It is nevertheless incontestable that the pre-Columbian cross of America is a “rose des vents,” representing the four directions whence comes the rain, or the cardinal points of the compass, etc., etc.
Colonel Mallery’s volume shows that it meant many other things as well.
The four winds.—The Greek cross is the form found by Colonel Mallery to be most common among the North American aborigines, possibly because it is the simplest. In this the four arms are equal in length, and the sign placed upright so that it stands on one foot and not on two, as does the St. Andrew’s cross. The Greek cross ([fig. 314]) represents, among the Dakotas, the four winds issuing out of the four caverns in which souls of men existed before the incarnation of the human body. All the medicine men—that is, conjurors and magicians—recollect their previous dreamy life in these places, and the instructions then received from the gods, demons, and sages; they recollect and describe their preexistent life, but only dream and speculate as to the future life beyond the grave. The top of the cross is the cold, all-conquering giant, the North Wind, most powerful of all. It is worn on the body nearest the head, the seat of intelligence and conquering devices. The left arm covers the heart; it is the East Wind, coming from the seat of life and love. The foot is the melting, burning South Wind, indicating, as it is worn, the seat of fiery passion. The right arm is the gentle West Wind, blowing from the spirit land, covering the lungs, from which the breath at last goes out gently, but into unknown night. The center of the cross is the earth and man, moved by the conflicting influences of gods and winds.
Fig. 315.
THE CROSS IN CONNECTION WITH THE CIRCLE.
Sun symbols (?). Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 1118, 1120, 1126.
Fig. 316.
FIGURES OF CIRCLES AND RAYS PROBABLY REPRESENTING SUN SYMBOLS.
Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, figs. 1118-1121, 1123.
Rev. John McLain, in his work on the “Blackfoot Sun-dance,” says: