The Persistency of a Religious Ceremonial

THE PERSISTENCY OF A RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL Hieroglyphs of Western Utah Connect in Meaning with Symbolism of the Hopi and Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. An Ancient Indian Hieroglyph at Deseret Depicts A Modern Indian Scene By Frank Beckwith [If the petroglyphs of western Utah connect the ancient Utah Indians with those of New Mexico, as this article appears to do and establish, an important point has been made. Everything that helps to establish connection between all the old inhabitants of the American continent is of importance as Book of Mormon evi- dence.— Editors. ] The word "symbol" is taken from the ancient Greek language, and when used by them meant, "The sign by which one knows a Copyright, 19 Z6, by Frank Beckwith, Delta, Utah. AN UNRETOUCHED NEGATIVE OF THE ANCIENT HIEROGLYPH APPEARING AT DESERET

786 IMPROVEMENT ERA thing." Hence, a symbol may be picture-graphic, idea-graphic, or phonetic in value. In our common, every-day use, a letter is a symbol for a sound; and another, taught in the use of the symbol, knows the sound represented by the symbol. Combined symbols make a word, and a meaning is conveyed by written words, provided another knows the meaning of the symbols employed; but if the "key" so to speak is unknown, then the writing is a locked mystery. That is the condition that surrounds our present lack of knowl- edge of the ancient Indian hieroglyph — we do not know the value assigned to the symbol-character. It is my thought that it was mnemonic-picture-graphic. That is, a picture recalled to mind a suggestion which helped memory recon- struct the thought intended to be conveyed. For instance, I am going to say later in this article that a picture of a portion of a religious rite, ceremonial observance, or custom of deep import, would recall to the one who saw that picture all the circumstance of that rite, all the paraphernalia of its actors, all the symbolism of forces of nature which each component part of the rite conveyed when enacted, both to on- lookers and participants. Hence, if we find on the rocks an indisputable scene of a re- ligious rite observed today, though that picture were drawn in ancient time, we can then know that a rite similar to the one of today was held in the long ago, and that to each aboriginal who saw the rock carving it was a book, pulsating with life, vivid, and from the strength of its mnemonic representation, perfectly legible "writing" to one who was versed in the import of the ceremony. WRITING HAD ITS BEGINNING IN RELIGION Primitive Chaldee, ancient Chinese, and hierotic Egyptian had their beginning, each according to its racial difference, in rude pictures of the thing expressed. These pictures gave way successively to ab- breviation after abbreviation, until a later symbol retained hardly a semblance to the first character employed. Should advancement be followed, the progression would be found that abbreviated symbols shortened from a picture came to represent syllable, and finally, the height of achievement, a symbol for a sound. The Indian stayed in the pictographic stage of development. Ever since L was of impressionable age, the interpretation of the symbols of mysticism has held a most fascinating interest for me. I devoured histories of ancient Chaldea, because their authors said that staid priests of grave demeanor studied the heavens, reducing astronomy to a science of startling exactitude. Today, every captain who sails the seas uses the astronomical symbols adopted by the ancient Chaldee several thousand years ago. Such is our heritage to that religious symbolism. Then I observed in writers bf note that Egypt was the land where religious mysticism was carried to its utmost. Learned authors

PERSISTENCY OF A RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 787 said that calm, dignified, erudite Egyptian priests studied, fasted and prayed, and from their learning came the science of mensuration, followed today by every surveyor, the foundation of which was laid on the banks of old Nile. Living in time, having an exact knowledge of numbers, their obelisks and temple walls were carved with picture writings of deep religious import, and the versatile Phoenecians shortened the unwieldy Egyptian characters into the germ of symbol-writing which we use today. So that there we have a wonderful heritage from those two nations. THE AMERICAN INDIAN HAD MYSTICS Wherever symbolism was found, with a religious trend, there, in my early reading, I became a devotee, enthralled, lost in the wonders opened to view by studying down the vistas of the long ago, to ferret out the interpretation of a mystic symbol, put to a religious use — the expression of the most lofty thoughts man conceives, applied to his conception of Deity, or to the forces he saw acting through natural phenomena; or lastly, to the interpretation of the rites and ceremonies his race observed in their religious worship. This last finds expression among the Indians of North America, both anciently and today. When I came across authors of education, and possessed with sympathy of the Indian and his ways, who told me in fascinating words that the brown taan of the wilds, our North American Indian, em- bodies symbolic characters in his pottery and in his weaving; that he had initiates into secret orders; that he had employed symbolic char- acters to betoken, mnemonically, rites and customs; that his worship (and he was deeply religious) was largely based on the forces of nature, on which he was absolutely dependent in his primitive manner of living — so keen was my interest in the pursuit of that field of thought that it occupied the greater part of my attention in spare moments for a period of years, almost to the point of obsession. And when I read that the preparation for the office of "Medi- cine Man," was the consecration for life of a mystic for a holy cause, requiring a long period of probation, fasting, prayer, and subjugation of the flesh to give free sway to the spiritual influences, then my fondness for applied symbols was transferred from Chaldea, Egypt, and our progenitors to the ancient Indian. In 1923 this interest impelled me to go to Clear Creek Canyon many times; and so much did I find there, that I have been to that wonder spot thirty-three times since; I have slept in the canyon nine nights in one summer season. Never in my brief roamings across Utah have I run across so veritable a mine of material as there exists.

788 IMPROVEMENT ERA THE MEDICINE MAN WHO WAS THE OFFICIAL "RAIN MAKER" Imagine my delight to find carved on the walls of Clear Creek Canyon the form of a Medicine Man, with bison horns adorning his head, which my favorite author told me was the insignia of his sacerdo- tal office, the right to wear which was permitted to him alone of all the tribe. None but he could don those marks of office; for he alone was the official mediator between "Those Above" and this mundane sphere; and to ask for benefits from those august powers, this inter- cessor for man must be pure, unselfish, free from taint of worldly wealth, and living the most exemplary life in his tribe. And further- more, his purpose must not be ulterior. Hence the aspirant for the office of shaman began early. His life was rigorous. Neophites were initiated into his order sparingly, with greatest secrecy, and learned "letter-perfect" a great mass of ritualistic matter. Observe carefully the first, or left-hand drawing in the upper line of the reproduction appearing at the head of this article, and know that when the primitive Indian of ancient times, before too much of his heritage was lost by contact with the whites, saw that simple symbol, a wealth of thought rushed into his mind. Respect, reverence, and all this explanatory matter that it has taken me by so many words, and such length of preparation, to present to you, was recalled to his mind with that one mnemonic picture-help to memory. The office of Medicine Man was uncommonly free from reward. Besides his other duties, it was his care to cure the sick; hence, he learned the few simple medicinal herbs which nature provides, studied them and applied their uses in curative function. His was a life of asceticism, prayers, fasting, the rigors to subdue the flesh. But his special field of usefulness, in those regions where cultivation was followed, was to bring down rain. The Thirty -seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institute is authority that the ancient Hopi symbol for rain is a terrace of steps, like a square-notched pyramid, signifying to the Indian the piling up, mass upon mass, of the big rain clouds, heaped in billows upon their fellows. Such a design was used on ancient Hopi pottery with symbolic intent to denote rain. And lines, or bars suspended from a horizontal, denoted the falling rain, dripping down. THIS SYMBOLISM IN CLEAR CREEK CANYON In my beloved Clear Creek Canyon I had already found and photographed all those symbols, carved on the rocks by an ancient hand centuries ago, done with a high religious significance. The group marked "C. C. C." to the right of the upper line of the hand drawings shows these terraced steps, (the symbol of rain) carved as a petroglyph on the walls of Clear Creek Canyon. One of the oldest hieroglyphics among hundreds in Clear Creek

PERSISTENCY OF A RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 789 Canyon is that of a Medicine Man. So old is this design that it is dim almost to obliteration. An unretouched negative of it would be too lacking in contrast to reproduce by the half-tone method, so I present a hand drawing of it. Note the bison horns above the head; note that this was drawn in that ancient time when glyptic art was in its infancy, and craftsmanship crude, for the drawing is by mere rudiments only ideagraphically presented. But observe the adroit manner in which the artisan of the long ago denoted the breech-clout — a mere swirl around the hips. Simplicity has achieved what art would labor long to produce. A later design of this sacred man, much better drawn, and of a subsequent period, depicts the figure of a man nearly five feet high, adorned with bison horns atop his head. And, here is the symbolic significance of it, within the space of those horns, a TERRACED EFFECT, to denote that he, as Medicine Man, also combined in his person the office of "rain maker!" Consult the second figure in the hand drawing, upper line. What intent could be plainer than to invest my man with this double insignia of office — horns and castelated notches? But wait a moment. It can't all be said in one breath. That this figure, carved on the cliffs, was a symbol of the highest religious functionary of the tribe, he who interpreted direct from "Those Above" to man, and that he was the "official rain maker" for his followers, is further denoted by the fact that he stands on a horizontal bar, from which descend seven vertical bars, signifying actual rain falling! He made good in bringing rain. ANY SIGNIFICANCE TO SEVEN? Readers of the Era may have already browsed past my slow- moving thought expression, and found a deep significance in the use of the sacred number seven, in denoting the number of bars be- neath the figure of my mystic "rain maker;" if so, maybe they would be intensely joyed to find on Plate 89 of the Thirty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution that a bank of three huge cumulus clouds, with forked lightning shooting out from them, has seven bars of rain dripping from the clouds; that on page 259 of the same report the sun em- blem is drawn with seven radiating rays from the circle — both being emblems encountered among the present-day Indians of New Mexico. And so close was the affinity of the past with the present that a tribal sign is found rayed with seven rays at Deseret, carved in the long ago, and also, a circle divided into seven compartments! Seven bars dropping from rain clouds appear six times in the Twenty-first Annual Report! (See the design in the hand writing marker, Plate 89.)

790 IMPROVEMENT ERA The readers of the Era will not be content with the explanation that it was "just a mere coincidence" that thi9 recurrence of the sacred number seven is thus encountered among the ancient aborignes of our land. To them, the sun, highest physical manifestation of the Great Spirit, sacred emblem of that Divinity toward whom the child of nature, our brown-skinned brother, stood in deepest reverential awe, was always referred to by the Indians as "Our Sun Father;" and in response to his warm caresses fruitful Mother Earth brings forth her progeny in myriad form, both animal and vegetable. The great man of sicience, John Tyndall, couched this thought in the beauties of A Scientific Imagination, by conceding to the sun the source of all life and power, whose emanations are received in the person of Mother Earth and brought to fructification. Those readers will ask if it was "just a mere coincidence" that such a symbol of deep import should be rayed with seven marks? It is highly informative that this should be so depicted here and there — here in ancient hieroglyph, and there in symbolic pottery, both based on deep religious significance. THE TENACITY OF A RELIGIOUS RITE All authors that I have read aver that the primitive Indian was intensely religious; that his life was prayerful; that he had many customs, rites and public observances of deep religious import. Suppose I could show you that on the lava rocks near Deseret is a hieroglyph of a dance procession which has passed down through the centuries, and today, after hundreds of years, is still observed in Arizona, and the self-same dance pictured in a text book by a photograph! Suppose I could show you that hieroglyph and photo are of the same subject, what would you say? "Prove it," I think would be your first ejaculation. Adolph F. Bandelier, in whose honor and memory "Bandelier National Monument" was named, was a very painstaking, conscien- tious author, a student of the Indian at close range, and in complete sympathy with this child grown up. In his book, The Delight Makers, opposite page 18 of the edition of 1918, is a reproduction of a photograph of a dance procession of the sacred yearly ceremonial called, "The Corn Dance." This thanksgiving rite held highest re- ligious significance among all the many public observances of this intensely religious people. The interpretation of the symbology of that dance is most interesting. Yearly, when the corn had ripened, and crops were assured, the Indians held a dance procession, symoblical of the grow- ing and ripened corn. The maiden kernels of corn, sown in the fructifying bosom of Mother Earth, have been vivified by the warm caresses of the kindly sun, and have sprouted into the green shoots, which, through the beneficence of "Those Above" to bring a con-

PERSISTENCY OF A RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 791 tinuance of the rains which matured the growing corn, the green shoots have ripened into the matured ear. The Indian, grateful for the kindness of the Great Spirit, gives thanks publicly in most holy rite. The Koshare (those important initiates into the secret mysticism of the tribe) have done their work well. Through constant prayers to "Those Above,"- before whom they have interceded in man's behalf, have come the warming rays of a smiling sun, the moisture of the falling rain, and the miracle of growth. They have asked that all seeds ripen, which has been granted. So an interpretive dance is given yearly. Maidens of the tribe, symbolizing the maidens' kernels of corn sown in the fruitful earth, walk in solemn procession, each adorned with a headdress of terraced steps, symbolical of the so-much-needed rain, part of the headdress painted green to signify the growing corn sprouts, and the upper pari of each terrace painted yellow to denote the ripened ear; on the head- dress a rayed circle symbolizes "Our Father, the Sun;" and another circle, but unrayed, symbolizes "Our Mother, the Earth." This symbolic headdress is shown as the first object in the lower line to the left in hand drawing — three bands of the rainbow over the ear of corn; the sun, the earth, and the vari-colored terraced steps. Surmounting each terrace floats a feather, so lightly significant of the prayers of the devout which rise heavenward! Could symbolism be more beautiful? What nicer than this conception? We call wheat our "staff of life," but to the Indian the native maize corn was his necessity, a veritable and true "staff," on which he leaned for almost entire support. Arid his devotions poured out in thanks that he should be blessed with good crops. What one of us say more than a hasty "grace," if even that, at Thanksgiving time? A fine to-do for the "superior race," which has lost all its simplicity in "over-much book larnin'." Much it can learn from the more religious Indian, who lives closer to the powers of nature, and whose gratefulness expresses itself more simply. THIS PROCESSION DEPICTED IN ANCIENT HIEROGLYPH The hand drawing shows a man walking ahead, bearing the tribal banner, a robe adorned with the symbolical prayers (feathers), which prayers, added to those of the symbolic maidens and the TCoshare, beseech "Those Above" to continue their favors and bless the tribe; each maiden bears in her hand a sheaf of the native Indian maize corn. These are the bundles I show in their hands. I wonder if I have put this significant interpretive dance before the readers of the Era with that absorbing interest it holds to me? Have I shown them that the Indian has risen to a noble height? That he has embodied a deep import into his symbolism, and that this sacred procession in his pueblo is worthy of our highest commendation? If then I have, fix the appearance of the hand drawing firmly in mind; then study its salient and ideagraphic features ag depicted

792 IMPROVEMENT ERA A study in symbolis as found in petroglyph in Western Utah and found enacted in dance ceremonials in New Mexico today, or employed as well in Hopi pottery. in the right-hand drawing of the lower line. Stripped to its barest rudiments, we find that its elemental characteristic is "a walking pole," and a person following that actor with a huge headdress on. By a walking pole, I mean a pole born aloft. Now turn back to the unretouched photograph which heads this article, and find, prominent in' that original, the identical WALKING POLE AND MAIDEN WITH HEADDRESS FOLLOWING de- picted in that rock carving at Deseret! And then turn to the photo appearing at the close of this article, and note the same characteristics appearing in a Smithsonian Institution report, even to the point of the eyes in the mask near the top of the pole, which exactly duplicate the two huge eyes carved at Deseret above the pole! I believe I have proved my case. Go over it again; isolate the distinctive features for easy recog- nition, and the scene I have been so long visualizing for you, in a few hasty strokes is ideagraphically drawn by fitting a long pole with legs and feet, to signify that it walks — rather, that a man bears it aloft! Behind, follows a maiden wearing the huge headdress of that deeply significant symbolism! And that very same ideagraph is employed at Deseret on a rock carving centuries old. With this explanation, the transition from the ideagraph of the ancient craftsman to the photograph of the modern dance is easy. Rites, deep-rooted religious observances, and tribal customs cling

PERSISTENCY OF A RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 793 tenaciously. Here is one that has clung through the vicissitudes of the Indian, clung despite the conquering of that race by the Spaniards, clung despite the thin glaze of "Churchanity" which hasi whitewashed my red brother ever so lightly. Deep down within that man who stands so close to nature lives this elemental dance (properly as it should, nor should it be uprooted by zealot for any faith) ; he holds his own thanksgiving scene, the flowering in perfect symbolism of a thankful heart, grateful to "Those Above" for blessings bestowed. This scene was cut on a stone near Deseret hundreds of years ago. Oh, the joy of this chase after symbolism! It has taken us afield through the realms of Chaldea, Egypt, gotten our alphabet for us from Phoenecian traders, and finds our interest whetted to the utmost in the desert of an arid region linked with a Pueblo dance, the one separated from the other by miles of space and centuries of time. If my efforts sitimulate better qualified observers, then indeed will my labors have born fruit. So interesting is the field of en- deavor that one may well consecrate several years of the slim re- mainder of life to a close study of a subject so absorbingly interesting, and one which yields so startling results. Note: Plate LVII, opposite page 10 of the Twenty -first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology ,1899-1900, on the subject of "Hopi- Katcinas," shows a drawing of the significant features of this same dance, which reduced to an ideagraphic form would be found to be a man bearing a long pole, accompanied by a maiden (in this instance two maidens) , each maiden wearing the symbolic headdress. On the pole borne by this man is a mask furbished with tufts of the growing corn and marked with two big eyes. I have gotten permission from the Smithsonian Institution to reproduce this plate, and present it at the end of this article, for the edification of Era readers. It is most significant to the subject matter. I think my assumption well sustained that the hieroglyph at Deseret is this self-same dance scene, — backward in time, many centuries. And finally, as proof that the Indian formerly living in western Utah is related to his brother living in pueblos farther south, read with attention this statement from the Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology: Mr. Niel M. Judd's preliminary observations among a limited number of rooms in western Utah indicate the former existence of a people whose dwellings developed in natural sequence from single, earth-covered shelters, such as those at Willard, to groups of more permanent structures like those at Beaver, Paragonah, and elsewhere, and finally to allied cliff houses similar to those in Cottonwood Canyon. [Near Kanab.] The construction of these several types of houses and the character of the artifacts found in them point to a close relationship between their builders and the better known pre-Puebloan peoples of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Whether these primitive structures in Utah actually antedate the communal dwellings in the states named or whether they represent an offshoot from the more highly developed Pueblo culture is a point not yet determined. The relationship is certain, however, [Italics mine] and future investigations may be expected to determine its limits. * * The archaeological data collected by Mr. Judd during his two brief expeditions to western Utah are sufficient to

794 IMPROVEMENT ERA warrant the extension of the northern limits of the area known to have been occupied by the ancient Pueblo people." The manner in which a native artist represents for the Smithsonian Institution the man bearing a pole, accompanied by the two (in this instance two instead of one) Corn Maidens. Note the mask with eyes on the pole, agreeing exactly with Deseret. Were this presented ideagraphically, it is almost exactly identical with the hieroglyph found at Deseret, carved many centuries before. This reproduced by permission from the Smithsonian Institution. Dawn God of the Universe, how beautiful thy works! On the horizon's utmost edge a gleam Of dawn is breaking. 'Tis day's first beam. Silv'ry and far it seems, but still there lurks A world of beauty there; misty it is now, But the Eternal City's pavement is seen Crusted with gems, the colors from the bow Of promise. Topaz, gold, emerald green, Crimson, amethyst, their radiance spreads. Night's Queen has gone, she faded from sight, Outshone by the splendor of Dawn's wondrous light. Sunrise beauty, God's love sheds, Like the protection of guardian angel's wings, And brings a blessed foretaste of eternal springs. San Diego, Calif. D. C. RETSLOFF.