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
And when, on the morrow, the watchers saw the plumes standing there
all beautiful in the plain, and asked who planted them, and for what,
the priests replied, "Verily they were planted in the night, while
ye heedlessly drowsed, by the seven stars." Thereat the people,
mistaking their meaning, exclaimed, "Behold! the seed wands of the
stars themselves!" and they joyed in the omen that their prayers had
been heard so far. And lo! during the eight days and nights there
arose thick mists, hail and rain descended until torrents poured down
from the mountains bringing new soil and spreading it evenly over the
plain. And when on the morning of the ninth day the clouds rolled away,
"_Eluu!_" shouted our fathers of the Seed kin to the stranger people;
"Water and new soil bring we, where erst was barren hardness; yea, even
grasses, tall and plumed as were our wands, and spiked with seed, for
the grass seed had sprouted and the new wands taken root and grown, and
now had long feathery blades and tall, tasseled stems, waving in the
wind."
"Yea, verily!" cried the People of the First-growing-grass kin
(Aik‘yaho-kwe), chief of the clans of Seed, "we _are_ the People of the
Seed!"
But the strangers, heeding not their boastings, replied, "Yea, verily,
enough! It is well! Truly water and new soil ye have brought, and
grasses growing great therefrom, yet ye have not brought forth new life
therefor of the flesh of men or the seed of seeds! Come now, let us
labor together, in order that what ye have begun may be perfected. New
soil and the seed of its production, the seed of water, yea even the
substance of seed itself we had not, yet of the seed of seed we are
verily the people, and our maidens are the mothers thereof, as ye shall
see."
Then they, too, set apart eight days, during which to prepare for
their custom, and they further said, "That we may be perfect in the
plenishing and generation of the seed of seeds, send us forth, O, ye
comers, a youth of the kin of Water and of those who hold possession of
the precious _k‘yáetone_, which give unto us likewise, that we join it
to the _chúetone_ ye have placed in the midst of the growing plants,
according to our understanding of its meaning and relation. And let the
youth be goodly and perfect and whole of seed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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