Note 21 — Chapter X · THE ARCH AND THE WEEK

It seems quite doubtful whether any American people held seven as a mystic number in pre-Columbian times. The case most frequently cited is that of the Zuñi. But these people had a Christian mission in their town for two centuries; they still employ four and six far more frequently than seven in their rituals; and their unmissionized neighbors the Hopi and Navaho esteem four or six but not seven. The other Indians stressing seven lived either on the Atlantic slope, such as the Delaware and Cherokee, and have therefore long been in contact with the colonists; or in the Plains—notably the Siouan tribes—and there came into direct and indirect relations with the French for two hundred years before ethnologists visited them. Moreover, the number which the Plains tribes most frequently used in regard to sacred matters was four. The mystic value of seven may therefore be traceable to European influence wherever it appears in America.