13 ETH 1!3 - Outlines of Zuni creation myths

354 ZUNI CKEATIOX MYTHS.

^[kth.^ann.

U

selves

aud by

usages surviving

amoug

tliepresentZufiis, tliatiucourse of time au extensive trade in salt of tbi«particular variety

grew up

between tlie clitf dwellers

aud more

northern and western tribes.

When

found

by

the Spaniardsthe Zuui-Cibolanswere^stillcarryingon anextensivetradein this salt,

which

for practical as well as

assumed

mythic reasons theypermitted no others to gather,

and

which they guarded so jealously that their wars with the

Keresan and

other tribes to the south-southeastward of their country were caused

—

^as

many

of their later wars with theNavajo have been caused

— by

^slight eucroachments on the exclusive right to the products of the laketo whichthe Zuiiis laid claim.

The

^salt^of ^this lake is superior to

any

otherfoundin thesouthwest, not excepting that of the

Mauzano

Salinas, east of the Eio Grande, whichnevertheless

was

as strenuously fought for

and

guarded

by

^the

Tanoan

tribes settled around these Salinas,

and had

ⁱⁿ ^like manner, indeed,

drawn

their ancestry

down

from earlier cavate

homes

iu the northern mountains.

Hence

^it

was

preferred (as it still is

by

both Indian

and

white population of

New

Mexico and Arizona) to all other kinds,

and commanded

such price that in theearlier cliflf-packs Ihave found ^it adulterated with other kinds from the nearer salt marshes

•which occur in southern

Utah and

southwesternColorado.

That

the adulteration of tlielakesaltwiththe slightlyalkaline

and

bitter salt of the neighboring marshes

was

thus practiced with a viewto eking out the trade supplyis conclusively sliown, Ithink,

by

^thepresence in

the

same

^cliff'

homes

from which the adulterated specimens were

obtained, of

abundant

specimensof the unadulteratedsalt,

aud

this as conclusively shows not only that the cliff' dwellerstraded inthissalt, as dotheir

modern

Zuni representatives, but also that^it

was

then,as now,

highlyvalued than other kindsof salt iu the southwest.

The

influence on the

movements

ofwhole tribes of people which ^it

is here

assumed

such a source of favorite salt supplyas thisexerted over the early cliff dwellers, does not stand alone iu the history of

American

tribes. Italreadyhasbeenintimated thattlie

Tanoans

so far prized theircomparativelyinferior source ofsalt supplyin the salinas of the

Mauzano

as to

have

been induced to settle thereaud surround

them

witha veritablecordon oftheirpueblos.

Another

and far

significant instance, that of the Cerro deSal iu

Peru may

be mentioned, for in that countrynot only

was

saltof various kinds tobe found in

many

valleys

and

throughout nearlyall

thedesertsof the

Medano

regionextending from northern

Ecuador

to southern Chili, but the sea also lay near at

hand

along the entire westernborder of thisvaststretch of country; yetfrom remoteparts ofSouth

America

trailslead,

some

fromthe

Amazon and

fromArgentina,

than a thousand miles away,

some

from nearer jioints

and

from

alllocal directions to this I'amous"Cerro deSal."

The

saltfrom this locality was, like that of the

Lake

of Salt, so highly prized that it

ccsHixR]

DUAL

ORIGIN

OF THE

ZUNIS.

355 drew

aboriginal populations about itin evenprelut-au days, and

was

a sourceofsupply, as wellas,itisaftirnied,of

abundant

tribute tothose dominant Pueblos of Soiitb America, tLe Incas of later days.'

That

the

Lake

ofSalt, asa coveted source, actually didinfluence the earlierdescents of the cliff dwellers, and did lead tothe buildiug

aud

occupancy

by them

of the long line of ruins I have described,rests, finally,on linguisticno less than on such comparativeevidence ashas already been indicated. In turn, this leads to consideration of the larger

and

at present

pertinentevidence that these dwellers in theround towns were inpart ancestors of the Zunis,

and

thatthus, as

assumed

attheoutset,the ZuiTisareof composite,at least dual,origin,

and that their last,still existing,phaseof cultureis ofdual derivation.

The

archaic

and

sacred

name

^for the southin Zuui is Alahoinkii-in tiUma, hwt the

name more commonly

employed

—

^always ⁱⁿ fanuliar or descriptive discourse

—

^is Mdk'yaiakicin tdhtta (that ^is, ^tlie ''direction of the salt-containing- water or lake," from ma, salt; k^yai'a, water, or lake-containing or bearing; /.?<•(»,place of,

and

tdhiia, point or directionof).

That

this

name

shouldhavedisplaced theolderformin familiar usage issignificant of the greatimportance attached to their source of

salt

by

the early Zunis; yet but natural, for the older form,

A

^laho'in-

kwin tdhna, signifies "in the direction of the

home

(or source) of the coral shells," fromdhiho, glowingred shell-stuff; hikirhi, abiding place

ol,or containing place of,

aud

tdhna. This source of tlie dlahoire or coral red shells(which arederived from several speciesof subtropical mollusks,and

we

e sohighly prized

by

thesouthwesterntribesthat the Indians of the lower Colorado traded in

them

as assiduously as did those of the cliffs

and

round townsin salt) has beenforgenerations the Gulf ofCalifornia

and

thelower coastto

beyond Guaymas.

Itis not improbable, then, that this archaic

aud now

exclusivelyrit- ualisticexpression forthe southwardor the southis a surviving para- phraseof the

name

for south (or of the source in tlie south of the red shells),formerly

known

tothewestern branch ofthe Zuni ancestry,

and

oncetamiliarly used

by them

to designate also, perhaps, the direction ofthesource oftheirchieftreasure (these coralred shells ofaboriginal commerce), as intheGulfofCalifornia,

which was

then south ofthem, butis

now

due west-southwestward from them.

What

renders thissuppositionstill

probable,audalso strength- ens the theory of the dual origin of

many

parallelisms in Zuni culture, observances,

and

phraseology,is notso

much

the fact that this nam.e forred shells

and

the archaic Zuni

name

for red paint, dhona, resem- ble in sound

and meaning

the

Yuman

ahotcata, ahauti, etc., for red paint, nor yet thefactthat such resemblance extends to

many

archaic and other terms, for

example

of relationship in the Zuiii as

compared

'Aparallel world exampleofthe influenceofsalt sources on the movements of primitive peoples maybefound in tliefactthatall tiiegreathistorictrade routes acrossAsia werefirstestablished alongsalt trailsof prehistorictimes.

356 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS.

^[eth.a.to.¹³

esiiecially witli corresponding terms in the

Yavapai

Tulkepaiya and other dialects of theYiiman. In fact,all theterms inZuniforthefour quarters aretwofold

and

different, according asusedfamiliarlyorrit- ualistically.

That

for west, for instance, is in the archaic and ritual- isticform, K^ydliski'iiilinnUihna,

and

signifies "direction of thehome, or source of mists

and

waters,orthe sea;" which,

when

theZuni abode

in thefarthersouthwest near thePacific,

was

the appropriate

name

for west.

But

the familiar

name

for westin

modern

Zuni is Siiithakicin tdhna,the '-dii-ection of the placeof evening," which ^is todayequally appropriatefortheir plateau-encircled

home

of the^farinland.

"North," inthe archaic form, is

now

nearlylost; yet in

some

of the

mystic rituals it occurs as both Wlmaiyaicun tdhna ₍Wilutaiya

is"north"' iuthe

Yuma),

"directionof the oakmountains,''

and

Yd'la- tcaunankwin tdhna, literally "direction of the place of the mountain ranges,"which fromthe lowerColorado

and

southernArizonaaretoward the north, but from northern ZuFii are not so conspicuous asiu the other direction, as, for instance, toward the southwest.

On

the other hand, if

we

consider thefamiliar i)hrase for north, P'ish'lanl-ir'in tdhna,

"directionof the wind-sweptplains," orofthe"plains of the mightiest winds," tohave been inheritedfrom the aboriginal round-town Zuiiis, thenit

was

natural

enough

for

them

to have

named

thenorth asthey did; for to the north of their earlier

homes

in thecliffs

and

beyond lay the measureless jilains where

roamed

the strong Bison (iod of Winds,

whence came

his fiercenorthern breath

and

bellowings in the roar of stormsin winter.

The

east,in

common

language, signifies "direction of the comingof day;" butintheritualspeech signifies"directionof theplainsof day- light"

—

^a^literaldescription ofthe great

Yuma

desert as seen at day- break fromtheColorado region,butscarcelyapplicableto the country eastward from Zuni, which is rugged

and

broken until the Llanos Estacadosof

Texas

areI'eached.

The

diverse

meaning

of terms in Zufii architectureis noless significant of the diverse conditions and opposite directionsof derivationof theZuTJi ancestry. If the aboriginal branch of theZuiiiwerederived fromthe dwellers iu the northern cliff towns, as has been assumed, thenAvewould expecttofind survivingin the

names

of suchstructural featuresoftheir pueblos as resulted from life in the clifts linguistic evidence,asin the structuresthemselves material evidence, of thefact.

Of

^this,aswill i^reseutlybe shown,theieis an abundance.

If the intrusive branch ofthe Zuni ancestry were, as hasalso been assumed,ofextreme southwestern origin,then

we

should expectto flud linguisticevidence of a similarnature, say,astothe structural modifi- cations of the cliff-dweller and round-town architecturewhich their arrival at

and

ultimateposition iu these towns mightleadustoexpect tofind,

and

whichinfactistobe abundantly^traced in later Zuiii ruins, likethose of the^historic

Seven

Cities of Cibola.

cosHiNG]

EARLY ZUNIAN ARCHITECTURE. 357 The

couditionsoflife

aud

peculiaritiesof building, etc., iu the caves

and

^cliffs, theuiu theround towns,

have

been

commented on

some

length iupreviousi)Uges,

and

sufficientlydescribed torenderintelligi- blea presentation of thislinguistic

aud

additional evidence iu regard

to derivation fromthat direction; butit remainsfor

me

to sketch, as well as I can in brief, the

significant of such characteristicsof the primitive

Yuman

^house

^aud

village life as

seem

to bearon the additional linguistic

and

other evidence of derivation also fi-om the opposite orEio Colorado direction, for bothclews should bepresented side

by

side, if onlyfor thesake of contrast.

Theseancient people of the Colorado region,

Yuman

or other, had, astheir remains

show

(not in their earliest period, nor yet in a later stage oftheir development,

when

a diverging branchof

them — _"Our

lost others'"

— had

^attained to a high state of culture in southern Arizona

and

northern Mexico, but at the time of their migration iu part Zuniward), houses of quite adifferent type from those of the north.

They

were mainly rancherias, that is,

or less scat- teredover the

mesas and

plains.

They

were but rarely rouud, com-

monly

parallelogrammic,

and

either single or connected in straight

L

-shape or double

L

-shape rows.

The

fouudatious were of rough stones, designed iirobably to hold

firmly in place the cane- wattled,mud-plastered stockades

which

formedthesides

and

ends as wellas(in thehouserows) thepartitions.

They owed

theirrectangular shapesnottocrowding, but to development from

an

original logbuilt house type

—

ⁱⁿ^the ^open ^(like the rancheriahouse type of the .Tara- humari), to

which may

also be traced their generally greater length than width.

They

were siugle storied, with rather flat or slightly slopingroofs, although _thehighpitched roof of thatch

was

not wholly

unknown,

for it

was

still employed on elevated granaries; bixt sometimes (this

was

especially the case with siugle houses) the stockade posts werecarried

up

abovethisroof on three sides,

aud

overlaid with saplings on which,iu turn, a

bower

ofbrush orcane or grass

was

con- structed toprotectfrom the sunratherthanfrom rain.

Thus

a sortof rude

and

partial second story

was

formed,

which was

reached from below

by means

of a notched step-log

made

of a forked or branching tree-trunk, the forks beingjjlaced against theedge of the roof proper tokeep the log (thebutt of whichrested on the ground) from turning

when

beingascended.-

Of

thesesiugle housesthe

"bowers"

describedinthe following

myth

of the creation of corn (see

page

391),

and

tyiiically surviving ^still to a great extent in the corutield or farm huts of

moderu

Zuni,

may

be taken as fair examples;

and

of the villages or hut-row structures of these ancient plains

and

valleypeople, an excellent

example may

'SeeImages 403,405-406.

'SeeMindeleli',AicliitectureofTusayau andCibola, EigUtliAnn. Rep.Bur. Eth- nology,p. 157.

358 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS.

^Ieth. ^ann.13 be found in the long-houses of the

Mohave and

otherYiimansof the valleyofColoradoriver.

Both

thesehut-rowhouses

and

the single-room houses

were

generally surrounded

by

low walls of loose stone, stone

and mud,

stockade

and mud,

or of

mud

^alone;

and

as oftenas notone side orthefront of a hut within ^sucli a wall iuclosure

was

^leftentirely open.

Thus

the outer wall

was

intendedin part as a slightprotection from the wind,

and

probably also to guard fromflooding during thesudden showers which sometimes descend in torrents over Arizona plains.

They may

also

have

been designed to

some

extentforprotection from the

enemy;

forthese people were far

valiant fighters thantheir ultimate brethren of the north,

and depended

for protection less on security ofpositionthan ontheir

own

prowess.

Only

duringtimes of unusualdanger did theyretire to fortified lava buttes(or,

when

near them,todeep but

orlessopencrevices in

some

of the

exten- sivelava fields),

where

their hut foundations

may

be found huddled togetherwithin

huge

inclosures of natural lava blocks, dry laid

and

irregular,but

some

them

skillfully planned

and

astonishinglyvast;

but in these strongholds theynev'er tarried long

enough

tobe^influ- encedintheirbuilding habits sufficientlyto changethe stylesof their hamletsin theplains, for until

we

i-each the point in eastern Arizona

where

they joined the" eldernations^"nochangeiugroundplan of these housesisto be tracedin theirremains.

It is necessary to

add

a few details as to costume, usages,

and

the institutionsof these semisettled yet ever shifting people.

They wore

but scant clothing besides their robes and blankets

—

breech-clouts

and

kilts, short for the men, long for the

women, and made

ofshredded bark

and

rushes orfiber; sandals,alsooffiber; neck- lacesof shellbeads,

and

pendent carved shell gorgets.

The

hair

was bobbed

totheleveloftheeyebrows ^{in front,}but leftlong

and hanging

atthe back, gathered intoa

bunch

or switchwith a colored cord

by

the men, into

which

cord,or into a^filletof jdaitedfiber,gorgeous long

tail feathersof the

macaw,

roadrunner, or eagle werethrust

and worn

upright.

To

the

crown

oftheheadofthe warriors

was

^fastened a

huge bunch

of stripped orslittedfeathersoftheowl oreagle,called,nodoubt, then as

now by

^its

Yuman

name,

musema;

foritis still known, though used in different fashion, as the miimtsemak^ya or mihit2)aIok^ye

by

the Zufii Priests of the

Bow. The

warriors also carried targets or shieldsof yuccaor cotton cord, closely netted across a strong, round hooi)-frame

and

covered with a coarser

and

larger net, which

was

only a modification of the carrying net(likethose ^{stiU in} use

by

thePapago, Pima,

and

other Indians of southern Arizona),

and was

turned to account as such, indeed, onhunting

and war

expeditions.

Their

hand weapons

were

huge

stone knives

and war

^clubs shaped like potato-mashers, which were called, it

would

seem, iitekati (their

crsHiNQ)

ZUNI EARLY CUSTOMS. 359 Yumau name)

for, although

changed

intheZufii of today,still strik- inglysurvives in familiarspeechas the expressionifehk'yaoritehlc^yiiti,

knockdown

finallyorfatally,and in ceremonialallusion(ratherthan name)to the old-fashioned

and

sacred

war

clubs (which are of identical form) as itehk^yatdwe, or knocking-down billets, otherwisecalled face-

smashersor pulpers.

They

sometimes buried the dead

—

^chiefly ^their ^medicine

^men ^and

women,

or shamans; but all others were

burned

(with

them

i^ersonal eflccts

and

gifts of kin)

aud

their ashes deposited in pots, etc., at theheads of arroyas, or

thrown

into streams.

They

held as fetiches ofregenerative aswellas protective

power

certainconcretionarystones,

some

of the larger of which were family heirlooms

aud

keptas house- hold gods, others as tribal relics

and

amulets, likethe canopas

and

huacasof ancient Peru. These nodules wereso knobbed, corrugated,

and

contorted that they

were

described

when

seen elsewhere

by

the early Spanish writers as bezoars,but they

were

reallyderived fi'om the sources of arroyas, or

mountain

torrents, inthebedsofwhich they are sometimesfound,

and

beingthusalways water-wornwere regarded as the seed of the waters, the source of life itself.

Hence

they were ceremoniously worshiped

and

associated with all or nearly all the native dances or dramaturgies, of which dances they were doubtless called

by

their oldtime possessors "theancients," or"stoneancients,"

name and

some measure

a connection ^stillsurviving

and

extended to other

meanings

with reference to similar fetich stones

among

the Zunis of today.

From

a study^ofthe remains of these primitive Arizonianancestors oftheZunisinthelightof present-dayZuiiiarchaisms,

and

esijeciallyof the creation

myths

themselves, ^it

would

bepossibleto ])reseuta

much

fullersketch ofthem.

But

^that

which

hasalready

been

outlinedis suffi- cientlyfull,I trust, toprove evidentialthat the following Zuiiiexpres- sions

and

characteristics were as often derived from this southwestern branch as from the cliff dweller or aboriginalbranchofthe Zufii ancestry

The

Zuni

name

^of an outervillage wall is Mk^yapane, which signifies, it

would

seem,"cliff-face wall;" for it is derived,apparently,from Mane, an extendedwall;

and

^dk'yapane, theface ofa wide^clifF.

Thus

it isprobably developed from the

name ^which

at first

was

descriptive of theencirclingrear wall of a cavevillage,afterward naturallycontin-

ued

tobe^applied ^to ^the ^rear butencirclingoroutside wall of around town,

and

hence

now

designateseven a straight outer wall of avillage, whetherof thefrontorthe rear of the houses.

The name

for the outer wall of a house, hojvever, ^is hcine, orJieline,

which signifies a

mud

or adobe inclosure; from ^heliice,

mud

(or

mud-

and-ash) mortar,

and

4line,

an

inclosure. Since in usage this refers tothe outer wall of ahouse or other simjile structure, but nottothat of a

town

or assemblageof houses,itsorigin

may

withequal propriety

Dalam dokumen Outlines of Zuni creation myths (Halaman 33-47)