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
Therefore the fathers of the people chose forth, it is said,
Yápotuluha, of the clans of Water, foster child of the great
Sun-priest Yanáuluha, and named of him. And into his hand they gave
the _k‘yáetone_ and certain of their wands of worship, and sent him
to the strangers glorious to look upon. Now there were in the village
of the stranger Seed people seven maidens, sisters of one another,
virgins of one house, and foster children of Paíyatuma (the God of
Dew) himself. And they were surpassingly beautiful, insomuch so that
they were likened to the seven bright stars and are sung of in the
songs of the Seed people and told of in their stories. They, too, were
chosen and breathed upon by all the fathers and matrons of the Seed,
and with the youth Yápotuluha, instructed in the precious rites and
incantations of their custom. And during all the time of preparation
rain fell as before, only gently and warm, and on the eighth day the
matrons and fathers led the maidens and youth, all beautifully arrayed,
down into the plain before the bower where watched the people and grew
the grasses. And there they danced and were breathed of the sacred
medicine seeds. All through the night backward and forward danced they
to the song line of the elders, and in accordance therewith by the side
of the growing plants, motioning them upward with their magic wands
and plumes, as we, with implements of husbandry, encourage the growth
upward of the corn plants today. As time went on, the matron of the
dance led the youth and the first maiden apart, and they grasped, one
on either side, the first plants, dancing around them, gently drawing
them upward as they went, even as the Two Beloved had caused to grow
the canes of the under-world. So also did the youth and each maiden in
turn grasp the other plants in their turn, until all had grown to the
tallness of themselves and were jointed where they had grasped them;
yea, and leaved as with waving plumes of the macaw himself. And now, in
the night, the keepers of the great shells (of the Badger kin), brought
forth fire with their hands from roots, and kindled it in front of the
bower toward the east, that its heat might take the place of the Sun
and its light shine brightly on the dancers, making their acts verily
alive; and as the dawn approached, the youth and first maiden were led
apart as before by the Mother-making matron, and together embraced the
first of the full grown plants, and so, in turn, the youth and each of
the other maidens embraced the other plants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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