Pictographs of the North American Indians (Illustrated). Garrick Mallery

White. Yellow. Keam—Moki White. Red. Yellow. Blue.

      Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army, in the Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona, etc., New York, 1884, p. 120, says that the Moki employ the following colors: yellow in prayers for pumpkins, green for corn, and red for peaches. Black and white bands are typical of rain, while red and blue bands are typical of lightning.

      The Central Californians (north of San Francisco Bay) formerly wore the down of Asclepias(?) (white) as an emblem of royalty. See Bancroft, Native Races, I, 387, 388, quoting Drake’s World Encomp. pp. 124-126.

      The natives of Guatemala wore red feathers in their hats, the nobles only wearing green ones. Ibid, p. 691.

      See with reference to the Haidas, Mr. J. G. Swan’s account, page 66, infra.

      The following extract relative to the color red among the New Zealanders is from Taylor’s Te Ika a Maui, etc., pp. 209-210.

      Closely connected with religion, was the feeling they entertained for the Kura, or Red Paint, which was the sacred color; their idols, Pataka, sacred stages for the dead, and for offerings or sacrifices, Urupa graves, chief’s houses, and war canoes, were all thus painted.

      The way of rendering anything tapu was by making it red. When a person died, his house was thus colored; when the tapu was laid on anything, the chief erected a post and painted it with the kura; wherever a corpse rested, some memorial was set up, oftentimes the nearest stone, rock, or tree served as a monument; but whatever object was selected, it was sure to be made red. If the corpse were conveyed by water, wherever they landed a similar token was left; and when it reached its destination, the canoe was dragged on shore, thus distinguished, and abandoned. When the hahunga took place, the scraped bones of the chief, thus ornamented, and wrapped in a red-stained mat, were deposited in a box or bowl, smeared with the sacred color, and placed in a tomb. Near his final resting-place a lofty and elaborately carved monument was erected to his memory; this was called he tiki, which was also thus colored.

      In former times the chief annointed his entire person with red ochre; when fully dressed on state occasions, both he and his wives had red paint and oil poured upon the crown of the head and forehead, which gave them a gory appearance, as though their skulls had been cleft asunder.

      A large number of examples occur in the present paper where the use and significance of color is mentioned. Among these see pages 64, 165-’6-’7, and 183.