One of these modes, we have seen, was that which led to the identification of the divinity with the wind, and this it is that solves the enigma in the present instance.
Universally the spirits of the cardinal points were imagined to be in the winds that blew from them.

The names of these directions and of the corresponding winds are often the same, and when not, there exists an intimate connection between them.

For example, take the languages of the Mayas, Huastecas, and Moscos of Central America; in all of them the word for _north_ is synonymous with _north wind_, and so on for the other three points of the compass.

Or again, that of the Dakotas, and the word _tate-ouye-toba_, translated "the four quarters of the heavens," means literally, "whence the four winds come."[75-1] It were not difficult to extend the list; but illustrations are all that is required.

Let it be remembered how closely the motions of the air are associated in thought and language with the operations of the soul and the idea of God; let it further be considered what support this association receives from the power of the winds on the weather, bringing as they do the lightning and the storm, the zephyr that cools the brow, and the tornado that levels the forest; how they summon the rain to fertilize the seed and refresh the shrivelled leaves; how they aid the hunter to stalk the game, and usher in the varying seasons; how, indeed, in a hundred ways, they intimately concern his comfort and his life; and it will not seem strange that they almost occupied the place of all other gods in the mind of the child of nature.