sons wash their hair and the entire surface of their bodies well. When they were thoroughly cleansed, he sent them out to set twelve stone fall traps, a task which occupied all the rest of the day. For each trap they buried a flat stone with its upper side on a level with the surface of the ground; on this they sprinkled a little earth, so that the rat would suspect nothing; over this they placed another flat stone, leaning at an angle and supported by a slender stick, to which were attached berries of the aromatic sumac as a bait. That night the young men sat up very late talking with their father, and did not lie down to sleep until after midnight, when, as their father directed, they lay side by side with their heads to the east.
"Well," said the father, "this skin of the first slain is mine; go and stretch it and dry it for me with care." After this they went oat hunting every day for twelve days, but fortune seemed to have deserted them; they killed no more game; and at the end of that time their supply of meat was exhausted. Then the old man said: "It always takes four trials before you succeed. Go out once more, and if you kill a deer do not dress it, but leave it as it is."
They sewed up the mouth, left the eyeholes open, stuffed the skin with hay, and hung it in a tree to dry, where it would not get smoky or dusty. They exit places in the neck through which the hunter might see. The skin of the doe which the younger brother had killed some time before, and which had been tanned in the mean time, they painted red and gray, to make it look like the skin of an antelope. They prepared two short sticks, about the length of the forearm; these were to enable the hunter to move with ease and hold his head at the proper height when he crept in disguise on the deer. Daring the next four days no work was done, except that the elder brother practiced in imitating the walk of the deer.
19. From the camp where these things happened they moved to a place called Tse`-lakàï-iá` (White Standing Rock). Before they went to hunt or gather seeds, the old man desired that they should all help to build the hogán (hut); so all went to work together, men and women, and the hogán was completed, inside and outside, in four days.
27. At night they came to a plain situated between four mountains, one on the east, one on the south, one on the west, and one on the north, and here there was a great encampment of Ute, whose tents were scattered around in different places on the plain. There was one tent whose top was painted black and whose base was painted white and which bad a forked pole set in the ground in front of it. To this his master, the old man who bad saved his life and taken him by the arm on the occasion of his capture, led him, while the rest of the war party departed to their respective tents. The old man hung his own arms and accouterments on the pole, and the slave, following his example, hung his deer skin mask and robe on the forks and laid his crutches against the pole, and he prayed to the head of the deer, saying:
29. On the twelfth day the Ute went out to hunt, leaving few men in camp. There was a small inclosure of brushwood close to the tent; in it were two high poles on which skins were dressed. His master left him that day, two skins to prepare, and he set to work At them and labored hard scraping and rubbing them until about noon, when he felt hungry and went into the tent to see if he could find anything to eat. He opened a bag and found it to contain dried meat; he put some of this on the coals and sat down to wait till it was done. As he watched the meat cooking he heard a noise at the deer skin door of the tent and, looking up, he beheld an old woman crawling in on her hands and knees. She passed once around the fire and went out at the door again, but before she disappeared she turned her head and addressed him, saying: "My grandchild, do something for yourself." He paused a moment in wonder at the strange vision he had seen and the strange words he had heard, and then he rushed out of the tent to follow his visitor and see who she might be. He went around the tent four times; he gazed in every direction; but no one was to be seen. During the rest of the day he worked but little. Occasionally he took tip a stone and rubbed the hides; but most of the time be walked and loitered around, busy with his thoughts.
31. The voice ceased and the form of the owl-man vanished. Then the Navajo put the stopples into the vessels and carried them back. When he returned he observed that two large dogs were tied to the door, one on each side, and that three doors had been added to the lodge during his absence, so that now there were four doors covering the doorway. When he entered he found the lodge filled with Ute and he saw four bags of tobacco and four pipes lying near the fire, one at each cardinal point of the compass. He observed a very old man and a very
32. Now he feared more than ever for his safety; he felt sure that his captors contemplated his death by torture. The pipes were lit and the council began. The talking in the strange tongue that be could not understand had lasted long into the night, when he fancied that he heard the voice of the Yèbitcai (Anglicized, Yày-bi-chy or Gay-bi chy) above the din of human voices, saying "hu`hu`hu`hu'" in the far distance. He strained his attention and listened well, and after a while he felt certain that he heard the voice again nearer and louder. It was not long until the cry was repeated for the third time, and soon after the captive heard it once more, loudly and distinctly, immediately to the west of the lodge. Then there was a sound as of footsteps at the door, and the white lightning entered through the smoke-hole and circled around the lodge, hanging over the heads of the council. But the Ute heard not the voice which the Navajo heard and saw not the vision he beheld. Soon the Yàybichy (Qastcèëlçi) entered the lodge and standing on the white lightning, said: "What is the matter with you, my grandchild? You take no thought about anything. Something you must do for yourself, or else, in the morning you will he whipped to death--that is what the council has decided. Pull out four pegs from the bottom of the tent, push it open there, and then you can shove things through" The Navajo answered, "How shall I do it? See the way I am tied! I am poor! See how I am wound up!" But Qastcèëlçi again said: "When you leave, take with you those bags filled with embroideries and take with you tobacco from the pouches near the fire." Scarcely had Qastcèëlçi disappeared When the Navajo heard a voice overhead, and a bird named qocçò¢i flew down through the smoke-hole, hovered four times around the lodge over the heads of the Ute, and departed by the way it had entered. In a moment after it had
33. At this moment he heard, at a little distance to the south of where he stood, the hoot of an owl. Instantly recollecting the words of the owl-like form which he had encountered at the spring at nightfall, he set off in the direction from which the call proceeded. He had not walked far until he came to a precipitous bluff formed by two branching cañons, and it seemed at first impossible for him to proceed farther. Soon, however, he noticed a tall spruce tree, which grew beside the precipice from the foot to the summit, for the day, had now begun to dawn and he could ace objects more clearly. At this juncture Qastcèëlçi again appeared to him and said: 'How is it, my grandchild, that you are still here? Get on the top of that spruce tree and go down into the cañon on it." The Navajo stretched out his hand to seize the top of the tree, but it swayed away from his grasp. "See, my grandfather," he said to Qastcèëlçi, "it moves away from me; I cannot reach it." Then Qastcèëlçi flung the white lightning around the top of the tree, as an Indian flings his lasso around the neck of a horse, and drew it into the edge of the cliff. "Descend," he commanded the Indian, "and when you reach the bottom take four sprays from the tree, each from a different part. You may need them in the future." So the Navajo went down, took the four sprays as he was bidden and put them under his robe.
with large rocks and fallen trees; it would take you much time and hard labor to get over these if I did not help you; but I will do something to make your way easy." As he said this he blew a strong breath, and instantly a great white rainbow spanned the cañon. The Navajo tried to stop on this in order to cross, but it was so soft that his feet went through; he could not step on it. Qastcèëlçi stood beside him and laughed at his fruitless attempts to get on the rainbow. After he had enjoyed this sport sufficiently the ye (Anglicized, gay or yay) blew another strong breath, when at once the rainbow became as hard as ice and they both crossed it with ease. When they reached the opposite wall of the cañon Qastcèëlçi pointed to a very small hole in the cliff and said, "This is the door of my lodge; enter!" By this time the shouts of the Ute sounded very loud in the ears of the terrified fugitive and it seemed to him that his pursuers must have reached the edge of the opposite cliff, where they would not be long before they would see him; still, hard as he tried to enter the cave, he could not succeed; the hole was not big enough for him to put his head in. The Yàybichy roared with laughter and slapped his hands together as he witnessed the abject fear and the fruitless efforts of the Navajo. When he had laughed enough he blew on the little hole and it spread instantly into a large orifice, through which they both entered with ease. They passed through three rooms and stopped in the fourth. Here Qastcèëlçi took the bags from the back of the Navajo, opened them, and drew from them some beautifully garnished clothing--a pair of moccasins, a pair of long-fringed leggings, and a shirt. He arrayed himself in these and went out, leaving the Navajo in the cave. As soon as his rescuer was gone the fugitive heard loud noises without and the sound of many angry voices, which continued for a long, long time. At last they died away and were heard no more. The Ute had tracked him to the edge of the cliff where he got on the tree; bat there they lost his trail and searched all the neighborhood to see if they could regain it; hence the noises. When all was silent Qastcèëlçi returned and said, "Your enemies have departed; you can leave in safety." So, taking a tanned elk skin to cover his back and a pair of new moccasins to protect his feet, the Navajo set out from the cave.
find a place where you may ascend." He went around as he was bidden and saw the cleft in the rock, but it was too narrow for him to climb in it. Then the sheep blew into the cleft and it spread out so wide that he entered it easily and clambered to the summit. Here he found the sheep standing in four tracks, marked or sunken in the rock, one hoof in each track, and under the center of his body was a small hole in the rock. Into this hole the sheep bade him enter; but he replied that the hole was too small. Then the sheep blew on the hole and it spread so wide open that both the man and the sheep entered easily and descended into the heart of the rock. Here there were again four apartments; two of them were blue and two were black; rainbows extended in all directions through them. In the fourth room, which was black, the sheep left the Navajo to rest, and departed. Soon the fugitive heard, as on the previous day, when he lay hidden in the cave of Qastcèëlçi, the voices of the angry Ute calling and haranguing all around the rock, and he continued to hear them for a very long time. Soon after the clamor ceased the sheep returned to him to notify him that his enemies had withdrawn and that he could set out on his journey again without fear.
there; it dug a cavern with four chambers. Then dark clouds gathered and rain began to fall. "Have you anything with you that may help you?" asked the god. "I have nothing," said the Navajo, "but four sprays of spruce, which the Yàybichy bade me pluck from the tree on which I descended into the cañon the night I left the Ute camp." "They will do," said the wind god. "Make quickly four balls of mud and thrust through each ball a twig of the spruce, and lay them on the ground so that the tops of the twigs will point towards your enemies The Navajo did as he was commanded. Then Niltci blew the twigs and mud balls in the direction of the pursuers and told the Navajo to descend into the retreat which the whirlwind had formed. He went down and rested secure, while he heard overhead great peals of thunder, the loud rushing of the tempest, and the heavy pattering of enormous hailstones, to bring which the mud balls had been made. The noises of the storm died away, and about midday Niltci came into the cave and said to the man: "Come forth; your enemies have been dispersed. Many have been killed by the hail, and the rest have gone towards their homes." Then the Navajo came up out of the ground and set out in the direction of his old home at Dsilyi`-qojòni.
fire on which there was no wood. Four pebbles lay on the ground together: a black pebble in the east, a blue one in the south, a yellow one in the west, and a white one in the north; from these the flames issued forth. Around the fire lay four bears, colored and placed to correspond with the pebbles. When the strangers approached the fire the bears asked them for tobacco, and when the former replied that they had none the bears became angry and thrice more demanded it. When the Navajo fled from the Ute camp he had helped himself from one of the four bags which the council was using and had taken a pipe, and these he had tied up in his skin robe; so when the fourth demand was made he filled the pipe and lighted it at the fire. He handed the pipe to the black bear, who, taking but one whiff, passed it to the blue bear and immediately fell senseless. The blue bear took two whiffs and passed the pipe, when he too fell over in a state of unconsciousness. The yellow bear succumbed after the third whiff, and the white bear, in the north, after the fourth whiff. Now the Navajo knocked the ashes and tobacco out of his pipe and rubbed the latter on the feet, legs, abdomen, chest., shoulders, forehead, and mouth of each of the bears in turn, and they were at once resuscitated. He replaced the pipe in the corner of his robe. When the bears recovered they assigned to the Navajo a place on the east side of the fire where he might lie all night, and they brought out their stores of corn meal and tciltcin and other berries and offered them to him to eat; but Qastcèëlçi warned him not to touch the food and again disappeared. So, hungry as he was, the Indian lay down supperless to sleep. When he woke in the morning the bears again offered food, which he again declined, saying he was not hungry. Then they showed him how to make the bear kethàwns, or sticks to be sacrificed to the bear gods, and they drew from one corner of the cave a great sheet of cloud, which they unrolled, and on it were painted the forms of the yays of the cultivated plants. As he departed the bears said, "There are others in these parts who have secrets to tell you. Yonder is Tsenástci, where many dwell." So he set forth for Tsenástci (Circle of Red Stones.)
41. As he passed down the valley he heard a loud rushing noise be hind, him, and looking around he beheld a tornado. The air was filled with logs and uprooted trees, borne along by the great storm. It came nearer and seemed to be advancing to destroy him. He was terrified and cried out to the storm: "Ciyèïeçe, Dsilyi` Neyáni. Qaïlàçi?" ("'Tis I, Reared Within the Mountains. Who art thou?") The tempest recognized him and subsided, and in-its place appeared four men in the shape of the glòï or weasel. The four weasel men showed him how to make the glòï-bikeçan, or sacrificial sticks of the glòï. What name the Navajo bore before this time the ancient tale does not tell us; but from the moment he said these words he was called among the gods Dsilyi` Neyáni, and was afterwards known by this name among his people.
64. About the middle of the afternoon, while they were playing their games, one looked to the north, and, at a distance, he saw one of the messengers approaching them, and he cried out, "Here comes Tlà¢esçìni; he has wakened from his sleep and is coming back for something to eat." A moment later Indsiskàï was announced as approaching from the south. They both reached the door of the medicine lodge at the same time; but Tlà¢esçìni entered first, handed his bag to the medicine man, and sat down in the same place where he sat when he entered in the morning. Indsiskàï followed and, handing his bag to the shaman, sat down opposite his companion. Now, many who were without thronged into the lodge to enjoy the sport, and they laughed and whispered among themselves; but the couriers were grave and silent, and, while the medicine man opened the bags, they took off their ornaments and washed the paint from their bodies. In the bag of Tlà¢esçìni were found four ears of léjyipÄ•j (corn baked in the husk underground). They were still hot from the fire, and the shaman broke them into fragments and passed the pieces around. From the bag of Indsiskàï two pieces of noçá` (the hard sugar of the maguey), such as the Apache make, were taken. When the young men had finished cleaning themselves, they passed out in silence, without a glance for any one.
46. At this place they entered a house which was inside of the mountain. It was two stories high; it had four rooms on the first story and four on the second. It had four doorways, which were covered with trees for doors; in the east was a black spruce tree, in the south a blue spruce tree, in the west a yellow spruce tree, and in the north a white shining spruce tree. Here dwelt four of the Tcikè-cac-nátlehi (Maiden that Becomes a Bear). Their faces were white; their legs and forearms were covered with shaggy hair; their hands were like those of human beings; but their teeth were long and pointed. The first Tcikè-cac-nátlehi, it is said, had twelve brothers. She learned the art of converting herself into a bear from the coyote. She was a great warrior and invulnerable. When she went to war she took out and hid her vital organs, so that no one could kill her; when the battle was over she put them back in their places again. The maidens showed him how to make four kethàwns and told him how to bury them in order to properly sacrifice them.
ALL OF THE FOUR GREAT PICTURES ARE QUADRANTS AND HAVE FOUR FIGURES
FOUR GREAT PICTURES- PERFORMED FOUR TIMES - FOUR PICTURES FOUR DESIGNS- FOUR PARALLELOGRAMS FOUR DIAGRAMS FOUR DESIGNS FOUR FIGURES- FOUR FOOTPRINTS FOUR GODS FOUR PLUMES FOUR DIRECTIONS- FOUR GARMENTS- FOUR FIGURES IN THE CENTER
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154. A description of the four great pictures drawn in these ceremonies has been deferred until all might be described together. Their relations to one another rendered this the most desirable course to pursue. The preparation of the ground and of the colors, the application of the sacred pollen, and some other matters have been already considered.
155. The men who do the greater part of the actual work of painting, under the guidance of the chanter, have been initiated, but need not be skilled medicine man or even aspirants to the craft of the shaman. A certain ceremony of initiation has been performed on them four times, each time during the course of a different dance, before they are admitted into the lodge during the progress of the work or allowed to assist in it. The medicine man receives a good present in horses for his work; the assistants get nothing but their fowl. This, however, is abundant. Three times a day the person for whose benefit the dance is performed sends in enough mush, corn cake, soup, and roasted mutton to satisfy to the utmost the appetites of all in the lodge. There are some young men who live well all winter by going around the country from dance to dance and assisting in the work of the lodge.
and then the four red shirts are painted on from thigh to axilla, as shown in the picture.
157. The drawings are, as a rule, begun as much towards the center as the nature of the figure will permit, due regard being paid to the order of precedence of the points of the compass, the figure in the east being begun first, that in the south next, that in the west third in order, and that in the north fourth. The periphery is finished last of all. The reason for thus working from within outwards is that the men employed on the picture disturb the smooth surface of the sand with their feet. If they proceed in the order described they can smooth the sand as they advance and need not cross the finished portions of the picture.
158. I have learned of seventeen great healing dances of the Navajo in which pictures of this character are drawn. There are said to be, with few exceptions--only one exception that I am positively aware of--four pictures appropriate to each dance. Some of the dances are practiced somewhat differently by different schools or orders among the medicine men, and in these divers forms the pictures, although agreeing in general design, vary somewhat in detail. Thus there are, on an average, probably more than four designs, belonging to each of the seventeen ceremonies, whose names I have obtained. If them were but four to each, this would give us sixty-eight such paintings known to the medicine men of the tribe, and thus we may form some conception of the great number of these sacred pictures which they, possess. But I have reason to believe, from many things I have heard, that besides these seventeen great nine days' ceremonies to which I refer, there are many minor ceremonies, with their appropriate pictures; so that the number is probably greater than that which I give.
161. In the center of the picture was a circular concavity, about six inches in diameter, intended to represent water, presumably the house of water mentioned in the myth. In all the other pictures where water was represented a small bowl was actually sunk in the ground and filled with water, which water was afterwards sprinkled with powdered charcoal to give the impression of a flat, dry surface. Why the bowl of water was omitted in this picture I do not know, but a medicine man of a different fraternity from that of the one who drew the picture informed me that with men of his school the bowl filled with water was used in the snake picture as well as in the others. Closely surrounding this central depression are four parallelograms about four inches by ten inches in the original pictures. The half nearer the center is red; the outer half is blue; they are bordered with narrow lilies of white. The same figures are repeated in other paintings. They appear in this drawing, and frequently in others, as something on which the gods seem to stand. They are the ca`bitlòl, or rafts of sunbeam, the favorite vessels on which the divine ones navigate the upper deep. In the Navajo myths, when a god has a particularly long and speedy journey to make, he takes two sunbeams and, placing them side by side, is borne off in a twinkling whither he wills. Red is the color proper to sunlight in their symbolism, but the red and blue together represent sunbeams in the morning and evening skies when they show all alternation of blue and red. It will be seen later that the sunbeam shafts, the halo, and the rain bow are represented by the same colors. Inform, however, the halo is circular, and the rainbow is distinguished by its curvature, and it is usually anthropomorphic, while the sunbeam and the halo are not. External to these sunbeam rafts, and represented as standing on them, are the figures of eight serpents, two white ones in
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the east, two blue ones in the south, two yellow ones in the west, and two black ones in the north. These snakes cross one another (in pairs) so as to form. four figures like the letter X. In drawing these X's the snake which appears to be. beneath is made first complete in every respect, and then the other snake is drawn over it in conformity with their realistic laws of art before referred to. The neck, in all cases, is blue, crossed with four bands of red. The necks of the gods in all the pictures, it will be observed, are made thus, but the bars in the manlike figures run transversely, while those in the snake-like ran diagonally. Three rows of V-shaped figures, four in each row, are seen on the backs of the snakes; these are simply to represent mottlings. Outside of these eight snakes are four more of much greater length; they form a frame or boundary to the picture, except in the west, where the mountain of Dsilyà-içín lies beyond them. There is a white snake in the east, lying from north to south and hounding the picture in the east; a blue snake, of similar size and shape, in the south; a yellow one in the west, and a black one in the north. They seem as if following one another around the picture in the direction of the sun's apparent course, the head of the east snake approximating the tail of the south snake, and so on.
162. In the northeast is seen the yay, Niltci, who accompanied the Navajo prophet to the home of the snakes. In the extreme west is a black circular figure representing the mountain of Dsilyà-içín. In the original picture the mountain was in relief--which I have not attempted to represent--a little mound of about ten or twelve inches high. The description of the mountain given in the myth is duly symbolized in the picture, the halo added. The green spot in the center is designed to represent a twig of spruce which was stuck in the mound of sand to indicate the spruce tree door. From the summit of the mountain to the middle of the central waters is drawn a wide line in corn mealy with four footprints, depicted at intervals, in the same material. This represents the track of a bear. Immediately south of this track is the figure of an animal drawn in gray pigment. This is the grizzly himself, which here, I have reason to believe, is used as a symbol of the Navajo prophet. The bear, in the sacred language of the shamans, is appropriately called Dsilyi` Neyáni, since he is truly reared within the mountains. His track, being represented by a streak of meal, has reference to the same thing as the name akáninili and the practice of the couriers (paragraph 102), who are dressed to represent the prophet, throwing corn meal in front of them when they travel.
163. The SECOND PICTURE is said to be a representation of the painting which the prophet saw in the home of the bears in the Carrizo Mountains (paragraph 40). In the center of this figure is the bowl of water covered with black powder, to which I referred before. The edge of the bowl is adorned with sunbeams, and external to it are the four ca`bitlol, or sunbeam rafts, on which seem to stand four gods, or yays.
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164. The divine forms are shaped alike but colored differently. They ie with heads extended outward, one to each of the four cardinal points of the compass, the faces looking forward, the arms half extended on either side, with the hands raised to a level with the shoulders. They wear around their loins skirts of red sunlight, adorned with sunbeams. They have ear pendants, bracelets, and armlets, blue and red (of turquoise and coral), the prehistoric and emblematic jewels of the Navajo. Their forearms and legs are black, showing in each a zigzag mark to represent lightning on the surface of the black rain clouds. In the north god these colors are, for artistic reasons, reversed. Each bears, attached to his right band with a string, a rattle, a charm, and a basket The rattle is of the shape of those used by the medicine men in this particular dance, made of raw bide and painted to symbolize the rain cloud and lightning. The left hand is empty; but beside each one hi a highly conventionalized picture of a plant. The left hand remains empty, as it were, to grasp this plant, to indicate that the plant at the left hand belongs to the god whose corresponding hand is unoccupied and extended towards it. The proprietorship of each god in his own particular plant is further indicated by making the plant the same color as the god. The body of the eastern god is white; so is the stalk of corn at his left, in the southeast. The body of the southern god is blue; so is the beanstalk beside him, in the southwest. The body of the western god is yellow; so is his pumpkin vine, in the northwest. The body of the north god is black; so is the tobacco plant, which is under his special protection, in the northeast.
165. Each of the four sacred plants is represented as growing from five white roots in the central waters and spreading outwards to the periphery of the picture. The gods form one cross whose limbs are directed to the four cardinal points; the plants form another cross having a common center which the first named cross, but whose limbs extend to the intermediate points of the compass.
166. On the head of each yay is an eagle plume lying horizontally and pointing to the right. A similar arrangement of four plumes, all pointing in one direction (contrary to the sun's apparent course), may be observed on the baskets carried by the gods.
172. The THIRD PICTURE commemorates the visit of Dsilyi` Neyáni to ¢açò`-behogan, or "Lodge of Dew" (paragraph 56). To indicate the great height of the Bitsès-ninéz the figures are twice the length of any in the other pictures, except the rainbows, and each is clothed in four garments, one above the other, for no one garment, they say, can be made long enough to cover such giant forms.
174. The FOURTH PICTURE represents the kátso-yisçàn, or great arrows are the especial great mystery, the plumed arrows. These potent healing charm of this dance. The picture is supposed to be a facsimile of a representation of these weapons, shown to the prophet when be visited the abode of the Tsilkè-¢igìni, or young men gods, where he first saw the arrows (paragraph 47). There are eight arrows. Four are in the center, lying parallel to one another--two pointing east and two others, alternate, pointing west. The picture is bordered by the other four, which have the same relative positions and directions as the bounding serpents in the first picture. The shafts are all of the same white tint, no attention being paid to the colors of the cardinal points; yet in drawing and erasing the picture the cardinal points are duly honored. Among the central arrows, the second from the top, or north margin of the design, is that of the east; it is drawn and erased first. The next below it is the arrow of the south; the third is that of the west. The one on top belongs to the north; it is drawn and erased last. The heads are painted red to represent the red stone points used; the fringed margins show the irregularities of their edges. The plumes at the butt are indicated, as us also the strings by which the plumes are tied on and the notches to receive the bowstring.
FOUR SACRIFICES FOUR STICKS FOUR WHITE DEER FOUR YELLOW DEER FOUR BLACK DEER BUCKS FOUR BLUE DEER TRACKS- FOUR KETHAWNS- AGAIN CONTINUOUS CONSTANT REPETITION OF FOURS IN AMERINDIAN MYTHOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD- FOUR DOMINANCE- FOURTH IS DIFFERENT QUADRANT PATTERN
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181. The glòï-bikeçàn, or sacrifices to the weasels, were four in number, two yellow and two white. In preparing the sticks one end was always; to be held to the north, the other towards the south. At each end & narrow circle of red and a narrow circle of blue were painted; the red being to the north, i. e., outside of the blue at one end and inside of it at the other. The weasel men directed that the sticks should be buried in the ground in the same direction in which they were held when being made, lying from north to south with the outer red ring at the north. (Paragraph 41.)
182. Four sticks pertained to the klictsò-bikeçàn: one was black, with four white deer tracks painted on it; another was blue, with four yellow deer trucks; a third was white, with four black deer trucks; the fourth was yellow, with four blue deer tracks. The Great Serpent said to the Navajo prophet: "Then are certain moles who, when they dig in the ground, scatter the earth in a long winding heap like the form of a crawling snake. In such a heap of earth will you bury these kethàwns." (Paragraph 42.)
185. Four sticks were shown by the Tcikè-cac-nátlehi. They were black, sprinkled with specular iron ore to make them shine; decorated with three pairs of bands, red and blue, applied as in the kethàwns of the Estsàn-¢igìni; and buried under a young piñon, with the first blue band or circle next to the tree. (Paragraph 46.)
190. At Qo¢estsò four kethàwns, rather elaborately decorated, were shown. Two were half white and half black, the black part having white spots and the white part having black spots on it. The other two were half blue and half yellow, the yellow beings potted with blue and the blue with yellow. There were red and blue rings at the ends. (Paragraph 53.)
FIRST SONG OF THE FIRST DANCERS HAS 16 PARTS- THE VERSES IN THE 16 PART SONG REFER TO THE FOUR SACRED MOUNTAINS--- 16 SQUARES QMR
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198. FIRST SONG OF THE FIRST DANCERS.
Qaniè qaò yaè, qaniè qaò yaè
Qaniè iè oayè oayè.
1. Qadjinäìa qaò yaè,
2. Kaç dsil ¢ilhyíli qaò yaè,
3. `Çaltsoï tsèë qaò yaè,
4. Cija cigèlgo qaò yaè.
Náhi ìni èhi oayè, náhi ìni èhi oöhè.
5. Niqoyastcàdje qaò yaè,
6. Kaç dsil çolíji qaò yaè,
7. Kini bitsèë qaò yaè,
8. Cija cigèlgo qaò yaè.
Náhi ìni, etc.
9. Qadjinäìa qaò yaè,
10. Kaç dsil litsòï qaò yaè,
11. Bitselitsòï qaò yaè,
12. Cija cigèlgo qaò yaè.
Náhi ìni, etc.
13. Niqoyastcàdje qaò yaè,
14. Kaç dsil lakàie qaò yak,
15. A`a`i tsèe qaò yaè,
16. Cija cigèlgo qaò yaè.
Náhi ìni, etc.
199. Translation.--1, 9. Qadjinàï, "Place-where-they-came-up," a locality in the San Juan Mountains where, according to their mythology, the Navajo emerged from the lower world to this. 5, 13. Niqoyastcàdje, another name for Qadjinàï. 2, 6, 10, 14. Kaç, now; dsil, mountain; ¢ilhyíli, black; çolíji, blue; litsòï, yellow; lakàie, white. These verses refer to four mountains surrounding Qadjinàï, which are designated by colors only to indicate their topographical positions. 3, 7, 11, 15. `Çalsoï = aça litsòï, "yellow wing," a large bird of prey; kini, hen hawk; bitselitsòï, "yellow tail," a bird of undetermined species; a`a`i, magpie; tse, a tall; bitse, its tail. 4, 8, 12, 16. Cija, my treasure; cigèl, my desideratum, my ultimatum, the only thing I
THERE WERE FOUR SONGS THE NAVAJO HAD TO SING TO ENTER THE WHITE HOUSE- THE CHIEFS HOUSE HAD FOUR ROOMS AND FOUR DOORS
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In the ancient days, there were four songs which you had to sing if you would enter the White House. 3 The first was sung when you were ascending the cliff; the second, when you entered the first doorway; the third, when you walked around inside the house; and the fourth, when you were prepared to leave. You climbed up from the ground to the house on a rainbow. All this was in the old days. You cannot climb that way now. In those days, Hayolkál Askí, Dawn Boy, went there on a rainbow.
In the ancient days, there lived in this house a chief of the house. There were four rooms and four doors, and there were sentinels at each door. At the first door there were two big lightnings, one on each side; at the second door there were two bears; at the third door there were two red-headed snakes, which could charm you from afar, before you got near them; and at the fourth door there were two rattlesnakes.
In the ancient days, there lived in this house a chief of the house. There were four rooms and four doors, and there were sentinels at each door. At the first door there were two big lightnings, one on each side; at the second door there were two bears; at the third door there were two red-headed snakes, which could charm you from afar, before you got near them; and at the fourth door there were two rattlesnakes.
THE PROTECTION SONG OF THE NAVAJO HAS FOUR SECTIONS/FOUR PARTS
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PROTECTION SONG.
(To be sung on going into battle.)
I.
Now, Slayer of the Alien Gods, among men am I.
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Rubbed with the summits of the mountains,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Now upon the beautiful trail of old age,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
II.
Now, Offspring of the Water, among men am I.
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Rubbed with the water of the summits,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Now upon the beautiful trail of old age,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
III.
Now, Lightning of the Thunder, among men am I.
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Rubbed with the summit of the sky,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Now upon the beautiful trail of old age,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
IV.
Now, Altsodoniglehi, among men am I.
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Rubbed with the summits of the earth,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
Now upon the beautiful trail of old age,
Now among the alien gods with weapons of magic am I.
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TEXT AND INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION.
I.
PRELUDE.
Sinaháse nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
My thoughts run. | Alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | I walk among them.
A'yeyeyeyahai`
(Meaningless).
1. Kat Nayénëzgani si nïslín nitá`
Now | Nayénezgani | I | am | people among.
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods, | weapons | now | among them I walk.
2. Dzïl hotsï's tsï'da hweztaníta`
Mountains | tops of | truly | I am rubbed with,
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods, | weapons | now | among them I walk.
3. Kat sáan nagée kat biké hozóni si nïslín
Now | in old age | wandering | now | its trail | beautiful | I | am.
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
II.
1. Kat Tóbadzistsíni si nïslín nitá`
Now | Tóbadzistsíni | I | am, | among them
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
2. Tó` hotsï's tsï'da hweztaníta`
Water | tops of | truly | I am rubbed with.
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
3. Kat sáan nagée kat biké hozóni si nïslín
Now | in old age | wandering | now | its trail | beautiful | I | am
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
III.
1. Kat Bëlïndzïnotlis si nïslín nitá`
Now | Bëlïndzïnotlis | I | am | among them.
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
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2. Ya hotsï's tsï'da hweztaníta`
Sky | top of | truly | I am rubbed with,
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
3. Kat sáan nagée kat biké hozóni si nïslín
Now | in old age | wandering | now | its trail | beautiful | I | am,
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
IV.
1. Kat A'ltsodoniglehi si nïslín nitá`
Now | A'ltsodoniglehi | I | am, | among them,
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
2. Ni` hotsï's tsï'da hweztaníta`
Earth | top of | truly | I am rubbed with,
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
3. Kat sáan nagée kat biké hozóni si nïslín
Now | in old age | wandering, | now | its trail | beautiful | I | am,
nagée nagée alíli kat bïtása
alien gods, | alien gods | weapons | now | among them I walk.
THE EVENT WOULD BE ASKED FOUR TIMES--- THE FIRST THREE TIMES IT WOULD BE ANSWERED FALSELY INTENTIONALLY- THE FOURTH TIME IT WOULD BE ANSWERED CORRECTLY- THE QUADRANT MODEL PATTERN
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[E] The event of having a question asked four times and having it answered falsely three times before answering truthfully the forth time comes up often in Diné tales.
FOUR DIRECTIONS FOUR KINDS OF CORN- PLANTED FOUR TIMES IN VAIN
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WIZARD STORY
Yellow was thinking about something. White was with him. He killed people there. There was a hard time. At hojoñ he shot arrows in four directions. When he shot the first time there was white corn, the second time, blue corn, the third, yellow, and the fourth, brown spotted corn of all kinds. They came to a place for a garden. They planted. They planted the blue corn that had been shot. It grew. Yellow had not put the yellow corn there, so there was no yellow corn. Yellow was sad about it. They planted the brown corn there. Silently Yellow walked around, thinking sadly, “They say very bad things of me. They even say I am dead. I am grieving to death. Who will possess my property after I am gone?”
He had put on the mask so as to do something terrible. His companion, who was called “White” lined up the people so that Yellow stood in the middle. He held ears of corn up toward him. The people stood there. “Once more look. There will be eight. I guess it is twelve,” he said as he ran down from above wearing the mask.1 Every time he said eight he meant eight years and when he said twelve he meant twelve years. The people planted, but just before the corn was ripe, it froze. A second time the crop was burned. A third time it did not sprout. They planted four times in vain. There was no rain, no vegetation, no food. Eight years from that time they stole children from each other and ate them. But in twelve years it became a little better. Then it rained again and vegetation and corn grew. Thus the man named Yellow had revenged himself.
VERY SHORT STORY BUT MENTIONS THAT THE HORSE FOUR TIMES RAN BACK AND FOURTH- ONLY NUMBER MENTIONED IN THE SHORT STORY IS FOUR AND QUADRUPED four baskets and the fact had twins
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A white-shell basket stood there. In it was the water of a mare’s afterbirth. A turquoise basket stood there. It contained the water of the afterbirth. An abalone basket full of the eggs of various birds stood there. A jet basket with eggs stood there. The baskets stand for quadrupeds, the eggs for birds. Now as Changing-woman began to sing the animals came up to taste. The horse tasted twice; hence mares sometimes give birth to twins. One ran back without tasting. Four times, he ran up and back again. The last time he said, “Sh!” and did not taste. “She will not give birth. Long-ears (Mule) she will be called,” said Changing-Woman. The others tasted the eggs from the different places. Hence there are many feathered people. Because they tasted the eggs in the abalone and jet baskets many are black.
YOU CAN LOOK UP ANY OTHER NUMBER IN THIS STORY-- SIX IS THE NUMBER THAT SHOWS UP THE MOST TIMES OTHER THAN FOUR AND IT SHOWS UP THREE TIMES- FOUR SHOWS UP MANY MANY TIMES
FOUR CONSTANTLY SHOWS UP ALMOST IN EVERY PARAGRAPH- SIX SHOWS UP THREE TIMES AND SIX IS THE NUMBER THAT SHOWS UP THE MOST OTHER THAN FOUR- FOUR PRESENTS ITSELF AS VASTLY DOMINANT IN EVERY STORY OF EVERY PEOPLE
--- FOUR IS DOMINANT IN THE STORY AS IT IS DOMINANT IN EVERY MYTHOLOGY OF EVERY PEOPLE VASTLY DOMINANT IT IS ALL BUILT AROUND THE QUADRANT PATTERN
PASSED UNDER THE FOUR MOUNTAINS- THUNDER FOUR TIMES STEPPED OVER IT FOUR TIMES- FOUR DAYS FOUR YEARS FOUR BEADS- FOUR SHELLS FOUR BAGS FOUR CANES- FOUR CHIEFS- FOUR CHILDREN FOUR CIRCLES- FOUR WAYS- FOUR ANTELOPE- FOUR TIMES FOUR CURVES FOUR LINES FOUR PLACES
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They passed around the bases of these four mountains and as they passed under it (he sang):—
Yellow wind is in the mountain of jet. It will stir with life. The flowers will wake up. Some of them will be red, some white, some blue. Flowers of all kinds will be seen. It will thunder there four times. First it will thunder as our bear will wake up. He travels with the aid of his p. 168 belly. He will stretch himself. He will bring back the news that tc’act’εzε is springing up. “Now they are all coming,” he will say. Then those that fly, blue bird, Say’s phoebe, buzzard, dove, crane, all will come. She ground up white shell mixed with corn of all colors. She rubbed her breast in this manner. A piece so large (match stick) fell down. She rolled this up in a black cloud. She stepped over it four times (singing).1
There they moved to a mountain named darkness. There according to their grandmother’s plan they picked up a bear so large. It became their pet. At a mountain which will be named yellow mountain they found a panther. By the will of their grandmother the bear and panther grew up by magic. Both were males. They grew in four days, which became four years.
She summoned the twelve persons and told them that she had not made her grandchildren to live in that place. The messengers came back and said, “Your grandmother asks that the men named ba’ni’, baiłnikǫsε, banatinł and gicdo should come to her.” They went and then she said to them, “I did not make my grandchildren to live in this country. Go to the Navajo country. The Navajo country is where rain mountain lies. You go beyond where the mountain named White Shell Mountain lies, beyond where the mountain called Turquoise Mountain lies, beyond where the mountain called Abalone Mountain lies, beyond where the mountain called Jet Mountain lies. It will take you four days to go there. Then there will be a mountain sticking up in the distance. It is called White Face Mountain. You go on past that toward the north. When you have climbed one mountain just a little can be seen of a mountain there which is called crescent. Right under it you will cross a stream. Right across that lies a mountain which is called Black. At one end of this mountain is a flat and on it stands a mountain called balok’ai. p. 169 You go across that. On the other side, in this direction, a mountain stands, below which you should go. Over this way will be a mountain called Brushy Mountain. You will pass on the south side of that. There some Navajo are living. You will live there by Rain Mountain.” When she had said this she went back and picked up a string with four shells which she had lying in water. Then she went this way (south) into a room and came back in the same way with a string. Then she went west and brought back a string on which were four (beads). Next she went north and the same way brought back a string. She went again into a room at the east and came back with a cane of white shells. She went into a room to the south and brought out a turquoise cane. She went into the west room and brought a cane of abalone shell. She went next to the north room and came back with a cane of jet.
“When you are about to die of thirst set one of these in the ground and rotate it sunwise and water will flow out.” She repeated these directions for each of the four canes, using the same words. Then she gave them the four bags in each of which was a string. “You are not to open these until after four days when you will have passed beyond the four mountains and then you may untie them,” she said. (You shall not hear the songs with which they were to be opened.)
The Arrow people built a fire in their sweathouse. “Come to the sweathouse, come to the sweathouse, come to the sweathouse,” they called. The four chiefs, ba’ni’, baiłnikǫsε, banatinł, and gicdo went there and went into the sweathouse. The curtain was lowered. “Yes,” said ba’ni’, “My sons-in-law and my daughters-in-law seem to like each other. We are starting off. We are going where Rain Mountain lies, as we were told to do by our grandmother. We shall go in two days. Tomorrow we shall spend preparing the corn you gave us.” The Arrow People said nothing. They said to each other, “Our sons-in-law, our daughters-in-law did not become friends for just one day.” The Arrow People went out of the sweathouse, put dust on themselves, dressed and went home. The others too went home. Nothing was heard from the p. 171 hogan for two days. Afterwards they found out the Arrow People had said, “They are traveling with good women and many beads. We will kill all the men and the women will be ours.” Then the travelers started on leaving behind the men who had married their women and also the women who had married their men. They camped and passed the night. When it was dark the second night the bear went toward the south, pulled up young spruce trees and put them across each other. He sat down on top of them. ba’ni’ said, “n n n sos sos sos. I guess my pet is giving us a message about things which are happening behind us that we do not know about.” After a little while the bear began singing bear songs.
Growing children went for the ears of corn and when they put them in the pot they said, “Let there be showers here.” The next day four children, two boys and two girls, went for more corn. They did not come back at once. At midday just two of the children came back, saying they had been playing hide-and-seek, in pairs, in the corn. They failed to find the other pair and when they followed the footprints to a place where there was sand the tracks ceased. A boy and girl were missing. Some of the people went there to investigate and came back saying that what the children had reported was true. They wondered what had happened to the vanished pair and thought it possible they had gone to their grandmother’s place in the west.
Four days later he (the chief) sent two children to get some young ears telling them to come back quickly. They came back very soon, saying the lost children had returned and were sitting in the field. “They told us to come back and tell you they had been to our grandmother’s place. They told us to get some mountain mahogany from the east, some Mormon tea from the south, some cedar from the west, some piñon from the north, and put them up in this manner. Then, they said, you were to get some sand from the garden and spread it down and stand up some brush on it in four concentric circles. When this is arranged, they said their grandmother had told them to bathe on it. That is what the two sitting there told us. They arranged this according to the directions and then the two came there and washed. The boy dried himself with white cornmeal and the girl with yellow cornmeal. After this they told their story.
Where they strike the earth, bad things bad talk does not like it.
It causes the missiles to spread out.
Long life, something frightful I am.
Now I am.
When they followed back on his tracks they found four large antelope lying dead. The panther had eaten the intestines of each. The men came back bringing much meat. Ba’ni’ directed them to roast the meat and make it into pemmican, so that it would not be so heavy. It was for this reason they had taken the panther. They were carrying out the intention of Yołgaiesdzan. When they had made the pemmican, they started off carrying it. They came to Navajo Mountain. “This is the mountain she told us not to climb, but to cross the ford at its base.” When they came there they found a bank or hill and water beyond flowing here and there. “That is the place,” they said and they crossed the ford.
Then there were two songs, not long ones, and he ran up the mountain and ran around them four times and took their hearts out of them. All bloody, they lay side by side. They took the scalps. The bear himself had killed them all. They started back home and passed a hill that stands there.
The bear stood up like a man, in his right hand he held a piece of dziłdilgεsi and tc’εji with a red male arrowhead. In his left hand he held ł’onastasi, toikał, and a red female arrowhead. Then he moved his hands across each other in four places. He made a curve four times. Speaking if he were naiyε’nezγani, he made four curves. Speaking like tobadjictini, he made four straight lines.
Speaking as if he were naiyε’nezγani, he made four curved lines. Speaking like tobadjictcini he made four straight lines. Then he moved his hands across each other in four places. He then stuck into the ground the branches of plants and the arrowhead he had in his hand. He did the same way with what he had in his left hand. He then moved over these things and began to sing.
I make a mark they won’t cross it.
naiyε’nezγani I am, they won’t cross it
Black obsidian my moccasins they won’t cross it.
Black obsidian my leggings they won’t cross it
Black obsidian my shirt they won’t cross it
Black obsidian four times my sides hang down
Black obsidian my headdress.
Black obsidian zigzag lightning darts four times from me stream out
Where it goes dangerous missiles will be scattered
I make a mark they won’t cross
I come back with lightning streaming out from me in four places.
I come back, dangerous things and missiles being scattered.
THE NUMBER THAT SHOWS UP OTHER THAN THE NUMBER FOUR IN THIS STORY THE MOST TIMES IS THE NUMBER THREE AND THREE SHOWS UP FOUR TIMES- THE NUMBER FOUR CONSTANTLY CONSISTENTLY SHOWS UP IN ALMOST EVERY PARAGRAPH- THE FOUR IS VASTLY DOMINANT-
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FOUR HOLES FOUR COLORS FOUR MEN FOUR WINDS
NOT EAT UNTIL FOURTH DAY- FOUR DAYS FOUR POLES FOUR LEFT FOUR HOUSES - FOUR PLACES FOUR QUARTERS FOUR VISITS- FOUR CORNERS- BREATHED ON IT FOUR TIMES- FOUR GROUPS OF PEOPLE- FOUR CAME FOUR DAYS FOUR OWN FOUR MOUNTAINS- FOUR MOUNTAINS FOUR RULERS FOUR LAID OUT FOUR ANIMALS- FOUR PEOPLE FOUR DAY COUNCIL- FOUR WORLDS
The first (lowest) world was red, bare, barren ground, this was the earliest world. Etséhostin and Etséasun, his wife, existed there and they had nothing to eat till the fourth day, and on this day they began to think of eating. Hostjaishjiné stood up and rubbed his belly and some skin (bitcin) was loosened which formed in a roll under his hands and he laid this roll of cuticle on the ground. The woman stood up and followed his example. Then they each trampled on the rolls. Etséhostin reached over his shoulder, down his back, and formed another roll and laid it on the ground. The two rolls that he had formed turned into a man with a mask. This new-formed man stood up, and this is the origin of the first man (Navajo ?). Etséasun again followed the hostin’s example and from the rolls which she formed a woman arose: this was the virgin called Djosdelhazhy (biting vagina). The hostin (old man) then reached under his left arm and formed another roll of skin which he laid on the ground and it became (a water monster called) Téholtsody. The hostin then reached under his right arm and formed another roll of skin which, being laid upon the ground, became Usheenasun, Salt spirit, a woman who now lives at Nitcō (Salt Lake south of Zuñi).
Etséhostin began thinking, “How can we get something to eat?” Etséasun said, “My husband, I know not.” Hostin looked back and saw Hostjaishjiné and said to him, “You understand these things, tell us how we are to get food.” Hostjaishjiné, who always looks stern and grim and angry, said, “I do not know,” but he reached down on his neck and rolled a little skin in his hand and Wunushtcindy (locust ?) was p. 89 produced. Then Etséasun looked far back and saw Nastjeasun and asked her how they could get something to eat. Nastjeasun rolled a little skin upon her breast and it became Ant, Nâzozi, which was then buried in the ground for four days and at the end of that time many little red (yellow) ants came forth. Hostjaishjiné then rolled some skin from his forehead and laid it on the ground when it turned into a horned toad, Nâshōngbitcijy. Etséhostin built a house and lived there and the red (yellow) ants built all round this big house, and annoyed him and the others, so that they could find no rest day or night. Teholtsody thought he would go off and find some place to rest so he travelled to the east. The world was very small at this time, and Teholtsody soon came to its utmost limit and as he could go no farther, he built his house there. In like manner, the frog being troubled with the ants, he travelled to the south to the utmost limit of the world, and built there. Then Salt Woman went similarly to the west and built a house, and Tulthklahallé went to the north. Each of these houses was fashioned from east to west like a rainbow (shabiklo), and from south to north of Sun-rays (jōnâaibikloth), when we build a house today we have four poles reaching from east west and from south to north, and these meet at the apex.
After these four had left him Etséhostin stayed in his own house. He said, “I wish we could get some clouds, I want rain,” and he looked out of his house towards the East, where Teholtsody was and saw many clouds, for Teholtsody’s house is of clouds. Etséasun then said, “I wish we had some kind of rain,” and she looked to the south and saw a heavy fog, for this was the frog’s house. Etséhostin wished that there was a mountain to stand on and look for rain, and he began to pray for rain; he looked west and saw a mirage, Hûtaonige, like a person. Etséasun now prayed on the north side, “Send rain so that everything may be wet.” She saw a green scum on the water and made a house, ‘Tutklitb’hogan, of this. This makes four houses.
Etséhostin began to travel and he went to Teholtsody’s house, and in the middle of it he found the pot Teholtsody had made and it was covered. He lifted the cover and found it full of water. He went home and told his wife that Teholtsody was growing wiser than they were. Etséasun then went south to Frog’s house and saw his pot full of water, and she returned to her house and told her husband. Jōsdelhazhy said she also would travel and she went west and found that Salt Woman also had a pot full of water. She returned and told what she had seen. Hashjaishjine then went north and found a pot of water in the house of Tulthkalhale and he returned very angry. He said, “They are all getting wiser than us. They are growing rich and we are still poor. We have nothing and cannot make anything.” Etséhostin said, “Why should you be angry? We will grow wise like them and have many things some day.” Then Etséhostin went to Teholtsody’s house to get a little water, which he brought back to his own house. Etséasun went and brought some from the south. Next Hostin borrowed some from the west and Asun borrowed from the north. Having brought water from each of these four places Hostin planted it all together in the ground. In a few days he saw a damp, green spot there. He returned to look at the place in a few more days and saw that bushes had grown there. He made a third visit and found jointed grass. He made a fourth visit and found the reed grass, looka (arrow grass, tluka) but it had no pollen on the top, and there was a large spring also. Hostin again said, “I wish we had something more,” and he went to the spring and found lookaitso growing right in the centre of it. Five different kinds of plants grew out of the spring and he pulled up some of each kind and took them home. One of these reeds had twelve joints and the wind came out of the other end and made music (a flageolet). The wind emerging from this reed whirled about on the ground all over the world and it went to the houses at the four quarters and caused them much trouble. The dweller at each house sent his guard out to trouble the wind. They took black clouds, fogs, and blue mould, also to each of them was given Thunder and Lightning and the guardians kept shooting at the little winds but these latter kept dodging about so that they could not be hit. But this only raised more wind and it rained heavily, then the guards stopped troubling the wind for they could not conquer it.
“The people at the four corners are growing rich.” Hostin then prayed for more and went to the spring. The corn was growing ripe and each stalk carried twelve ears. Asun went over and gathered it and brought it home. They now had plenty of corn and much else besides. But those living at the four corners of the world had no corn so they came to Hostin’s house and begged him for some. He told them to provide for themselves, but finally he gave them some of the pollen (taditin), but none of the ear corn. He told them to plant the pollen. They did so and it grew up small, like onions, but no ears grew upon it.
Next Frog sent Teklin to Hostin to say, “My house is overflowed and have lost everything except this tobacco bag which I wish you to accept that we may become friends.” The bag was made from the green scum of the water and was embroidered with beads, etc. Hostin would not have it and referred him to Hostjaishjine who breathed upon it four times and there was some tobacco in it and he filled a clay pipe with it and smoked.
Next Salt Woman said, “We shall be killed by the water, we cannot live here, let us go to Hostin.” She had a cotton blanket (naskan) and offered this through Tunelini (Salt Woman’s guard) to Hostin. He would not have it, and said, “Go to Spider Woman and give her the blanket.” She looked at it, put it around her waist, breathed from it four times and was satisfied. Next came Hakleale (Fish Guardian) who sent fish Hostin with a flint shirt and cap. He offered them, but Hostin sent him to second man (Nacûiditcije, Horned Toad). He took the shirt and cap, put the shirt on and wore the cap, and therefore all four groups (eight people) were now on peaceable terms with Hostin.
No one saw him there as yet. Then he saw the water rising up from east, south, west, and north. He made the noise with his thorax. He saw a swan on the south side making much noise and the water was all in motion. Wunustcinde made such noise that the swan from the east, also one from the north and one from the west came to him. All four came to him but did not know what to think of him. They asked him where he came from. He told them from the world below. They would not believe him so he told them how he had come. The swans told him that neither he nor his people should come to this new place for it belonged to the swans only, and they would not let anyone else live here. Wunustcinde had a hard time with the swans, and they fought him. Finally they said, “If you want to stay here you must pay us.” So Wunustcinde returned to his people and told them all this. Wunustcinde had the red substance that causes the sun to set red when it is going to storm and he offered this to the swans for their land. They put it on their wings and were so much pleased with it they said, “Well now, you can come and live here.” Wunustcinde said to them that some of his people could not live in the water, although some of them could. Then the swans said p. 95 that after four days there would be some dry land. The swans had pots of clay and they placed one on the east side, one on the north side, one on the west side and in this way they carried off some of the water, and made some dry land. When the others came up to the new world they built little round houses again of the same red substance that had been given to the swans.
First Man made a man called Hosjelti and placed him on San Francisco Mountain; another called Hosjogwan (?) who lives on Ute Mountains; another called Navesrhuni (Nagenezgruni) who lives on Navajo Mountain; another called Hoshjaishjine who lives on San Mateo Mounitain, These four own all the game and other animals on these mountains. Old Man’s people however lived close together. They took the earth gathered from the four mountains in the lower world and again they formed mountains as in lower world, at east, white; at south, blue; at west, yellow; at north, black. No one was allowed to see the boys who were found at the spring; they were left at the Ute Mountains when the people first came up. Old Man had brought seeds of all kinds with him and planted everything that grows, vegetables, plants, timber, sagebrush, flowers, everything. He found lots of people here who joined him. That was when bears, deer, antelope, rabbit, birds, all kinds of animals were people.
No one saw him there as yet. Then he saw the water rising up from east, south, west, and north. He made the noise with his thorax. He saw a swan on the south side making much noise and the water was all in motion. Wunustcinde made such noise that the swan from the east, also one from the north and one from the west came to him. All four came to him but did not know what to think of him. They asked him where he came from. He told them from the world below. They would not believe him so he told them how he had come. The swans told him that neither he nor his people should come to this new place for it belonged to the swans only, and they would not let anyone else live here. Wunustcinde had a hard time with the swans, and they fought him. Finally they said, “If you want to stay here you must pay us.” So Wunustcinde returned to his people and told them all this. Wunustcinde had the red substance that causes the sun to set red when it is going to storm and he offered this to the swans for their land. They put it on their wings and were so much pleased with it they said, “Well now, you can come and live here.” Wunustcinde said to them that some of his people could not live in the water, although some of them could. Then the swans said p. 95 that after four days there would be some dry land. The swans had pots of clay and they placed one on the east side, one on the north side, one on the west side and in this way they carried off some of the water, and made some dry land. When the others came up to the new world they built little round houses again of the same red substance that had been given to the swans.
First Man made a man called Hosjelti and placed him on San Francisco Mountain; another called Hosjogwan (?) who lives on Ute Mountains; another called Navesrhuni (Nagenezgruni) who lives on Navajo Mountain; another called Hoshjaishjine who lives on San Mateo Mounitain, These four own all the game and other animals on these mountains. Old Man’s people however lived close together. They took the earth gathered from the four mountains in the lower world and again they formed mountains as in lower world, at east, white; at south, blue; at west, yellow; at north, black. No one was allowed to see the boys who were found at the spring; they were left at the Ute Mountains when the people first came up. Old Man had brought seeds of all kinds with him and planted everything that grows, vegetables, plants, timber, sagebrush, flowers, everything. He found lots of people here who joined him. That was when bears, deer, antelope, rabbit, birds, all kinds of animals were people.
Then Old Man and Old Woman said, “We have nobody to talk to about ourselves (to worship us).” Old Man went off to the east to find people, or same as soon as they reached the upper world went toward the east. Old Man followed after these, and from east they brought back eagle feathers; from west, hawk feathers; from south, blue feathers; from north, speckled feathers (of whip-poor-will, night bird). When they got these altogether they laid them before them. Beside east feather they laid white corn and white shell; beside west feather, yellow corn and abalone shell; beside south feather, blue corn, and turquoise; beside north feather, all kinds of corn and shells and turquoise. All four were laid out together. Old man arranged all these for singing and praying to these things as he did at the spring, singing and praying. He and Old Woman and all his people moved about walking over these things several times in ceremonial manner.
p. 96
East feather was for the wolf. The feather and corn and shell were prayed over and a wolf was raised. They prayed over the west objects, and Mountain Lion was raised; they prayed over the south objects and Tabastin, Otter, was raised; they prayed over the north objects, Bud (sic!) Beaver was raised. Old man said, “We need rulers,” and he made these four rulers over these several regions. He planted all vegetable things and sprinkled them with the earth of the four mountains to give them power. These mountains had much wild tobacco growing on them. The four animals were the rulers of all the land. They smoked and felt good and began to teach the people to be farmers, to plant corn, wheat, melons, pumpkins, beans, chile, etc. and how to irrigate and take care of their crops. All four (animals) taught the people to use all kinds of grasses, timber, etc.
The two youths1 came back from the mountain called Tcolii. Everybody saw them. One had a piece of hollow reed with four holes in its side, p. 101 the other a sunflower stem with four holes in its stem (i.e. flutes). And all the people came together. They had plenty of everything, but the water came so quickly upon them they had only time to take enough for seed and they began to climb the mountains but the waters still rose. So the people climbed up to the tops of the pine trees. The two youths who had the reed and sunflower planted the reed and the people got into it and the reed began to grow. Klishjo was at the bottom, then Thunder, then the Turkey whose tail dragged in the water, that is why his feathers are white. These flutes had four holes. The first hole was for Black Wind, second for Yellow, third for Blue, and fourth White, and these winds guarded the holes in the flute. The winds began to blow and the Great Fly also began to shake the flute, and it began to grow, and the rain kept falling. They had no rest for four nights and Badger began to dig upward but came back again. Wunusticinde then began to dig and shortly he penetrated through to another world, but he found nothing but water. Wunustcinde being small he was hard to see, but soon a man in the east who had an axe spied him and came and struck twelve times at him but could not hit him. Then came a man from the south and tried, then from the west, then from the north, but all failed to hurt him. So these four men went back in the directions they came from. The man who came with the axe first went back, but another man came from the east, Tcithkahilka with two arrows, one trimmed with gray eagle feathers and one with black. He came to Wunustcinde and threw the arrows at him. “What are you doing here?” he said. “You have no right here, this is my land.” Wunustcinde said, “We shall see about that. We would like to live here at any rate.” The man took his arrows and put one up his anus, the other down his throat and pushed them through, then drew them out and threw them to Wunustcinde saying, that if he could do that the land would be his. Wunustcinde said he could do better than that, so he pushed them through his breast, one from each side and taking them by the points drew them through. There was a little blood adhering to them but the act did not hurt him at all. Wunustcinde said, “If you do as I have done, you can have your ground back. It belongs to me now as I have won it from you.” The man picked up his arrows and went home in sorrow. (Repeat for the men who came from the other three points). So Wunustcinde won that country.
He returned to his people and told of his new world, and four of his people went up. One of these with his flint knife cut the ground towards the east and made a little cañon. The next man went south, and dragged his black cane through the soft ground and made an arroyo. Mountain sheep, the third man, went west and formed an arroyo, ploughing up the ground. The fourth was Rhanskidde. He had a straight stick which he dragged along the ground and made an arroyo to the north side. All these four met again in the middle and then went down to their people. The four winds then came up on top and blew as hard as they could and by p. 102 the fourth night everything was dry and the land beautiful. That is why water runs in all directions. When Badger came up, the ground was muddy in places and he being short-legged got stuck in the mud. That is why he has a black muzzle and black legs. The winds followed after Badger. The leader of the Winds was left-handed. The next one was the Striped Wind. Next the Spotted Wind, and fourth was Shiny Wind. These all raised a tempest which dried up the ground very quickly. They sent out big grey Fly who flew up and found everything beautiful. He returned and reported to his people, and they stayed yet another twelve days before the new world was dry enough for occupancy.
Old Man established the heavens. The four persons of the cardinal points held a four days’ council. They appointed Hosjelti, Mountain Guardian, a good man, and said, “Let him go and build our house for us. There is no sun, there is no moon, but we must have these things.” They built a house of all the colors of the cardinal directions. Nasdjeasan sat at B (see diagram, p. 103.) Etsi-istsan sat at C. Hoshjelti and Hostjogrwan on either side of A. These two made the sun and moon, the sun out of turquoise, the moon out of white shell. All the supernaturals worked on the blue blanket hung to the south which represented p. 104 the earth. They made all the stars and put them on the earth (in the heavens ?).
Another and different version of the creation of the sun and moon is given immediately following in the manuscript: Old Man planted water in the lower world and it grew to the surface. When Old Man returned to the spring, be found two boys emerging, so be told his wife to catch these two boys, which she did, and she put them under her arms and kept them there till the people emerged in this world. These boys had no names. They helped to make the sun and moon. Old Man watched them make tbe sun and moon. One of the boys carries the sun on his back and the other carries the moon. Hence they were named Jonaaibaestin, Boy-who-went-inside-the-Sun, and Kleonaaibigestin, Boy-who-went-inside-the moon. These were the two greatest youths who ever appeared on the lowest (fourth) world. When Hashjaishjine was thinking how to place the stars, came Coyote. (The manuscript ends bere abruptly. The story alluded to is given in Matthew’s notes, Navaho Legends, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V: 223, 224.)
IN THIS STORY THE NUMBER THAT SHOWS UP THE MOST OTHER THAN FOUR IS THE NUMBER TWO AND IT SHOWS UP TWO TIMES- FOUR SHOWS UP MANY TIMES- AND THERE IS A CROSS FORMATION
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/nav/sws/sws23.htm
FOUR SNAKES Now the women are dismissed as the men prepare for work. A little before nine we, the audience, are called again. The hogan has once more changed its appearance. Everything is swept and in order. I am warned as I step inside the door and behold at my feet four small snakes made in sand, as if one were crawling into the fire from each direction. We women walk around the south side of the fire with its paintings to our places at the north side, I following Atlnaba. Behind the
FOUR STICKS As I hastily note a few details of this sort, Red-Point is arranging four sticks about an inch in diameter and three feet long. He spits on each one, sticks one end into the fire, and lays it at the side of one of the snakes, always observing the order of direction. He spits again to east, west, south, north, and around, then sprinkles pollen over the Sky People at the west of the house, along the canes and their accompanying snakes, and finally up and down.
FOUR HOOPS Each woman, I find, has brought with her a small enamel pan and a sackful of clean sand which she has deposited on the ground before her. The Chanter's assistants arrange everything for the patients. They set a basket on the middle of the cloud and at the side of each patient arrange a pile of sand which they scoop out in the form of a basin. Around it Red-Point places four hoops of cottonwood which he has cut and painted to resemble white snakes. I find myself totally unprepared. But Atlnaba helps me out. She calls to little Ben outside to bring a pan and tells Tom to bring me some sand.
FOUR TIMES All is now in readiness for Tom has brought in a large bucket full of cold water. Ruby waits outside for orders to get more. We form into a procession around the fire, lining up north of the east snake while Red-Point sings. At a particular accented word in the song we cross the east snake right foot forward, stop and wait for the next accented word when we cross the south snake left foot forward, repeating likewise for west and north snakes, and the whole circuit four times.
FOUR DRAUGHTS FOUR DRINKS Over the ceremonial basket Red-Point sifts a cross of white pollen as he murmurs a prayer. He treats each of our dishes to the same blessing and follows it with one of yellow. The patients stir their supply with the eagle feathers, we stir ours with our index fingers. Each of the audience arranges his sand before him to form a basin as Red-Point settles into his usual place at the southwest point of the hogan and starts singing. After repeating the burden of his song several times, he stresses a word as he accentuates the lilt of his rattle and Marie and Ninaba stoop and drink of the concoction in the basket directly with their lips. We have been told to wait. They take four long draughts and sit waiting miserably. By this time the sweat is dripping from us all, running in streams down our faces and in tickling trickles down our backs. It feels like flies, but the heat and smoke have driven them to the crevices between the house logs of the roof as far removed as possible from the fire. We have no such refuge.
The four drinks of the emetic should cause the patients to vomit but Marie never vomits even when she is ill. They sip some more of the greenish-yellow medicine and now we may drink also. Thinking to myself, "When in Rome do as the Romans do," I bow to the inevitable. The medicine has a bitter
FOUR POKERS IN CROSS FORMATION We sit facing the door while Tom and Curley's-Son gather up the sand of the paintings and take it out for deposit. As we wait, the agonized expression gradually gives place to smiles, and we rub the drying leaves off our backs, arms, and legs. Never did sun and wind feel so good, never was a breath of fresh air so delightful. After the few minutes which have sufficed to dry us off, we come into the house again. The fire is tame once more, only a glowing bed of coals with the four pokers in their cross formation. The air is comfortably cool and has a slight pleasant fragrance.
FOUR PHASES FOUR STRUCTURES- FOUR PROMINENT MONUMENTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teopantecuanitlan
Teopantecuanitlan was occupied from 1400 to 500 BCE, which is generally divided into four phases, peaking in population and complexity during Phase II, between 1000 and 800 BCE.[2] The site’s settlement largely consisted of residential compounds characterized by four structures arranged around a shared courtyard or plaza. The structures themselves were made of perishable materials built over stone basal foundations. Imported shell and obsidian artifacts, as well as Olmec-influenced ceramic wares, have been found in association with and inside the residential groups. These artifacts provide material evidence that the Teopantecuanitlan community was a part of an interregional trade network that linked the Gulf Coast with the highlands of Central Mexico.[3]
Four large, nearly identical, monumental travertine blocks adorn the east and west sides of the Sunken Patio. These blocks are carved to resemble anthropomorphic creatures, most likely were-jaguars, with almond-shaped eyes and down-turned mouths. In fact, it is these 3- to 5-ton monuments that are referred to in archaeologist Guadalupe Martinez Donjuán's name for the site, Teopantecuanitlan, Nahuatl for "place of the temple of the jaguar".[6] According to Martinez Donjuán, these sculptures are situated so as to mark the equinoxes or solstices, and they "symbolized the opposing forces that ruled the world".[7]
Olmec influence is seen in many of the monuments of Teopantecuanitlan. In addition to the four prominent monuments discussed above, Olmec style or Olmec-influenced artifacts have been found throughout the site.
Martinez Donjuán differentiates the four monuments into two pairs, with either a feline or a bird beak "orifice" (Martinez Donjuán (2000), p. 200). Other researchers do not make this distinction.
FOUR MOUNDED GROUPS- the fourth group is different
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Zapotes
The Epi-Olmec period site plan of Tres Zapotes, highlighting the four mound groups
Over 160 mounds, platforms, and similar structures have been identified at Tres Zapotes, most of these being low residential platforms.[15] The major Epi-Olmec period structures are the prosaically-named Groups 1, 2, and 3, and the similarly structured Nestepe Group (also known as Group 4). Group 2 is more or less in the center of the residential core with the other three spaced almost 1 km (1 mi) away from Group 2 and from each other.
This equidistant spacing likely reflects a decentralized political structure, each mound group the creation of a separate faction within Tres Zapotes society. This is in contrast to La Venta, for example, where the heavily centralized public architecture reflected a centralized rulership.[16] At La Venta three of the four colossal heads were grouped together at the entrance to the ceremonial precinct while the fourth was at the edge of the large central plaza. The two Tres Zapotes heads were not in the central Group 2, but rather Monument A was located in Group 1 and Monument Q in the Nestepe Group.
Tres Zapotes's four mound groups are similar in design to those of Cerro de las Mesas, featuring a large plaza surrounded by several mounds, including a pyramidal or conical mound on the west end and a long mound on the north. The longer mounds likely supported administrative buildings and/or elite residences. The smaller mounds featured the residences of the lesser elites and temples.[6]
Although similar in composition, the mound groups varied widely in scale and complexity. The relatively simple Nestepe group's mounds were under 3 m (10 ft) tall and the plaza covered about 1½ hectares (3½ acres). On the other hand, Groups 2 and 3 featured mounds up to 12 m (39 ft) high with plazas covering 4 hectares. It is expected that this variation reflected differences in the various factions' access to labor and the duration of their period of influence.[2]
The Epi-Olmec period site plan of Tres Zapotes, highlighting the four mound groups
Hymn to Amimitl.
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/aztec/rva/rva10.htm
1. Join together your hands in the house, take hands in the sequent course, let them spread forth, spread forth in the hall of arrows. join hands, join hands in the house, for this, for this have I come, have I come.
2. Yes, I have come, bringing four with me, yes I have come, four being with me.
3. Four noble ones, carefully selected, four noble ones, carefully selected, yes, four noble ones.
4. They personally appear before his face, they personally appear before his face, they personally appear before his face.
The four noble ones referred to in vv. 3 and 4 probably refer to those characters in the Mexican sacred dances called "the four auroras," four actors clothed respectively in white, green, yellow and red robes. See Diego Duran, Historia, cap. 87.
AZTEC TEMPLES FOUR APARTMENTS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp04.htm
One of the edifices of which the inhabitants of Tollan were most justly proud was the temple wherein their high-priest officiated. This building was a very gem of architectural art and mural decoration. It contained four apartments. The walls of the first were inlaid with gold, the second with precious stones of every description, the third with beautiful sea-shells of all conceivable hues and of the most brilliant and tender shades encrusted in bricks of silver, which sparkled in the sun in such a manner as to dazzle the eyes of beholders. The fourth apartment was formed of a brilliant red stone, ornamented with shells.
THE HOUSE OF FEATHERS HAD FOUR APARTMENTS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp04.htm
The House of Feathers
Still more fantastic and weirdly beautiful was another edifice, "The House of Feathers." This also possessed four apartments, one decorated with feathers of a brilliant yellow, another with the radiant and sparkling hues of the Blue Bird. These were woven into a kind of tapestry, and placed against the walls in graceful hangings and festoons. An apartment described as of entrancing beauty was that in which the decorative scheme consisted of plumage of the purest and most dazzling white. The remaining chamber was hung with feathers of a brilliant red, plucked from the most beautiful birds.
FOUR SPEARS AND SHIELD FIVE TUFTS IN THE FORM OF A QUINCUNX- A QUINCUNX IS A CROSS MADE OF FIVE ELEMENTS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp05.htm
Huitzilopochtli was usually represented as wearing on his head a waving panache or plume of hummingbirds' feathers. His face and limbs were striped with bars of blue, and in his right hand he carried four spears. His left hand bore his shield, on the surface of which were displayed five tufts of down, arranged in the form of a quincunx
THE MAYA CROSS- FOUR ROADS (form of cross)
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp07.htm
At Itzamal, too, stood one of the chief temples of the great god Itzamna, the legendary founder of the Maya mpire. Standing on a lofty pyramid, four roads radiated from it, leading to Tabasco, Guatemala, and Chiapas; and here they brought the halt, the maimed, and the blind, aye, even the dead, for succour and resurrection, such faith had they in the mighty power of Kab-ul (The Miraculous Hand), as they designated the deity. The fourth road ran to the sacred isle of Cozumel, where first the men of Spain found the Maya cross, and supposed it to prove that St. Thomas had discovered the American continent in early times, and had converted the natives to a Christianity which had become debased.
FOUR EQUAL CHAMBERS FOUR ROOMS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp07.htm
"The Palace of the Living and of the Dead was built for the use of this person [the high-priest of the Zapotecs]. . . . They built this magnificent house or pantheon in the shape of a rectangle, with portions rising above the earth and portions built down into the earth, the latter in the hole or cavity which was found below the surface of the earth, and ingeniously made the chambers of equal size by the manner of joining them, leaving a spacious court in the middle; and in order to secure four equal chambers they accomplished what barbarian heathen (as they were) could only achieve by the powers and skill of an architect. It is not known in what stone-pit they quarried the pillars, which are so thick that two men can scarcely encircle them with their arms. These are, to be sure, mere shafts without capital or pedestal, but they are wonderfully regular and smooth, and they are about 5 ells high and in one piece. These served to support the roof, which consists of stone slabs instead of beams. The slabs are about 2 ells long, 1 ell broad, and half an ell thick, extending from pillar to pillar. The pillars stand in a row, one behind the other, in order to receive the weight. The stone slabs are so regular and so exactly fitted that, without any mortar or cement, at the joints they resemble mortised beams. The four rooms, which are very spacious, are arranged in exactly the same way and covered with the same kind of roofing. But in the construction of the walls the greatest architects of the earth have been surpassed, as I have not found this kind of architecture described either among the Egyptians or among the Greeks, for they begin at the base with a narrow outline and, as the structure rises in height, spread out in wide copings at the top, so that the upper part exceeds the base in breadth and looks as if it would fall over."
POPUL VUH THE SACRED BOOK OF THE MAYANS HAS FOUR PARTS- IN IT FOUR MEN AND FOUR WOMEN ARE CREATED- FIRST FOUR MEN- THEN FOUR WOMEN FOR THE FOUR MEN
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp08.htm
The Third Book
The opening of the third book finds the gods once more deliberating as to the creation of man. Four men are evolved as the result of these deliberations. These beings were moulded from a paste of yellow and white maize, and were named Balam-Quitze (Tiger with the Sweet Smile), Balam-Agab (Tiger of the Night), Mahacutah (The Distinguished Name), and lqi-Balam (Tiger of the Moon).
But the god Hurakan who had formed them was not overpleased with his handiwork, for these beings were too much like the gods themselves. The gods once more took counsel, and agreed that man must be less perfect and possess less knowledge than this new race. He must not become as a god. So Hurakan breathed a cloud over their eyes in order that they might only see a portion of the earth, whereas before they had been able to see the whole round sphere of the world. After this the four men were plunged into a deep sleep, and four women were created, who were given them as wives. These were Caha-Paluma (Falling Water), Choima (Beautiful Water), Tzununiha (House of the Water), and Cakixa (Water of Parrots, or Brilliant Water), who were espoused to the men in the respective order given above.
THE PERUVIANS USED THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS BEFORE THE SPANISH CAME
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp09.htm
In Peru, as in Mexico, it is probable that the cross was employed as a symbol of the four winds. An account of the expedition of Fuentes to the valley of Chichas recounts the discovery of a wooden cross as follows: [Skinner's State of Perm, p. 313 (1805).]
"When the settlers who accompanied Fuentes in his glorious expedition approached the valley they found a wooden cross, hidden, as if purposely, in the most intricate part of the mountains. As there is not anything more flattering to the vanity of a credulous man than to be enabled to bring forward his testimony in the relation of a prodigy, the devotion of these good conquerors was kindled to such a degree by the discovery of this sacred memorial that they instantly hailed it as miraculous and divine. They accordingly carried it in procession to the town, and placed it in the church belonging to the convent of San Francisco ) where it is still worshipped. It appears next to impossible that there should not, at that time, have been any individual among them sufficiently enlightened to combat such a persuasion, since, in reality, there was nothing miraculous in the finding of this cross, there having been other Christian settlers, before the arrival of Fuentes, in the same valley. The opinion, notwithstanding, that the discovery was altogether miraculous, instead of having been abandoned at the commencement, was confirmed still more and more with the progress of time. The Jesuits Antonio Ruiz and Pedro Lozano, in their respective histories of the missions of Paraguay, &c, undertook to demonstrate that the Apostle St. Thomas had been in America. This thesis, which was so novel, and so well calculated to draw the public attention, required, more than any other, the aid of the most power of reasons, and of the most irrefragable documents, to be able to maintain itself, even in an hypothetical sense; but nothing of all this was brought forward. Certain miserable conjectures, prepossession, and personal interest, supplied the place of truth and criticism. The form of a human foot, which they fancied they saw imprinted on the rock, and the different fables of this description invented by ignorance at every step, were the sole foundations on which all the relations on this subject were made to repose. The one touching the peregrinations of St. Thomas from Brazil to Quito must be deemed apocryphal, when it is considered that the above reverend fathers describe the Apostle with the staff in the hand, the black cassock girt about the waist, and all the other trappings which distinguish the missionaries of the society. The credit which these histories obtained at the commencement was equal to that bestowed on the cross of Tarija, which remained in the predicament of being the one St. Thomas had planted in person, in the continent of America."
FOUR COLORS AND FOUR KNOTS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp09.htm
Practical Use of the Quipos
The Marquis de Nadaillac has placed on record a use to which the quipos were put in more modern times. He says: "A great revolt against the Spaniards was organised in 1792. As was found out later, the revolt had been organised by means of messengers carrying a piece of wood in which were enclosed threads the ends of which were formed of red, black, blue, or white fringes. The black thread had four knots, which signified that the messenger had started from Vladura, the residence of the chief of the conspiracy, four days after full moon. The white thread had ten knots, which signified that the revolt would break out ten days after the arrival of the messenger. The person to whom the keeper was sent had in his turn to make a knot in the red thread if he agreed to join the confederates; in the red and blue threads, on the contrary, if he refused."
THERE WERE FOUR INCAN SYSTEMS OF WORSHIP- INNITIATED BY THE FIRST FOUR INCANS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp10.htm
Pacari Tampu (House of the Dawn) was the place of origin, according to the later Inca theology, of four brothers and sisters who initiated the four Peruvian systems of worship. The eldest climbed a neighbouring mountain, and cast stones to the four points of the compass, thus indicating that he claimed all the land within sight. But his youngest brother succeeded in enticing him into a cave, which he sealed up with a great stone, thus imprisoning him for ever. He next persuaded his second brother to ascend a lofty mountain, from which he cast him, changing him into a stone in his descent. On beholding the fate of his brethren the third member of the quartette fled. It is obvious that we have here a legend concocted by the later Inca priesthood to account for the evolution of Peruvian religion in its different stages. The first brother would appear to represent the oldest religion in Peru, that of the paccariscas, the second that of a fetishistic stone worship, the third perhaps that of Viracocha, and the last sun-worship pure and simple. There was, however, an "official" legend, which stated that the sun had three sons, Viracocha, Pachacamac, and Manco Ccapac. To the last the dominion of mankind was given, whilst the others were concerned with the workings of the universe. This politic arrangement placed all the power, temporal and spiritual, in the hands of the reputed descendants of Manco Ccapac the Incas.
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mlcal.txt
IN THE BEGINNING THE ANCIENT FATHERS LIVED IN FOUR CAVES (ORIGIN STORIES ARE SEEN BY MYTHOLOGISTS AS THE MOST IMPORTANT)- EARTH WAS CALLED THE "FOUR FOLD CONTAINING EARTH
In the beginning of the New-making, the ancient fathers lived
successively in four caves in the Four fold-containing-earth. The first
was of sooty blackness, black as a chimney at night time; the second,
dark as the night in the stormy season; the third, like a valley in
starlight; the fourth, with a light like the dawning. Then they came up
in the night-shine into the World of Knowing and Seeing.
From his flesh, the Sun-father created the Seed-stuff of worlds, and he
himself rested upon the waters. And these two, the Four-fold-containing
Earth-mother and the All-covering Sky-father, the surpassing beings,
with power of changing their forms even as smoke changes in the wind,
were the father and mother of the soul beings.
FOUR GODS MAKING A CROSS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mlcal.txt
They went to a certain point in a box canon in the Big Colorado River
and here they found four gods, the Hostjobokon, at work, hewing
cottonwood logs.
Hasjelti said, "This will not do. Cottonwood becomes water-soaked. You
must use pine instead of cottonwood."
The Hostjobokon began boring the pine with flint, but Hasjelti said,
"That is slow work." He commanded a whirlwind to hollow the log. A
cross, joining at the exact middle of each log, a solid one and the
hollow one, was formed. The arms of the cross were equal.
When he wished to return home, the logs would not float upstream. Four sunbeams attached themselves to the logs, one to each cross arm, and so drew the Song-hunter back to the box canon from which he had started. When he reached that point, he separated the logs. He placed the end of the solid log into the hollow end of the other and planted this great pole in the river. It may be seen there to-day by the venturesome. In early days many went there to pray and make offerings.
FOUR TIMES FOUR MORNINGS FOUR SONGS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mlcal.txt
A long time ago, the bluebird was a very ugly color. But Bluebird knew
of a lake where no river flowed in or out, and he bathed in this four
times every morning for four mornings. Every morning he sang a magic
song:
"There's a blue water. It lies there.
I went in.
I am all blue."
On the fourth morning Bluebird shed all his feathers and came out of the
lake just in his skin. But the next morning when he came out of the lake
he was covered with blue feathers.
Now all this while Coyote had been watching Bluebird. He wanted to jump
in and get him to eat, but he was afraid of the water. But on that last
morning Coyote said,
"How is it you have lost all your ugly color, and now you are blue and
gay and beautiful? You are more beautiful than anything that flies in
the air. I want to be blue, too." Now Coyote at that time was a bright
green.
"I only went in four times on four mornings," said Bluebird. He taught
Coyote the magic song, and he went in four times, and the fifth time he
came out as blue as the little bird.
ELDER BROTHER IS THE GOD OF THE APACHE- HE DIVIDED THE PEOPLE APACHE INTO FOUR GROUPS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mlcal.txt
Elder Brother divided his figures of people into four groups. One of the
Apaches came to life first. He shivered and said, "Oh, it's very cold,"
and began to sway back and forth. Then Elder Brother said, "I did n't
think you would be the first to awake," and he took all the Apaches up
in his hand and threw them over the mountains. That made them angry, and
that is why they have always been so fierce.
IN THIS MYTH OF THE PIMA PEOPLE OF ARIZONA THERE IS A MENTION OF FOUR IN ALMOST EVERY SENTENCE- it itself is divided into four paragraphs
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mlcal.txt
Speech on the Warpath
Pima (Arizona)
We have come thus far, my brothers. In the east there is White Gopher,
who gnaws with his strong teeth. He was friendly and came to me. On his
way he came to the surface from the underground four times. Looking in
all four directions, he saw a magic whitish trail. Slowly following
this, he neared the enemy, coming to the surface from the underground
four times during the journey. Their power stood in their land like a
mountain, but he bit it off short, and he sank their springs by biting
them. He saw that the wind of the enemy was strong and he cut it up with
his teeth. He gnawed in short pieces their clouds. They had good dreams
and bright false-seeing, good bow strings and straight-flying reeds, but
these he grasped and bit off short. The different belongings lying about
he took with him, turning around homeward. On his way homeward over the
whitish trail, he came to the surface four times, and magic fire
appeared around the edges. Then he came to his bed. He felt that the
land roared rejoicingly with him.
In the south was Blue Coyote and there I sent my cry. He was friendly
and came to me from his blue darkness, circling around and shouting,
four times, on his journey, making magic fire everywhere. When he
arrived, he looked in four directions, then understood. A whitish magic
trail lay before him. He cast his blue darkness upon the enemy and
slowly approached them, circling around and shouting four times on the
way. Like a mountain was their power in the land, and he sucked it in.
The springs of water under the trees he sucked in. The wind that was
blowing he inhaled. He sucked in the clouds. The people dreamed of a
white thing, and their dreams he sucked in, with their best bow strings
and the straight-flying reeds. All the different belongings which lay
around he gathered and slowly turned back. Hidden in the blue darkness,
he came to me, circling around, shouting, four times on his journey.
Then he homeward took his way, circling, howling, four times, and
shouting reached his bed. With pleasure he felt all directions thud. The
east echoed.
In the sunset direction was Black Kangaroo Mouse, an expert robber. To
him I sent my cry. He was friendly to me and came hidden in black
darkness, sitting down four times upon his way. Magic fire covered the
edges of his trail. When he reached me. he looked in all directions. The
magic trail brightly lay before him. He threw black darkness around him
and slowly reached the enemy, sitting down four times upon the trail. He
found a bag of the enemy, with much prized possessions. It was tied one
knot on top of another) but he bit them off. He took from it the blue
necklaces, blue earrings, and the different belongings lying around
gathered up with him. Then he slowly took his way back on the magic
trail, with magic fire everywhere. Hidden in his yellow darkness, he
returned to me. He left the others at the council and in darkness took
his homeward way, resting four times. He sat on his bed and felt all
directions of the earth rustling in the darkness. Darkness lay all
around.
I called on Owl, the white blood-sucker. To him I sent my cry. He was
friendly and came down to me with four thin flys (sailing) on the way.
He looked in all directions. The magic trail brightly before him lay. He
flew, with four thin flys, toward the enemy. The mountain of their power
which stood in the land he bit off short. The springs he bit off, and
their very good dreams. The best bow strings and the straight-flying
reeds he grasped and cut very short. He bit off their flesh and made
holes in their bones. From the things gathered, he made a belt from a
bowstring. Then he returned. He came through the whitish mist of dawn in
four flights. The people held a council. Leaving them there, he after
four thin flys reached his bed in the gray dawn mist. Then in all
directions he heard the darkness rattling, as he lay there.
FOUR FLUTES
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mim/mim03.htm
After sundown Coyote saw the fire, entered the assembly house, and told everyone about it. Flute-player (Mouse) said nothing. The people told Flute-player to go out and look at the fire. Flute-player merely said, "Yes." He took with him four flutes, but told no one
p. 285
when he left
When he descended into the assembly house, he found the people asleep. He went to the fire and filled two of his flutes with coals. Again he visited the fire, filling two more. He filled four flutes with the fire.
Finally, he arrived at home, arrived with his fire in the four flutes. Coyote came down the mountains to search for him, for he feared that someone had killed Flute-player. Flute-player sent Coyote back ahead of him to tell the people that he was returning with the fire. Coyote ran back and told the people to gather wood, told them that Flute-player was bringing the fire.
The people in the middle cooked their food. The, others ate theirs raw. They talked different languages from the people in the middle. The west people talked differently; the south people talked differently; the north people talked differently; the east people talked differently. The middle people talked correctly, for they were around the fire. The people who were around the fire cooked their food. The people in the middle obtained the acorns and the manzanita. The others had nothing to eat. That which they ate was always raw. It was Coyote's fault, that the others talked incorrectly. If Coyote had said nothing, all would have received fire. He spoiled the scheme, when he shouted at Flute-player, for Flute-player stopped. He stopped before he had played the fourth flute and before he had distributed all of the fire.
SHORT MYTH FOUR DAYS FOUR BUNDLES FOUR PLACES--- IF A MYTH HAS NO NUMBERS IT HAS NO NUMBERS IF IT HAS NUMBERS FOUR IS DOMINANT AND QUADRANT PATTERN THAT IS TRUE OF ALL MYTHS ALL CULTURES
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/dow/dow39.htm
After four days the water began to go down, leaving more land on top of the mountain, so that Ko-to'-lah had to make several leaps to reach the water. This gave O'-ye the advantage and he ran after her and caught her. When he had caught her he was surprised to find that she was his own wife from over the ocean. Then he was glad.
woman, who originally came from San Rafael, gave me a slightly different version. She said that O'-ye the Coyote-man made the feathers up into four bundles, which he set in the ground in four different places--one in the west, at San Rafael; one in the east, at Sonoma; one in the north, near Santa Rosa, and one in the south, on the south side of San Francisco Bay. Next morning all had turned into people, each bundle becoming a distinct tribe, speaking a language wholly different from the languages of the others.
FOURTH NIGHT- FOUR DAYS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/dow/dow59.htm
GHOSTS HUNT FOR A BIG ANIMAL IN THE OCEAN
The Mokalumne say:
After a person dies and is buried the heart-spirit comes out and shakes itself to shake off the earth, and then sails away in the air and disappears--going northwest to the ocean. This may happen on the fourth night, or at any time between the first and fourth.
The Ghost goes to the ocean and enters the water and finds a large animal [probably a whale] whose breast it immediately lays hold of and sucks. If it does not take the breast of this animal it can not live in the ocean with the other Ghosts, but in from two to four days returns and reënters the body from
FOUR DAYS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/dow/dow55.htm
GHOSTS MAY COME BACK IN SOO-KOO'-ME THE OWL
The Middle Mewuk of Tuolumne River say:
When a person dies, Oo'leus the heart-spirit remains in the dead body for four days. During these four days everyone is quiet and the children are not allowed to run about or make a noise. On the morning of the fourth day the people sprinkle ashes on the ground over the buried basket of burnt bones--or over the grave if the corpse were buried instead of burned. On that day the heart spirit leaves the body in the invisible form of Hinnan Soos the Wind Spirit, or Soo-les'-ko the Ghost, and proceeds westward. That night it may come back in Soo-koo'-me the Owl, or in some other animal; so look out.
Some Ghosts are good, others bad. At last they all go to the ocean and cross over on a long pole to the Roundhouse of the dead, where they remain.
FOUR OF THEM- FOUR POINTS COMPASS- REPETITION OF FOUR DIRECTIONS QUADRANT
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/mmi/mmi07.htm
Wa-há:-wut, the woman, observed Ouiot and read his thoughts, and she was filled with anger against him. When she told her people of his feelings towards her, they conspired together and said, "We will kill him." So the four of them, Wa-há:-wut, Ká-ro-ut, Mórta, and Yó-wish (people then, but later, the frog, the earthworm, the gopher, and a water animal resembling the gopher), combined to destroy him by witchcraft.
As soon as they had finished their work, Ouiot fell sick; and tried in vain to ease his pain, sending north, south, east, and west for remedies, but nothing could avail. He grew so much worse that he Jay there helpless, unable to rise. Wa-há:-wut and her helpers came and jeered at him, and because he lingered so long in his illness they gave him the name of Ouiot. His real name was Moyla.
Then a man, named Má:-wha-la, arose and said, "What is the matter with all of you people? You call yourselves witches, and yet you cannot cure our sick brother, or even determine the cause of his illness."
So the rattlesnake, then a man, and a great witch-doctor, who knew everything, searched north, south, east, and west, trying to find out some way to help Ouiot, or to learn what was the matter with him, but in vain.
Ouiot was getting worse all the time, and he called his best friend, Cha-há:t-mal (the kingbird), a great captain and a very good man, and told him that he had been poisoned, and named the four who had done it, and told him the reason for their hatred of him, and that he soon must die; and to Cha-há:-mal alone he disclosed the truth that he would soon return. "Look towards the east for my coming in the early morning," he said. So Cha-ha-mal knew the secret.
There was a man (now kangaroo-rat) who made a carrying-net in which to lift Ouiot; and they sent to all four points of the compass for wood, the sycamore, black oak, and white oak, tule, hemlock, and
FOUR IS REPEATED A LOT- THE NUMBER THAT IS REPEATED THE SECOND MOST IS SIX AND SIX IS REPEATED TWICE
MOVED FOUR TIMES- FOUR RESOURCES FOUR STEPS FOUR DIRECTIONS- FOUR TRIALS-
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/tmmi/tmmi04.htm
According to the Mohave, the first were the sky, a man, and the earth, a woman. These met far in the west, and from them were born, first Matevilye, and after him his daughter the frog, Mastamho who is usually called his younger brother, all the people, the animals, and plants. All these went upward toward the east, under the leadership of Matevilye. Matevilye himself did not walk. He merely moved four times, twice to the left and twice to the right. Thereby he arrived at Ahavulypo, a narrow defile on the Colorado River above Cottonwood Island, probably near the lower end of Eldorado Canyon. He stretched out his arms to the ends of the world and thereby found this spot to be the centre of the earth. Here he built a house. He became sick because the frog his daughter, whom he had offended by an indecency, ate his excrement; and it was known that he would die. When he died, Coyote, whose intentions were suspected, was
The remaining bones and ashes were offensive to the people. Mastamho therefore successively made wind, hail, and rain to obliterate them, but failed. As a fourth resource he then went far northward in four steps, taking the people with him. Plunging his stick into the ground, he made water come forth. Three times he stopped this with his foot, until the fourth time it flowed southward to form the Colorado River. As the water flowed, a boat emerged from the ground. He entered this and put the people into it with himself. They constituted six tribes not yet separated. As the boat floated down the river, he tilted it to one side and the other, making the river valley flat and wide in the places where he did so.
When the boat arrived at the ocean, the head of the Gulf of California, Mastamho left it and Went northward, carrying the people on his arms. The water was deep and he ascended a mountain. Everything was covered with water except the top of this peak. By taking a step in each of the four cardinal directions, he made the water recede. He then planted seeds of the vegetation which was to furnish subsistence to the desert tribes. Then, still accompanied by all the people, he went on northward to Avikwame, the sacred mountain of the Mohave, not far north from their villages, and called Dead or Newberry Mountain by the whites. There he too built a house for himself and the people.
He made the people shout four times and thus produced daylight, the sun, and the moon. Then he tried the medicine-men, making those sit down who did not talk properly, and designating those who spoke right. These men upon being born on earth would be successful shamans.
Then Mastamho sent off five of the tribes, telling them what country to inhabit and how to live. The sixth, the Mohave, he ordered to stay in the adjacent country and there to live and build their houses. Then he was alone. He questioned himself what to do and how to "die," that is to say, what shape to assume to terminate his existence in human form. He tried departing in various directions and sinking into the ground, but was dissatisfied. Then he stretched out his arms. Feathers grew over him until he had wings. On the fourth trial he was able to fly. Then he went off as the fish eagle.
SAND PAINTINGS WERE USED IN FOUR CEREMONIES
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/roli/roli06.htm
The sand-painting was used in four ceremonies: Mani, the toloache ritual; Wukunish, the girl's ceremony; the ant-ordeal; and in Unish Matakish, 24 the ceremony for burying the feathers of a toloache initiate when he died. 25
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/roli/img/fig05.jpg
THE REPRESENTATION OF THE EARTH WAS A QUADRANT
Fig. 5.—Sand-painting, torokhoish, representing tamaiawot, the earth.
A part of the initiation ceremonies were connected with a ground-painting in the wamgush. The painting was made with red and yellow paint, paesul and navyot, ashes for white, and charcoal for black, on the ground which formed the background of the painting. The entire picture, which was circular and represented the world, was called torokhoish. (Fig. 5). The circle was bisected from north to south and from east to west. At each end of the two diameters were represented the bear and the rattlesnake. The four radii formed by the intersecting diameters, and pointing as it were to the cardinal directions, were called tamaiawot pomo, the hands of the world. Parallel to the circle on one side, and apparently outside of it, was a representation of mountains, tota-kolauwot, literally, rock-wood or stone-timber. This representation may have consisted of no more than a line. In the two quadrants of the circle farthest away from this mountain symbol, were placed representations respectively of the raven, and of the spider called kuikhingish, or the tarantula. In the center of the circle, where the two diameters intersected, was a hole perhaps a foot and a half across, called the navel. This is said to have had reference to death, to have represented the grave, and indicated to the initiates the fate that would overtake them if they disobeyed. (The ceremonial feathers of an initiate were buried in this hole after his death.) The world is thought to be tied at the north, south, east, and west with hair-ropes, yula-wanaut or yula-wanal. At each of its four ends is a little hill, khawimal, and a rod or cane, nakhat, to which one of the four hair ropes is tied. It is not clear whether this is only a cosmological conception or was also represented in the painting. The entire torokhoish
LUISENOS GAMBLING AME USES FOUR PIECES OF BONE FOUR OF WOOD- FOUR PLAYERS- FOUR COUNTERS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/coli/coli16.htm
The chief gambling game of the Luiseños, tepanish, Spanish pion, is played with four small pieces of bone and four of wood dyed black. Fifteen sticks of wood about a foot long and of the thickness of a lead pencil are used as counters. Each pair of the pieces of bone and wood is tied to the ends of a doubled string about a foot long. These pieces of wood and bone represent whites and blacks. There are four players on each side. The four who play on one side each take a white and a black piece and sling them to their wrists by the strings, concealing their movements under a blanket or other covering. One of the opposing players then guesses in which hand the white pieces are held. Should he guess all four correctly, his opponents do not take any of the counters; should he guess three correctly, they take one; should he guess two correctly, they take two; should he only guess one correctly, they take three; while should he miss all four, they take four counters. The players whose white pieces are not guessed continue to hide them, their side receiving one counter for each mistaken guess, until the last piece on the first side is correctly guessed. The four players of the opposite side then take the sticks and bones, and one of their opponents guesses in which hand the white pieces are. This is kept up until one side has all the fifteen counters, thus winning the game.
FOUR TYPES OF BASKETS- USE FOUR MATERIALS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/eci/eci04.htm
to the ordinary types of basketry serving a wider and more general function, it is apparent that the Cahuilla show a limitation in the number and variability of forms that is as striking as is the confinement of materials to three or four plants. In brief, the types of the ordinary baskets of the Cahuilla and other Mission Indians are only four. These may be described as the flat basket, the shallow basket, the large deep basket, and the small globular basket. These are all executed in the same materials, weave, and fineness of technique, with similar patterns. The constricted or bottle-necked basket of the San Joaquin valley, the oval basket found here and there among many tribes, the feather or bead-ornamented basket of the Porno, the conical carrying basket of California in general, are all absent. That certain of these forms, such as the oval basket, are found at the present day, seems to be due to the stimulus of basket buying by the whites, as no oval baskets have been seen in use among the Indians. The uniformity in size of each of the four classes of baskets that have been enumerated is also quite striking. The smallest pieces have half or more the diameter of the largest specimens of the same class. Among other California tribes baskets of the same shape range from a few inches to nearly as many feet.
The small globular basket (Pl. 7) is the least common of the four types. It serves to keep small utensils and trinkets. The diameter is usually somewhat greater than the height. The mouth is of the same size as the bottom, or sometimes smaller. No attempt is made to form a neck or constriction that will produce a lip, or an urn-shaped vessel. Occasionally one of these small globular baskets is found with a thong across its mouth by which it can be suspended. All baskets of this type that have been seen are ornamented; but the design is like that of other shapes, except in more frequently presenting a vertical arrangement instead of a disposition of the pattern in a horizontal band.
FOUR FORMS OF POTTERY
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/eci/eci06.htm
There are four principal forms of Cahuilla pottery: a small-mouthed jar for water and perhaps for the storage of seeds; a somewhat wider-mouthed jar; a cooking pot, of which the mouth is approximately of the same diameter as the body of the vessel; and an open bowl or dish of perhaps half as great a depth as diameter. (Pl. 9, upper figures and lower left.) These forms are made with comparatively little variation except in size, and are identical with Mohave types, even to the binding of the bowl or dish with a strip of mesquite fibre just below the rim to insure greater strength. The only divergent forms that have been seen are a vessel with incurved mouth (Pl. 9, lower right), thus being intermediate in form between the open dish and the jar; and one or two small roughly-made dishes of a dull dark red
THERE ARE FOUR FORMS OF KACHINA (I REMEMBER I HAD TO MAKE A KACHINA IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi_Kachina_figure
General features[edit]
There are four generally accepted forms of the kachina figures; each form is meant to represent a different stage of postnatal development.
Putsqatihu – these figures are made specifically for infants; these are simply flat figures that contain enough characteristics of the kachina so it is identifiable.
Putstihu taywa’yla – these figures have flat bodies and three-dimensional faces that are generally meant for toddlers.
Muringputihu – these figures have cylindrical bodies, fully carved heads, and are meant specifically for infant girls.
Tithu – the traditional, full bodied kachina figures that is given to Hopi girls aged two and up at Hopi ceremonies. These figures represent the final stage of postnatal development.[24]
FOUR STYLISTIC PERIODS OF KACHINAS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi_Kachina_figure
Except for major ceremonial figures, most katcina figures originated in the late 19th century. The oldest known surviving figure dates back from the 18th century—it was a flat object with an almost indistinguishable shape that suggested a head and contained minimal body paint.[6] Kachina figures are generally separated into four stylistic periods: the Early Traditional, Late Traditional, Early Action, and Late Action periods.[7]
HOPI BELIEVE IN THE FOUR WORLDS (FOURTH TRANSCENDENT)- THIRD WORLD IS WICKED- THIRD ALWAYS BAD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi_mythology
Four Worlds[edit]
Hopi legend tells that the current earth is the Fourth World to be inhabited by Tawa's creations. The story states that in each previous world, the people, though originally happy, became disobedient and lived contrary to Tawa's plan. They engaged in sexual promiscuity, fought one another, and would not live in harmony. The most obedient were delivered (usually by Spider Woman) to the next higher world, with physical changes occurring both in the people in the course of their journey, and in the environment of the next world. In some stories, the former world was then destroyed along with their wicked inhabitants, whereas in others the good people were simply led away from the chaos which had been created by their actions.
Masauwu, Skeleton Man, was the Spirit of Death, Earth God, door keeper to the Fifth World, and the Keeper of Fire. He was also the Master of the Upper World, or the Fourth World, and was there when the good people escaped the wickedness of the Third World for the promise of the Fourth.[8] Masauwu is described as wearing a hideous mask, but again showing the diversity of myths among the Hopi, Masauwu was alternately described as a handsome, bejewelled man beneath his mask or as a bloody, fearsome creature. He is also assigned certain benevolent attributes.[9] One story has it that it was Masauwu who helped settle the Hopi at Oraibi and gave them stewardship over the land. He also charged them to watch for the coming of the Pahana (see section below), the Lost White Brother.[10] Other important deities include the twin war gods, the kachinas, and the trickster, Coyote.
THIS IS VERY INTERESTING THE DIEGUENO ACTUALLY ARE AN EXAMPLE OF A TRIBE THAT REPEATS THREE MORE THAN FOUR- THREE IS THE TRIAD TRINITY- FOUR IS THE TRANSCENDENT QUATERNITY-
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi16.htm
BUT IT IS INTERSTING- THERE IS A FOOTNOTE THAT SAYS THAT ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE TRIBE DID IT FOUR TIMES AND NOT THREE TIMES- HE DID THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH
317:101 One man did it four times instead of three.
THIS IS VERY INTERESTING THE DIEGUENO ACTUALLY ARE AN EXAMPLE OF A TRIBE THAT REPEATS THREE MORE THAN FOUR- THREE IS THE TRIAD TRINITY- FOUR IS THE TRANSCENDENT QUATERNITY-
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi16.htm
BUT IT IS INTERSTING- THERE IS A FOOTNOTE THAT SAYS THAT ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE TRIBE DID IT FOUR TIMES AND NOT THREE TIMES- HE DID THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH
317:101 One man did it four times instead of three.
THE TRINITY IS ALWAYS TRYING TO BECOME A QUATERNITY- THE TRINITY IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH QUATERNITY- THE FIRST THREE ARE THE INTERCONNECTED THREE VERY SIMILAR- FOURTH IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT AND TRANSCENDENT YET CONTAINS PREVIOUS THREE--- I NOTICED THAT THE VERY POPULAR WELL KNOWN TRIBES TEND TO REALLY EMPHASIZE THE FOUR AND REALLY EXPRESS THE QUATERNITY- THE LESS POPULAR TRIBES LIKE THE DIEGUENO ARE TRYING TO MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE QUATERNITY- THEY SAY A LOT OF THREES BUT IT IS FASCINATING- IN THE LAST THING I READ IT SAID THAT WHILE EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE TRIBE REPEATED THE THING THREE TIMES ONE MEMBER DID A FOURTH TIME---- HE WAS BREAKING OUT OF THE TRINITY INTO THE QUATERNITY
OK AGAIN INTERESTING- LIKE I SAID THE FAMOUS AMERINDIAN TRIBES TEND TO REALLY EMPHASIZE THE FOUR- THE DIEGUENO IS NOT VERY WELL KNOWN AND THEY SEEM TO BE MORE IN THE THREE MODE- THEY TEND TO EMPHASIZE THE THREE--- THEY ARE MORE IN THE TRINITY SET
BUT! THEY ARE MAKING THEIR WAY TO THE QUATERNITY- THEY ARE EXPRESSING THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH IN SUBTLE WAYS- FOR INSTANCE IN THIS CEREMONY THERE IS A CONTINUOUS REPETITIN OF THREE EXPULSIONS OF BREATH- BUT ON ONE OF HE OCCURECNES THE THREE EXPULSIONS ARE "FOLLOWED AFTER AN INSTANT BY A FOURTH"------ THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi17.htm
At the twelfth repetition the leader cried out "tea." The dancers in response gave three quick expulsions of the breath, followed after an instant by a fourth. The leader then cried: "Paropum, paropum!" (throw it away!) The dancers then repeated the last gesture.
DEIGUENO FOUR DICE GAME- TWO SIDES OF FOUR PLAYERS EACH
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/img/fig03.jpg
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi20.htm
The Diegueño play at the present time several gambling games. Some of these have been introduced by the Mexicans and Americans. A four-dice game (fig. 3) is said to have been learned from the Mohave. The large, flat wooden "dice "with which it is played are found only among the southern Diegueño, who are nearest the influence of the Mohave and other eastern tribes of the Yuman family. A gambling game with stick and hoop, in which the player tries to throw the stick through the hoop while rolling, is mentioned in Diegueño mythology. 123 This game is no longer played. There is a game played by the Diegueño at the present day, however, which is believed by them to be of ancient origin. This game, called "peon," in Diegueño homarp, is mentioned in the Chaup myth. 124 It is the only game among the Diegueño which is played ceremonially. 124a
The game is played by two sides of four players each. Each individual is provided with two small cylindrical objects of bone or wood, similar except that one has a black band around the middle. These cylinders or "peons," in Diegueño nyumumarpai, are clasped one in each fist of the player. One side guesses in which hand the other side hold their white peons.
THE DIEGUENO ASSOCIATE FOUR COLORS WITH THE FOUR DIRECTIONS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi21.htm
COLORS AND DIRECTION.
Among the Diegueño exists a peculiar association of direction with color. 126a The two ideas appear together frequently both in their myths and in their religious formulas and rituals.
p. 333
[paragraph continues] North is associated with red, east with white, south with blue or green, these colors not being distinguished by the Diegueño, and west with black.
One of the songs accompanying the Eagle dance given above is:
The white eagle puts his nest on cliffs.
The eagle from the west puts his nest on sycamore along the edge of the creeks.
The eagle from the west is in the song contrasted with a "white" eagle. The western eagle seems therefore to occur to the native mind as black. The association of west with black is carried out by the statement of the old men, that when the dancers witch a white eagle to death in the Eagle-dance, as described above, "they send him east. When they kill a black eagle they send him west."
In the myth of Chaup, 127 there is shown a corresponding feeling for color connected with north and south. "The elder sister, who was a witch-doctor and knew everything, stood up and held her hand to the north and brought down a red stone. ... Then she held up her hands to the south and got a blue stone of the same sort." Further on in this same story, 128 the corresponding colors for east and west are indicated. "The boys stood and held their hands to the east and got some white clay and with it they painted their cheeks. Then they held their hands to the west and got some black clay."
A complete color-system for the four cardinal points has already been quoted in connection with the Clothes-burning ceremony. The account of the original ceremony is as follows:
From the north he (the first man making the ceremony) brought a red rock, from the east a gleaming white rock, from the south a green rock, and from the west a black rock because the sun sets there. Then he said: "My father and grandfather are dead, so now I sing."
menai dispa tcawai tcawi
menai dispa tcawai tcawi
(pointing)
xitol kawak enyak awik
amai amut
now dead I sing
now dead I sing
(pointing)
North, South, East, West
up, down
p. 334
Certain passages in Diegueño mythology seem to indicate that this system is not always understood. In the Chaup story, for instance, the following passage occurs: 129 "Then she held up her hand to the sky and got a black sticky substance . . . and then she reached out her hand toward the west and got some shining stuff like quicksilver." This of course contradicts the statement already made, that west is associated with black and east with "gleaming white." The author of the quoted passage, however, elsewhere confuses her Diegueño directions east and west. In her paper in the present series 130 east is given as awik, and west as nyak, the terms being reversed. The confusion of the color association in the above passage may therefore have risen only in the English translation, and not from any confusion in the mind of the native narrator.
The colors are however to a certain extent confused by the Diegueño themselves. The present writer for instance obtained the following sentence from an old man at Campo named Tciwal: "He reached his hand to the north (he was a wonderful medicine man) and got a blue flint." North of course ought properly to be "red." In this case the contradiction came from an actual confusion in the informant's mind. The writer's attention was attracted by the violation of the usual color rule and the argument which followed precluded the possibility of any misunderstanding of the narrator's words.
It must be said however that in all such violations of the rule which have so far come to light in Diegueño mythology, the color in question is always applied to the direction opposite to the proper one if any mistake is made. North and south are always identified with one pair of colors, east and west with another. The order within these pairs merely is sometimes reversed. On the whole, in spite of occasional discrepancies, the color-system outlined above may be considered well established.
FOUR ACTIVITIES- FOUR FOODS FOUR GLYPHS FOUR COLUMNS FOUR DIRECTIONS FOUR COLORS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/ybac/ybac11.htm
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/ybac/img/01300.jpg
Here, in section, or tzolkin 64 of the Dresden, we see the figure of Itzamná in four different activities, in each accompanied by one of the four major food animals, the turkey, iguana, fish and deer. Above each are four glyphs, the first identical save for the subfix element in the fourth column; this may be taken as en introductory to an invocation, or chanting rhythm, such as actually found in one of our most important Maya manuscripts, the Ritual of the Bacabs. The four glyphs across in the second Line represent the North, West, South and East. In the next position we see the head as of a 'lord,' wearing a ceremonial banded headdress, preceded by the known signs for the four colors attached to the four Directions: White, Black, Yellow, Red. In the bottom row the repeated glyph of Itzamná, accepted as such from its constant occurrence above his figure as shown here.
REPETITION OF FOURS- EARTHMAKER CROSS FOUR SNAKES
http://www.hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.CreationOfWorld.html
Version 10 (fragmentary). After Earthmaker created the waters and the land, he saw that his creation was not stable. It was always in motion and would not stop. To put the earth at rest, he fashioned four trees, and these he hurled down to the four quarters that they might anchor the earth. The first of these was an oak of very smooth bark, and it anchored the south. It was the first tree ever created. After this, the earth was more stable.11
Version 12 of the Medicine Rite. There above someone lay stretched out. He came into consciousness. He said to himself, "What am I?" Then he took pity upon himself and his tears flowed in profusion to the expanse below. He moved each of his four limbs in succession. "I wonder if it shall be good?" he asked himself. He took a small piece of flesh out of his right side and stretched it until he had formed a ball out of it. This he cast down below. It shown forth with light so that all about was illuminated. There he saw it like a globe falling into an earthless void. He watched it as it moved east, north, west, and south across worlds without horizon. He was pleased with what he had created. Then he decided to create a world where he himself could dwell. Thereafter he created a second and third world. Finally, he created a smaller fourth world, which he made into a globe. He took his thumb and pressed it flat so that it would not bob up and down in the waters below. Yet this fourth world did not remain still, so Earthmaker asked himself, "How can I keep this world quiet?" So he took four Island Weights and placed the first in the east. The second he placed where the cold comes from, and that one was in control of very white life. The third he placed in the west, and the youngest he placed where the sun straightens out. South was given charge over the most amount of life. Yet the earth was not quiet, so Earthmaker created four great Waterspirits and placed them beneath Grandmother in a row in the east. Even so, the earth was not quiet. Therefore, Earthmaker made four Spirit Walkers, serpents, and sewed the earth so that their tails were seen in the east and their head protruded above ground in the west. Nevertheless, the earth was not quiet. So he created a large sacred woman out of some flesh he took from the right part of his body. He cast her down, and she struck the ground with immense force directly below Earthmaker, and the force of her impact broke her into many pieces. Great was the noise and the light that shown forth. Yet the earth was not quiet. Then with his own hands Earthmaker created four immense trees. These he cast down, and they too fragmented into a myriad of smaller trees that were spread over the whole earth. Then he created smaller trees. "That will be good," he said to himself. Then he created with his own hands something čo (blue/green). And he cast this down and like everything before it, it too shattered into a myriad of pieces. These became the grasses and herbs, including those from which medicines may be made. Only then did the earth become still. Our Grandmother was beautiful in her covering of verdant green. "This is it, and it is good," said Earthmaker to himself. [Continuation of the story.]14
(1) "The Great Spirit at first waked up as from a dream, and found himself (2) sitting on a chair. On finding himself alone, he took a piece of his body, near his breast, and a piece of earth, and from them made a man. He then proceeded to make three other men. After talking awhile with the men he had created, the Great Spirit made a woman who was this earth, which is the grandmother of the Indians. The four men which were first created are the four winds — east, west, north, and south. The earth, after it was created, rocked about; and the Great Spirit made four beasts and four snakes, and put them under the earth, to steady and support it. But when the winds blew, the beasts and snakes could not keep the earth steady. And the Great Spirit made a great buffalo, and put him under the earth. This buffalo is the land which keeps the earth steady." [Continuation of the story.]15
Version 14, from the Chief of the Tribe, 1823. "According to the ideas of these Indians, the earth is a plane, resting upon the water: that it was imperfectly formed, and moved like a balance, with the motion of the waters, to remedy which the great spirit formed the four winds and placed them upon the four corners of the earth, commanding them to rest there and keep the earth in its proper position, since which time it has always retained its place. This description applies peculiarly to America, which is supposed to be an island, surrounded by a vast sea, on the opposite side of which in an easterly direction, is a very large country bounded at its eastern extremity by the skies."16
Commentary. General — Why is the creative act expressed in terms of spinning? One explanation might lie in the most important creative act among humans: the starting of fire. Fire, whether ignited by a fire drill or by hand, causes a stick to spin back and forth with such speed that fire results from friction.
Version 1 — The members of the Medicine Rite were a special society that believed that the rituals associated with the Medicine Dance would give them immortal life. This version, although it was collected most recently, is the least influenced by Christianity, and is therefore the oldest.
Version 3 —"[inset]" — This is a Mississippian pictograph of four snake-Waterspirits quartered around a symbol of the Center contained within a double set of concentric circles (representing the earth, presumeably). The rim around the "Earthmaker Cross" probably represents the Ocean Sea (Te Ją) which encircles the earth, and over which Waterspirits would hold governance. The heads are "panther-like" and have teeth appropriate to mammals and not serpents. This helps identify them as Waterspirits, which are also known as "Water Panthers." The tear-drop design around the eyes may indicate salt water, a reinforcement of their positioning at the oceanic rim of the world. The Waterspirits come in two varieties, those with speckled heads and those that do not. This corresponds to the distinction between Good and Bad Waterspirits, the latter having bodies that are speckled. They might be better described as Piasa, since they have wings, a feature lacking in Hočąk Waterspirits as far as is known. However, the wings might indicate their celestial origins, since the Great Spirit cast them down from above.
AGAIN NOTICE HOW THE DIEGUENO HAVE THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR- IT KEEPS SAYING "THREE OR FOUR TIMES"-- IT MENTIONS HOW OTHER NUMBERS DO NOT APPEAR WITH THE DIEGUENO AND THREE AND FOUR MOSTLY APPEAR- AND IT SAYS "CEREMONIAL NUMBERS VARY BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR"--- AGAIN THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR- THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THE TRINITY AND THE QUATERNITY--- THE GNOSTICS ACTUALLY SAW GOD THE FATHER AS EVIL TOO FULL OF RULES AND TOO HATEFUL TOO JUDGEMENTAL AND MEAN WIPING OUT AND KILLING PEOPLE MAKING FLOODS AND ALL OF THAT- WHEREAS THE QUATERNITY THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH SATAN WAS NOT AS EVIL
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi22.htm
CEREMONIAL NUMBERS.
A prominent element in all ritualism, whether of the primitive or civilized variety, is the consciousness of a sacred or ceremonial number. The exact implication of the term "ceremonial number" is illustrated by what we know of the special significance among Hebrews of the number seven: or among Christians, especially Roman Catholics, of the number three. A corresponding usage is apparent in all the religious practices of the Diegueño. The author can say, however, what every reader of the foregoing pages has seen for himself, that more or less confusion exists. The Diegueño themselves are unconscious of any rule. Nor does their mythology reflect any definite feeling in the matter. In the absence of direct testimony, however, we can derive certain conclusions from the rituals themselves. Ceremonial actions and gestures are repeated usually either three or four times. The frequent "growling or groaning sound accompanied by blowing," and the exclamation "mwau," are repeated usually thrice, and only occasionally four times. In the latter case, the third repetition is felt by the people to be "doubled." "The last one is just for winding up," is the way one informant put it. In the Horloi dance the saucer of tobacco is raised three times; and many other instances could be quoted. Six sometimes occurs, appearing to be however a duplication of three. Two and also seven do not appear. Five was observed by the writer only once. The ceremonial number varies therefore between three and four, and of these, while the feeling is not very definite, three is much the more usual.
THE STORY IS ABOUT THE FOUR STRANGERS- THREE ARE BROTHERS FOURTH IS A COMPANION- THE FOURTH IS DIFFERENT- THIS IS THE QUADRANT PATTERN- IT IS LIKE THE THREE ISRAELITES THROWN INTO THE FIRE AND THERE WAS THE TRANSCENDENT FOURHT OR THE FOUR COMFORTERS IN JOB THE FOURTH IS DIFFERENT FROM THE PREVIOUS THREE
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/inu/tte/tte2-023.htm
THERE were three brothers, the eldest of whom was named Sitliarnat. One day they all went out hunting on the frozen sea, accompanied by a person who was in no way related to them. All of a sudden a south-east storm arose, the ice creaked and gave way beneath their feet, and nothing remained to them but to mount an iceberg. Having got there, they drifted far away out on the great ocean. They were nearly starving with hunger when they at length touched upon an unknown shore and landed there. They now went roaming about the country in search of people, and passed an isthmus on which they observed a little hut with only one window. Sitliarnat then spoke, "Let them make me their first prize;" and he went on and crossed the threshold in front of his companions. Inside the house they only found an old couple, who seemed to be its sole inhabitants. The four strangers seated themselves on the ledge; but finding that nobody spoke, the old man began to eye them more closely, and having breathed upon them, asked them, "Whence do you come?" Sitliarnat answered him, "Some time ago we set off from the land on the other side of the ocean, and went out on the ice to catch seals; but a gale from the south-east came on, breaking up the ice and drifting us across to your country. So here we are; three of us are brothers, and the fourth is a companion of ours." Turning to his wife the old man observed, "After travelling so far people are apt to get hungry," upon which they added some words which the people did not understand. The wife fetched some p. 194 blubber in a pan, put it on to boil, and gave it them served up in a wooden dish; but though they were almost fainting with hunger, they only tasted a very little of it.
AGAIN NOTICE HOW THE DIEGUENO HAVE THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR- IT KEEPS SAYING "THREE OR FOUR TIMES"-- IT MENTIONS HOW OTHER NUMBERS DO NOT APPEAR WITH THE DIEGUENO AND THREE AND FOUR MOSTLY APPEAR- AND IT SAYS "CEREMONIAL NUMBERS VARY BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR"-- IT SAYS "THE BLOWING WAS USUALLY REPEATED THRICE BUT OCCASIONALLY FOUR TIEMS--- THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH--- AGAIN THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR- THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THE TRINITY AND THE QUATERNITY--- THE GNOSTICS ACTUALLY SAW GOD THE FATHER AS EVIL TOO FULL OF RULES AND TOO HATEFUL TOO JUDGEMENTAL AND MEAN WIPING OUT AND KILLING PEOPLE MAKING FLOODS AND ALL OF THAT- WHEREAS THE QUATERNITY THE TRANSCENDENT FOURTH SATAN WAS NOT AS EVIL
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/rpdi/rpdi22.htm
CEREMONIAL NUMBERS.
A prominent element in all ritualism, whether of the primitive or civilized variety, is the consciousness of a sacred or ceremonial number. The exact implication of the term "ceremonial number" is illustrated by what we know of the special significance among Hebrews of the number seven: or among Christians, especially Roman Catholics, of the number three. A corresponding usage is apparent in all the religious practices of the Diegueño. The author can say, however, what every reader of the foregoing pages has seen for himself, that more or less confusion exists. The Diegueño themselves are unconscious of any rule. Nor does their mythology reflect any definite feeling in the matter. In the absence of direct testimony, however, we can derive certain conclusions from the rituals themselves. Ceremonial actions and gestures are repeated usually either three or four times. The frequent "growling or groaning sound accompanied by blowing," and the exclamation "mwau," are repeated usually thrice, and only occasionally four times. In the latter case, the third repetition is felt by the people to be "doubled." "The last one is just for winding up," is the way one informant put it. In the Horloi dance the saucer of tobacco is raised three times; and many other instances could be quoted. Six sometimes occurs, appearing to be however a duplication of three. Two and also seven do not appear. Five was observed by the writer only once. The ceremonial number varies therefore between three and four, and of these, while the feeling is not very definite, three is much the more usual.
THE FOUR BACABS- 20 IS COUNTED AS FOUR TIMES FIVE- FOUR DOMINICAL LETTERS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/ybac/ybac38.htm
YUCATAN
BEFORE AND AFTER THE CONQUEST
PART TWO
SEC. XXXIV. COUNT OF THE YUCATECAN YEAR. CHARACTERS OF THE DAYS. THE FOUR BACABS AND THEIR NAMES. GODS OF THE 'UNLUCKY' DAYS.
The sun does not sink or go away far enough in this land of Yucatan for the nights to become longer than the days; thus in their full maximum, from San Andrés to Santa Lucia [Nov. 30 to Dec. 13] they are equal, and then they begin to lengthen. To know the hour of the night the natives governed themselves by the planet Venus, the Pleiades and the Twins. During the day they had terms for midday, and for different sections from sunrise to sunset, according to which they recognized and regulated their hours for work.
They had their perfect year like ours, of 365 days and 6 hours, which they divided into months in two ways. In the first the months were of 30 days and were called U, which signifies the moon, and they counted from the rising of the new moon until it disappeared.
In the other method the months had 20 days, and were called uinal hunekeh; of these it took eighteen to complete the year, plus five days and six hours. Out of these six hours they made a day every four years, so that they had a 366-day year every fourth time. *
For these 360 days they had 20 letters or characters by which to designate them, without assigning names to the five supplementary days, † as being
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sinister and unlucky. The letters are as follows, each with its name above to understand their correlation with ours.
Mayan Calendar Hieroglyphs
Click to enlarge
I have already related that the Indian method of counting was from five to five, and four fives making 20; thus then from these 20 characters they take the first of each set of five, so that each of these serves for a year as do our Dominical letters, being the initials days of the various 20-day months (or uinals). Thus:
Mayan Calendar Hieroglyphs
Among the multitude of gods worshipped by these people were four whom they called by the name Bacab. These were, they say, four brothers placed by God when he created the world, at its four corners to sustain the heavens lest they fall. They also say that these Bacabs escaped when the world was destroyed by the deluge. To each of these they give other names, and they mark the four points of the world where God placed them holding up the sky, and also assigned one of the four Dominical letters to each, and to the
p. 61
place he occupies; also they signalize the misfortunes or blessings which are to happen in the year belonging to each of these, and the accompanying letters.
The evil one, who has in this as in many other cases deceived them, fixed for them the services and offerings hat had to be made in order to evade these misfortunes. Thus if they failed to occur, they said it was because of the ceremonies performed; but if they did come to pass, the priests made the people believe that it was because of some error or fault in the ceremonies,
Kan
The first of these Dominical letters, then, is Kan. The year served by this letter had as augury that Bacab who was otherwise called Hobnil, Kanal-bacab, Kan-pauahtun, Kan-xibchac. To him belonged the South.
Muluc
The second letter, or Muluc, marked the East, and this year had as its augury the Bacab called Can-sicnal, Chacal-bacab, Chac-pauahtun, Chac-xibchac.
Ix
The third letter is Ix, and the augury for this year was the Bacab called Sac-sini, Sacal-bacab, Sac-pauahtun, Sac-xibchac, marking the North.
Cauac
The fourth letter is Cauac, its augury for that year being the Bacab called Hosan-ek, Ekel-bacab, Ek-pauahtun, Ek-xibchac; this one marked the West.
In whatever ceremony or solemnity these people celebrated for their gods, they always began by driving away the evil spirit, in order the better to perform it. This exorcism was at times by prayers and benedictions they had for this purpose, and at other times by services, offerings and sacrifices which they performed for that end. In order to celebrate the solemnity of the New Year with the greatest rejoicing and dignity, these people, with their false ideas, made use of the five supplementary days, which they regarded as 'unlucky,' and which preceded the first day of their new year, in order to put on a great fiesta for the above Bacabs and the evil one, to whom they gave four other names, as they had done to the Bacabs; these names were: Kan-uvayeyab, Chac-uvayeyab, Sac-uvayeyab, Ek-uvayeyab. * These ceremonies and fetes being over, and the evil one driven away, as we shall see, they began their new year.
Footnotes
59:* We now know that the Mayas knew the exact length of the true solar year as 365.2420 days, that is with a minus error of 0.0002, while our present Gregorian calendar has it as 365.2425, or a plus error of 0.0003. Also that they knew and recorded it on their monuments more than a thousand years before the Spaniards came, and while Europe still had the yet more incorrect method used in Landa's time, of an even day added each four years.
Every kind of guess has been made as to how the Aztecs and Mayas handled the leap-year correction, until very recent researches have proved beyond doubt that the Mayas, at least, solved it by first establishing a purely mathematical 'time unit' of 360 days, without fractions, and then adjusted not only the various lunar and planetary risings and periods, but also the solar year itself, with its seasons.
We also know that they knew the moon's period accurately, as 29.5209 days, but we find no evidence on the monuments or in the Maya records of any use of a 30-day month, in the ordinary sense.
59:† This is incorrect; the five last days of the year bore their names regularly, as shown elsewhere by Landa himself in describing the common 52-year cycle used for mundane matters p. 60 by both Mayas and Aztecs, or 52 × 365 days, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of each 4-year 'lustrum' beginning with the 6th, 11th and 16th in order of the twenty. Had the last 'five days been actually nameless, every year would have begun on the same day of the twenty. This also would have thrown their Long Count, or chronological order of days, completely out of order.
Throughout the following pages we have substituted the standard type forms of the characters for the days and months or uinals, for the shapes found in the Landa manuscript, there being no question of their identity. See the present writer's Outline Dictionary of Maya Glyphs.
61:* In the above names the words chac, sac, ek, kan mean respectively red, white, black and Yellow, the four colors assigned in this order to the East, North, West and South. It is delightful to note Landa's naive persistence that they always exorcised the evil one in order to worship him. Uvayeyab simply means 'the couch of the year.'
CHACS FOUR CORNERS- FOUR PLATTERS- FOUR BANNERS- FOUR DEITIES ACANTUNS- FOUR DIRECTIONS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/ybac/ybac44.htm
The chacs seated themselves in the four corners, and stretched from one to the other a new rope, inside of which all who had fasted had to enter, in order to drive out the evil spirit, as I related in chapter 96 (Sec. XXVI). When the evil one had been driven out, all began their devout prayers, and the chacs made
When the day of the festival had come, they all gathered in the appointed house, and did as in the others, except that there was no drawing of blood, since the patrons were the Bacabs, and especially Hobnil. They made many offerings, and especially to the four chacs they gave four platters with balls of incense in the middle of each, and painted on the rims with figures of honey, to bring abundance of which was the purpose of the ceremony. They ended it with wine as usual, in plenty, the hive owners giving honey for it in abundance.
After that destruction
INCENSE BURNER
Click to enlarge
INCENSE BURNER
only the province of Maní kept this up, while the other provinces in recognition of what they owed to Kukulcán made presents, one each year, turn and turn about, of four or sometimes five magnificent banners of feathers, sent to Maní; with which they kept this festival in that manner, and not in the former ways.
They put incense to be burned to the four deities called the Acantuns, which they brought and placed at the four cardinal points. They also brought the instruments with which to scarify themselves or draw blood from their ears; and also the tools for carving their black gods. When all these were ready in the hut, the priest, the chacs and the artisan shut themselves in the hut, and they began their making the gods, from time to time cutting their ears and anointing the statues herewith, and burning the incense. Thus they worked until they were finished, their families bringing to them their food and needs; during the period they were not to consort with their wives, even in thought; nor could any one enter that place where they worked.
THE MAYANS FIRST RITUAL WAS "THE RITUAL OF THE FOUR WORLD QUARTERS-- THE QUADRANT"- THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF WILD BEES IN THE FOUR QUARTERSThe red wild bees 6 are in the east. A large red blossom is their cup. The red Plumeria is their flower.
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/cbc/cbc06.htm
The white wild bees are in the north. The white pach¢a 7 is their flower. A large white blossom is their cup.
The black wild bees are in the west. The black laurel flower 8 is their flower. A large black blossom is their cup.
The yellow wild bees are in the south. A large yellow blossom 9 is their cup . . . is their flower./
TRANSLATION
I
(THE RITUAL OF THE FOUR WORLD-QUARTERS)
64:4 This name is spelled Muzencab in the Tizimin manuscript, so Mucencab is probably intended for Muçencab. Cab means hive or honey. As shown in Appendix A, the bees are closely connected with the Bacabs and the four world-quarters, and Dr. Redfield finds the Muzencabs invoked in the u hanli cab ceremony which is propitiatory of the gods of the bees. One native priest explained that "the Mulzencab-ob were a class of supernatural bees dwelling at Cobá. They report to Nohyumcab (Great-lord-of-the-hive), their superior, everything that happens in the apiary." Another native priest, or h-men, stated that the Nohyumcab and the Ah Muzencab were two gods in the form of large bees who governed all the bees (Letter from Dr. Robert Redfield).
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/cbc/img/fig27.jpg
FIG. 27--A map of northern Yucatan. 3 (Chumayel MS.).
Also <bring> the first sorcerers, there are four 11 of them. They are the gopher, the Spotted Agouti, the Mexican Agouti and the peccary.
quadrant
129:4 We can not but suspect that by the "mountain of God" the usual landmark consisting of a heap of stones surmounted by a cross is meant.
Son, have you seen the green water-holes in the rock? There are two of them; a cross is raised between them. They are a man's eyes.
FOUR STEPS OF THE COUGAR
http://www.hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.FourStepsOfCougar.html
this whole paragraph is about the four seasons, "not necessarily our seasons" as Radin observes.3 We see an alternation between sinking into earth (Our Grandmother), and sinking into snow (the One Whom They Call 'Nephew'). This corresponds to the two basic divisions of the year into the seasons with and without snow. At the beginning of time the spirits met to decide how the year should be divided between the darkness and light. Chipmunk came forward and suggested, "Let a year be as many moons are there are black and white stripes down my back." The counselors thought well of this suggestion, and allowed that the six black stripes would be the summer moons, and the six white stripes would be the moons of winter. (See Black and White Moons) Years are counted in winters, mąni, so the year (mą) should end with the last moon of winter.4 The year is measured out in the four steps of the cougar, which would mean two divisions of "summer" and two of "winter" for a total of four seasons. The four seasons are a temporal counterpart to the four cardinal directions of space, as space and time are usually seen to be isomorphic. As we see in the mythology of the deer, the limbs of a quadrupedal animal can stand for the four directions, and for the predator of such cervids, the four limbs now stand for the four divisions of time. The cougar begins the year (mą) by stepping on earth (mą). When he is through walking (mąni) he will have passed through a winter or year (mąni). "He extends by penetrating." That is, he moves forward (in time) by penetrating the earth/year (mą) as far as he can go and still retain the power of motion. He penetrates a quarter of a year, the first quarter that begins with the month of Hoiroginįną (Fish Appearing), when the land first becomes free of snow.5 It is our spring, a season associated with the eastern quarter, where the sun finds it beginning. They say of East, "... you grow life ... When you send sunshine to the earth, all grass stalks and trees, all the different fruit, everything comes up well."
AZTECS FOUR CREATOR GODS
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ca-Cr/Creation-Stories.html
Aztec mythology tells of four creator gods, each associated with a direction and a color—Tezcatlipoca, the north and black; Quetzalcoatl, the west and white; Huitzilopochtli, the south and blue; and Xipe Totec, the east and red. This drawing shows Hueheuteotl, the god of fire, surrounded by the four directions.
Read more: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ca-Cr/Creation-Stories.html#ixzz4hYmZGnht
FOUR CLASSES
http://www.crystalinks.com/olmec.html
Colossal Heads
While Olmec figurines are found abundantly in sites throughout the Formative Period, it is the stone monuments such as the colossal heads that are the most recognizable feature of Olmec culture. These monuments can be divided into four classes:
Colossal heads
Rectangular "altars" (more likely thrones)
Free-standing in-the-round sculpture, such as the twins from El Azuzul or San Martin Pajapan Monument 1.
Stelae, such as La Venta Monument 19 above. The stelae form was generally introduced later than the colossal heads, altars, or free-standing sculptures. Over time stelae moved from simple representation of figures, such as Monument 19 or La Venta Stela 1, toward representations of historical events, particularly acts legitimizing rulers. This trend would culminate in post-Olmec monuments such as La Mojarra Stela 1, which combines images of rulers with script and calendar dates.
THE NUMBER MENTIONED THE SECOND MOST OTHER THAN FOUR IS EIGHT- EIGHT IS MENTIONED THREE TIMES- FOUR RANGES- FOUR STAIRWAYS FOUR DIRECTIONS- FOUR ROOMS
http://sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/ybac/ybac46.htm
On the north was another range with cells, the same as the above, but the whole only half the length. On the west was another line of the cells, pierced at the fourth or fifth by an arcade going clear through the whole, like the one in the east front; then a round, rather tall building; then another arcade, and the rest cells like the others. This range crosses the whole court not quite in the center, thus making two courts, one to the back at the west, the other on the east, surrounded by four ranges as described. The last of these ranges however, to the south, is quite different. This consists of two sections, arched along the front like the rest, the front being a corridor of very thick pillars topped by very beautifully worked single stones. In the middle is a wall against which comes the arch of the two rooms, with two passageways from one to the other; the whole is thus enclosed above and serves as a retreat.
The first of the above structures, with the four ranges, was given to us by the admiral Montejo, all covered with heavy trees; we cleared it, and there built us a proper monastery all of stone, and a fine church which we called after the Mother of God. There was so much stone that after leaving the southern range, and part of the others, we gave much stone to the Spaniards for their houses, particularly for their doors and windows; such was the abundance.
This structure has four stairways looking to the four directions of the world, and 33 feet wide, with 91 steps to each that are killing to climb. The steps have the same rise and width as we give to ours. Each stairway has two low ramps level with the steps, two feet broad and of fine stonework, like all the rest of the structure. The structure is without corners, because starting from the base it narrows in, as shown, away from the ramps of the stairs, with round blocks rising by stages in a very graceful manner.
When I saw it there was at the foot of each side of the stairways the fierce mouth of a serpent, curiously worked from a single stone. When the stairways thus reach the summit, there is a small flat top, on which was a building with four rooms, each having a door in the middle, and arched above. The
Around this structure there were, and still today are, many others, well built and large; all the ground about them was paved, traces being still visible, so strong was the cement of which they were made. In front of the north stairway, at some distance, there were two small theatres of masonry, with four staircases, and paved on top with stones, on which they presented plays and comedies to divert the people.
OSAGE CREATION OF WORLD FOUR GODS FOUR DIVISIONS FOUR TIMES
Creation of the World (Osage)
The Osage creation story beings in the Above World.
The Osage creation story beings in the Above World.
According to the Puma clan’s origin tradition, of which I am related through the Hon-ga or Sacred One moiety, the Osages came from the sky, from among and of the stars. In the upper worlds, the Osages existed first as spirit beings and in their humility called themselves the Little Ones. The Little Ones decided that they should go down to earth to become a people. After receiving help and advice from four gods: the god of day, night, male star, and female star, the Little Ones asked Hon´-ga A-hiu-ton, the immature golden eagle, to lead them below to become a people. Hon´-ga A-hiu-ton led the Little Ones down through the four divisions of heaven. As Hon´-ga A-hiu-ton approached earth, he came upon the tops of seven red oak trees. The Little Ones followed closely behind in three separate groups. As they approached the earth, the Little Ones floated down with outstretched legs and arms up like the wings of an eagle and landed in the seven treetops.
Water covered all of the earth below the tree branches. They asked Radiant Star, their messenger, to seek help. Radiant Star brought O´-pxon Ton-ga, the Great Elk, who was a sacred person. O´-pxon Ton-ga threw himself down on the water four times to lower the water so that land appeared. The Great Elk proceeded to offer more gifts by creating all of the grasses on earth and all of the landforms, streams, and rivers from his different body parts. The people remember O´-pxon Ton-ga. We call him Mon-zhon ga´-xe, Earth Maker.
FOUR MANIFESTATIONS GREAT CREATOR
http://clarkmonding.blogspot.com/2011/03/agta-deities.html
There are four manifestations of the "great creator" who rules the world: Tigbalog is the source of life and action; Lueve takes care of production and growth; Amas moves people to pity, love, unity, and peace of heart; while Binangewan is responsible for change, sickness, and death.
FOUR OF THE BIGGEST BULLS
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/02/21/male-rites-of-passage-from-around-the-world/
After the whipping ceremony, the tribe forms a circle around a herd of cattle. Singing and chanting fills the air. Four of the biggest bulls are lined up side to side. In order for the ceremony to be valid, the bulls must be castrated. The initiate is brought to the cattle, naked except for a few cords he wears around his chest. The boy must jump onto the first bull and then run back and forth across the backs of the cattle three times. When he’s done, a shout is given and the boy is a maza, or man.