A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historiae Literarum et Artium, 1. (Szeged, 1997)

Nagy Imre: „The Black Came over the Sun...” Lame Bull’s spiritual oeuvre

down from the multicolored outline of the dark arc. The surface of the shield is painted yellow, while small pale green dots spot the entire surface. These dots each have short, green trailing lines and as I have already pointed out, they represent green hail, a special manifestation of the cosmic forces (Nagy 1994b: 44). Small arcs are painted in alternating colors of black, red, and green, all around the circumference except at the place of the dark, upper arc. Multicolored, thin lines outline these small arcs. Three bird figures, and two, differently-colored horned butterfly figures are the constellation elements (Nagy 1994a) in the shield composition. One of the birds holds a snake in its beak. The most surprising feature is on the back of the rawhide base of the shield. Here, written in dark ink on the right half of the circular rawhide is the following: „Presented by Lame Bull Medicine Chief, Cheyenne" (Fig. 8). We have no reason to doubt the authenticity of this worn inscription on the rawhide base of this remarkable shield. Now we have a distinct shield composition that can be attributed to Lame Bull with some certainty. Interestingly enough, there is another shield cover which shows striking stylistic similarities to the Lame Bull shield in the European collection. This second shield is preserved in the collection of the State Historical Society of Colorado, Denver (Fig. 9). The gift of Elizabeth Corse (Cat. no. El 850.11), dated to 1850-1880, it has been published by the State Historical Society of Colorado (1984: 7) and Nagy (1994b: 38, Fig. 1). The basic-meaningful unit of this composition is also a „dark arc on the upper circumference", and small arcs in alternating colors of red, black, yellow and green run along the rest of the perimeter. The surface color again is yellow. A very dominant, central element in this composition is the pale-green figure of a horned snapping turtle, outlined in brownishblack. On each side of it is the figure of a horned butterfly, a black one on left, and a green one on the right. Painted just below the turtle is a multicolored horned lizard, and a bird figure. This bird has composite features, since its head resembles a pileated woodpecker, while its tail is forked like a swallow's. Both the turtle and the lizard have feather shapes attached to each of their legs. The basic compositional characteristics, the color schemes and the stylistic features correspond on these two shields. This is most apparent in the rendering of the bird and butterfly figures. While the wing forms of the butterflies differ on the shields, the forms of their heads, legs and „tails" are almost identical. The reason for the difference in their wing forms might be that on the Lame Bull shield we can recognize the young butterflies just shortly after hatching from the pupae with wings still wrinkled and undeveloped, while the Colorado Historical Society shield shows the wing forms of the adult butterflies. Cheyenne religious men paid special attention to creatures capable of metamorphosis, since according to Cheyenne beliefs they are able to change their spiritual qualities with the change of their physical forms (Moore 1974: 234). The other possible explanation for the difference in wing forms is that butterflies have two, basic shapes: some, such as monarchs and tiger swallowtails, have a straight, outer edge to their wings (as on the „Lame Bull" shield); and others, such as cabbage butterflies have rounded wings (as on the shield at Colorado Historical Society).

11 George B. Grinnell noted that butterflies were painted on shields, because of their lightness and irregular flight, hence the person who carries its image becomes light and active (1923 II: 111-112). Aside from this superficial explanation, however, there are serious theological reasons for the use of their image in tribal ceremonies, curing rituals, and as war charms. According to the research of John H. Moore, Cheyenne priests and religious persons consider butterflies to be a category of sacred birds. Four, differentlycolored butterflies (yellow, blue, red and white) are associated with each of the cardinal 68