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
east of earth or the seeds of earth; correspondingly, the north is
of course the place of winter or its origin, the west of spring, the
south of summer, and the east of autumn. This is all because from the
north and in winter blow the fiercest, the greatest winds or breaths,
as these people esteem them; from the west early in spring come the
moistened breaths of the waters in early rains; from the south comes
the greatest heat that with dryness is followed by summer, and from
the east blow the winds that bring the frosts that in turn mature the
seeds and perfect the year in autumn. By means of this arrangement no
ceremonial is ever performed and no council ever held in which there
is the least doubt as to the position which a member of a given clan
shall occupy in it, for according to the season in which the ceremonial
is held, or according to the reason for which a council is convened,
one or another of the clan groups of one or another of the regions will
take precedence for the time; the natural sequence being, however,
first the north, second the west, third the south, fourth the east,
fifth the upper, and sixth the lower; but first, as well as last, the
middle. But this, to the Zuñi, normal sequence of the regions and clan
groups, etc., has been determined by the apparent sequence of the
phenomena of the seasons, and of their relations to one another; for
the masterful, all conquering element, the first necessity of life
itself, and to all activity, is the wind, the breath, and its cold, the
latter overmastering, in winter all the other elements as well as all
other existences save those especially adapted to it or potent in it,
like those of the totems and gods and their children of the north. But
in spring, when with the first appearance of the bear and the first
supposed growls of his spirit masters in the thunders and winds of that
time their breaths begin to bring water from the ocean world, then the
strength of the winter is broken, and the snows thereby melted away,
and the earth is revivified with drink, in order that with the warmth
of summer from the south things may grow and be cherished toward their
old age or maturity and perfection, and finally toward their death or
sleeping in winter by the frost-laden breaths of autumn and the east.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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