Zuni Fetiches

I listened to one-fourth of it during the last recitation, which occurred in February 1881. I therefore give mere abstracts, mostly furnished from memory and greatly condensed, but pronounced correct, so far as they go, by one of the above-mentioned priests.

THE DRYING OF THE WORLD.

In the days when all was new, men lived in the four caverns of the lower regions (Á-wi-tĕn té-huthl-na-kwĭn = the "Four Wombs of the World"). In the lowermost one of these, men first came to know of their existence. It was dark, and as men increased, they began to crowd one another and were very unhappy. Wise men came into existence among them, whose children begged them to obtain deliverance from such a condition of life.

It was then that the "Holder of the Paths of Life," the Sun-father, created from his own being two children who fell to earth for the good of all beings (Ú-a-nam átch-pi-ah-k'oa). The Sun-father endowed these children with immortal youth, with power equal to his own, and created for them a bow (Á-mi-to-lan-ne = the Rain Bow) and an arrow (Wí-lo-lo-a-ne = Lightning). For them he also made a shield like his own, of magic power, and a knife of flint, the great magic war knife (Sá-wa-ni-k'ia ä'-tchi-ë-ne). The shield (Pí-al-lan-ne) was a mere network of sacred cords (Pí-tsau-pi-wi = cotton) on a hoop of wood, and to the center of this net-shield was attached the magic knife.

These children cut the face of the world with their magic knife and were borne down upon their shield into the caverns in which all men dwelt. There, as the leaders of men, they lived with their children, mankind.

They listened to the requests of the priests. They built a ladder to the roof of the first cave and widened, with their flint knife and shield, the opening through which they had entered. Then they led men forth into the second cavern, which was larger and not quite so dark.

Before long, men multiplied and bemoaned their condition as before. Again they begged their priests, whose requests were once more listened to by the divine children. As before, they led all mankind into the third world. Here it was still larger and like twilight, for the light of the Sun himself sifted down through the opening. To these poor children of the dark, the opening itself seemed a blazing sun.

But as time went on, men multiplied even as they had before, and at last, as at first, bemoaned their condition. Again the two children listened to their requests, and it was then that the children of men first saw the light of their father, the Sun.

The world had been covered with water. It was damp and unstable. Earthquakes disturbed its surface. Strange beings rose up through it—monsters and animals of prey. As if upon an island in the middle of a great water, the children of men were led forth into the light of their father, the Sun. It blinded and heated them so that they cried to one