ZUNI SOCIAL, MYTHIC, AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 191 



of hundreds of folk-lore stories, Atchi a la to sa, or " he of the knife- 

 feathered wings." He is supposed to carry ever about him his many- 

 colored bow, a ni Ho Ian, or the goddess of the rainbow, to walk upon 

 his swift arrow, wi lo lo aHe, turquoise-pointed god of lightning, and 

 to be guarded on the right and the left by his warriors, the mountain- 

 lion of the North and the mountain-lion of the West. 



Among other beings of ancient Zufii mythology we have the mar- 

 velous example of Oohe pololon, or "the god of the north wind," 

 whose breath sends the cold winds from the north region and drives 

 the sands of the southwestern deserts, which have been stirred up by 

 the will of the gods of the mountain. Dark and gloomy, like the 

 clouds of the north-land home, ferocious with his shining teeth and 

 glaring pendant eyeballs, wild with his iron-gray halo of ever-waving 

 hair and beard, Oohe pololon is one of the most terrific of Zuiii demon- 

 gods. Then we have the gentle moon, mother of the women of men, 

 through whose will are born the children of women, the representative 

 in this system of deities of the Shewan okao, or seed-priestess, younger 

 sister of the priests of the temple ; and the sister of the moon, the 

 beautiful goddess of the ocean, through whose ministrations are 

 awakened the loves of the Zuni youth, and the good fortune of trade 

 is secured. 



While those gods in Zuni mythology remaining unknown to me 

 are legion, yet I might continue for hours to mention gods and their 

 attributes ; as for instance, " he who carries the clouds from the ocean 

 of sunrise to the ocean of sunset and scatters them through the heav- 

 ens between " ; Kwe le le, or " he who infuses the roots of all trees 

 with the spirit of fire, and swings his torch in mid-air, and it forthwith 

 bursts into flames " ; Te sha minkHa, or "he who dwells in the canons 

 and cliffs of the mountains, ever echoing the cries of his children, men 

 and beasts of mortality." 



Interesting among the hero-gods is the great priest of all religious 

 orders save that of the bow, Poshed ankHa. In the days of the new, 

 yet not until after men had begun their journey toward the east, he is 

 supposed to have appeared among the ancestors of the Zunis, the Taos, 

 the Coconinos, and the Moqui Indians, so poor and ill-clad as to have 

 been ridiculed by mankind. He it was who taught the fathers of the 

 Zunis their architecture and their arts, their agriculture and their system 

 of worship, by plume and painted stick ; but, driven to desperation 

 by the ingratitude of his children, he vanished beneath the world, never 

 to return to the abodes of men yet he still sits in the city of the sun, 

 ever listening to the prayers of his ungrateful children. 



Let me add one more example : that of Kia nis ti pi, or "the great 

 water-skate," who with his long legs measured the extent of the earth 

 as with a compass, and between the oceans of sunrise and sunset deter- 

 mined the center of the world as the home of the Zunis. He is repre- 

 sented by a peculiar figure, and this introduces us to a new depart- 



