Zuñi Fetiches: Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-1881, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 3-45Cushing, Frank Hamilton
Religion
Zuñi Fetiches: Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-1881, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 3-45
Both the Great White Bear and the Mountain Lion of the War Priesthood
are, as well as the Knife-feathered Demon, beings of the skies. For this
reason the fetich of the Mountain Lion of the skies (of aragonite) is
preferred by a Priest of the Bow above all other kinds or colors.
Unfortunately, none of the fetiches of this priesthood are to be found
in the collections of the Bureau, and but one, with its pouch, has been
reproduced from the original, which is in my possession. It was not
presented to me with my other paraphernalia on the night of the final
ceremonials of my initiation into the Priesthood of the Bow, but some
months afterward when I was about to start on a dangerous expedition. At
this time I was charged with carefully preserving it during life as my
special fetich, and instructed in the various usages connected with
it. The other was drawn from a sketch made by myself of a fetich in
Zuñi.
These fetiches--more usually of the Mountain Lion than of the others;
very rarely of the Knife-feathered Demon--are constantly carried by the
warriors when abroad in pouches like those of the Hunters, and in a
similar manner. They are, however, not returned to the headquarters of
the society when not in use; but, being regarded, with the other
paraphernalia of their possessor, as parts of his Sá-wa-ni-k'ia, are
always kept near him.
RESEMBLANCE TO THE PREY GODS OF THE HUNT.
The perfect fetich of this order differs but little from those of the
Hunters, save that it is more elaborate and is sometimes supplied with a
minute heart of turkois bound to the side of the figure with sinew of
the Mountain Lion, with which, also, the arrow-point is invariably
attached, usually to the back or belly. The precious beads of shell,
turkois, coral, or black stone, varied occasionally with small univalves
from the ocean, are bound over all with a cotton cord. These univalves,
theoliva (tsu-i-ke-i-nan-ne=heartshell), are, above all other shells,
sacred; and each is emblematic of a god of the order. The wrist badges
of the members are also made of these shells, strung on a thong of
buckskin taken from the enemy. The arrow-point, when placed on the back
of the fetich, is emblematic of the Knife of War (Sá-wa-ni-k'ia
ä′-tchi-ën-né), and is supposed, through the power of Sá-wa-ni-k'ia or
the "magic medicine of war" (?) to protect the wearer from the enemy
from behind or from other unexpected quarters. When placed "under the
feet" or belly, it is, through the same power, considered capable of
effacing the tracks of the wearer, that his trail may not be followed by
the enemy.
THE RITES OF THEIR WORSHIP.
The ceremonial observed by a Priest of the Bow, when traveling alone in
a country where danger is to be apprehended from the enemy, may be taken
as most illustrative of the regard in which the fetiches of his order
are held.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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