Outlines of Zuñi Creation Myths: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 321-448Cushing, Frank Hamilton
History
Outlines of Zuñi Creation Myths: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 321-448
Cushing, Frank Hamilton
Zuni mythology
But to the north, his finger-foot grew cold, so he drew it in; and to
the west, the waters being nearer, touched his finger-foot thither
extended, so he drew that in also. But to the south and east far
reached his other finger-feet. Then gradually he settled downward and
called out, "Where my heart and navel rest, beneath them mark ye the
spot and there build ye a town of the midmost, for there shall be the
midmost place of the earth-mother, even the navel; albeit not the
center, because of the nearness of cold in the north and the nearness
of waters in the west." And when he descended (squatting), his belly
rested over the middle of the plain and valley of Zuñi; and when he
drew in his finger-legs, lo! there were the trail-roads leading out and
in like stays of a spider's net, into and forth from the place he had
covered.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FATHERS AND THEIR TABERNACLE AT HÁLONAWAN OR
THE ERRING-PLACE OF THE MIDDLE.
Then the fathers of the people built in that spot, and rested thereat
their tabernacle of sacred treasures. But K‘yanäs´tïpe had swerved in
lowering, and their town was reared a little south of the very midmost
place. Nevertheless, no longer in after time sounded the warnings.
Hence, because of their great good fortune (_hálowilin_) in thus
finding the stable middle of the world, the priest-fathers of the
people called this midmost town the Abiding place of Happy Fortune
(Hálonawan).
THE FLOODING OF THE TOWNS, AND THE BUILDING OF THE CITY OF SEED ON THE
MOUNTAIN.
Yet, because they had erred even so little, and because the first
priest of after times did evil, lo! the river to the southward ran
full, and breaking from its pathway cut in twain the great town,
burying houses and men in the mud of its impetuosity. Whence, those who
perished not and those of the flooded towns rounded about fled to the
top of the Mountain of Thunder, they with all their Seed people and
things, whence the villages they built there were named Tâaiyá‘hltona
‘Hlúelawa, or the "Towns-all-above of-the-seed-all."
THE STAYING OF THE FLOOD BY SACRIFICE OF THE YOUTH AND MAIDEN, AND THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF HÁLONA ÍTIWANA ON THE TRUE MIDDLE.
But when by the sacrifice of the youth priest and maiden priestess (as
told in other speech) the waters had been made to abate and the land
became good to walk upon, all the people descended, calling that high
mountain place, which ever after hath echoed thunder, Tâaiyálane, or
the Mountain of Thunder. When all the towns were rebuilded, then on the
northern side of the river they builded anew the Town of the Middle,
calling it Hálona Ítiwana (Halona the Midmost); but the desolated part
they called Hálonawan, because they had erred there (_hálowak‘ya_),
though even so little.
THE CUSTOM OF TESTING THE MIDDLE IN THE MIDDLE TIME.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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