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
directions, and are looked upon as messengers of the spirit persons of those particular directions (Moore 1986: 182-183). Even their collective name given by Moore (zehotonovaz, messengers) differs from the mundane word used by Cheyennes in their everyday speech (hevávahkema, butterfly; Glenmore and Leman 1986: 20) 12 , which indicates that the term collected by Moore belongs to the sacred language of the priests and shamans. Further, Grinnell mentions that a fifth kind of butterfly also has a prominent place in Cheyenne beliefs: A certain species of butterfly, gray in color, with blue eyes, and with rounded and black striped wings, is called the thunder parasite (na 'no mi 'his ti im). These butterflies are oftenest seen just before or after a thunderstorm, and while the report of thunder is heard, hence the name. The belief seems to be that the Thunderbird, when angry, shakes himself, and his parasites fall from him (1923 II: 95-96). This quotation explains why the butterfly figures appear on both sides of a terrible Underwater Monster, the snapping turtle. They indicate, metaphorically, the everlasting struggle between the Thunder Beings and the Underwater Monsters; and that any warrior, who carries such a shield is able to walk on the borderline of life and death, between the two powers. The Lame Bull shield in Europe has a wide, red tradecloth trailer decorated with eagle feathers in five rows as an attachment, while the Colorado Historical Society shield cover has a narrow strip of red tradecloth attached along the upper perimeter of the cover, and it is decorated with fifty-eight eagle feathers. 13 There is a third shield that has the same arrangement of feathers as the Colorado Historical Society shield, and even their painted designs show striking compositional similarities. This shield (or shield cover?) is preserved in a U.S. private collection (Fig. 10). Its present location is unknown. The basic-meaningful unit of this third shield is the „dark arc on the upper circumference" again; however, on this piece the arc is painted with a bright, dark turquoise blue. The same strong color was used in the coloring of the central element, a horned snapping turtle, as well as on three of the four constellation elements: two multicolored lizard figures on each side of the turtle, and a dragonfly. Red, wavy lines emanate from the round eyes of the turtle, and alternating red and black triangles along its spine indicate the serrations of the snapping turtle's shell. The shape, proportion and the internal details of the turtle figure are so close to the turtle image on the Colorado Historical Society shield, that we can be sure they were painted by the same person. The identical, asymmetrical features of these turtles' heads and bodies, especially the way the tails join the bodies, even suggests the possibility of the use of the same pattern. The two lizards' different body markings identify them as the male and female of the collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris), the largest predatory lizard on the Southern Plains (Smith 1950: 174-175; Stebbins 1966: 99-100). Below the dark arc on the upper perimeter, we can recognize on the left a black, fork-tailed bird with white and red markings on its body; and on the right a turquoise blue dragonfly symbol. Blue and red zigzag lines emanate from the head of the dragonfly. For Cheyennes, fork-tailed swallows are associated with Thunder, while dragonflies - which sometimes circle in spiraling swarms - are associated with whirlwinds, reminding the viewer to the struggle of Thunder and Whirlwind against the Underwater Beings - a theological topos of Cheyenne religious thinking. 69
