Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-11-28
OuEER zUNI wORsHIP.
The Zuui Believes Men First Lived In the
Bowels of the Earth.


new and very interesting case in the
east wing of the National Museum filled
with curiosities associated with the reig-
ious worship of the Zuni and other Pueblo
Indians in New Mexico and Arizona, at.
tracted the attention of a Star reporter
the other day. There is in the collection
a great number of fetiohes of many sorts,
but the most remarkable of them are
images in stone, representing the
gods themselves ~ especially the "prey
gods, in the shape of animals, which
the hunter invokes for success in the chase,
in order to make it clear just what these
beast deities are it is necessary to quote
from the account Of the creation by their
vOtaries.
When al was new, mankind lived in "a
cavaru in the bowels of the earth. The
place was dark and crowded and the peo-
pie were unhappy Hearing heir lameu-
tations Tie great sun father sent his two
children, armed with the rainbow, the
arrow Of lightning and a magic knife Of
! flint With the magic knife the children
cut the face of tde earth and led out the
people into another cavern, which was not
so dark. There they multiplied and grew
miserable again until the children were
pursuaded to conduct them into a third
| cavern, yet bigger where there was a sort
of twilight, the rays of the sun sitting
1 through the roof Here, however, they
were not content and so they were finally
/ taken forth into the light of day. They
/ were black and naked, with eyes like those
, of owls. SO that the sun blinded them.
! Previously the world had been covered
with water Now it was damp and ia.
stabe--in fact, great morass. frequently
disturbed by earthquakes, and through its
I surface strange monsters and beast of prey
rose up TO devour the people. The two
children hardened the surface with
/ tire and burnt up tie ferocious animals,
/ the forms Of many of which can be seen
I TO tEis day among the rocks, shrlveled and
distorted No creatures like these (fossi!s)
/ live at the present time, which shows that
everything was different in the days of the
new
I While as yet all beings belonged to one
/ family, the great father, Bo-shai-ah-kia
( lived in the city of he misrs, guarded on
all sides by the six prey gods. On the
north he was guarded by the mountain
/ lion on the west 0y the boar, on The south
4 by tine badger, on the east by the wolf, in
/ the air above by the eagle and in the earth
I beneath by the mole. Among these sub
ordinate deities he divided the universe,
giving to each the part above mentioned
/ as apportaining to each. At present it Is
/ their duty TO carry messages between the
great father and mankind, for which rea-
/ son they are prayed to.
/ Among the Pueblo Indians six points of
/ the compass are recognized and each has
\ its color North is yellow, west is blue,
south is red, east is white the upper re-
. gions are many coIored and the lower re-
/ gi5us are black And the prey gods are
represented by their images IN these six
c0l0rs For example, there Is the yellow
mountain lion of the north, the blue
mountain lion of the west, the red noun
tain lion of the south, and so on. Like
wise il is with the other beasts, and thus
a very considerable number of deities Is
formed AN of tneo must receive wor-
shipful attention, least they get angry and
revenge themselve. for the neglect RS
the black bear did in the true story of
M.tsi
MI-tsi had become careless about his
sacrifices, and one day when he was cut.
ting corral posts aloag came "a black bear
out of ticket He ran and climbed lp a
Head pjaetree, bur the bear climbed after
him and ate his foot off SO That ne was
famed for life
When the hunter is about 10 set forth
. upon an expedition, he takes mis- image Of
the particular prey god ne desires to pro-
pitiata ana has 1t loaded bg a priest with
The spirit of the divinity Then be hangs
it around bis meek and performs many
I ceremonies, scattering sacred mea, Of seed
com, euhlematlc of produCtlyeness, and
praying the trees and thickets Of the for
est to hold and entangle bis game. When
he reaches a spot where the beast is in
pursuit or mas lain down, he goes through
more hocus pJcus, without which 10 he
Iievos he would stand no show whatever la
the chase Onls the priests are able tie
make the images Of the delties or other
feuches properly. A fetch may be defined
as IN object in which a spirit mas been in
ducel to dwell for the benefit Of the owner.
X goes without saying that unless the OBJ
4 lact is constructed in the proper manner
and painted correctly. the spirit will no.
consent 70 stay in it. These spirits are
very particular about such things. Once
every year there i day st apart for 4