656 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899
part of the swastika is the intersection, or common origin, of the arms ; that the four colors of brightening sunrise, and boreal cold, and blushing sunset, and zephyr-borne warmth must have a com- plementary all-color in the middle ; that the four winds are bal- anced against some mythic storm-king (able to paralyze their powers in response to suitable sacrament) in or near the Middle of the world ; that the sky falls off in all directions from above the central home of the Real Men ; that the four termini of Papago time relate to the end of the period conceived always with respect to the beginning ; that the four worlds of wide- , spread Amerindian mythology comprise two above and two below the fate-shadowed one on which the shamans have their half-apper- ceived existence ; that the four phratries or societies are arranged about the real tribal center ; and that in all cases the exoterically mystical number carries an esoteric complement in the form of a simple unity reflecting the egoistic personality or subjectivity of the thinker. It is easier to represent the quatern concept graphic- ally than verbally — indeed it has been represented graphically by unnumbered thousands of primitive thinkers in the cruciform symbols dotting the whole of human history and diffused in every human province, or in the form of the equally widespread but less conspicuous quincunx.
The exoterically quatern and esoterically quincuncial concept appears to mark a fairly definite phase of human development ; a somewhat higher stage is marked by the use of six as a mystical or sacred number. In this stage the mythology remains a Cult of the Quarters, though the cardinal points are augmented by the addition of zenith and nadir, while a third upper-world and a third under-world are usually added. The ramifications of the concept are still more extended than those of the quatern idea, and lead to even more patent incongruities — particularly when the attempt is made to graphically depict the essentially tri-di- mensional concept on a plane. Now the senary concept, like its simpler analogue, is always incomplete in itself: The six cardinal
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