Note 87 — COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PLAINS PEYOTISM

Cf. Handbook of the American Indians, 2:2b, 661: “Formerly among the southern Plains tribes a buffalo skull was placed on a small mound in front of the sweat house, the mound being formed of earth excavated from the fireplace.” The original Comanche and Caddo moons appear to have been more horseshoe- than crescent-shaped, and the apron of the Caddoan Big Moons obviously developed from an elongation of the horns. The introduction of the heart is apparently Caddoan also, influenced probably by the Catholic “Sacred Heart” of Jesus.