Yellow, the color of gold and fire, symbolizes reason.
Green, the color of vegetable life, symbolizes utility and labor.
Red, the color of blood, symbolizes war and love.
Blue, the color of the sky, symbolizes spiritual life, duty, religion.
COLOR IN CEREMONIES.
The colors attributed to the cardinal points have been the subject of much discussion. Some of these special color schemes of the North American Indians are now mentioned.
Mr. James Stevenson, in an address before the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C.; Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. Army, in the Fifth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 449; and Mr. Thomas V. Keam, in a MS. contribution, severally report the tribes mentioned below as using in their ceremonial dances the respective colors designated to represent the four cardinal points, viz:
| N. | S. | E. | W. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stevenson—Zuñi | Yellow. | Red. | White. | Black. |
| Matthews—Navajo | Black. | Blue. | White. | Yellow. |
| Keam—Moki | White. | Red. | Yellow. | Blue. |
Mr. Stevenson, in his paper on the Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis, in the Eighth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, agrees with Dr. Matthews regarding the ceremonial scheme of the Navajo colors symbolic of the cardinal points, as follows: “The eagle plumes were laid to the east, and near by them white corn and white shell; the blue feathers were laid to the south, with blue corn and turquoise; the hawk feathers were laid to the west, with yellow corn and abalone shell; and to the north were laid the whippoorwill feathers, with black beads and corn of all the several colors.”
In A Study of Pueblo Architecture, by Mr. Victor Mindeleff, in the Eighth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, the prayers of consecration by the Pueblos are addressed thus: