The Washington times., 1901-09-22
NATIONAL FLORAL EMBLEM
The Claims of the Indian Corn to
That High Distinction.
Its Economic, Decorative, nnd Re-
JiEiOus Signiicance-A Tradition
Among the American Red Men.
Pollen Eaten Insures Wisdom.

Pollen Eaten Insures Wisdom.
For many years Indian corn has
ranked high among the candidates for
a national floral emblem. 1t led all
competitors at the Worlds Fair, and
within the last few days 1t has been
welcomed at the Detroit convention as
the most fitting symbol that America
can contribute to the international bou-
quet of roses, lilies, thistles, and other
chosen forms
Apart from the wide distribution of
Indian corn in America and its great
economic and decorative value there is
another argument in its favor which
gives the plant religious significance
which is worldwide and which explains
the origin and original meaning of
many of the ordinances of the Christian
| Church. This is the universal and an
cient pollen worship which in America
and possibly originally in Mexico and
Peru took the form of reverence for the
pollen of the corn plant or else of corn
meal.
John G. Bourke, of the United States
Department of Ethnology. has made a
careful study of the subject, especially
among the Indians of the Southwest.
With them the pollen of the tule, a
variety of the cattail rush, is carried
in little buckskin bags and Is invested
with all power in heaven and on earth.
In the dances for the sick the medicine
men apply it to the forehead of the pa
tient, marking the form of a cross.
When going hunting or on a war expe-
dition small quantity is thrown to-
ward the sun, whose aid Is thus in
voked. 1t Is eaten as a remedy, sprink
led on the bodies of the dead, and
where cremation is indulged in. as with
the Apache Mojaves, it is placed on the
breast in the form of cross. In tie old
ceremony of the suttee, in India, when
the wife was burned with the body
of her husband, a similar performance
was indulged in. Hoddentin is daily
offered to the sun, and the Navajo.
Apaches. and Zuni offer it to fire at
their fire dances. which is held to be an
example of pyrodulia, or fire worship.
Among the American Indians there is
a tradition that the Milky Way was
formed by the Great Spirit spilling the
corn pollen or memal as he was cross
ing the sky to them. A form of this
worship is seen with the Laplanders
who sprinkle the cows and calves with
some kind of meal and many African
tribes throw pollen toward the sun
and use it for divinations. This prac
tice has been transplanted to the VOC
doc ceremonies of the New Orleans
negroes.
Among the Israelites and Egyptians
pollen was used for food, and the So
called mamma is the pollen of the des-
ert ash. which represented to these
people the NEUROLOGICAL tree of life. and
its pollen was considered as spiritual
food. The pollen of wheat was offered
to Ceres as the generative part of the
plant. hence when the devotee ate the
bread made from it he thus partOok of
the body of the god. In the word pollen
are found the names pail. or pallium.
and pallas, which in the first language
means wisdom. and this idea is carried
out by the fact that many Indians eat
pollen before making a speech that
their words may be words of wisdom.
The Apache also takes 1t into his
mouth to bind faith, which Is similar
to the old Anglo Saxon practice of TAX
ing a piece of barley bread with oaths
that it might prove poisonous if the
statements made were not true, and the
Romans of the time of Cicero and
Horace were often obliged to eat cake
before a priest under similar circum
stances.
1.-The use of hoddentin, as religious
Offering" says Mr.. Bourke. has its an
alogue in the unleavened bread and OBJ
solete farinaceous products which the
ceremonials of more enlightened races
have preserved from oblivion. Kinship
between gods and worshipers has been
at all times renewed by partaking of
common food, and this together with
the custom of indulging on sacred oc-
casions in cakes of unleavened bread
moistened by the blood of men or
brutes, common as it is with the Ameri-
can Indians, the Hindoo, the Mongols,
the Egyptians, the Africans, and the
Hebrew people, point 10 a spontaneous
CuStOIii di III OH ieAiAAo
all peoples"
The Zuni prepare sacred meal in the
form of a pyramid much like the pyra-
mids or phalli which the Egyptians Of
fered to ther deities, and similar to the
sweet bread seen in the Siviac temples
of India, and the show bread Of the
Jews. Many of the Southwestern In
dians throw pollen during marriage
ceremonies as we throw rice, and
some of their festival rites much resem-
BILE the Carnes de lendas of Spain, in
which. on Shrove Sunday the women
and girls cover the men with -four. In
India. at the feast of Hull which corre-
spends to our April FOOLS Day. the
Hindu throw a purple powder on each
other with the idea of representing the
return of spring. which the Romans
called purple. On certain festival days
a red powder was employed, which re-
calls the confetti throwing. so charac-
teristic of Italian gala days.
The North American Indians often
fashioned little images OF the animals
they wished to kill with a mix
ture of cornmeal and paint, in or
der to insure success in the hunt
In Babylon, from the most an
cient times. what were known as hot
cross buns. similar in name and shape
to the English article of Good Friday,
were used In the worship OF the Queen
of Heaven. the goddess Easter-Ishtar
or Astarte. Torquemada states that
once each year the Mexicans made an
idol of dough, composed of cornmeal
and the blood of boys slain for the pur-