Middletown transcript., 1883-01-26

hand had found that OF hacnei some
hee4HF Eee4H Under under the tahlecloth, responded
with fervent Amen !"
A CEREMONIAL OF THE ZUNI sun
FESTIVAL.
Mr.. Cushing's second paper on My Ad;
ventures in Zuni,'' is strongly illustrated
feature of the February Century, and con-
tainS Il minute account of the Zun1 sun
Festival, one scene of which is described as
follows:
Toward midnight, my brother
explained to me that, in each new room
and sacred house of Zuni, the twelve
medicine" orders of the tribe were to
meet, and that, as he was a priest of
one of them, could go with him, if I
would sit very quiet in one corner, and
not move, sleep nor speak during the
entire night.
As we entered the closely crowded,
spacious room into which the first
party of dancers had retired, space
was being cleared lengthwise through
the centre, from the altar down toward
the opposite end. With many hasty
admonition, the Governor placed me
in a corner so near the hearth that, for
long time, controlled by his direc-
tions, was nearly suffOcated by the
heat. Along the northern side Of the
room were the dancers, their masks
now laid aside. Conspicuous among
them were the two priests, who were
engaged in long, rhythmical prayer,
chant, or ritual, over eight or ten nearly
PROSTATE Indians who squatted ON the
floor at their feet. AS soon as this
prayer was ended, great steaming bowls
of meat, trays Of paper-bread, and
baskets of melons were placed in rows
along the cleared space. A loud prayer
was uttered over them by an old priest,
who held in his hands a bow, some ar
rows and a war-club, and who wore
over one shoulder a strange badge of
buckskin ornamented with sea-shells
and flint arrow-heads. He was fol-
lowed by the Priest of the Sun, from
the other end of the room. The little
fre-god then passed along the array Of
victuals, waving his torch over them,
with which the feast was pronounced
ready.
Many of the dishes were placed before
the dancers and priests and group of
singers whose nearly nude bodies were
grotesquely painted with streaks and
daubs of white. They we're gathered,
rattles in hand, around an immense
earthen kettle-drum at the left side of
the altar, opposite the now crouching
monster. As soon as the feast was
concluded, many of the women bore
away on their heads, in huge bowls,
such of the food as remained.
The singers then drawing closely
around the drum, facing one another,
struck up loud chant, which, accom-
panied by the drumming and the rat
ties, filled the whole apartment with a
reverberating din, to me almost unen-
durable. Two by two the dancers
would rise, step rapidly and high from
one foot to the other, until, covered
with perspiration and almost exhausted,
they were relieved by others. At the
close of each verse in the endless chant,
the great figure by the altar would start
up from it's half-sitting posture, until
its head nearly touched the ceiling,
and, with startling series of reports,
would clap its long beak and roll its
protruding eyes in time to the music.
When the little fre-god took his
place in the centre of the room, no one
relieved him for more than an hour and
half, and 1 feared momentarily that
he would drop from sheer exhaustion.
But l learned later that this was trial
ceremonial, and that it was one of the
series of preparations which he had to
pass through before becoming priest,
to which rank his birth rendered him
eligible.
Just as the morning star was rising,
the music ceased, the congregation be-
came silent, and the chief dancer was
led to the centre of the room, where he
was elaborately costumed. Then the
Priest of the Sun took him up the lad
der to the roof, where, facing the east,
he pronounced in measured, solemn
tones a long prayer to the waning Sun
of the Old Year. Descending, he pro-
nounced before the multitude (signal-
izing the end of each sentence with a
clang of his rattles) metrical ritual of
even greater length. Then the specta-
tors gathered around the altar, and
hastily said their prayers, the sound of
which reminded me of recitation in
concert in a large schoolroom. The
sun rose, and they dispersed to their
various homes.