FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>  
ayer and ritualistic recitals of this order all of these gods are spoken of by the names which distinguish them in the other orders of the tribe. [Illustration: PREY GOD FETICHES OF THE HUNT.] THEIR ORIGIN. While all the prey gods of the hunt are supposed to have functions differing both from those of the six regions and those of the Priesthood of the Bow, spoken of further on, they are yet referred, like those of the first class, to special divisions of the world. In explanation of this, however, quite another myth is given. This myth, like the first, is derived from the epic before referred to, and occurs in the latter third of the long recital, where it pictures the tribes of the Zunis, under the guidance of the Two Children, and the Ka[']-ka at Ko-thlu-el-lon-ne, now a marsh-bordered lagune situated on the eastern shore of the Colorado Chiquito, about fifteen miles north and west from the pueblo of San Juan, Arizona, and nearly opposite the mouth of the Rio Concho. This lagune is probably formed in the basin or crater of some extinct geyser or volcanic spring, as the two high and wonderfully similar mountains on either side are identical in formation with those in which occur the cave-craters farther south on the same river. It has, however, been largely filled in by the _debris_ brought down by the Zuni River, which here joins the Colorado Chiquito. Ko-thlu-el-lon signifies the "standing place (city) of the Ka[']-ka" (from _Ka_=a contraction of Ka[']-ka, the sacred dance, and _thlu-el-lon_=standing place). THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ANIMALS. Men began their journey from the Red River, and the Ka[']-ka still lived, as it does now, at Ko-thlu-el-lon-ne, when the wonderful Snail People (not snails, as may be inferred, but a tribe of that name), who lived in the "Place of the Snails" (K'ia-ma-k'ia-kwin), far south of where Zuni now is, caused, by means of their magic power, all the game animals in the whole world round about to gather together in the great forked canon-valley under their town, and there to be hidden. The walls of this canon were high and insurmountable, and the whole valley although large was filled full of the game animals, so that their feet rumbled and rattled together like the sound of distant thunder, and their horns crackled like the sound of a storm in a dry forest. All round about the canon these passing wonderful Snail People made a road (line) of magic medicine and sacred meal, whi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>  



Top keywords:
animals
 

filled

 

Colorado

 

lagune

 

Chiquito

 

wonderful

 
People
 

sacred

 

standing

 

spoken


referred

 

valley

 

ANIMALS

 

DISTRIBUTION

 
passing
 

journey

 

forked

 

forest

 

debris

 

brought


largely
 

medicine

 

gather

 
signifies
 
contraction
 

snails

 

Snails

 

insurmountable

 

hidden

 

caused


thunder

 

inferred

 

crackled

 

distant

 

rumbled

 

rattled

 

special

 
divisions
 

regions

 

Priesthood


explanation

 

occurs

 
derived
 
differing
 

orders

 

Illustration

 
distinguish
 

ritualistic

 
recitals
 

supposed