outlines of zuni Creation Myths 12

outlines of zuni Creation Myths 12

Sit thee down with us,

That of much we may tell thee,

For far thou hast wandered

And changed art become.

As a woman with children

Is loved for her power

Of keeping unbroken

The life-line of kinsfolk,

So shalt thou, tireless hearer,

Of all sounds with meaning,

Be cherished amongst us

And worshipped of mortals

For keeping unbroken

The Tale of Creation,

Yea, all we shall tell thee

Of past days and future.

 

So said Páutiwa, cloud-sender and sun-priest of souls, and his brothers

younger of the regions all, joined in so saying.

 

Then K‘yäk´lu sat him down and bowed his head, and calling to the Duck,

who had guided him, stretched forth his hand and upon it she settled,

as upon a wave-crest or a wood bough.

 

 

THE COUNCIL OF THE K´KÂ, AND THE INSTRUCTION OF K‘YÄK´LU BY THE GODS.

 

The gods sent forth their runners, the Sálamopia and the timid,

fleet-footed Héhea, to summon all beings, and then, gathering

themselves in a sacred song-circle, called in from the several chambers

dancers in semblance of the Kâ´kokshi, or Dance of Good. And with

these came, behold! the little ones who had sunk beneath the waters,

well and beautiful and all seeming wonderfully clad in cotton mantles

and precious neck jewels. And these played, sad only with the sadness

of their mothers, but resting therefrom when in dreams, above, these

rested.

 

And when the dancers paused, the gods turned to K‘yäk´lu and said: "Lo!

we begin, given thou be ready."

 

And K‘yäk´lu said: "It is well; I am ready; yea, even my heart

listeneth," and in cadence to their speech following, he moved the Duck

with her tinkling, talking shells, as a master of song moves his baton,

or a dancer his rattle, and in solemn, ceaseless tone, as in singing

yet with speech more steady, the gods, one by one, told to K‘yäk´lu

the things each best knew, whereof he so wondrously speaks when come

amongst us for the welfare of our little children, bringing them the

sacred breath of the Kâ´kâ itself, and to their elders these same

speeches of the gods.

 

When, after long time, they had done, they further charged him with a

message of comfort to the mourning mothers, and with commandments and

instructions to men and the beings.

 

Then they brought forth the sacred cigarette, and the master

priest-gods smoked in relationship with K‘yäk´lu to all the six

regions, and, rising, he was led in turn to the portal of each chamber,

first to the northern, then to the western, southern, eastern, upper,

and lower, and he placed his fingers on the sill of each, that in

aftertimes he should know, though but dim of sight, or in the dark, the

places of worship (which men built then but poorly) from others, and in

such alone, and to chosen few who hold the rites of the Kâ´kâ, should

therein tell and do the customs and words of the gods and tell of other

such like precious ancient things.

 

Then the Sálamopia lifted the ladder and guided upward K‘yäk´lu and

the Duck, showing them safely to the shore of the lake. When the old

ones (Kâ´yemäshi) heard the shells of the Duck tinkling, forth they

came, bringing their litter and singing boisterously, for much they

loved K‘yäk´lu as the light of the rising sun fell upon him, as a raven

loves bright shells or chips of glistening stone.

 

 

THE INSTRUCTION OF THE K´YEMÄSHI BY K‘YÄK´LU.

 

And when they had come to the side of K‘yäk´lu, instant they became

grave, for he bade them hearken to the words of the gods, and their

instructions.

 

"Ye shall attend me, for know that ye are to be the guardians of the

Kâ´kâ and tellers of its meanings, and givers of enjoyment to the

children of men, even as ye gave the enjoyment of comfort unto me, when

ye sought me in the plain of my sorrows. Ye shall bear me to the people

yonder, for I have tidings for them, and instructions the to which ye

shall bear witness in aftertimes when I am not by. Ye shall cherish the

Kâ´kâ; yea, and all other precious customs, for thereunto as unto life

mortal, yet unceasing, became fitted thy father, my brother younger;

and thereunto were ye born, ye and thy sister elder, man-woman of the

Kâ´kâ, as unto the councils thereof am I become slave yet master.

But my sister, thy mother, shall abide by the place she hath made,

maintaining it, as woman ever maintaineth the hearth she hath made, all

the days of men."

 

 

HOW THE K´YEMÄSHI BORE K‘YÄK´LU TO HIS PEOPLE.

 

This said K‘yäk´lu as he sat him down on the litter, and obediently the

Kâ´yemäshi lifted it upon their shoulders and bore it away, along the

trail eastward, down which westward we go after death and fulfilment.

And as they journeyed through the plain, calling loudly to one another,

the little people of the Marmot villages ran out and stood up, looking

at them and calling to one another, which so amused and pleased the

Kâ´yemäshi that they became proud of their master and uncle, K‘yäk´lu,

and sang all the way thereafter of the audience they had at every

prairie-dog village, of Marmot youths and Marmot maidens; and thus

they were singing gleefully as they neared the camp of the people,

insomuch that none were frightened, but all wondered who were those

pleasant, strange people coming, and what one of precious consideration

guided of the far-journeying Duck they were bearing aloft on their

litter. Thus, ever since, they sing, as they bring in K‘yäk´lu from the

western plain, along the river-trail of the dead, and thus happily and

expectantly we await their coming, our little ones wonderingly as did

the first men of those days.

 

 

THE RETURN OF K‘YÄK´LU, AND HIS SACRED INSTRUCTIONS TO THE PEOPLE.

 

Speedily the fathers of the people recognized their lost K‘yäk´lu (led

and prompted as they were of the Twain), and preciously they housed

him, as we preciously and secretly receive with the cigarette of

relationship a returning relative, and purify him and ourselves ere he

speak, that he may not bring evil or we receive it, perchance, with the

breath of his strange words.

 

Thus the fathers of the people did to K‘yäk´lu and the ancient ones,

receiving them into secret council. And as one who returns famished

is not given to eat save sparingly at first of the flour of drink

(_ók‘yäslu_), so with this only was K‘yäk´lu regaled; but his bearers

were laden speedily with gifts of food and garments which, forsooth,

they would not wear save in disorderly ways. Then K‘yäk´lu spake a

message of comfort to the mourners, telling them how, below the waters

into which their little ones had sunken, they were dwelling in peace

amongst the gods, and how all men and mothers would follow them thither

in other part in the fulness of each one's time.

 

And then, holding in his hand the Duck, the guide to his blindness,

he spake in measured motion and tone, to the sound of the shells

on the neck of the Duck, the words of creation, _K‘yäk´lu Mósonan

Chïm´mik‘yanak‘ya pénane_, and of his wanderings, and the speeches of

gods and beings as they had been told him, and the directions of the

sacred customs, all did he tell ceaselessly as is still his wont from

mid-day to mid-day to each one of the six councils, that no part be

forgotten.

 

Thus did our people first learn of their lost messengers, all save

two of them, Ánahoho áchi, and of their lost children in the City of

Ghosts; yea, of the spirit beings and man, animal, and of the souls of

ancient men dead beforetime; yea, and yet more learned they--that all

would gather there even those who had fled away in fear of the waters,

in the fulness of time.

 

 

THE ENJOINING OF THE K‘YÄK´LU ÁMOSI, AND THE DEPARTURE OF K‘YÄK´LU AND

THE OLD-ONES.

 

And when K‘yäk´lu had done speaking, he and the ancient ones breathed

into the nostrils of those who had listened, and into the mouths of

four chosen from amongst them (small of stature like as he was) he

spat, that their tongues might speak unfailingly the words he had

uttered. And these became the K‘yäk´lu Ámosi, whose office we still

keep amongst us. Then the ancient ones lifted him upon the litter, and

loudly joking about their gifts and bidding men call them ever with the

Kâ´kâ that they might receive more _háha_, they sang of how the young

women and maidens would wait for them as for lovers, bringing them the

water of guests to drink, and amid laughter they bore K‘yäk´lu back

whence they had come, to the mountain and city of the Kâ´kâ (Kâ´‘hluai

yálane).

 

 

THE COMING OF THE BROTHERS ÁNAHOHO AND THE RUNNERS OF THE K´KÂ.

 

Now, when they had departed, there came from the west, behold! two

strangers seeming, guided by the Sálamopia, and all the fleet runners

of the Kâ´kâ then first seen of men and feared as by children now,

for they were fierce and scourged people from their pathways to make

room for those they guided. For know that these were the two brothers

Ánahoho who had returned to the desolate cities of their people.

Therein had they sought in vain for the living in the blackened houses.

They even tore down the chimneys and peered in, seeking for their

brother K‘yäk´lu, and when they found him not they smote their faces

and held their noses in grief, and all black as were their hands with

soot, lo! thus became their faces, flat and masked with the black

hand-mark of dismay, and as they held their faces they cried dismally

and long.

 

 

THE DISPATCHING OF THE SOULS OF THINGS TO THE SOULS OF THE DEAD.

 

No sooner did they come into the village of our fathers than they began

turning over the things from which the people had fled, and casting

them down where the Sálamopia stamped them into the earth or otherwise

destroyed them that their likes might go the way of the dead for the

dead and the Kâ´kâ. And when the people saw this, they brought forth

vessels and baskets and other things without stint, all of which, as

though all were chimneys, the Twain Ánahoho took up, and peering into

them lifted their faces and cried their dreary mournful cry, casting

these things straightway to the ground. Thus to this day they follow

their brother, seeking ever, finding never, sending after their brother

the souls of men's possessions that all may be well in the after time,

in the after time of each age of man.

 

 

THE RENEWAL OF THE GREAT JOURNEYING AND OF THE SEARCH FOR THE MIDDLE.

 

Long sojourned the people in the town on the sunrise slope of the

mountain of Kâ´‘hluëlawan, and what though the earth in time began to

groan warningly anew, loath were they to leave the place of the Kâ´kâ

and the lake of their dead. But the rumbling grew louder apace, and

at last the Twain Beloved called, and bade the people arise, and all

together--now that their multitudes were in part diminished--follow

them eastward, seeking once more the place of the Middle. Not without

murmuring among themselves did the people obey; but after they had

fared forward a certain distance they came to a place of fair seeming

and great promise, so much so, indeed, that it was said, "Let us tarry

in this favored spot, for perchance it may be the place of the Middle."

 

And so they builded for themselves there greater houses than ever they

had builded, and more perfect withal, for they were still great and

strong in numbers and wittier than of old, albeit yet unperfected as

men; and the place wherein they so builded was Hán‘hlipíŋk‘ya, "The

Place of Sacred Stealing," so named in after time for reasons we wot

of.

 

Long did the people abide therein, prosperously; but with waxing ever

wiser and stronger their condition changed, so that little suited to

it--with their tails and beast clothing--were our wonderful, magical,

yet rude, ugly fathers. Being beast-like, they were sore inconvenienced

both at home and abroad, in the chase or at war; for now and again they

still in their wanderings met older nations of men and man-beings, with

whom they needs must strive, so they thought, forsooth, thereby gaining

naught save great danger with increase of anger and stubbornness. Thus,

not any longer in fear only of the gods and great monsters, but in fear

now of the wars they themselves provoked, contending the world with

their own kind and with man-beings, changed yet otherwise were they. Of

the elders of all their folk-kins the gods therefore called a council.

 

 

THE WARNING-SPEECH OF THE GODS, AND THE UNTAILING OF MEN.

 

"Changed, verily and yet more changed shall ye be, oh our children!"

cried the Twain gods in such fashion and voice that none failed of

heeding in all that great council:

 

Men now, shall ye be,

Like the men of first nations,

Like the perfect Corn Maidens;

Walking straight in the pathways

And full in the sunlight;

Clothed in garments, and tailless

(That ye straight sit in council

And stand the more seemly).

And your feet shall be webless,

And hands void of talons,

Yet full-furnished, for fighting.

 

Then ranged were the clans

In processions like dancers;

First, the fronts of their faces

Were shorn of their forelocks

By the Twain with their weapons,

And fires of the lightning,

That the Sun on his journeys

Might know them, his children,

And warn them of shame.

Again in processions,

Their talons were severed

And webbed fingers slitted;

And again in processions

Their webbed toes were parted

With the knives of the lightnings.

Then sore was the wounding

And loud cried the foolish;

But the Gods bade them "bear it"

That they and their children

"Be fitter as men."

When lastly the people

Were ranged in procession

And their tails were razed sharply,

There were many who cried

(Little heeding the foremost

Who recked now, no longer

The pain they had suffered),

And these, in their folly,

Shrinking farther and farther

Fled away, in their terror,

Crazed, and chattering loudly,

Climbing trees and high places,

And bereft of their senses

Wandered far (seeking safety,

Sleeping ever in tree-tops)

To the south Summer-country.

Seen again by far walkers--

"Long of tail and long handed

Like wizened man-children,

Wild, and noisy of mouthing,

Their kind still abide there,

Eating raw things like creatures--"

Say the words of the ancients.

"Thus wise fared it ever

With those who feared greatly

The words of the fathers,

Yet feared not their warnings!"

Say the words of the ancients.

 

Thereafter more and more goodly of favor became the people, for they

dwelt long in Hán‘hlipíŋk‘ya, where, lo! that this might be so, their

useless parts had in sacred theft been stolen, as it were, from them,

and they gained great strength, and in the fulness thereof they sought

more often than ever to war with all strangers (whereby they became

still more changed in spirit), the which the Two Beloved watched amain,

nor said they aught!

 

But there came a day when the people grew vain and waxed insolent,

saying, "Look now, we are perfect of parts and surely have attained

to the Middle place or unto one equal thereunto. Go to, let us build

greatly and lay up store, nor wearily wander again even though the

earth tremble and the Twain bid us forth. Think ye we shall not be

strong and defy even the Fearful?" cried the Men of the Knife, the

stout warriors of the Twain. But what of all that? This! Even whilst

they were wont to speak in this brave fashion the mountains trembled

often, and although afar sounding, much did it abate these boastings!

 

 

THE ORIGIN OF THE TWIN GODS OF WAR AND OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE BOW.

 

Well aware of this temper of the people, changed also in spirit became

the Twain Beloved. "Verily a time hath come," said they, "and this is

the time." Forthwith they called the fathers to council again, as many

of them as there were of the Midmost and of all the folk kins, they and

the Men of the Knife--brave of mouth yet weak of danger--called they

together, and thus spake unto them:

 

Lo! long have ye dwelt here

At rest from far journeys.

Sooth! ye stronger have waxed,

And like cubs of the puma

Grown lusty, seek living

Apart from your fathers!

Ye have changed, O, ye children!

Ye have changed been, to men!

Whilst far from the Middle,

The world's stable Middle,

Still ye boast to have found it,

And ye think upon warfare!

Nay, proven ye shall be

And it shall be tested!

Thus far have we led ye

In peace, and with counsel

Of wisdom controlled ye.

But we too have changed been,

By wounding our children

With weapons of magic.

Thus, of blood we have tasted the hunger,

Henceforth by the power of war,

And the hazard of omens and chance,

Shall we open the ways for our people

And guide them in search of the Middle!

And our names shall be known as the Twain

Who hold the high places of earth--

Áhaiyuta, the elder and main;

Mátsailema, the younger of birth.

Come forth, ye War-men, of the Knife,

Carve plume-wands of death and the spaces,

Bring out the great drum of the regions!

Come forth, master-priest of the north,

Thou first in the kin of the Bear,

Bring out the seed stuff of the hail-tempests!

Come forth, master-priest of the west,

Thou first in the kin of Coyotes,

Bring out the seed stuff of beast-slaying!

Come forth, master-priest of the south,

Thou first in the kin of the Badger,

Bring out the shell trumpets of fire!

Come forth, master-priest of the east,

Thou first in the kin of the Turkey,

Bring out the great crystal of light.

Come forth, master-priest of the high,

Thou first in the kin of the Eagle,

Lay before us the streaked stone of lightning!

Come forth, master-priest of below,

Thou first in the kin of the Serpent,

Lay out the black stone of earth thunder.

Sit aloof, O, ye priests of the Middle,

Ye first in the kin of All People,

Watch well o'er your seed-things and children!

Speak wisely to these our new children;

Henceforth they shall be your first speakers,

And the peace-making shields of your people,

Through wasting the blood of all foemen

And feeding the soil with its substance!

Thus much.

 

Then the Twain gave directions:

 

They named the eight days for preparing.

The people returned to their houses,

The priests to their fastings and labors,

The Twain to their high mountain-places.

And when the eight days had been counted

And all had been done as commanded,

Around the deep pool in the valley,

That leads from the walled Hán‘hlipiŋk‘ya

The sacred seed-contents were gathered.

And full in their midst the great drum jar

Was placed by the summoned clan-fathers.

Then each took his place in the circle,

And the Twain Gods still further instructed

The kin-priests, and knife-bearing warriors.

Soft they chanted the sacred song-measure,

The magic and dread Shómitâk‘ya,

And whispered the seven fell names!

Then they painted the round mark of thunder

And the wavering trail of the lightning

Around the great drum, in the middle,

And on the hooped drum-stick of thunder.

And over the drum-head, with prayer-dust

They marked out the cross of the quarters,

As on the cloud-shield they had leveled

Fire-bolts to the four earthly regions.

With black of shell-corpse-scales that g