Hautues of headache, of stomach-ache, the Hautues that caused his people to gamble, to smoke opium, and who sent all sorts of disputes and who sent mosquitoes. He prayed to these Hautues to be kind to him and to his people-to send plenty of food to eat, and not to send any evil things. He further said that Sakais do not pray to "Allah," that is, to God. The question undecided in my mind, as yet, is whether this worship was learnt from the Sakais by the Malay Pawangs of the present day who practise it, or vice versa. Explanation of Plates XI to XIII. PLATE XI. Fig. 1. Stone axe, of hard clay slate, found near Timiong, about two days' journey north-east of Kending Kintah. 2. Sakai belantay, or spear-trap for large game, as used in Ulu Kintah. 3. Belantay of the Perak and Kintah Malays. 4. Section of a Sakai fish-trap on the Kintah River. PLATE XII. Fig. 1. Section of a Sakai house at Gunong Goumpi, north-east of Kending Kintah. 2. Plan of a Sakai house at the top of Gunong Goumpi. PLATE XIII. Figs. 1 and 2. Ornamental wooden hair-combs, used by the Sakais in the mountains north of Kending Kintah. 3 and 4. Ornamented bamboo pins for disentangling the hair, used by the Sakais north of Kending Kintah. ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES on the ASTRONOMICAL CUSTOMS and RELIGIOUS IDEAS of the CHOKITAPIA or BLACKFEET INDIANS. CANADA. BY JEAN L'HEUREUX, M.A., Interpreter. [WITH PLATE XIV.] SABIANISM has been the primitive mode of worship of the Chokitapia. They know and observe the Pleïades, and regulate their most important feast by those stars. About the first and the last days of the occultation of the Pleïades there is a sacred feast amongst the Blackfeet. The mode of observance is national, the whole of the tribe turning out for the celebration of its rites, which include two sacred vigils, the solemn blessing and planting of the seed. It is the opening of the agricultural season. The rites celebrated remind one of the Hebrew Passover, and some of the mysteries held by the Ancients in honour of Ceres. The Blackfeet call the Pleiades the seven one (Ekit-si-kuno), but as the root-word for perfect or perfection is contained in the word, the meaning is "the seven perfect ones." In all highly religious feasts the calumet, or pipe, is always presented toward the Pleïades, with invocation for life-giving goods. The women swear by the Pleïades as the men do by the sun or the morning star. The feast of Innis-si-man at the disappearance, and the Montoke, feast of the women at the reappearance, marked amongst the Blackfeet the period of occultation of the Pleiades. Innis-siman means "the grave" or "the burying of the seed”; Mon-toke, "the meeting of the absent one." Both feasts are lost in the antiquity of Indian traditional lore. On the last day of the occultation there is a women festival, called the Manis-tam, or flag-pole dance. These rites are very ancient, and of Toltec origin. The women that take part in it are all Vestals of the Sun, and are the same class of women who alone figure in the sacred feasts of the nation. At the feast of Ocan they preside over the presents to be distributed to the warriors. Ocan, from the Aztec word ocal, a building, is the feast of building or harvest, or storing in the crop. It is celebrated sometimes in October, and always accompanied by the feast of the dead, which feast is not only tribal, but confined to kindred race. It is called Sta-pas-can, "the dance of the dead," and is of Aztec origin. It begins at sunset, and ends at daylight. In time of scarcity of food, seven vestals of the sun dance alone in a circle, invocating the starry heaven for food for the needy. It is always a nightly dance, and kept up for seven nights' duration. Emita-stok-sis, "dog-face," is Sirius; Magsi-satis, "hunter-belt," the belt of Orion; Sta-mixe-tomo, "the Bull of the Hills," Hyades. The milky way is called Makoye-osokoy, or "the wolf way." The Chokitapia have inherited from their ancestors twenty groups of constellations, which are their zodiacal signs. The Blackfeet have seven classes of warriors, dividing the stage of initiation to the mysteries into three degrees. All medicine men must be initiated into those three degrees. Their ordeals are mostly connected with number three, seven, or ten. They have passes and signs known only to the initiated. In the incantation of the medicine men many words not belonging to their language are used; some of them appear to me Sanscrit words. The triangle (Copan) is a sacred symbol. It is called the arrowhead of the great hunter, Bull of the Hills (Orion). The earrings of the medicine men are made of shell from the Pacific in form of a triangle. (Plate XIV, fig. 1.) In the religious purification of the medicine men, a hole in the form of a triangle is dug in the ground, seven heated stones are thrown into it, and cold water poured over them for a vapour bath. When thus bathing, invocation is made to the Pleiades, for assistance in curing bodily disease. Seven brass ball buttons are worn by them as a talisman against fever. The T, or tau cross, is a sacred symbol used in the consecration of medicine men. It is painted in blue upon the breast of the newly initiated as a sign of power. It is connected with the gift of healing. The Blackfeet believe the number three the lucky one, four a bad one, and seven and hundred are perfect numbers. The sacred dance of the Ma-tie class of warriors for the general meeting of all the clans of the nation is supposed to represent the celestial dance of the seven young men personified by the Pleiades above. They are called the Crow, the Partridge, the Eagle, the Owl, the Crane, and the Yellow or Golden Bird, also named Pokina, or Chief Bird, who was the leader. They were all brothers, and nightly guard the field of the sacred seed. To keep sleep away in the long hours of night they were dancing around the field. Episors, or the Morning Star, was so pleased with them that he caused them to be transported into heaven, so as to rejoice all the stars by their perpetual dance. Numerous traces of the Mayal Toltecs' or Nahuas' cosmogony and religious belief are found amongst the Chokitapia. The third Napa, or great prophet of the third age (Natose, or the third Sun of the World), is supposed to be buried in their country in a large pyramidal mound on the Bow River, about seventy miles east of Blackfoot Crossing. It is a graded mound that has not yet been opened. Five years ago a stone tablet with the engraved figure of the sun, with seven arms and hands upon it, was found in the vicinity. (See Plate XIV, fig. 2.) Close to mounds or tunnels for religious purposes, you will often see the figure of a man with extended arms; from one hand so extended to the other is a circle of loose limestone, passing above the head of the figure. (Plate XIV, fig. 3.) The legend of Coes-sa in the second sun or age of the world stated that the second Napa replaced all the misplaced members of their bodies, and taught them the way to use them aright. The Hades of the Chokitapia is said to be situated in the great waters where the sun sets and where is the God, a mysterious island in the Pacific where there are many sandy hills. They have no Hell, but only Paradise, in their Hades. They all expect to go there after death. Spatikoy-etapo is the word used by them to say to a dead person, " He is off for the sandy hills." The Thunderer is supposed to be an immense bird with green feathers; the lightning he produces with the fire of his eyes, and the thunder by the noise of his wings. His return, on the spring of the year, is celebrated with rejoicing and a sacred dance in his honour. He is supposed to grant to the warriors the gift of invisibility in the fight. Explanation of Plate XIV. Fig. 1. Earrings of shell, worn by the medicine men among the Blackfeet Indians. 2. Stone Tablet, with engraved figure of the seven-armed sun, found near Bow River. 3. Figure of man with extended arms, found near an ancient tumulus of the Blackfeet Indians. On the PRIMARY DIVISIONS and GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION of MANKIND. By JAMES DALLAS, F. L.S., Curator of the Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. THE number of divisions into which it has been proposed to separate mankind has varied from two to sixtecn, and even to sixty, but on geographical as well as upon anthropological grounds it appears to me that not more than three great groups can be satisfactorily maintained. These primary groups I would propose to name and characterise as follows: Leucochroi, represented by the European, in which the skull |