It may be well to explain here that there is no more intensely painful or fiery bite known than the bite of the fire-ant or red ant of the Southwest and the tropics, named, in Zuni, halo. Large pimples and blisters are raised by the bite, which is so venomous, moreover, that for the time being it poisons the blood and fills every vein of the body with burning sensations. ↩
It is impossible to translate this exclamation, as it is probably archaic, and it is certainly the intention that its meaning shall not be plain. Judging from its etymology, I should think that its meaning might be:
“Oh, alas! our little maiden!
Oh, alas! our little maiden!
Ala‑a‑a‑a‑a‑s!”
This term refers to the two Gods of War, Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma, who, as has been seen in previous tales, were accounted immortal twin youths of small size. ↩
Háwikuh, or Aguico of the Spaniards, a pueblo now in ruins across the valley northwestward from Ojo Caliente, the southwestern farming town of the Zunis. ↩
One of the “measuring-worms” which is named the rainbow, on account of his streaked back and habit of bending double when travelling. ↩
Fragments of mountain-sheep horn are used to this day by the Zunis for the same purpose. They are flattened by heat and perforated with holes of varying size. By introducing the shaft to be straightened, and rubbing with a twisting motion the inner sides of the crooked portions, they are gradually straightened out, afterward to be straightened by hand from time to time as they dry before the fire. ↩
The kia-al-lan, or water-shield, is represented in modern times by a beautiful netting of white cotton threads strung on a round hoop, with a downy plume suspended from the center. This, with the dealings of Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma with arrows of lightning, and the simile of their father the Sun, leaves little doubt that they are, in common with mystic creations of the Aryans, representatives of natural phenomena or their agents. This is even more closely suggested by the sequel. ↩
The ridiculousness of the dialogue which follows may readily be understood when it is explained that each office in the celebration of victory has to be performed by a distinct individual of specified clans according to the function. ↩
Here and hereafter I use this term “priest” reluctantly, in lack of a better word, but in accordance with Webster’s second definition. —F. H. C. ↩
One of the figures of speech meaning the gods. ↩
To “see” an enemy signifies, in Zuni mythology, to take his life. ↩
The words “terrace,” “sacred terrace,” “terraced plain” (awithluiane, awithluian-pewine), and the like, wherever they occur, refer to the figurative expression for the earth in the Zuni rituals addressed to the gods, where they are used as more nearly conforming to the usage of the gods. The symbol of the earth on the sacred altars is a terraced or zigzag figure or decoration, and the same figure appears in their carvings and other ornamental work. The disgraced god Mítsina applied the term to the robe spread out as the bed for his game. It may be stated in further explanation that the country in which the Zunis have wandered and lived for unnumbered generations, and where they still dwell, is made up largely of mesas, or flattop mountains or elevations, rising one above another and showing as terraces on the horizon. Beheld at great distances, or in the evening, these mountain terraces are mere silhouettes and serve to exaggerate the zigzag spaces of light between them. As the conventional sacred emblem for the earth is a terrace, outspread or upreaching, as the case may be, so the conventional sacred emblem for the sky is an inverted terrace.
To the gods the whole earth is represented as having seemed so small that they invariably spoke of it as the terraced plain, and in their playing of this game they are supposed to have used it as the bed for the game, as the Zuni people used the outspread buffalo robe for the purpose. ↩
Reprinted from the Journal of American Folklore, vol. V., No. 16, pp. 49–56. ↩
From té-na-la-a, “time or times of,” and pé-na-we, words or speeches (tales): “tales of time.” ↩
The invariable formula for beginning a folk tale is, by the raconteur: “Són ah-tchi!” (“Let us take up”)—té-la-pʻ-ne, or “a folk tale,” being understood. To this the auditors or listeners respond: “É-so!” (“Yea, verily.”) Again, by the raconteur: “Sons i-nó-o-to-na! Tem,” etc. (“Let us (tell of) the times of creation! When,” etc.) Again, by the listeners: “Sons éso! Te-ä-tú!” (“Yea, let us, verily! Be it so.”) ↩
The Zuni classification of states of growth or being is as elaborate as that of relative space in their mythology—both
