Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-11-26

raising the price.
Many condemn the use of perfumes ae
| vulgar. but as long as we have wives and
, sisters, daughters and sweethearts, the
industry will flourish.-N. Y. Sun.
QUEER ZUNI WORSHIP.
The Zunf Believes Men First Lived in the
Bowels of the Earth.
A new and very interesting case in the
east wing of the National Museum, filled
with curiosities associated with the relig-
ions worship of the z mi and other Pueblo
Indians in New Mexico and Arizona, at
tracted the attention of Star reporter
the other day. There is in the collection
a great number of fetiches of m any 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 j;.st what these
beast deities are it is necessary to quote
from the count of the creation by their
votaries.
When all was new, mankind lived in a
cavarn in the bowels of the earth. The
place was dark ana crowded ana the pco.
pie were unhappy. Hearing heir lamen-
. tatiOns tie great sun father sent his two
children, armed with the rainbow, the
arrow OF lightning and magic knife of
flint. With the magic knife the children
cut the face of the earth and led out the
people into another cavern. which was not
so dark. There they mutt piled and grew
miserable again until the children were
persuaded to conduct them into a third
cavern, yet bigger, " here there was sort
of trtyfI trrbf ft,a 81 h. "a
through the roof. Here, however, they
taken firth into the light of day. They
were black and naked, with eyes like those
of owls, SO that the sun blinded hem.
Previously the world had been covered
with water. Now it was damp and IN.
stable-in fact, great morass, frequently
disturbed by earthquakes, and through its
surface strange monsters and beast of prey
rose up to oevour the people. The two
children hardened the surface with
fire and burnt up tie ferocious animals,
the forms of many of which can be seen
to this day among the rocks, shrlvelpd and
distorted. No creatures like these (fossils)
live at the present time, viii III shows that
everything was different in the days Of the
new.
While as yet all beings belonged to one
family, the great father, B)-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 oy the boar. on the south
by the badger, on the east by the wolf in
the air above by the eagle and in the earth
beneath by the mole. Among these sub
ordinate deities he divided the universe,
giving to each the part above mentioned
as app'rtaining 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 eacn has
its color. North is yellow, west is blue,
south is red, east is white the upper re-
gions are many colored, and the lower re-
gions are black. And the prey gods are
represented by their images in these six
coors. 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 it is with the other beasts, and thus
very considerable number of deities is
formed All of them NUT receive wor-
shipful attention, least they get angry and
revenge themselves for the neglect as
the black bear did in the true story of
Mi-tsi.
Mi-tsi had become careless about his
sacrifices, and one day when he was cut
ting corral posts along came black bear
out of ticket. He ran and climbed up a
dead pinetIee, but the bear climbed after
him and ate his foot off, so that lie was
famed for life.
When the hunter is about to set forth
upon an expedition, he takes his image OF
the particular prey god ne desires to pro.
pitiate and has it loaded by priest with
the spirit of the divinity. Then he hangs
it around his neck and performs many
ceremonies, scattering sacred meal of seed
corn. Ell. blematic of productiveness, and
praying the trees and thickets of the for
est to hold and entangle his game. When
he reaches a spot where the beast is in
pursuit or has lain down, he goes through
more hocus p)cus. without which be be-
lieves he would stand no show whatever in
the chase. Only the priests are able to
make the images Of the delt Is or other
fetiches properly. A fetch may be defined
as an Object in which spirit has been in
duced to dwell for the benefit of the owner
1t goes without saying that unless the OBJ
jet is constructed in lne proper manner
and painted correctly, the spirit will no
consent to stay In it. These spirits are
very particular about such things. Once
every year there is dav set apart for a
council of the fetiches They are all ar
ranged according to their kind and color
In front Of an altar. The quadrapeds are
set upright, while the eagles and other
winged ones are suspended 10y cords from
the rafters. Each number of The tribe
addresses prayers to them and scatter sac
red meal over them. Prayer chants are
sung at intervals, with dancing to the
sound of rattles, accompanied by imita
tions of the cries Of the animals wor-
shipped. A feast follows. at which por-
tions OF each kind Of food are taken out
for sacrifice to the prey gods.
There are other deities besides the prey
gods, however, which have to be propitl-
ated. For example, there is the rain god,
the sun god. the war god and the mother
ddeSs, who is the moi her of all the del
ties She is represented by very extra
ordinary fetch, made OF an ear of corn,
wrapped up In a curious bundle, with
feathers of several kinds stick ng out OF
one end. Corn is regarded by these peo-
pie, who live on that vegetable. as en-
bIematic of the spirit OF fertility. The
feathers are those of an eagle, itself the
gud of the upper regions, and of other
| birds associated with religious myth
Rain ia prayed for bv thrusting in o the
ground little sticks with feath rs attached