Gottschall: A New Interpretation

The Painting and Siouan Prehistory. The Gottschall rock shelter (not quite a cave) is located near Muscoda, Wisconsin, in Iowa County which is in the southwestern part of the state [1], an area that came to be within the Hotcâk hunting grounds, sometime after the ill fortunes the French visited upon the Fox nation. However, prior to the Sauk and Fox invasion of ca. 1640, the area may well have been occupied by the Hotcâgara. The site contains about 40 pictographs. One of these, Panel 5, is of special interest, since it is a single composition that almost certainly deals with mythological themes. Panel 5 is also known as the "Red Horn" panel on the basis of its interpretation as an incident in that demigod's adventures on earth. It is this interpretation that I wish to reëxamine.

Panel 5 can be dated, it is said "confidently", to the Xth century A. D. [2] This has certain immediate consequences when trying to associate it with any social group, especially one defined by language, since language and material culture have only a low degree of correlation. It is difficult to proceed on the issue of the antiquity of the Hotcâk nation, since glottochronologies done on Siouan have come to absurdly divergent conclusions, bringing into question the methodology itself. Springer and Witkowski have calculated that Hotcâk has existed as such since about 1500 A. D., when it and the kindred Chiwere peoples (Oto, Ioway, Missouria) separated from one another. [3] However, Grimm has calculated the date of Common Winnebago-Chiwere at 1000 A. D., an incredible half millennium older! [4] How much further back in time one can go before the language spoken by the predecessor people becomes unintelligible to modern Hotcâk speakers is an open question. What is said of the language can also be said to an unknown degree of the mythology. The stories of the Chiwere people show considerable divergence (indeed even within that language group), suggesting that the stories of the Common Winnebago-Chiwere peoples may have been significantly different from the daughter stories existing today. The problem deepens as we recede into ever more remote regions of the past. The divergence of the Dhegiha Sioux speaking tribes (Omaha, Ponca , Osage, Quapah, and Kansa) from the Winnebago-Chiwere is dated at ca. 1000 A. D. by Springer and Witkowski, and 1 A. D. by Grimm. At that depth of time, it becomes very difficult to say anything about what stories may have existed.

However, some stories should remain stable over long periods of time, since they address an immutable subject matter. It is this fact that explains how myths from widely separated and completely isolated places can be almost identical. One of the stories about Bluehorn, for instance, is very close to a medieval Irish story about CuCulainn and CuRoi MacDairi (see the Comparative Material to Bluehorn's Nephews). The explanation for their convergence despite immense spatial separation can be used to account for similarities between stories separated by huge expanses of time. Allegorical stories that are about, say, stellar phenomena may be highly stable, since their subject matter is not very likely to change. Allegories about the same thing, given the constancy of the rules of interpretation that define allegories, would necessitate similarities in the stories. A story about a stable phenomenon could even arise more than once in history, as well as in more than one place, rather like the emergence of phytosaurs and crocodiles during the course of geological time.

We also may have to consider that the dating is wrong, despite high degrees of confidence in the date proffered. If this is the case, then scenes reminiscent of stories in the current repertory may date to a time in the not too distant pass, a time close enough to our own that these stories have passed down to us essentially unchanged.

We are able to show the whole of Panel 5 by the kind permission of the authors and Prairie Smoke Press, the publishers of The Gottschall Rockshelter, an Archaeological Mystery. [5] The pictographs of this panel were meticulously traced by Mary Steinhauer.

The Battle of the Twins with the Thunderbirds. The characters portrayed in Panel 5 do indeed correspond to familiar characters in Hotcâk stories, and the central actions of this panel fit rather nicely a particular story. This is the tale of the battle of the Twins with the Thunderbirds. This is but an episode in a whole panoply of adventures in which the Twins go someplace that their father has forbidden them to visit. There exist several versions of this story. A lesser known version is found in "The Lost Blanket," a story in which the Twins travel the world looking for a mink blanket that was stolen from one of them. In their travels to forbidden places they find something unusual --

In the "Lost Blanket," the Twins are said to have fought the Thunderbirds with stones, but only later do we discover that they killed the Thunderbird nestlings. In most versions, this is the story's focus. For the related Ioway tribe, the nestlings are pictured as little winged men, four in number, whom the Twins (Dore and Wahrédua) put in an otterskin bag. The Ioway Twins are attacked by lightning, but instead of fighting back, they merely find clever ways of avoiding being struck. When they take the Thunders home to their father, he is horrified and orders the boys to return them to their nests. [7] In this unpublished version of the Hotcâk tale, "The Twins Disobey Their Father," Jasper Blowsnake goes into some detail about the confrontation between the Twins and the Thunder nestlings.

There are many other Twin tales of the fight with the Thunderbirds. [8.1] The scene in Panel 5 seems to fit the incident that we might describe as "The Battle between the Twins and the Thunderbirds". Under this interpretation, the two human figures to the far left are the Twins, the two small birds, one of which is upside down, are the Thunder nestlings, and the large bird is, as has been suggested by Bob Salzer et alia, a full grown Thunderbird. [9] The figure behind this Thunderbird, ought to be their father, but I think that this is probably an auxiliary figure pertinent to myth of the Twins, but not integral to the action. The same is true of the pipe smoker, who is at sufficient remove from the other figures that it is less tempting to include him in the action. The turtle figure above is a problem for this interpretation, but not an insurmountable one. More will be said on these alleged auxiliary figures as the interpretation progresses.

The Figures of the Twins. The two Hotcâk Twins are known as "Flesh" and "(Little) Ghost." The latter is sometimes not referred to by name at all, but by an elliptic description (for reasons of taboo?), as "the one who has a stump for a grandmother". Radin simply adopted the name "Stump" as shorthand. The received interpretation sees these two figures as Giants and the mythic incident as the lacrosse game between Redhorn and his allies and the Giants and their confederates, with the pipe smoker being outside the scene. [10] Giants are said to be four times larger than ordinary men, but this is not reflected in the painting. However, it is possible to put too much emphasis upon scale, inasmuch as perspective is not a salient feature in pictographic art any more than it was in, say, medieval Western art. Size may have something to do with power as much as physical dimensions (a paradigm in ancient Egyptian art, for instance). Just the same, why are the two figures on the left not identical, if they are meant to depict the Twins? The answer is simple enough. While the Twins were very similar, they were not actually identical. The youngest Twin, Ghost, was smaller, yet he was significantly stronger than his brother. He was also more audacious, and it was he who started the confrontation with the Thunderbirds. Therefore, the smaller leading figure should be Ghost. By exclusion, then, the trailing figure is Flesh. Ghost had another singular feature: beaver teeth with which he occasionally threatened to bite his brother. This may explain the painted design on Ghost's mouth area. Just below his nose and extending down his chin is a solid coloring which seems to indicate facial paint. The Hotcâgara have a name for this area of the face, pûtc´, being defined in one sense as, "the area of the upper and lower jaw from under the nose down to the chin." [11] This paint pattern has a fair resemblance to the light patch under the nose and extending to the chin of beavers, as we see in this Audubon painting below:

This pattern of coloration on the pûtc shows somewhat better on the beaver to the left. The Hotcâk call the chin portion of the pûtc the "hair-jaw," hi-rap. The same word, rap, that denotes the jaw also denotes beavers. So the jaw is the "beaver", perhaps for the same reason that female pubes are so called in colloquial English. The beaver also has a line that separates dark hair above from lighter hair below. This line extends from the bridge of his nose to his ear, rather like the paint or tattoo lines seen on the Twins in Panel 5. The pipe smoker of Panel 4 has such a line as well, only it divides an upper light colored area from a lower dark space. It is not clear why Flesh would exhibit this line, so it may not have anything to do with beavers, although it is an interesting correlation in this context. The beaver affinities express Ghost's relationship with wood. His grandmother is a stump, and in one version he was buried or abandoned at the foot of a tree. [For the identity of one of the Twins with beavers, see Comparative Material below.]

The two Twins are said to have only single eagle feathers as headdresses, and Ghost does have what appears to be an upright feather as part of his head gear, but he also has a ribbon-like pair of trailing streamers as well, which is beyond what is said of them in the Hotcâk literature. The Flesh figure seems to have numerous wide ribbon-like streamers as his headdress, but it is harder to make out a single eagle feather, although one might be present. Given the age assigned to this painting, it is not a significant divergence; indeed, we do not know how essential the lone eagle feather was among Hotcâk variants, since it is only mentioned in one of them. Originally, they were said to have turkey bladders or mammal placentas as headdresses. There is no hint of such head gear in the pictograph. Flesh is dressed in leggings, whereas Ghost seems to have more elaborate apparel consisting of an oval disc over his chest (which we can probably call a "gorget") and something which might be described as an "apron" just below it. His figure is cut off too high to know what he is wearing below his waist. In addition, both he and his brother are wearing some kind of long hair or fringe ornament on their left arms only, apparently the same item as is worn on the figure at the extreme right of the composition, only in that person's case, the ornament (and bowstring guard) is worn only on the right wrist. Some of these accouterments can be seen in Hotcâk garb as late as the XIXth century. In a painting of a Hotcâk warrior of the Elk Clan by the name of Little Elk (Hûwânîka), we see many similarities to Ghost's costume. This rendering of Little Elk was made by George Catlin in the 1830's:

The gorget suspended over Hûwânîka's abdomen by what appears to be a leather strap, has a good resemblance to the rather schematic oval worn slightly higher on the "Ghost" figure. Only a little below Ghost's disc is some kind of rectangular "apron" with vertical, double helix designs and fringe on its lower border. This matches nicely the apron worn by Hûwânîka, although the latter is not shown to have any decoration on its surface. It can be seen from the painting that it, like its counterpart from Panel 5, is worn above the level of the breach cloth. He too is wearing a headdress with a single eagle feather, although it is not oriented upright as it is with Ghost. Some of the depicted costume elements are seen even more pronouncedly in this Catlin painting of The Crow (tribe not identified) seen below at the left:

He too has the gorget and the "apron", and furthermore, he has a wrist band with a fur suspended from it, a style very similar to that of most of the figures in Panel 5, who may have rawhide strips or strands of hair instead of fur. He too wears this on his left arm only. Like Flesh, he has a band on his upper arm, although in the Catlin painting, The Crow has two such bands. However, he also has a number of ornaments (strips of some kind) hanging from his upper left armband only, a feature also found in the depiction of Flesh. The subject of the Catlin painting is wearing his gorget bare chested, just like Ghost in the pictograph. This painting of recent vintage shows that such a style of dress is purely masculine, as pictures of women show them clothed from head to ankle in dresses. So it is highly unlikely that this is a depiction, as has been suggested, of Redhorn's female lacrosse opponent (known in one source as "Pretty Woman"), even if we allow the unattested supposition that she dressed like a man, since an oval gorget like the one depicted on Ghost would rest pretty uncomfortably on a woman. Another Catlin painting of Four Bears, a Mandan warrior from the 1830's (shown above right), depicts him wearing an oval form of the gorget, demonstrating that an oblong variant was extant this recently.

The Red Paint on the Image of Ghost. There are two sets of things painted red on the image of Ghost. One area, which we have explored, is around his mouth; the other is a pair of streamers or ribbonlike structures that form part of a headdress of some kind. The streamers seem to be of light material since one of them at least curls over on itself as if blowing in the wind. The obvious candidate would be horse's hair, but that is ruled out, since we are told that the painting dates from the Xth century A. D. It could be dyed human hair. However, the suggestion of the archaeologists that this is a woman and that "her" hair is red is a gross misperception precipitated by forcing a thesis. Not only is the figure a young man, but it must be pointed out that the hair on top of his head is not painted red, so clearly he can't be called "red headed". The streamers are bound up with the upright feather that constitutes his otherwise rather minimal headdress. Knotted headdresses with an upright eagle feather and a trailing streamer are found in Mississippian culture, at the Spiro Mound in Oklahoma they are seen in Braden B and C phases. [12] Some of these are shown below in comparison to the headdress of Ghost at Gottschall.

The tonsures of the Mississippian images are similar but not identical to those of Gottschall. The first example shows a knotted headdress with an upright feather attached to it and a streamer following behind. [13] This may be what we are seeing at Gottschall. Instead of a solar-like disc with a double helix emanating from it, the Mississippian image shows a double helix looped around the eye. A simpler version is presented in the second example, where the knot is not in evidence (due to the simplicity of the drawing). [14] Its streamer may be of human hair. As in the case of Ghost, the feather and the streamer are affixed to the hair. The third example shows the typically more elaborate version of this headdress characteristic of Mississippian culture. [15] However Ghost's headdress was made, what seems important is that the artist went out of his way to paint it red. What does the literature on Ghost say about a red headdress? To answer this we must understand the meaning of the headdress in the Twins Cycle.

In a transparent allegory, Ghost sojourns awhile with Flesh then suddenly departs carrying away his twin's arrows (mâ, also meaning "winter, years, time"). He also causes Flesh to forget everything about the period of their togetherness. When Flesh's father (the Sun) helps Flesh reunite with his twin Ghost on a longer term basis, he has to find a way to prevent Ghost from escaping into his preferred medium of water. This is done through a headdress. The device could have been affixed almost anywhere, but the head was chosen as the preferred site. It is the head that carries the greatest magnetism for the soul. It is said that when a fallen warrior's head is taken by his enemies, the ghost follows after it causing the man carrying its head to stumble (symbolic death and therefore symbolic revenge), a terrifying experience when understood as a confrontation with a hostile supernatural force. Nevertheless, whoever takes the head has some command over the soul associated with it and can at least direct the ghost to serve as a guide to his departed kinsmen when they must walk the road to Spiritland. Why is the head such a repository for the soul? In ancient Greece, and throughout the world among traditional cultures, the psyche has a special attachment to the head because it is there that the essential fluid of life, the muelos, that constitutes marrow in the bones, is found in its greatest concentration. [16] The brain is thought to be a massive assemblage of muelos and therefore the seat of the psyche. The Hotcâgara have a similar conception of the brain. Their word for marrow is wa-horugóp, which is a descriptive term meaning, "that which is scooped out". [17] This is in reference to the marrow of animal bones, which must be scraped out to be eaten. The brain is called, nâsu horugóp > nâsurugóp, which is to say, "the (wa-)horugóp of the head". [18] The soul's seat is the innermost part of a person's being, which in this case is literally the innermost reaches of a person's bones. Even people eaten by Giants can be brought back to life by taking the bones of the Giants who had eaten them and grinding them up into a powder, then yelling something that would frighten a human being, such as, "Run, the enemy is upon us!" (cf. The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, Partridge's Older Brother, Grandfather's Two Families, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother) The same procedure used by a powerful spirit over the bones of the deceased when completely reassembled, will have the same results (The Raccoon Coat, Redhorn's Sons, White Wolf). This formula is based upon the relation of the word nâghi(re) meaning "to be frightened, fear" to nâghi, "soul". By instilling fear, one instills the soul back into the bones. Once this happens, they come back to life. In the reverse process, when the nâghirak meets Spirit Woman on the path to Spiritland, after feeding the ghost, she cracks open his skull, which is his final death. So it is little wonder that where the wahorugóp is most concentrated is the place most associated with the soul. This is why it is a head-dress that is most effective in governing the actions of the soul. In the more modern stories this headdress is made of an inflated turkey bladder. It is not just that the turkey is a flightless bird, but that it is the bird of the arrow (mâ), and therefore the bird of time (mâ). This is because the turkey's feathers make up the vane of the arrow, its "wings", and give it the power of flight and accuracy. Rucewe, the Chief of Birds, the turkey that chases after the Twins, is the bird of the arrow of time. It is time that dogs the steps of Ghost and Flesh, and as we mortals all know, leads to their final separation. In this context, though, the turkey headdress keeps Ghost and Flesh together, since it was inflated with the breath of their father. The Hotcâk verb meaning "to breathe", ni, also means, "to live". By a fortunate homonym, ni also means "water", the special abode of the soul. However, it is the ni inside the bladder that keeps the Ghost from escaping his companionship with Flesh, as every time Ghost tries to escape into the water, it bobs him right back up. The bladder is an organ of the bird of time that expels and repels water, the medium of the wild and free ghost, and insures that it must reside in the lodge of this earth with Flesh. It commands the lifetime which is the union of ghost and flesh. [For another discussion of the same subject, see The Gottschall Head.]

Now, just like the artist at Gottschall, the father of the Twins (Sun) goes out of his way to paint this life-giving bladder of breath-and-life the color red. Why do Ghost's headdresses in story and mural get painted red? The turkey bladder, which is usually filled with one kind of ni, water, that the ghost likes to inhabit, is now filled with another kind of ni, breath, which the ghost is made to inhabit when it is joined with the flesh. Ghost becomes flightless like the turkey and cannot escape his earthly union with Flesh. Now Ghost must inhabit the ni of the body: the breath (ni), muelos (wa-horugóp), and perhaps the blood (wa'î). The headdress is what forces Ghost to create life in the flesh, so it is painted the color of blood, the color of life. As we have seen, the color black symbolizes death. It is the color of the shadow, the manifestation of the nâghirak outside the body; it is the color of darkness, the counterpart of unconsciousness. So black is also the color of mourning. The Nightspirits are the cause of darkness, and it is to them ultimately that the present Black Bear Subclan traces its origins. The Nightspirits who bring the darkness are the eastern opposites of the Thunders of the west, whose color, emblematic of lightning, is red. In The Roaster, when the humans contest the Giants in a mortal struggle, the Giants paint themselves black, the color of death, whereas the humans paint themselves the color of life, red. In Chief of the Heroka and Red Man when the red of the sky symbolic of the hero is extinguished, so too is his life. In the former case his death is made known in the sky when it loses all traces of red clouds and turns completely black. The association of life and vitality with the color red is seen in traditional dress, where only young people were allowed to wear red, the color tco (blue/green) being the color of the elders. When a member of the Medicine Rite treads the Road of Life and Death into Spiritland, there are many things along the way whose color reminds him of the promise of eternal life. The second hill that he comes to is entirely red; at another place he sees a field of red rocks; in yet another spot he encounters red willows and reeds; and finally, he gazes back to see a valley covered by a red haze. However, the matter is complicated. The color red seems to be associated with the ghost (wanâghi) itself. This is why the guardian of the gate to Spiritland in the west is Red Bear. The red bladder of ni that keeps Ghost from parting from his brother Flesh, recalls quite obviously that other red ni that is intimately bound with the seat of the mind (na'î), and that is blood (wa'î). The seat of the mind is the heart (nâtcge). It is here where most of the blood is concentrated, and which is in close proximity to the blood-rich lungs which cause the ebb and flow of the breath (ni). In the heart reside all the emotions and all the desires and wants of a person. When the Green Man (Bluehorn) replaced the heart of a deer with one fashioned of dried earth, it was said that ever after deer were skitterish because they had no moisture in their hearts. So the force of willful emotion is tied to the blood. [19] In another account of the sojourn of the soul to Spiritland, the wanâghi comes to Spirit Woman who then applies to him the latest medical technique of the XVIIIth century -- she cups him. In this procedure, a heated cup is placed over the spot where the patient is to be bled. The function of the heated cup is to draw the blood up to the surface. There the sanguinous humour is bled off. So Spirit Woman takes the spiritual body of the ghost and removes its spiritual blood, which we are told leaves the wanâghi free of all earthly wants and cares. [20] It may now progress to Spiritland without anything holding it back. This shows us that it is the blood that makes the heart the seat of the mind. So to show that Ghost is sojourning with Flesh and that he is not in the bloodless condition of the departed soul, his head is graced with the color of blood and of life. The head, the seat of the life soul, is given the color of blood, the seat of the mind and of consciousness, to remind us that he is bonded to his twin brother Flesh, expressed in the fact that it is he who always takes the initiative and backs it with that force of emotion that exposure to blood must necessarily give him.

Now we must consider why the area around the mouth, the pûtc, has been painted red in the depiction of Ghost. In the Hotcâk language, the mouth has a special connection to the life force. The word for mouth is i, which is nearly identical with its nasalized version, î, 'î, meaning "to be, to become; to live, be alive". [21] Since nothing in the world of religious thought is considered a matter of coincidence, but everything is pregnant with meaning, the seeming coincidences of homonyms and assonances are an expression of hidden meaning and were put into existence by the machinations of spiritual forces. So the mouth is in word intimately tied to life, to existence. Whether such ties existed in the Xth century is not critical to the thesis, since the mouth is the alpha and omega of breath, where it exits and enters. This breath is the carrier of life, and it ceases to ebb and flow only at death. It resides in the lungs and heart where the blood is most concentrated. Thus the ghost or soul is strongly associated with the blood and breath, and therefore also with the heart, lungs and mouth. So the region about the mouth of the dead is often painted the color of blood and life, red. In the Hawk Clan, or Warrior Clan as it was also known, sometimes the mouth was surrounded with a red circle. In pictographs the empty circle itself, as we shall show below and in detail in the Gottschall Head, denotes life. In time of war the paint was dispensed with and in its place the real article for which the red paint stood was used in its place -- the circle was painted with human blood. [22] In the Deer Clan Origin Myth it is said,

The Bear Clan also paints the entire chin of the deceased red, the relevance of which to the Ghost figure at Gottschall was appreciated to some degree by Salzer. [24] As we have seen in the discussion of the Gottschall head, the chin is a special area that expresses the life force in the form of beard growth. As we saw above, the chin is called hi-rap, "the hair jaw", the word for jaw (rap) also denoting beavers, so that the whole jaw becomes "the beaver" by homonym. The picture of Ghost at Gottschall has the red paint, symbolic of the life principle and therefore the soul, painted in the pattern of the beaver's coloration around its pûtc or snout in order to show the water-loving affinities of the ghost, an affinity indulged in the flesh by its special associations with blood and wa-horugóp (marrow).

The Double Helix. All three of the humans on the same plane have something that has been described as a "forelock." This is another odd idea inspired by the slightly later Mississippian culture, where forelocks are quite pronounced, but by no means this pronounced. In the illustrations below, the rayed discs and the twisting lines emanating from them at the point of attachment have been aligned in the same direction for Ghost, Flesh, and their presumed mother.

In the depiction of Ghost, the first two lobes of the entwined lines look as if they were forelocks, but they are not drawn in exactly the same way as the rest of the strand, which reaches all the way to the ground and attaches to an inverted bird. Some forelock! The entwined lines either attach to the first two lobes or pass behind them, originating in either the disc or what looks very much like a Mississippian wooden cone. [24.1] On the other two figures there is no ambiguity. The entwined lines originate in the rayed disc. In the case of Flesh, one of the rays is even below the attachment point. When this is appreciated, we realize that the entwined lines have something to do with the rayed discs or orbs.

In some ways the entwined lines resemble a length of chain, except that the links seem to be slightly oval in the vertical direction. When seen this way, it inscribes a two-dimensional view of a double helix, a crossing double spiral. This pattern, especially when connected to a superior disc, is highly significant. One place where we see the vertical ascending double (parallel) helix is in the plains Indian sign language. The sign for the concept conventionally translated into English as "medicine" is shown in the inset. This is not the sense of "medicine" applying to physical remedies, but the sense that expresses sacred power. [25]

In sign language this concept is expressed by forming a "V" with the index and middle fingers, then moving the hand upwards in a circular, clockwise motion. [26] It may be observed that the tips of the fingers inscribe a double spiral. The advantage of the sign is that it expresses the concept in three dimensions with the inclusion of motion. The sign at once expresses duality, circularity, and vertical motion. In Hotcâk thought, for instance, creation is from above. The earth itself was cast down by Earthmaker (Mâ'ûna) from above, and its seas were his tears of loneliness that fell from on high. Offerings to the spirits in the other direction are made by sending the articles through the smoke hole of the lodge in which the rite takes place. Some offerings (such as tobacco) are placed in the fire, which is the "messenger of the spirits" since its smoke rises to the upper regions carrying the offerings to the spirits. So there is a double pathway of creation and effect, both upward and downward. This is the duality of the motion, the two strands of the basic rope, the double helix of an axis mundi that ties the mortal and immortal worlds together in a binding medium through which power is communicated. But this communication is also a circle in other ways. The circle is a perfect figure with neither beginning nor ending. When Hare attempted to win immortality for human beings, he did so by walking in a circle around the world or around a central fire; but when he looked back, he broke the perfect circularity of his Vision for humanity, and in so doing, shattered human immortality in the flesh. The double helix expresses the circle in motion. When Earthmaker created our world, he not only sent it downward, but his act of holy creation imparted a circular spin to it, so that it was in constant flux, the flux of infinite circular creativity. To render the earth quiet and stable, Earthmaker had to anchor it in place. In the Medicine Rite description of the journey to Spiritland, the departed ghost ascends to the world of his deliverance, the realm of Earthmaker himself, by climbing up a ladder whose right side is "like a twisted frog's leg." This staircase to heaven is a static representation of the double helix of transformation, with the progress of soul ascending in conformity with this pattern, being transmitted to the realm of Spiritland to be transformed (see the Commentary to "The Journey to Spiritland"). This has an interesting exemplar in the Micmac petroglyph shown just below to the left. The caption reads, "Stars and lines said to represent the Milky Way, the 'Spirit Road' of the Micmac Indians. Micmac Incised style; ... Kejimkujik Lake, Nova Scotia." [27]

This is not a realistic representation of the Milky Way, but a symbolic rendering of a road of supernatural power, a connection between worlds like the twisted frog's leg of the Hotcâk Medicine Rite, the rotating, double helix pathway to the Otherworld. Note that the star embedded in the Milky Way has a single helix "power line" descending downward, just like Gottschall has the double helix descending downward from each of the solar-like discs. Two more examples of the "double helix" design are found from the Great Lakes region. The one above right is described as an "unidentified abstract symbol", and the more diamond shaped one on the right is from the Cliff Lake paintings. [28] Other examples are found in the Southwest and in Missouri. [28.1] This "diamond chain" motif, as it is called, may not belong here, but is close enough in form to be worth mentioning. These last two have much the same orientation as those at Gottschall. Similar examples come from the living tradition of the contemporary Lakota, whose linguistic branch is thought to have separated from the Hotcâk, Chiwere, and Dhegiha around 700 AD. The Lakota still use a minimal representation of this same double helix pattern (see insets). The fundamental unit of the structure is often represented as a triangle. However, the Keeper of the Star Map among the Oglalas reminds us that

The two vortices joined at the apex form a symbol called kapemni. This term does more to express the truly dynamic and kinetic nature of the double vortices than its two dimensional counterpart might suggest. The stem is pemni, which means "twisting". The prefix ka- is used "for a class of verbs whose action is performed by .. the wind." The word in origin must have denoted the actions of tornadoes and dust devils, but is now used to express their general twisting motion. In the Oglala story of Iron Hawk, it is a whirlwind that sucks the hero Red Calf up through the hole in the sky where his father Iron Hawk is being held prisoner. [28.2.1] This motion, expressed by two "V" shapes in mirror image of one another, recalls the Lakota "medicine" sign (see above). So the kapemni symbol

So the kapemni is a whirling set of vortices through which the upper and lower worlds communicate with one another. An act of supernatural power, such as a sacrifice or prayer can actually generate a kapemni. The double helices that we see in the Micmac petroglyph and at Gottschall are nothing more nor less that a series of connected kapemni. The kapemni certainly appears to have evolved out of what is called a "power line". This term is found in the literature on plains pictography, of which there are numerous Lakota examples.

Sometimes, though less frequently, it is represented by several straight lines emanating from the head of a supernaturally powerful person, such as a medicine man. More usually, however, the rays take on the form of sine waves, as we see in the Lakota pictographic symbol meaning "medicine man" [inset]. [28.3.1] The term "rays" is appropriate, since such depictions attempt to capture an invisible power, a supernatural force, that radiates outwards from a sacred nodal point. It is a person's or object's holiness expressed as an invisible field of supernatural potency. The sine wave is the two-dimensional representation of a twisting motion, since it is of the nature of radiating supernatural power to configure itself in this circular form, the circle being an exemplar of perfection. We see such a "power line" emanating from a star in the Micmac pictograph above. More importantly, we have relatively modern pictorial evidence of both the power line and the kapemni double helix that are reified in the form of concrete ritual artefacts. A rather late survivor of the Mississippian culture, the Timucua tribe of Florida, was visited in 1564 by a French expedition under Laudonnière that had the foresight to bring an artist with them, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues.

He painted numerous scenes of Timucuan life which found themselves published in engravings done by the Flemish artist Theodor De Bry in 1591. The inset shows part of De Bry's engraving of Le Moyne's "Trophies and Ceremonies after a Victory". [28.4] Illustrated are three of the poles upon which "trophies" were suspended. Flanking a pole with a scalp at its top is a pole with an arm tied to it and another with a leg fastened to it in the same way. Of particular interest are rigid strands (vines?) that spiral down the poles, connecting the top of the trophy to the ground. The "trophies" are meant to be the surviving physical attachments to which the souls of the slain warriors remain fixed. The arm, scalp, and leg probably represent respectively, executive power, spirit, and motion. The two poles with limbs attached have single helices or power lines that send down the spiritual power possessed by the slain warrior in these appendages to the sacred earth of the victorious tribe. The scalp, which is a kind of synecdoche for the head as a whole, may be taken to represent the spirit of the departed warrior, whose powers now redound to the victors. Being the chief artefact of the slain warrior's soul-stuff, his hair's spiritual power is transmitted in entwined power lines in the form of a double helix kapemni. The top knot, as can be seen, has been untied, and the long strands of hair have been allowed to spread out like wings. The result is strikingly like a caduceus (see below for the caduceus). This double helix looks very similar indeed to that portrayed in the Gottschall pictographs. The discharge of power is also in the same direction, from above to below. In the case of the Gottschall Twins pictures, the discharge of the force isn't a deposit of supernatural power into the earth, but a violent expression of its power to destructive ends. This kind of kapemni power is hinted at in rituals from the Mississippian cultures in the context of war: "... they strike with fury and vengeance the spiral-striped war pole -- a symbolic axial conduit between the Sun and the sacred fire." [28.5] There the spiral strips are a surface counterpart to the strands seen in the 1564 painting. The painting illustrates the ideal representation, which is three-dimensional. This three-dimensionality can only be suggested in the two-dimensional medium used at Gottschall. Nevertheless, among the Timucua we have a clear example of the spiritual power of the sun expressing itself through the rotating vortex of the kapemni, which appears to be what is happening in an equally warlike context with the Children of the Sun at Gottschall.

Additional examples of the vertical, double helices come from older phases of the Mississippian culture, specifically from the Spiro Mound in Oklahoma (see the illustrations below). The first example is a fragment of a gorget showing the double helix arising directly from the head. It could represent a headdress of this design, but that seems rather less probable than its being a pictorial expression of a medicine path connecting the head (a place where the soul resides), with the celestial spirit abode. Even as a headdress, it probably retains the same symbolic significance. [29] The second example is a Greek cross within a petaloid circle. Draped over the cross bar of the cross is what looks like downward spiraling drapery in a double helix pattern. The cross, like the more elaborated swastika, is typically a symbol of the center, the bars of the cross forming a kind of reticle that precisely defines a geometric center, the meeting point of the arms. The center defined by the arms of the cross also forms the center of two concentric circles that surround the cross. Outside these circles are what appear to be flower petals, the whole giving the impression of a sunflower. The result suggests a symbolic representation of the sun, here seen as the center of a vortex whence emanates the double helix that descends to earth in ever widening bands, as if in perspective. The double helix as a "medicine path", here emanating from what appears to be a symbolic representation of the sun, is similar in conception, albeit in a very different artistic style, to its counterparts at Gottschall. [30] The petaloid circle containing a cross is widely distributed in Mississippian culture, where the cross is sometimes modified into a swastika, representing a rotating motion, rather like the solar-like object surmounting the head of Ghost at Gottschall. [31]

The third example is of a similar double helix rendered in a different artistic style, with sets of parallel lines in a more elegant counterpart to the Micmac pictograph above. [32] In this gorget design, two men are facing one another and each is holding his own cauldron out of which the helices ascend. Each cauldron is shown as if it were transparent, the rotating lines curving together at the midpoint of each cauldron, and contained in this loop within each cauldron is a Greek cross. Therefore, the third example is something of an inversion of the second. The cross here marks the ritual Center (in Eliade's sense) here on earth, and the double helices ascending, represent the supernatural path by which the spiritual essence of the offering rises to the spirits above. This may function as a symbolic representation of the spiritual essence of the rising smoke or steam said to play the same role. The fourth example, which is broken at the top left, clearly depicts a ceremony of some kind, with one high ranking individual handing a cauldron off to another. Between them and beneath the cauldron stands a column decorated in a series of vertically ascending "targets" of three concentric black circles each. Emanating from the cauldron is a vertical double helix made up of four black lines separated by three white lines, which is the same as the "target" pattern on the supporting column. Although the left side is broken off, the right side is intact and appears to terminate in a wing tip. Just short of the wing tip is a slightly oval rattle striped with three white lines against a black field, the same pattern followed by the other aforementioned lines. A forked structure surmounts the top of the rattle, and below the oval is a handle. [33] The double helix of this work of art looks very much like the Micmac design reoriented to the vertical axis. It would seem to represent a creative vortex which reëxpresses the metaphysical function of the column itself, whose "target" designs may also represent vortices as seen from above or below. In fact, the Lakota have the exact same "target" symbol which they identify as the kapemni vortex pair as seen from above. [33.1] Since the double helix vortex emanates from the cauldron, it may represent the "spirit path" taken by the presumed offering contained in the cauldron. That the "targets" and the vertical helix may represent two perspectives on the same thing is reinforced by the large ceremonial ornaments worn by each of the men holding the cauldron. The one on the left appears to have attached to his back a swan or goose of about four feet in length, extending down from just below his shoulder to the back of his knee. The corresponding figure on the right has a large circular device, a more elaborate "target" of six black concentric circles, the last third of which is cut off to fit on his back. The outermost circle has a series of elaborate rays which have a zigzag pattern to them that point back to the center of the concentric circles. This gives it a solar appearance. It is of a piece with the other "targets" and the oval rattles in front of the double helices. All these may represent the sun as a creative vortex and the terminus of a spirit path (as the star is in the Micmac example above). The vertical path and its motion is captured in part by the swan or goose, which is a bird that traverses the vertical worlds and can therefore symbolize motion along this path. His head is pointed upward and his wings are spread, so he recalls the winged double helix above the cauldron and the column. The effect of the column, the double helix with its winged termination, recalls not only the water bird ornament, but the caduceus of Hermes, the wand of the divine messenger and herald of the gods who traverses the worlds in order to make communication among them possible. This is, indeed, the central purpose of an offering, to traverse these otherwise distinct and separate worlds in order to effect communication to their mutual benefit. The kilts of the two men in examples 3 & 4 are ornamented in different ways with the Greek cross, what the Hotcâgara called "the Earthmaker Cross". This may itself be a static representation of the Center also expressed by the target design. This would be similar to the swastika in its import. [34] [For more remote parallels to the double helix, the caduceus, and the Hindu svastika, see Comparative Material below.]

The Rayed Orbs. This double helix in the depictions of it in Panel 5 is not a forelock connected to the head, but in every case it is connected to the disc surmounted on the heads of three of the anthropomorphic figures. It has been suggested that this is a coronet or garland of some kind, perhaps on the model of that worn by the Thunders, who are said to wear a red cedar (waxcútc) garland on their otherwise bald heads. However, for historical models we should turn to the peoples who occupied this area from 1640-1735, before it was (re)occupied by the Hotcâgara. These are the Fox and Sauk nations, who are Algonquian speakers and therefore not related to the Hotcâgara or Chiwere peoples. Nevertheless, there was a great deal of commerce, not to exclude the commerce of ideas, among these tribes. For the rayed crown, we have an interesting example from this depiction of a Fox warrior by Lewis (Image 1):

However, what makes it somewhat unlikely that this is what was being depicted at Gottschall is the fact that the pictographic orbs are on edge in relation to a coronet. Nevertheless, the coronet might well symbolize the same sort of thing, if it is not just a decorative device. In the pictures above (Image 2) we have another Fox warrior, Tahcoloquoit, who not only has a coronet of a different sort, but has the Akron lines painted on his face very much like the sculpted head found at Gottschall. However, the most interesting example actually features the very orb under discussion (Images 3 and 4). It has been observed that the orbs on all the anthropomorphic figures have 7 rays, but there would be 8 if we extrapolated to the point where the orb rests against the crown of the head. In the portrait of the Fox chief Keesheswa, the disc with 8 rays is painted right next to his ear. It is probably a coincidence that this symbol is painted in the same blue-gray as the Gottschall paintings. It may not be a coincidence that the rayed orb is painted next to his ear. The ear is the organ of sound reception, and sound, because of its radiation in all directions from a center, is often a symbol of the cardinal points. Kings in the ancient Near East and elsewhere were said to be "Lords of the Four Quarters", a title bound up with the symbolism of sound and the ear. Since Keesheswa is a chief, this could be the import of putting this eight-rayed orb next to his ear. The brass ring, forward facing with a silvery hooked ray above it, does recall something of the rayed orbs shown in the Gottschall paintings. Nevertheless, in the paintings they are connected to double helices, which in the case of Ghost is itself connected to what is certainly an inverted bird. All this involves symbolism, so even if it were established that there were actual coronets or garlands of the sort seen in the Gottschall paintings, we are still left with the question of what their symbolism is in this context, a context in which one of them is not passive, but is involved intimately in the action taking place.

This disc, as it is surmounted on the head of Ghost and the other figures, is the source and terminus of the double helix, which is to say, supernatural power. The double helix is not the only thing emanating from the disc. Each disc is surrounded by rays. Such discs are found in pictographs of known meaning. In ISLan (Indian Sign Language), a disc formed by the index finger and thumb, as illustrated, denotes either the sun, moon, or star, depending upon which other signs are added. By itself, the sign means "sun"; if it is preceded by the sign for darkness (or night), it denotes the moon; if the sign is made and the index finger is flicked back and forth to indicate twinkling, then it denotes a star. [35] Such unities are seen in the Hotcâk language. The word wi by itself means "luminary", but without modification, it usually stands as an ellipsis for hâpwira, the day luminary or sun. Hâhewira, "night luminary," is the word for moon, although when -wira occurs in a calendrical context, it will denote "moon" or "month", as in Hûtc-wi-ra, "the Bear Moon". Wi-ra gocge denotes stars. All three are luminaries (wi) in Hotcâk. In ISLan, "sun" and "star" are represented by discs, and "moon" by a crescent.

In pictographic writing, the luminance of two of these are represented by rays, the moon being represented by a crescent. The disc on the head of Ghost has twisted rays suggesting a counterclockwise motion, whereas that of Flesh exhibits straight rays. The double helix emanating from Flesh's disc does not terminate with another figure, but the double helix of Ghost extends down a good distance and terminates in a picture of an inverted "black" (solid colored) bird. In later pictography, the practice of inverting a creature and giving it a solid color has a known meaning. There are numerous examples from the XIXth century, as we see in the panel below.

Often it is enough to turn an animal on its back to indicate that it is dead. A set of instructions on how to make a pictograph makes this abundantly clear: "Death of an animal is indicated by the animal being shown in an inverted position, viz., upside down. In case of a deer being shown by a set of deer horns, reverse the horns to represent death. Where a bear is shown by the bear's paw, reverse the paw with claws up to represent death." [36] However, as we see from our examples, coloring it in and making it solid is another conventional way of representing the animal's death. The two figures at the end of the series of pictographs above, for instance, represent two dead people. So the inverted, solid colored depiction that we find in Panel 5 at the base of the Ghost figure would conventionally represent a dead bird, by attested pictographic values. We have seen that the double helix represents supernatural power, and it originates in the disc whose rays suggest spinning. The spinning disc represents either Ghost's own power as a stellar being, or his power as an expression of the sun, inasmuch as he is one of the Children of the Sun. So according to late pictographic conventions, what the depiction says is that "a man with solar/stellar connections, applied supernatural power to a bird, resulting in its death." This is what one widespread version of the Twins myth tells us happened: Ghost kicked to death a Thunderbird nestling, something that could be done only with immense supernatural power. Flesh, at this point, is not taking part, so his supernatural power is inactive, although present. It does not, therefore, terminate in a result. This inactivity is reinforced by the static depiction of the rayed disc, which shows no hint of action itself and his double helix does not come to ground in any object. When we examine the "apron" that Ghost wears beneath his oval gorget, we see that it is decorated in this same double helix motif. A series of such double helices are arranged in parallel vertical columns, and suggest in this design even more strongly the up/down directionality of the double helix. Its being surmounted, so to speak, by an oval disc, repeats the pattern of the solar-like discs that stand above and connected to the double helices that project down in front of the three humanoid figures. This is an artistic reenforcement of the theme of spiritual power that is particularly manifest and expressed in the figure of Ghost. It is absent in the figure of Flesh precisely because he is less powerful. [This subject is discussed further below under "The Seven Rays of the Orbs". For parallels to the rayed orbs or discs, see Comparative Material below.]

The Nestlings. The inset is a picture of the object being touched by Ghost's left hand, with an outline traced in red that suggests the form of a bird. This object is almost certainly a bird, and one a good deal smaller than the one to its right which has been identified as a Thunderbird. According to our stories, especially "The Lost Blanket" versions, there should be at least two nestlings whom the Twins confront. The pale green line traces the outline of what might be a stone, which is of interest since "The Lost Blanket" story says that the Twins fought the Thunderbirds with stones.

The filaments that seem to extrude from the bird's outline might be either a representation of down feathers, or biological effluvia ejected from the impact of Ghost's left hand thrust into the center of its body with, as the green outline suggests, a rock. However, it is almost certainly the former, since Panel 3 shows what is clearly a bison whose hair is rendered in this same manner. [37] While "The Lost Blanket" story does not at first describe the fate of the nestlings, later on (as we shall see below) it states that they were killed by the Twins and made into headdresses. So the painting here is interpreted with no difficulty as Ghost killing two nestling Thunderbirds in succession, the first of which lies at his feet and the second of which is seen in the very course of its destruction. It may be that the young bird is merely being gripped by Ghost's left hand, but it would not be surprising if that Twin had executed the coup de grave from that side. There is more than one reason to think so. Striking a mortal blow with the left hand would demonstrate unusual power, since normally the left is the weaker side. As to flesh and spirit, we might expect flesh to be associated with the right, the familiar world, and the ghost to be associated with the left, the world of death and the Beyond. Also, given the moral priority of right as the "correct" hand to use in almost everything, the use of the left hand to commit an act of deicide seems very appropriate to one of the central messages of the Twins Cycle: that the supreme power given the Twins caused them to lose their moral constraints and to cross the boundary of right action into the realm of excess and moral error. The assault on the Thunderbirds was not why the spirits in general gave of their collective powers to create these beings of incomparable might, it was to do the opposite, to restore the balance of the universe and set things right. The Twins in their excess have gone Left when they should have gone Right. This reason for why the left hand leads the assault against the Divine Ones is reinforced by a similar inversion. A reexamination of the solar-like disk above the head of Ghost suggests by the forward curvatures of its rays, a counterclockwise motion. Conventionally, as we have seen, the ISLan sign for holiness or medicine describes the double helix of supernatural power as rotating clockwise. Inasmuch as the double helix is attached to a source that seems to be rotating the opposite direction, the helix can be presumed to be rotating to the left as well. If this is correct, it asserts that Ghost's supernatural power is bad medicine used in a counterproductive cause. Therefore, the projection of the left spinning double helix from its holy source on to the prostrate bird below is just another image of Ghost's left handed assault on the second nestling. The reduplication of narrative motifs is a cornerstone of mythology, and we see the same principle being applied in the pictographic representation of the present myth.

Another odd thing about these nestlings is that they have no feet. They could hardly be designed that way by nature. (The large Thunderbird is the same way, but that may be because the rock surface ran out before the feet were reached. On the other hand, it could have just been painted slightly higher up and depiction of the feet would have been possible.) Surely the lack of feet has some significance, but what could it be? Once again we can turn to recent plains pictography to get an interesting solution. There is a picture of a Dakota taking captive a Crow man and woman. It is a minimalist composition, practically a group of stick figures, except that the woman is identified by two round circles indicating her breasts. The woman is to the left of the captor, and the man is to the right. Also shown are the hands of the Dakota, but the hands of the prisoners are missing. Col. Mallery explains, "[The pictograph] shows a Dakota method of recording the taking of prisoners. ... It is noted that the prisoners are without hands, to signify their helplessness." [38] This same symbolism seems likely to be operating in the Gottschall exemplars. Since birds use their feet for grasping, they become the counterpart to human hands. The nestlings, and perhaps even Great Black Hawk himself, are helpless in the face of the immense power wielded by the Twins. To show this, their "hands" (talons) have been removed, indicating that the organs of executive power have ceased to function.

Great Black Hawk. In the inset, the picture of the large bird in Panel 5 has been isolated with the trailing human figure removed. The bar found across the face of this latter personage extends all the way to the avian figure, and therefore may be a part of it.

Therefore, in this isolated view, I have left it attached as though it were. Accepting provisionally the hypothesis that this is a Thunderbird, mainly on the evidence of the forked pattern emanating from the eyes, can the addition of the "bar" add anything to our interpretation? Its situation is at the back end of the bird right next and above the part that seems to represent the tail feathers. It is hard to see it, therefore, as anything other than a tail itself, in the raised position that it usually assumes when a raptor lands with a braking action. When interpreted this way, it becomes, in conjunction with the other section also interpreted as a tail, a dual or "forked" tail. Such tails are found on a number of highly aerobatic species. Thunderbirds assume the somatic form of various species of birds. Their chief, Great Black Hawk, has the bodily form of a black hawk when he wishes to be in an avian modality. We must assume, for instance, that Little Pigeon Hawk, who is also a Thunderbird, must likewise have the avian form of the species recognized in his name. [39] So on what kind of a bird is the body of the large Thunderbird in Panel 5 modeled? The aforementioned tale "The Lost Blanket," gives an epilogue to the fight between the Twins and the Thunderbirds which supplies us with a good idea of what bird might be depicted here. The story relates how Ghost and Flesh climbed a hill and looking down espied a very large village.

So, in the version in which two nestlings are killed ("The Lost Blanket"), the story ends with the identification of their father as the Chief of the Thunderbirds, Keredjûsepxedega, "Great Black Hawk". In many warbundles, the black hawk has been represented by a sparrow hawk, but that is probably because the original black hawk, which was conspicuously black, had become exceedingly rare in Wisconsin. This original black hawk can be identified. Joseph LaMère, the older brother of Radin's primary translator Oliver, told a German anthropologist exactly what kind of bird that the Hotcâgara meant by a "black hawk" (keredjû-sep), and this was a kind of kite, what is now called the "American Swallow-tail Kite" (Elanoides forficatus), known in earlier times as the "Black Swallow-tail Kite". [41]

The forficatus of its scientific name refers to its forked tail. Concerning its scarcity, one man remarked back in 1854 that the American swallow-tail kite was, "at one time quite numerous upon our prairies, and quite annoying to us in grouse shooting; now rarely met with in this vicinity [southwest Wisconsin]." [42] The coloration of this bird helps us explain an important feature of the painting. What's puzzling about the Thunderbird of Panel 5 is that its head and legs are not colored in, but the rest of its body is represented as being more or less a solid color. It happens that if we accept the depiction as a rendering of the story from "The Lost Blanket," and the identity of the father Thunderbird as a black hawk (as identified by Joseph LaMère), then we can see immediately from the inset painting of the American swallow-tail kite why the Gottschall bird exhibits the coloring scheme that it does. What this demonstrates is that the painting is consistent with the story of "The Lost Blanket" where Great Black Hawk is the father of the two Thunderbird nestlings that were killed by the Twins. The story says that the Twins encountered two nestling Thunderbirds. They tell them to call their parents, but when they do, they describe the Twins as "crazed". This makes the younger Twin (Ghost) indignant. It is he who presumably kills the nestlings, although "The Lost Blanket" does not explicitly say so; nevertheless, the other variants name only Ghost as the perpetrator. It is the parents who first arrived, but they were soon reenforced by a squadron of Thunderbirds. We later learn that one of those parents is their chief, Great Black Hawk. The large bird in the painting is consistent with being a black hawk. Thus far the painting is quite consistent with a depiction of the events as they unfold in the story of "The Lost Blanket."

It should be noted that black hawks are extremely gracile and are therefore very different in physique from the pudgy looking version of the painting. One reason for this is that the story emphasizes that the Twins have mistaken these powerful predatory birds for mere pigeons. Thus the artist, assuming that he has not been just careless in execution, has tried to give the Thunders a pigeon-like aspect.

Blankets Lost and Found. Whatever the age of the version of the Twins story portrayed at Gottschall, it almost certainly predates any version now extant. It is surely a Hotcâk story. Yet the tonsures of all the male figures are not only unlike that of the Hotcâgara that we are familiar with from paintings of historical times, but it is somewhat different from neighboring tribes. [43] It superficially resembles the famous "Mohawk cut", except that it is shorter. Like the regional cut of the tribes in this vicinity (Fox, Sauk, Chiwere, and some Dhegiha tribes), all hair except for a narrow strip running front to back is completely removed. This appears to be the case with the figures of the Gottschall panel. However, there is one important difference that to my knowledge has no historical parallel. Thin strips of hair are shaved at right angles to the hair ridge every 4 or inches or so. This feature makes their tonsures unique.

Another interesting divergence is the headdress. Almost all those who in historical times adopted this regional style of tonsure also wore a red, deer tail headdress. All the Fox warriors shown above are depicted wearing such a headdress. In the inset we see a drawing in red showing a man with his head completely or almost completely shaven wearing such a headdress. This drawing is painted in part over the forehead of the Flesh figure. It is not that the deer tail headdress is not known among the Hotcâgara, but judging from paintings the habit of shaving the head in this fashion seems to have been rare among them in historical times. It therefore seems unlikely that the red painting of a man wearing a deer tale headdress with a nearly bald head is Hotcâk. Nor would they efface one of their paintings with a picture of a foreign warrior. More likely, it is Fox or Sauk. If so, given that it is painted over, and therefore later than, the blue pictures, it is likely done by the Fox or Sauk during their occupancy of the area. This would mean, of course, that the blue paintings, those that depict the actions of a uniquely Hotcâk myth, predate the Fox and Sauk incursion of ca. 1640.

The pictographs would therefore show the earliest version of the myth that we have. This would explain the tonsure as one that had subsequently gone out of style among the Hotcâgara, but continued on in a similar form in that area, most especially by the closely related Chiwere peoples. The red, deer tail headdress, however, which was so popular among the Fox, is not seen at all in the blue pictographs at Gottschall. Instead, we have headdresses that are simply unattested among any tribe of historical times as shown in the pictures that have come down to us. Indeed, for all we know, they might be mythical headdresses, much like the turkey bladders said to have been worn by the Twins at the insistence of their father. The headdress of Flesh appears to be a set of wide strips that look as if they are flowing with the wind. Ghost's is quite unlike this. His is rather like a ribbon, and therefore must be made of strands of hair, and is even painted in a different color (red). The only thing that looks like the headdress of Flesh is the long strip attached to the head of the adult Thunderbird, Great Black Hawk. Since cloth is not likely a common commodity at this time (prior to 1640), what looks like cloth must be its predecessor fabric, skin (fur). The version known to us as "The Lost Blanket", tells us that both Flesh and Ghost had blankets made of fur. Flesh had one made of mink, but Ghost had one made of the fur of mice. Given that Flesh's headdress in the pictograph is almost certainly of fur, may we not entertain the idea that this early variant had not missing blankets, but missing furs of a different design that were used in headdresses? In version 1, it is Flesh's mink fur that is stolen, in version 2 the fur or blanket is owned by both of them. It is stolen by the Thunderbird Sleets as He Walks (Wasuwohimaniga). However, in an earlier version it may have been the Chief of the Thunders who ended up with this fur and that this was the motive for the Twins attacking his children. A pale trace of this exists in an Ioway Twin myth, the counterpart to "The Twins Disobey Their Father." The Ioway say that the lesser Twin had possession of his brother's queue, his scalp lock. When the stronger Twin tried to persuade his brother to violate their father's prohibitions, his immediate object is to get back his queue, since apparently without it, he cannot act with full force (rather like Samson). Finally, he gets his brother to relent and give him back his queue. Among the Ioway, what is missing is part of the coiffure. The entire episode of the conflict between the Thunders and the Twins among the Ioway has been so radically altered that swans have come to replace the divine birds so that no theft can be attributed to the Thunders and no deicide can be attributed to the Twins. It looks as if among the Ioway the conjectured original lost fur of Ghost's headdress was replaced with lost hair from Ghost's own scalp. This would be a transformation from a myth of the Common Winnebago-Chiwere that did not demure from attributions of hubris and tales of the nemesis that followed, a theme that the Ioway came to think of as being just too sacrilegious.

The "Red Horn" Figure and the Mother of the Twins. Let us now examine the figure called "Red Horn" in the received interpretation. In mythology he is so-called because his hair is red and arranged in a long queue or "horn" (he). However, the name has a double meaning. In the story of the Brown Squirrel, the expression "red projecting horn" (Ae lo tto Ke doAo tt = he-bodjoge-cutc) is used to denote an arrow made from red cedar. [44] Such arrows, used for small game, have no tip of flint or turtle claw, but are merely sharpened to a point (a "horn"). [45] In the story where Redhorn races against the spirits (The Race for the Chief's Daughter), he wins by turning himself into an arrow and shooting himself ahead of his competitors. [46] Therefore, Redhorn has a strong identity with the red-horn-as-arrow. This is reinforced by the fact that he also holds the position of Chief of the Herok'a. [47] The Herok'a are a diminutive race of hunting spirits, whose name means "Without Horns". They have a special identity with bows and arrows. Besides his queue/arrow, Redhorn is most noted for his earlobes or what he wears on them. He bears the title Îtcorúcika, "Heads as Earbobs". [48] Where his earlobes should be are two little heads of a comic disposition, who grin and stick their tongues out at people. The received interpretation sees the right-most figure in Panel 5 as being Redhorn, and the activity he is engaged in is a contest with the Giants in the game of lacrosse. Part of the problem with this interpretation is that there are no characteristics of this figure that suggest that he is Redhorn at all. He has no human heads on his ears, he does not have red hair, the hair is not arranged in a queue (or "horn"). There is no arrow motif, and there seems to be no symbolic depictions of the Herok'a. If the game is lacrosse, then where are the sticks, the ball, the goal? If it is a game, then why are "Redhorn's" friends not in humanoid form? It is hard to excel at lacrosse in an aviform body, since wings are not very handy in holding a stick.

Who then is this figure? It is certainly the most difficult to interpret, a difficulty compounded by the fact that there are three versions of the story that pertain to his identity. If we follow the standard versions of this tale, such as we find in the Twins Cycle and partly in Bluehorn's Nephews, then the figure is most likely the sun in his human form as the father of the Twins. In the Twins Cycle, the father is out hunting and hears the commotion of the fight between his sons and the Thunderbirds and thinks to himself that this time his sons have surely been killed. So it is natural to this interpretation that the figure on the extreme right be the father of the Twins. Inasmuch as they are the Children of the Sun, their father should be a form of the sun. On the other hand, in the Hotcâk tradition, the sun is thought of as rolling a large brass disc about the welkin, a clear representation of the solar disc. In the left hand we see something like a disc, except that it is rather small and is definitely colored in, and is therefore dark. So the object in the left hand seems a highly unlikely candidate for the solar disc. The second set of variants belong to a version in which the guardian of the Twins is their uncle (hidék), who is identified with Bluehorn, himself called "the Red Star" in his guise as the Evening Star. These variants are The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Man with Two Heads, The Children of the Sun. There the father of the Twins is the uneuhemerized Sun in his form as the celestial deity. These stories have no battle with the Thunders, so they cannot be a guide in interpreting the identity of this figure. However, if it is interpreted as an adjunct figure, perhaps making reference to another myth by allusion, these variants offer possible candidates. In this second version, the Twins rescue Bluehorn's head from a mysterious person who cut it off in a duel. This spirit resembled Bluehorn in every way, and since we know that Bluehorn is Evening Star, his doppelgänger must be Morning Star. He is named in one variant only as Herecgúnina (the Devil), but that is only under the influence of Christianity, where Morning Star is called "Lucifer". So the figure behind the Thunderbird in the painting might be Morning Star, and the object that he is carrying in his left hand could be the head of Bluehorn, perhaps in a bag. This leads to a surprising result if we were to accept the suggestion of Hall, reinforced to some degree by Radin, that Redhorn might be one and the same as Morning Star. It may be noticed, for instance, that Redhorn's very name is a complement to Bluehorn's. Other things could be said for this identity, including Morning Star's association with the Herok'a; but this line of conjecture comes to an abrupt end when we consider a number of other things: Heads for Earrings (Redhorn) is explicitly identified, along with two of his brothers, with fixed stars; and in Morning Star and His Friends, Heads for Earrings and Morning Star coexist in the same story! Furthermore, the list of the Great Spirits, excluding Bluehorn (Evening Star = Red Star), is given by The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head as: Trickster, Bladder, Turtle, Redhorn, Hare, Sun, and Grandmother Earth. Omitted is Morning Star, who, as we saw above, is certainly to be identified in that story with the Evil Spirit Herecgúnina. So in this story too, it would seem that Redhorn and Morning Star coexist as distinct personages. Redhorn, as Chief of the Herok'a, is therefore one and the same as Herok'aga. Yet in The Origins of the Milky Way, it is said that Earthmaker "dispatched Morning Star, Thunderbird, Wolf, Otter, Sun, Turtle, and Hérok'a" to aid the humans. Given that Herok'a is Redhorn, here again he is found coexisting with Morning Star. Furthermore, in the story The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, the Twins never address Redhorn as their uncle, despite the fact that Morning Star is said to be Red Star's (Bluehorn's) brother in Grandfather's Two Families; nor do they carry his warbundle as nephews would be expected to do. How indeed could they even be on good terms with someone whom they tried to kill in other stories? This makes it unlikely for Redhorn to be a figure in a painting about the history of the Twins. The third, the zero-grade version, has been the closest model. This model is exemplified by The Lost Blanket, in which the Twins battle the Thunderbirds in a context in which no mention is made of their father or guardian. If it is the Lost Blanket version that we are seeing, or some variant of it, then the figure will not be involved in the scene at all, but will be adjunct to it, like the smoker or the "turtle".

However, what makes the Redhorn thesis most unlikely is that the figure in question seems to be a female. Her most prominent female features are her breasts, which are both large and perhaps even pendent. The vertical lines seem to be used to represent a shirt, one that terminates in fringe. The contour of her breasts are made to show through this shirt. Another female feature is long hair not arranged in a scalp lock nor tonsured in the way seen in Ghost and Flesh. Her hair terminates in a large "ball" or bun at the back of her head and neck (not shaped like the Mississippian occipital hair knot). Jipson observes concerning the Hotcâgara,

"By the women the hair was worn in a roll on the back of the neck and held in place by bead strings or ribbons." [49] There appear to be no vertical feathers or other headdress elements attached to this hair bun, as would surely be the case if it were a male. An easily overlooked female feature is the pointed chin, which is so characteristic of women that it is often used as a forensic criterion for sex determination in skulls. What of the disc that surmounts the head? The rays on this disc are unlike those of either Ghost or Flesh. Instead of radiating directly out (as with Flesh), or spinning (as with Ghost), they hook upward, until the top-most set seem to form a crescent. Is it, then, Hâpwira (the day luminary), or Hâhewira (the night luminary)? The crescent-like rays seem to suggest the latter. In Hotcâk thought, Moon is female. This might help explain why her fringe wrist ornament is on her right hand, the opposite from its placement in the depictions of Flesh and Ghost. That is the string hand for the bow, so it is important that such a dangling ornament be placed where it will not be entangled with the string, and that is in part why it is on the left wrist of the two male figures. On the female, as a very sign of her femininity, it would be placed on the opposite wrist because women do not shoot the bow and arrow. With respect to clothing, she also appears to be wearing some kind of skirt, although it extends only down to her knees. Her outfit is, we have to admit, rather less modest than female apparel in almost all tribes of the upper midwest, whether plains or woodland. Usually, a woman is completely covered from the base of her neck down to her ankles (or a bit higher) in what appears to be a single piece shirt-dress. In any case, whether single piece or combined in shirt and dress, the midriff is not exposed. In the painting of Panel 5, female dress is partly counter-indicated by the fact that the midriff is exposed and that the dress is unusually short. However, suppose that the artist wanted to depict fringe at the bottom of the shirt, and did it in the fashion that we see in this painting; then there is really no way that the shirt could have been represented in this fashion over the dress. The fringes would have disappeared into the background, so he brought it up short to prevent interference from a background. Yet the dress itself is indubitably short. If the figure is female, how can we explain the oddity of such a short skirt?

So if the picture is not of the sun, but of the moon, then what part does the moon play in the action? The answer is "none." Like the pipe smoker in the lower right in Panel 4, or the turtle above, she may be outside the action proper, but not outside the world of the Twins. Indeed, it is quite possible, given the painting of the presumed part of the forked tail of the Thunderbird over her face, that the large Thunderbird was painted in later, there having been a gap between the portrait of the woman and the action involving the Twins. However, this hardly matters, since she is not involved in the action in any case. The painting of the tail over the face of this figure, whether interpreted as sun or moon, is consistent with the theology of the figures involved in the Twins myth, inasmuch as the physical manifestation of the Thunders is the dark cloud which often eclipses the sun or moon or any other astronomical body in the sky above. Thus the tails of the clouds as they pass by often occlude the face of the sun or moon, temporarily blocking their light and overshadowing their power. It is this basic fact that tends to align the beings of light against those who aggress against them. In the Mahabharata of India, Arjuna, the incarnation of the storm god Indra, is pitted against Karna, the incarnation of Surya, the sun. [50] The Ashvins, the Indian Twins, are the offspring of Vivasvant (the sun) and Saranyu (probably the dawn). [51] This proves to be equally true of the Hotcâk Twins, save that their mother is the moon. In the story about Redstar's head, we are told the story of the conception. The council of the spirits convened to pool all their powers so that they could be concentrated in a pair of twin beings who were to have a special mission on earth. These powers were placed in a medicine bundle and given over to Sun. Then,

In the version presented in "The Children of the Sun," it is said, "When spring came the sister [Moon] liked to sunbathe. One day when she was lying under the sun she experienced something and knew right away that she had become pregnant." This story concludes by saying, "They were the children of the sun because their mother had exposed herself to his light when she was digging for potatoes." [53] Certainly one way that she could present herself to the impregnating rays is to have been bent over digging for Indian potatoes in a short skirt which raised up to expose her genitals. The first passage seems to suggest this. The painting alludes to this episode not only by the short skirt she is wearing, but by the dark object in her left hand, which is of the right size to be a bag or basket, perhaps the kind known in Hotcâk as a pâsép, "a black or decorated bag." [54] It is appropriately black because the Moon is most often associated with darkness. The Moon in a short dress carrying a bag in a panel devoted to the Twins would immediately suggest this episode to any knowledgeable observer.

The Twins, well known as the "Children of the Sun" must also be recognized as the "Sons of the Moon." Allegorical descriptions of the mating of sun and moon are commonplace in Hotcâk mythology. This mating occurs as an apparent fact of visual astronomy. It is said that after the moon has become full, it begins to dwindle in size because the bad spirits eat away at it. When the sun and moon are about to come into conjunction, the moon has dwindled down to a thin crescent and has moved steadily closer to the sun until it reaches the place where it rises. After her thinnest crescent, she appears not to rise at all from the earth and instead to have united with the sun itself where it rises at dawn. After this she becomes pregnant with light and reappears as a crescent which not only grows ever bigger, but travels farther and farther from the sun. All this is acted out in one version of the Birth of the Twins. In this story, the husband of the mother of the Twins plays the role of the sun. He is out hunting when she is in perfect health. Her father-in-law plays the role of an evil spirit, probably the Morning Star. When he is alone with her, he says something cryptic -- "Daughter-in-law, I look toward the center of the lodge"; or, "Young woman feels a tingling sensation in the middle of the lodge." After many acts of service, she finally hits upon what he wants: she strips naked and lies down at the center of the lodge (the place where the Fire dwells). This stripping off of her clothing is the gradual stripping away of her light until she has no light at all. This is done through the agency of the evil spirits, who eat away at her. This act is next symbolized as the father-in-law cutting her into small pieces and roasting her for his dinner. He consumes every piece of her and even drinks the soup. This is the moment when the Twins are born. But this birth is actually a form of death, since immediately the bad spirit separates them, the Ghost being cast away in water or a tree stump and the Flesh remaining in the lodge (symbolic of the earth). What we learn from visual astronomy is that the moon is in total darkness without even a sliver of light when it is in conjunction with the sun. In the Gottschall image, she wears an ornament that is in origin a bowstring wristband designed to deflect the snap of the string against the wrist when the bow is shot. On males, who shoot with their right hand, the band is on their left arm, as it is with the images of Flesh and Ghost. Since there is a sex coded distinction between right and left, she has her band on the opposite (right) arm, as if she were shooting left handed. The bow has an obvious connection with the moon, since it is so often in a crescent phase. Yet in this case, although the suggestion of a bow is alluded to by the appropriate wristband, the bow itself is missing. The reason for this is obvious -- she is depicted with her bag for collecting potatoes, so the scene is that time at which she was the mate of the sun while she was sojourning on earth. This is the time of conjunction, when the moon looses its bow (crescent). So, although she wears the functional wristband of a bowman, she has no bow, since she is in conjunction (mating) with the sun. The double helix lines of power that emanate from her lunarized head-orb have been made very thick and dark. The presumption, along the lines of the present analysis, would be that the helix too is meant to reflect the darkness of her condition at the time of conjunction. Notice too that the helix terminates in her wrist where the bowstring band is situated. This may symbolize that her power is realized in the bow or even the bowstring, which when pulled back creates the crescent bow, a symbol of her pregnancy of light and the ascension of her powers. The crescent bow may also be alluded to not only by the crescent rays from her cranial orb, but the bending of her arm in the shape of a chevron.

One puzzle that is difficult to accommodate to this interpretation is the "chevron" designs placed right behind the eye of the female figure. In the far away Balkans, the chevron motif is associated with what Gimbutas dubbed, "the Mistress of the Waters, the Bird and snake Goddess." [55] In the midwestern United States, chevrons, especially about the eyes, are associated with Thunderbirds, and are thought to represent the forked shape of the lightning which these birds fire from their eyes. The chevrons may represent a depiction technique modeling that of mythology itself, the technique of repeating motifs. As we see, the forked tale of Great Black Hawk cuts across the face of Moon, just as clouds so often do in the case of the actual moon. The chevrons could represent not specifically lightning, but more generally Thunderbirds, and in so doing repeat the motif of the Thunder's partial occlusion of the face of the moon. However, there are a couple of complicating considerations. The first is that the depiction of forked lightning in the picture of the large aviform Thunderbird (Great Black Hawk) is radically different from that of the neat, straight, nested forked lines that make up the chevrons of the female figure. Secondly, when the dotted lines are added to the chevrons, the whole becomes tripartite. The tripartite form is like the motif identified as the "bisected angle", a motif whose meaning is disputed. [56] Some have connected this motif to snakes [57], which in Hotcâk thought do not have well defined relationships with the moon, at least not so that they could be described as "lunar animals". It has also been argued that this motif is connected with Waterspirits ("Underwater Panthers"). [58] This result would be more appropriate to the moon, since she is a sister to Bluehorn, a Waterspirit. Bluehorn is not only a Waterspirit, but "the blue sky come to earth." In Bluehorn's Nephews his sister wanders through the wilderness fleeing from a man known simply as "Brave" (the sun) until, exhausted, she collapses on the hill in which Bluehorn lives. Esoterically, this is where the blue sky meets the earth, and the scene describes the setting of the moon on its journey in opposition to the sun and to its decline in the house of the sky where it is destined to journey back to marry with the soon to be tamed sun. So the moon has strong Waterspirit associations and the markings, which if tripartite, could express such affinities. Whatever the marking may stand for, the difficulty of accounting for this pattern can give no comfort to the Redhorn interpretation either. The raconteur of the Redhorn Cycle has Redhorn say from his own lips, "even though I am not a Thunderbird ..." So Redhorn is simply not a Thunderbird. Nor are Thunderbirds associated with red horns, either as hair or arrows; and even in their anthropomorphic form, they are never mentioned as having living heads on their earlobes. Also Heads for Earrings (Îtcorúcika) is explicitly said to be a fixed star, as are two of his brothers. Thunders are not associated with stars, but with clouds. To suggest that because Redhorn's son received the Thunderbird Warbundle from the Thunders themselves, that he must be a kind of Thunder, is no more plausible than to suggest that because he was given the war weapons of Turtle by Turtle himself, that he must be some kind of turtle.

Perhaps the greatest point of contention (see Debate and Discussion) about this figure are the arrow-like geometric shapes that I have identified with female breasts. The Received Opinion would wish to identify them in some way with the faces that Hotcâk literature says were on the breasts of one of Redhorn's sons. However, to make this merely possible a certain amount of cubist contortion is required. A woman once remarked to Picasso, the inventor of cubism, that her cubist portrait didn't look like her, to which he replied, "Someday it will." But given all the time in the world, there is no way that these geometrized breasts will ever look like faces. For the same reason, neither can they be seen as Mississippian "long-nosed god maskettes". However, designs very similar to these breasts are used as ornamentation in the Braden A style of Mississippian art at Spiro Mound and are in silhouette often compared to Mississippian tools and ceremonial artifacts. Some of these are represented in the sequence of pictures below. At the extreme left is the Gottschall pictograph followed by a Braden A incised shell from Spiro Mound. Included are three Mississippian flint tools for further comparison: a "spud", a drilled spatulate, and a hoe. [58.1]

Archaeologists have termed the design incised on the shell above a "spud-like figure". The word "spud" is defined as "a sharp spadelike tool used for rooting or digging out weeds." [59] Phillips and Brown have this to say about these figures:

The long handled "spuds" referred to here were in fact used ceremonially (probably as scepters), rather than as actual spuds. According to Holmes, then, the design before us does have an actual tool as its counterpart, hence its name.

Why would the breasts of this figure be designed like a spud, in this case a kind of hoe or digging stick? Such an identity can be rationalized to conform with the interpretation given here. Ex hypothesi, the figure whose breasts are shaped this way is the Moon, the mother of the Twins. She became pregnant with the Twins in the first place because she was bent over using a hoe (or digging stick) to extract potatoes, as it says, "Thus as she brought out potatoes with her hoe (rec'akra), many remained to be dug out". [61] The digging of potatoes has interesting implications when expressed in Hotcâk. One of the words for root is honi’âp, which also means, "to be animated, alive with"; another homonym is formed by the word redjû, which means both "root" and "descendant". [62] So by her implement, she causes a certain kind of food to appear, a food which is symbolically life, and specifically her own offspring. The hoe or spud is the vehicle by which the tuberous roots (honi’âp, redjû) that are offspring (redjû) become animated (honi’âp). What she collects she feeds to her brother, because these roots (the Twins) will sustain him and prevent him from dying. This recalls the story in which mother earth has the corn plant arise from her own breasts. In other stories of the birth of the Twins, the hoe is replaced with a sharp stick (was), a digging stick, and this as an instrument for producing food, has the same function as the breast (was). At a time before these puns came into existence, a spud as a rooting tool could be viewed as a vehicle of sustenance and therefore functionally like a breast. To stylize the breasts of the mother of the Twins so that they looked like spuds is to make an allusion to her role as a sustainer of her brother by the production of offspring who will keep him alive and make him whole again. Inside or outside Hotcâk homonymous symbolism, her breasts here make allusion to her role as the great sustainer, the one who sustains her brother both by food (spud/potato) and by her offspring (breast milk/Twins). Her spud turns up food at the very moment when she is impregnated, so at the very instant that conception generates the somatic changes that result in the production of milk, her spud has turned up what will nurture and sustain her brother, the potatoes that allude to the Twins themselves. That her breasts should be stylized as spuds is in keeping with their role as instruments of sustenance in a pregnant woman, here alluding to the basic mission for which the Twins were conceived, the sustenance and restoration of her brother Bluehorn.

This interpretation is not wholly satisfying. It is a bit awkward to make the breast an analogue to a tool of extraction. The "spud-like figure" such as we see incised on the Spiro shell is far more pointed than the depictions of the presumed breasts. These breasts are in contour most like the spatulate tools, but these tools have their mysterious holes drilled in their hafts. Their contours fit a hoe rather nicely, but hoes are not known to have holes drilled in them, although this would not exclude hoes from being models for just the mammary contours. If we assume that the lines extending up from the lower, rounded part of the breasts are integral to them (giving them a more pendent look), then their design more nearly resembles the spud tool. However, in truth the lines seem to represent a shirt, and the lines terminating in the rounded part of the breasts are probably only designed to preserve their natural contours as seen under a shirt. These include the dots used as nipples, which were doubtless put there to make clear the identity of the outlines as breasts. Despite his commitment to the truly bizarre thesis that the breasts resemble long-nose god maskettes, Salzer describes them objectively in the following way: "The upper chest area has two pendant or shovel-like devices with dots in the centers. These could be part of the body decoration or might be an unusual way to illustrate nipples." [62.1] Hall, the author of the LNG maskette interpretation, takes these dots to be nipples, and identifies the figure with that son of Redhorn who had living heads on his breasts. The common sense interpretation would be that they are what they seem to be -- breasts with nipples.

Bluehorn and the Pipe Smoker. So what, then, do we make of the figure in the lower right (Panel 4) who is seated smoking an enormously long pipe? In the excerpted passages about the conception of the Twins, the moon is referred to as "the sister". The sister of whom? To answer this question, we must go back to the beginning and ask, Why did the spirits assemble in order to create the Twins in the first place? The origin of the Twins lay in a cosmic crisis. One of the Great Spirits, known by the name of "Bluehorn" (Hetcoga), had fallen victim to another and malevolent spirit. He had foreseen, as he lived alone with his sister in the wilderness, that the time had arrived when a man who looked just like him would come to engage him in mortal combat. In time they finally met face to face across Bluehorn's fireplace. The duel was extremely unusual. A pipe was taken out and filled, then the visitor would smoke first as custom dictates. This visitor, Bluehorn's doppelgänger, then drew in the smoke with such might that Bluehorn was lifted from his seat. When it was Bluehorn's turn to draw, he did the same. The struggle went back and forth, with each nearly being drawn into the fire. Finally, the malevolent spirit did pull Bluehorn right into the fire, whereupon he leapt up and cut off the Great Spirit's head. In some accounts he places the severed head behind his own, Janus-like, to become the Man with Two Heads. [63] In other accounts, he tucks it in his belt and courses through the heavens in broad daylight with it dangling for all to see. Since Bluehorn was the Evening Star, also known as "Red Star," this precipitated a crisis. [64] So the spirits pooled their resources and created a power to be transferred to the spirits that we now know as the Twins. Even though Bluehorn, the maternal uncle of the Twins, had lost his head, his body yet remained alive, and he was able to communicate by signs (the mind residing in the heart). In this way he communicated with his sister and his nephews the Twins. His doppelgänger would, of course, have to be Morning Star, but he is never named as such. In one variant that is clearly under Christian (French) influence, the opponent is the Devil himself, Herecgúnina. [65] This is because the Christians also know the Morning Star by the name "Lucifer," who is identified in Scripture as Satan, the opponent of God. So the choice of Herecgúnina is merely a reinforcement of the identity of the malevolent spirit with the Morning Star. In the end, of course, the Twins recover Bluehorn's head, and reunite it with his body, thus rectifying the imbalance of the cosmos.

So when we ask, "Who is the smoker in Panel 4 to the lower right of Panel 5?", the mythology of the Twins immediately supplies an answer: it is the uncle of the Twins, Bluehorn. What is alluded to is the very raison d'être of the Twins, the incident that cost their uncle his head. The Twins are said to look very much like their uncle(s). This is in reference to something not depicted in the panel: they are said to have flint knives running down their arms [66], although not all Twins myths state this. In the painting, the smoking figure, presumed to be Bluehorn, has the same strange bifurcation seen in Flesh and Ghost. The Twins are shown with a line painted across the side of their faces about the mid level of the head, so that it crosses the bridge of their noses (at about ear level). The smoker also has his face painted with the bottom in one color all the way down his neck, and the top apparently unpainted. [67] This painted bifurcation of the head also occurs at about ear level and extends across the bridge of the nose. An exception may lie in his jaw and perhaps upper lip not being painted. These are the same areas that are painted on Ghost. The suggestion that these are funerary designs is consistent with the identity of Ghost and with the immanent fate of Bluehorn. [68] However, funerary painting on dead bodies is clan-specific, in this case the painting pattern most resembles that of the Bear Clan. Unfortunately, the associations of the Twins and their uncle Bluehorn is with the Waterspirits. The Waterspirit Clan of the Hotcâk nation seems to correspond with the Beaver Clans of their closest cousins, the Chiwere people (Ioway, Oto, Missouria). Beaver names are bestowed upon members of the Hotcâk Waterspirit Clan, and there is a Beaver sub-clan which is no doubt included in the Waterspirit Clan. So Ghost's affinities with the aquatic beaver associates him firmly with Waterspirit Bluehorn (Waktcexi Hetcoga).

There are several things that can be said against identifying the smoker with Bluehorn. One is that he does not have the orb and double helix that the other anthropomorphic figures possess. There can be more than one reason for this. His identity is with a star, which is not generally represented in pictography with an orb. However, perhaps more importantly, Bluehorn in the smoking duel has lost his edge in holy power. He is destined to be defeated, and that may be the reason why, even though he is a Great Spirit, that there is no manifestation of his power in the form of orb and helix. Neither is there a depiction of his opponent, although it is fairly clear why this might be so. Apart from the added sophistication and subtlety that comes with allusion, as in the depiction of Moon in the absence of Sun, a representation of a malevolent spirit at a shrine ce