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
There came a time when the people for whom Síweluhsiwa and Síwiluhsitsa
had gone to seek the way, could tarry no longer awaiting them; for,
hearing the earth rumble, the Twain Beloved and their Warrior-leaders
of the Knife summoned the tribes forth to journey again. Now in these
days the people had grown so vast of number that no longer could they
journey together; but in great companies they traveled, like herds of
bison severed when too numerous for the grass of a single plain. The
Bearers of the Ice-wands and the Ancient Brotherhood of the Knife led
the clans of the Bear, the Crane, the Grouse and others of the People
of Winter (yea and in small part others too), through the northernmost
valleys, carrying ever in their midst the precious _múetone_. The
Fathers of the People, Keepers of the seed, and the Ancient Brotherhood
of Priests led the clans of the Macaw and other Summer people (and in
part others still) through the middle valleys, carrying ever in their
midst the precious _k‘yáetone_. They, being deliberate and wise, sought
rather in the pathway between the northward and the southward for the
place of the Middle.
The Seed-fathers of the Seed-kin, the Keepers of Fire, and the Ancient
Brotherhood of Paíyatuma (Néwe-kwe) led the All-seed clans, the Sun,
Badger and other Summer people (not of the Midmost), through the
southern valleys, carrying ever in their midst the precious _chúetone_.
Leading them all, whether through the northern ways, through the middle
ways, or through the southern ways, now here, now there, were the Two
Beloved ones, and with them their Warriors of the Knife.
Now although those who went by the northern way were called the Bear
and Crane father-people, yet with them went some of all the clans,
as the Parrot-macaws of the Middle, and the Yellow-corn ones of the
Southern people.
And although the People of the Middle way were called the Macaw
father-people, yet with them went Bear and Crane people of the north,
nevertheless, (a few) and Seed people of the south, also (a few) those
of the White Corn.
And although the people of the southern way were called the All-seed
father-people, yet with them went a few of both the northern and the
middle ways. And this was well! That even though any one of these
bands might hap to be divided through wildness of the way or stress
of war, they nathless might retain, each of them, the seed of all the
kin-lines. Moreover, this of itself speedily came to be, through the
mingling of the clans from one to another in the strands of marriage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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