Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-26


placed them just where l found them: l
have never accepted any in1ofnauon
about their creed unless 1t was Vefiio
nv three different witnesses MY plan NdS
been to question the priest lneh q az
rior or leader Of the people. and then an
inferior member of the tribe. But must
confess that the similarity or the Iei-
gious poetry of the Zunls ana the 1IeehS
made a deep impression on me lnrousn-
ont INV researches. Any one who mas
read Rlskin's exquisite book The Athena
of the Air cannot fail to see that the $50
lated red man of the American forest mas
AS high and poetical concept VI Tue
deity as the noble race OF deiiehes.
X X
1.-The Indians are reverend lovers oi
nature, and their gods are all more OF
less connected with natural phenomena.
The SIN god is the great deity, but the
sun which gives light and heat and SENDS
fine crops and all good. things to the
earth is q great being, who is minuteiy
described. He sits in grand majesty pc
hind the sun which we see and Which
is the shield He could not permit MS
countenance to be seen by the cMldrel
of men. The moon goddess legend is full
of delicate poetry. In the various changes
of the moon are typified the ages of man.
The slender shaft Of the new moon Is IN
fancy. Then the disc increases, ana that
Is
turity, and then it declines to creeping
age, then to infancy again. the second
childhood before all mortals go TO their
long sleep. The change is wrought in the
moon by the veil of the supreme oel.S,
greater than either sun or moon, which
means the breath of of life. Tnls SUI
preme god wells the moon according to It's
changes. The Zunis consecrate the new
born child to the sun-god, and the ln1allt
is held up toward the deity while the
that if live its SEal
life-infant, youth man or woman, ana
then go back to infancy, then to sleep
to wake and be born again. Then the
supreme deity is invoked to grant the
new-born babe the breath of life that
it may live it's span and be reborn III the
elysian fields
Mrs. Stevenson about ten or twelve
years ago succeeded in getting complete
set of masks such as the Zunls wear
during one of their most solemn cere-
monials, the council of the gods. These
masks are exhibited i'll the National MI
scum. Only one set is made by the Zuni
priests, and they are Zealously guarded,
and are worn only during the sacred
rites. After negotiations extending over
ten years Mrs. Stevenson got permission
for two young priests to come 10 ner
tent, q long distance from the village,
and during stealthy moments at night
in secret to construct the duplicates Of
the sacred head-pieces. There are
twelve of these, and they are made with
an infinite variety of religious detail.
Feathers, skin dyes, everything, are pre-
pared with religious services and with
solemn prayers. Mrs. Stevenson mas
some entertaining views on the Christian
izing of the Indians.
X <
After my years of residence among
them," she says, II am convinced that
no Indian of the old type ever becomes
truly a Christian. They may subscribe
to the forms and lead as edifying u life
as the most orthodox, but down in their
hearts they cling to the gods Of their
fathers. The Indians are spiritual and
poetic, but they seem to feel the paucity
of just one god. They decline to give up
their many deit.es around which are
clustered the legends Of centuries. 1t Is
my opinion that they simply add the
Christian God to the long list they have
gotten from their fathers. l have found
that their religion aids them to conquer
their passions and to lead clean lives III
many ways. OF course, their love OF in
toxicants is the besetting sin, and II the
opportunity to get liquor, could he re-
moved it would create new era. But
this theme has been thrashed out so
many times and by so many pubilclsts
that I have no illumination to shed on it.
lone very interesting point about the
Indians is their knowledge of plants and
herbs. We read that Lister is the father
of aneSthetics. l can prove that the In
dams in various parts of the southwest
knew the power of certain plants In the
manner in which Lister first used them
centuries before he was born. The In
dams knew narcotics before COLUMBUS