The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
History
The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))
Stevenson, Matilda Coxe
Zia Indians
The present ti´ämoni entered his office without having filled the
subordinate place, his predecessor, a very aged man, and the vicar,
likewise old, having died about the same time. When the selection of
a younger brother or vicar has been made, the vicar to the war priest
calls upon the incoming ruler, who accompanies him to the house of the
appointee to fill the office of vicar to the ti´ämoni. The younger
war priest, followed by the ti´ämoni elect, who precedes the vicar,
goes to the ancestral official chamber of the ti´ämoni, where the
elder war priest, the theurgists of the several cult societies, with
their vicars, have assembled to be present at the installation of
the ti´ämoni. The war priest arises to meet the party, and, with the
ti´ämoni immediately before him he says: “This man is now our priest;
he is now our father and our mother for all time;” and then addressing
the ti´ämoni he continues: “You are no more to work in the fields or
to bring wood, the theurgists of the cult and all your other children
will labor for you, our ti´ämoni, for all years to come; you are not to
work, but to be to us as our father and our mother.” “Good! good!” is
repeated by the theurgists. The war priest then presents the ti´ämoni
with the ensign of his office—a slender staff, crooked at the end and
supposed to be the same which was presented to the first ruler by the
mother Ût´sĕt—the crook being symbolic of longevity. Upon receiving
the crook the ti´ämoni draws the sacred breath from it and the war
priest embraces him and sprinkles the cane with meal with a prayer that
the thoughts and heart of Ût´sĕt may be conveyed from the staff to
the newly-chosen ruler (Ût´sĕt upon presenting this cane to the first
ti´ämoni of this world, gave with it all her thoughts and her heart),
and now he, too, draws from the cane the sacred breath. The theurgists
rise in a body, each one embracing the ti´ämoni and sprinkling meal
upon the staff, at the same time drawing from it the sacred breath. The
civil authorities next, and then the populace, including the women and
children, repeat the embracing, the sprinkling of meal, and the drawing
of the sacred breath.
[Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology. Eleventh Annual Report PLate V
THE ORACLE.]
The following day all the members of the pueblo, including the
children, collect wood for the ti´ämoni, depositing it by the side of
his dwelling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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