outlines of zuni Creation Myths 13

outlines of zuni Creation Myths 13

"Lo, now! Ye shall sing our dread song-line.

Like beetles that fall in hot ashes

Ye shall perish, ye singers and drummer.

But lo! in the lightnings and wind-storms

Your beings shall join the beloved.

Your breaths, too, shall strengthen the warrior

And give power to the voice of the warrior,

Bringing peace to the Seed-priests and women.

And ye shall be foremost forever

Of our Chosen, _the Priests of the Bow_.

Lo! The people shall see that we dread not

The coming of fire-blasts and thunder

With our name-fathers, fiercer than any--

The Storm gods of all the six regions:

Hä‘hl´tunk‘ya, Wind God of the North;

Ú-heponolo, Wind of the West;

Óloma, Wind God of the South;

Tsailúhtsanok‘ya--of the East;

Saúshuluma, Wind from Above;

Saíshiwani, Blast from Below;

Unáhsinte, Whirlwind of All!

By their breaths and fell power

We shall changed be, in being;

Made black and mis-shapen;

Made stronger with fierceness;

Made swifter with hurling;

Made crafty with turning;

Plunged deep in the waters,

And renewed of their vigor;

Clad anew with their foam-dress!

Yea, the power of the weapons

The Sun-father gave us

And the Foam-mother made us,

That ye be led upward,

Shall multiplied be

In the means of destruction

For the hands of our children,

Ye Priests of the Bow,

That men be kept living!

But to rock, age-enduring,

Grouped in song for our chosen,

O, drummer and singers!

Ye shall changed be forever!

The foot-rests of eagles

And signs of our order!"

 

The fathers in thought bowed their faces,

And secretly prayed, in their hearts.

The people who watched them, held breath,

And covered their mouths with their robes.

In dread of the powers of magic

And in woe for the doom of their fathers.

The gods, to the right and the left

Took their stand by the side of the waters,

As erst they had stood by the cloud-shield,

Their weapons of magic between them,

The plumes of the warriors placed duly

In lines, to the eastward before them;

The warriors made ready for travel,

Apart from, but circling around them.

Then the Twain gave the word of beginning!

The master of words raised his song-staff,

On its shoulder the plume-wand of man-folk;

The drum-master lifted his sound-hoop,

In its circle the symbol of thunder,

On its handle, the red sign of lightning;

Six times did they lift up in silence

The song-staff and hoop of the drum,

Then struck, with the might of their sinews.

The sound shook the valley with thunder

And above and below echoed thunder;

The meal on the drum-head was lifted

And danced as a rain-cloud around them.

Then the water below moved and bubbled,

And mists like a cold breath ascended;

As wind in a vase the song sounded;

Black cloud-steps rose up from the quarters

And darkened the day with their shadows.

When the first name was named by the singers,

The world rocked with earthquake and thunder

And the roar of swift storms in the northland.

Hä‘hl´tunk‘ya, with dire eyes and staring--

Gleaming yellow as firelight in winter--

And teeth with rage gnashing, and yellow

As shucks of the corn-plant grown aged--

Tumbled down from the north with his hail-balls,

And, mingling with mud the deep water,

In a voice like the sound of a torrent,

Bellowed loud to the Twain and the singers:

 

"Why call ye, small worms of the waters

And spawn of the earth and four quarters,

Ye disturbers of thought, lacking shame;

Why call ye the words of my name?"

"Thy feet stay with patience, grandfather;

We are small, but we joy in thy fury,

Whence we yearn for thy counsel and spirit;

For we long to smite foes from the pathways

As thou canst the trees from the highlands."

"Being so, it is well," said the ancient.

 

Lo! the seed-stuff of hail, bound with treasure,

Gleamed with ice from the breath of his answer.

 

When they named the next name of the song strand,

_Úheponolo_ rolled from the westland

In sand-blasts and dust-clouds like mountains,

And stayed fast their feet with his driftings;

And [etc.].

When they named the third name of the song strand,

_Óloma_ swirled up from the southland

Like a fire draught, and crackled the pool-rim;

And [etc.].

When they named the fourth name of the song strand,

_Tsaíluh‘tsanok‘ya_ shrieking shrilly,

Shot the mountains and valleys with dawn-frost;

And [etc.].

When they named the fifth name of the song strand,

_Saushúlima_ streamed from the zenith,

And deluged the vale with swift water;

And [etc.].

When they named the sixth name of the song strand,

_Saishíwani_ ripped the earth open;

Ghosts, corpses, and demons of blackness

Writhed forth in hot flames from the chasm,

And hurled the gods into the water!

Black smoke rose and strangled the people,

Who fell, like the stricken of lightning!

It stiffened the drummer and singers

Whose song ceased to sound, when, all weakly,

They named the last name of the song strand--

Nor moved, when replied _Únahsinte_,

Whirling in (twisting trees as the spinner

Twists fiber of yucca), and rescued

The Twain from the hot, surging waters,

Dried the foam in their hair to war-bonnets,

Caught his brothers the Wind Gods in order

And hurled them, each one to his mountain

(In the north, in the west, and the southward;

In the east, and the upper, and under);

And rising, uplifted the smoke-clouds.

Lo! the world was alight with the sunshine,

And bending above was the Rainbow!

 

But the drummer and singers were sitting,

Lifted up by the power of the ancients;

Close enwrapped in the dust swept around them,

Made stark by the roar of the death-sounds,

Fixed in death by the shock of the lightnings,

Burned hard by the frost-mingled fire-draughts;

Still sat they, their drum in the middle,

As they sit evermore, in that valley.

 

Lo! dwarfed and hideous-disguised were the two gods Áhaiyuta

and Mátsailema, erst Uanamachi Píahkoa or the Beloved Twain who

Descended--strong now with the full strength of evil; and armed as

warriors of old, with long bows and black stone-tipped arrows of

cane-wood in quivers of long-tailed skins of catamounts; whizzing

slings, and death-singing slung-stones in fiber-pockets; spears with

dart dealing fling-slats, and blood-drinking broad-knives of gray stone

in fore-pouches of fur-skin; short face-pulping war-clubs stuck aslant

in their girdles, and on their backs targets of cotton close plaited

with yucca. Yea, and on their trunks, were casings of scorched rawhide,

horn-like in hardness, and on their heads wore they helmets of strength

like to the thick neck-hide of male elks, whereof they were fashioned.

 

Small were they Twain,

Small and misshapen;

Strong were they Twain,

Strong and hard favored;

Enduringly thoughtful were they Twain,

Enduring of will;

Unyieldingly thoughtful were they Twain,

Unyielding of will;

Swiftly thoughtful were they Twain,

Swift of wile;

Heartless minded were they Twain,

Wrathful of heart;

Strong were they of spirit,

Strong were they of breath,

Evil were they and bad,

Evil, both, and bad.

 

Lo! and of Chance and Fate were they the Masters of fore-deeming; for

they carried the word-painted arrows of destiny (_shóliweátsinapa_),

like the regions of men, four in number. And they carried the

shuttle-cocks of divination (_hápochiwe_), like the regions of

men, four in number. And they carried the tubes of hidden things

(_íyankolotómawe_), like the regions of men, four in number. And the

revealing-balls thereof, (_íyankolote tsemak‘ya móliwe_), like the

regions of men, four in number. Yea, and they bore with these other

things--the feather-bow and plume-arrow of far-finding, tipped with

the shell of heart-searching; and the race-sticks of swift journeys

and way-winning (_mótikwawe_) two of them, the right and the left,

the pursuer and the pursued of men in contention. All of these things

wherewith to divine men's chance, and play games of hazard, wagering

the fate of whole nations in mere pastime, had they with them.

 

Twain Children of terror and magic were they, and when they called with

the voice of destruction the smitten warriors of these Twain Children

stirred and uprose, breathing battle-cries as echoes answer cries in

deep canyons, and swiftly they roused those who still lived, of the

deep-slumbering people.

 

Some, like the drummer and singers, had stiffened been, to stone; nor

heard they the shrill death-cries than which in the night time naught

is more dread-thrilling. Nay, years come and go, and sitting or lying

where stricken the hunter sees them still. But others had endured

in flesh, and they were awakened. Then the priests led them back to

rebuild their wrecked houses, and the Twain again assembling their

warriors, said to them--

 

Know ye our chosen:

Lo! not long shall we tarry;

Prepare as for journeys;

Season wood for thy bow-strings

And face-breaking war-clubs;

Plait shields like to our shields,

And fashion strong garments--

For in such hard apparel

Shall consist thy adornment;

Attend to our teaching

At night, in close places,

For in such shall consist

Thy strength of straight thinking

In all tangled places!

 

Night after night the war-drum sounded, deep in the caves of the

valley, and with it the tones of the words--all potent--forbidden and

secret which the Twain gods were teaching unto the first Priests of the

Bow.

 

 

THE DOWNFALL OF HÁN‘HLIPIŊK‘YA, AND THE SEARCH ANEW FOR THE MIDDLE.

 

Thus wise were the Priests of the Bow established by teaching of the

Twain, whose breaths of destruction each one of them breathed in due

part; whom none might gainsay; nay, not even the fathers whose speakers

they were, and with whom none might contend; nay, not even sorcerers,

whose scourgers they were--nor yet the Fearful!

 

And so, when on a dark night thereafter the world groaned and the

shells sounded warning, all together the Twain and these their new

warriors sought the priest-fathers of the people, bidding them take

in hand for carrying, their tabernacles of precious possessions.

And swiftly and sternly too they wakened all sleepers, old ones and

young, and those who obeyed them were gathered in clan-lines and led

off to safety, for Áhaiyuta, the elder, and his warriors journeyed

before them, and Mátsailema, the younger, and his warriors followed

behind--shields of the people, makers and destroyers of pathways! But

those who loved sleeping or who murmured like children were left to

their evil; they were choked by the black fumes, or buried in the walls

of their houses, which fell when presently the earth heaved with dire

fumes, fire and thunder. Their bones are still digged by the gopher and

marmot.

 

Thus, from country to country journeyed the people, their fathers

the priests and the keepers of the mysteries, with the women and

children in their midst, while before them, from valley to valley, the

Bow-priests swept danger away.

 

 

THE WARS WITH THE BLACK PEOPLE OF THE HIGH BUILDINGS AND WITH THE

ANCIENT WOMAN OF THE K‘YÁKWEINA AND OTHER K´KÂKWE.

 

At last the people neared, in the midst of plains to the eastward,

great towns built in the heights (_héshotayálawa_). But in these times

the thoughts of their warriors were always those of the eagle or

mountain-lion or other fierce creatures of prey. Of those they met it

was "Lo, now! If I can but seize him and utterly overthrow him and eat

of his substance, feeding therewith also my kind!" Thus, only, thought

they.

 

Great were the fields and possessions of this people, for they knew

how to command and carry the waters, bringing new soil; and this too

without hail or rain. So, our ancients, hungry with long wandering for

new food, were the more greedy, and gave them battle. Now as these

people of the highlands and cliffs were of the elder nations of men

and were allied to the Ákâkâ-kwe (the Man-soul Dance-gods) themselves,

these our people, ere they had done, were well nigh finished of

fighting. For it was here that the K‘yákweina Ók‘yätsiki, or Ancient

Woman of the K‘yákweina, who carried her heart in her rattle and was

deathless of wounds in the body, led the enemy, crying out shrilly;

all of which, yea and more, beyond the words of a sitting, is told

in other speeches of our ancient talks, those of the Kâ´kâ. Thus,

it fell out ill for the fighting of our impetuous ancients; for,

moreover, thunder raged and confused their warriors, rain descended

and blinded them, stretching their bow-strings of sinew, and quenching

the flight of their arrows as the flight of bees is quenched by the

sprinkling-plume of the honey hunter. But the strong ‘Hléetokwe devised

bow-strings of yucca, and the Two Little Ones sought counsel of the

Sun-father, who revealed the life-secret of the Demoness and the magic

power over the under-fires (_kóline_) of the dwellers in the mountains

and cliffs; so that after certain days the enemy in the mountain town

were overmastered. And because our people found in that great town some

survivors hidden deep in the cellars thereof, and plucked them forth as

rats are pulled from a hollow cedar, and found them blackened by the

fumes of their own war-magic, yet comely and wiser than the common lot

of men withal, they spared them and called them the Kwínikwa-kwe (Black

people), and received them into their kin of the Black Corn.

 

 

THE ADOPTION OF THE BLACK PEOPLE, AND THE DIVISION OF THE CLANS TO

SEARCH FOR THE MIDDLE.

 

Now for once even the Warriors of the Bow were fully surfeited of

fighting, and paused to rest. Thus, warm hands of brothers elder and

younger were clasped with the vanquished; and in time (for at first

these people were wild of tongue) speech was held with them, whereby

our fathers gained much knowledge, even of their own powers and

possessions, from these Black people, in like manner as they had gained

knowledge from the People of the Dew, whence in like manner also they

grew wiser in the ways of living, and loved more to cherish their corn

and corn virgins that they might have life and abundance rather than

cause death and hunger. Yet were their journeyings not ended. Again,

and anon, the shell sounded warning.

 

When, therefore, the Twain Little Ones, Áhaiyuta and Mátsailema, again

bade the people arise to seek the Middle, they divided them into great

companies, that they might fare the better (being fewer in numbers

together) as well as be the better content with thinking that, thus

scattered, they would the sooner find the place they had for so long

sought. So, again the Winter people were bidden to go northward, that

in their strength they might overcome evils and obstacles and with

their bows strung with slackless fiber of the yucca, contend, winning

their way with the enemy in cold weather or warm, and in rain and

dryness alike. With them, as aforetime, they carried their precious

_múetone_, and with them journeyed Mátsailema and the Warriors of the

Knife, they and chosen Priests of the Bow.

 

Also, to the southward, as before, journeyed the Seed people and the

kinties of Corn and others of the Summer people, they and with them

the Black people, wise and possessed of the magic of the under-fire,

having dealings also with Kâ´kâ-kwe and with the wonderful Chúa-kwe--a

people like themselves, of corn, and called therefore People of Corn

grains,--they and their Kâ´kâ, the K‘yámak‘ya-kwe, or Snail Beings of

the South (those who waged war with men and _their_ Kâ´kâ in after

times), for these reasons they, the Summer people, led the people of

Corn and Seed and these alien people.

 

And as before, the people of the Middle--yea, and those of the Seed

and Dew who especially cherished the _chúetone_ and the Maidens of

Corn--sought the Middle through the midmost way, led of Áhaiyuta, the

elder, and his Priests of the Bow.

 

 

THE NORTHWARD EASTERN JOURNEY OF THE WINTER CLANS.

 

The People of Winter, those led by the ‘Hléeto-kwe, and Mátsailema,

fought their way fiercely into the valley of the Snow-water river

(Úk‘yawane--Rio Puerco del Poniente), settling first at the mud-issuing

springs of that valley (Hékwainaukwin), where their villages may be

seen in mounds to this day, and the marks of the rites of their fathers

and of their kin-names on the rocks thereabout.

 

And they became far wanderers toward the north, building towns

wheresoever they paused, some high among the cliffs, others in the

plains. And how they reached at last the "Sacred City of the Mists

Enfolded" (Shípapulima, at the Hot Springs in Colorado), the Middle

of the world of Sacred Brotherhoods (Tík‘yaawa Ítiwana), and were

taught of Póshaiyaŋk‘ya ere he descended again; and how they returned

also, thus building everywhere they tarried, along the River of Great

Water-flowing, (Rio Grande del Norte) even back to the mountains of

Zuñiland (Shíwina yálawan) and settled finally at the Place of Planting

(Tâ´iya or Las Nutrias)--all this and more is told in the speeches they

themselves hold of our ancient discourse.

 

 

THE SOUTHWARD EASTERN JOURNEY OF THE SUMMER CLANS.

 

The people of Corn and the Seeds, guided by the Kwínikwakwe, fared

for long peacefully, southward along the valley of the River of Red

Flowing Waters, building them towns of beauty and greatness, as may be

seen to this day, and the marks of their rites also are on the rocks

whithersoever they traveled. Far south they fared until they came to

the great valley of Shóhkoniman (home, or place of nativity, of the

Flute-canes) beneath the Mountain of Flutes (Shóhko yálana--La Sierra

Escudilla), whence they turned them eastward.

 

How they builded thereafter, wheresoever long they remained, not single

towns, but for each sept of their kinties a town by itself, and the

names of these clan-towns, and the wars they fought contending with

the Kâ´kâ, and how finally they reached the Mountain of Space-speaking

Markings (Yála Tétsinapa), then turned them back westward and sat

them down at last with other people of the way, in the upper valley of

Zuñiland (Shíwina Téu‘hlkwaina), building Héshotatsína (The Town of

Speech-markings) and many other towns, all of them round and divided

into parts, ere they rejoined the people of the Middle, when that they

too had come nigh over the heart of the world--all this and much else

is told in the speeches they themselves hold of our ancient discourse.

 

 

THE EASTWARD MIDDLE JOURNEY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE.

 

How the People of the Middle, the Macaw people and their children,

journeyed straightway eastward, led by Áhaiyuta and the fathers of all

the people, this we tell in the mid-coming speech of our sacred ancient

discourse, and in other speeches thereof. How, now, after time, they

settled at Kwákina, where the Brotherhood of Fire (Mákekwe) had its

place of ancient origin in wondrous wise--told of by themselves--and

where originated their great dance drama of the Mountain Sheep, and the

power of entrance into fire, and even of contention with sorcery itself.

 

And at each place in which the people stopped, building greatly, they

learned or did some of the things for which those who be custodians

of our olden customs amongst the Tík‘yaápapakwe (Sacred Brotherhoods)

are still marvelous in their knowledge and practice. But after our

father ancients had builded in Kwákina, lo! when the world rumbled and

the shells sounded, the noise thereof was not great, and therefore no

longer did they arise as a whole people, for seeking yet still the