ZUNI SOCIAL, MYTHIC, AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 187 



religious practices and, so far as possible, beliefs, to the extent of 

 acquiring membership in their gentile organization as well as in their 

 priesthood ; and my attitude toward the audience before me is that 

 of an imperfect exponent of Zuni mythology and belief. 



Since my return from the Southwest, time has not permitted a suf- 

 ficient study of those technicalities which have, during the past few 

 years, been introduced into this class of subjects. I shall therefore 

 have to proceed very simply, much as would a Zuiii priest, could he 

 address you, in a discussion of his mythology and religion. 



The Zuiii mythology, or theogony, is a reflection of Zuiii socio- 

 logic or governmental institutions, with the added feature of an almost 

 universal spiritualistic philosophy. Hence it follows that a discussion 

 of the one must include at least a brief description of the other. Like 

 all well-known tribes of North American Indians, the Zuiiis are 

 divided into gentes, there being in their nation fifteen distinct clans 

 or gentes. These again are combined into phratries, not political 

 confederacies as among the Iroquois and Muscogee, but ecclesiastical 

 bands, or, in other words, into secret medicine or sacred orders, of 

 which there are, including the wonderful and supreme organization 

 of the Priesthood of the Bow, thirteen. Based upon this sociologic 

 structure, the government of Zuni embraces three principles, the ec- 

 clesiastic, the martial, and the political, the outgrowths of which, in 

 their order of precedence, are the priesthoods or caciqueships, the 

 war chieftaincies, and the political chieftaincies. Supreme in na- 

 tional as well as in ecclesiastical office is the priest, or cacique of the 

 sun, or Pekwina, immediately under whom are four secular as well 

 as ecclesiastical high-priesthoods or caciqueships, the priesthood of 

 the Pueblo, or temple of worship in Zuiii hia kice armosi with the 

 auxiliary office td shiwan okia, or "Priestess of Seed." Selected 

 by, yet supreme over the latter four priests in martial and secular 

 matters, are the two high-priests, or caciques of war, who may or 

 may not be at the same time master-priests Pithlcm shiican moson 

 atchi of the Order of the Bow. These six priests are designated in 

 Zuiii ecclesiastical language "Priests of the Light or Day"; while 

 resident in those special clans, which by heredity furnish the high- 

 priesthoods (mainly the Clan of the Parrots, itself considered consan- 

 guineally descended from the gods), are numerous " Priests of the 

 Night or Darkness," any one of whom may be chosen on the death of 

 a priest of the light by the surviving companions. The two priests 

 of war in turn create both the martial and political head chieftaincies, 

 referring the. latter to the four priests of the temple for acceptance or 

 rejection. The martial head chieftaincy, or war chieftaincy, includes 

 the third priesthood of the Order of the Bow, thus combining the eccle- 

 siastical with the martial, and explaining the precedence of the latter 

 over the political office. The third priest of the Order of the Bow, or 

 head war-chief^ then names three sub-chiefs, themselves necessarily 



