both very important for their agriculture. Amitolane is a rainbow spirit from the mythology of the Zuni, a Native American tribe. Rainbow bridges In Norse religion, a burning rainbow bridge called the Bifrost connects Midgard (earth) with Asgard, home of the gods. Bifrost can be used only by gods and those who are killed in battle. It is eventually shattered under the weight of war – the Ragnarok (German Götterdämmerung). The notion that the rainbow bridge to heaven is attainable by only the good or virtuous, such as warriors and royalty, is a theme repeated often in world myths. In Japanese mythology, the Floating Bridge of Heaven may have been inspired by the rainbow. The creator deities Izanami and Izanagi stood upon this bridge as they brought the Japanese archipelago into existence. In Navajo tradition, the rainbow is the path of the holy spirits, and is frequently depicted in sacred sandpaintings. Māori mythology tells a tale of Hina, the moon, who caused a rainbow to span the heavens even down to the earth, for her mortal husband to return to earth to end his days, since death may not enter her celestial home. Shamans among Siberia's Buryats speak of ascending to the sky-spirit world by way of the rainbow. Rainbows and archery The rainbow is depicted as an archer's bow in Hindu mythology. Indra, the god of thunder and war, uses the rainbow to shoot arrows of lightning. In pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, the rainbow is the bow of a weather god, Quzaḥ, whose name survives in the Arabic word for rainbow, qaws Quzaḥ, "the bow of Quzaḥ". The Sumerian farmer god Ninurta defended Sumer with a bow and arrow, and wore a crown described as a rainbow. Rainbow taboos The Sumu of Honduras and Nicaragua refer to the rainbow as walasa aniwe, "the devil is vexed". These people hide their children in their huts to keep them from looking or pointing at the rainbow. Similar taboos against pointing at rainbows can be found throughout the world, in over a hundred cultural traditions. In Amazonian cultures, rainbows have long been associated with malign spirits that cause harm, such as miscarriages and (especially) skin problems. In the Amuesha language of central Peru, certain diseases are called ayona'achartan, meaning "the rainbow hurt my skin". A tradition of closing one's mouth at the sight of a rainbow in order to avoid disease appears to