Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/589

 53° AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s. f I, 1899

The evidence that the Bird-man personates a sun or sky god is derived mainly from morphological symbolism, and in support of the theory there are here introduced a figure of the most com- mon Hopi sun symbol, also representations of dolls of a sun god, and Kwdtaka whom the Bird-man personates.

The common sun emblem (plate XX\\ a) is a round disk with a woven corn-husk margin in which arc inserted feathers of the eagle radiating at all angles. From the four quadrants project sticks — the ends of an equal-armed cross. This disk has the follow- ing design painted upon it : The upper part is separated from the lower by a horizontal line, and the space above is divided in- to two parts by a perpendicular line, while the mouth is repre- sented in the lower space by an hourglass-shaped figure. Two marks represent eyes. This disk is worn on the backs of men personating the sun, in many rites, and is found painted on the screens used in the Palulukonti ceremony. It is the ordinary sun symbol in Hopi pictography.

Many conventional modifications of this symbol are common. The painted design is often omitted and the disk reduced to a cir- cle, while the feathers are dropped, or concentrated in clusters in the four quadrants. In the sand picture of Powatawti ' the sun symbol is made of concentric zones of sand of different colors with arrow-shaped extensions in the four quadrants. Again, the circle may be absent, when the four extensions in its quadrants remain, forming a cross called a tokpcla. This highly convention- alized form of the sun is often found depicted on shields as a warrior's symbol.

Thus, while the equal-armed cross sometimes becomes a sun symbol, this by no means implies that the cross may not also have other meanings. The signification of symbols depends on association, and the simple emblem described may have an entirely different meaning in other associations. There is no more con-

1 PowalawH is a part of the Oraibi Po'vamil ceremony which has never been described.

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