508 MEDICINE-MEN OP THE APACHE. 



Picuris, on the extreme east; from Taos, in the far north, to Isleta del 

 Snr, in Texas I came upon this kunque, and generally in such quan 

 tities and so openly exposed and so freely used that 1 was both aston 

 ished and gratified; astonished that after centuries of contact with the 

 Caucasian the natives should still adhere with such tenacity to the 

 ideas of a religion supposed to have been extirpated, and gratified to 

 discover a lever which. 1 could employ in prying into the meaning of 

 other usages and ceremonials. 



Behind the main door in the houses at Santa Clara, San Ildefouso, 

 Picuris, Laguna, Acoma, San Felipe, Jemez, and other towns, there is a 

 niche containing a bowl or saucer filled with this sacred meal, of which the 

 good housewife is careful to throw a pinch to the sun at early dawn and 

 to the twilight at eventide. In every ceremony among the Pueblos natu 

 rally enough, more particularly among those whohave been living farthest 

 from the Mexicans, the lavish scattering of sacred meal is the marked 

 feature of the occasion. At the snake dance of the Tusayan, in 1881, 

 the altars were surrounded with baskets of pottery and with flat 

 plaques of reeds, which were heaped high with kunque. When the 

 procession moved out from under the arcade and began to make the 

 round of the sacred stone the air was white with meal, and in my imag 

 ination I could see that it was a procession of Druids circling about a 

 &quot; sacred stone &quot; in Ireland previous to the coming of St. Patrick. When 

 the priests threw the snakes down upon the ground it was within a 

 circle traced with kunque, and soon the snakes were covered with the 

 same meal flung upon them by the squaws. There was only one scalp 

 left among the Tusayan in 1881, but there were several among the Zufii, 

 and one, or two each at Acoma and Laguiia. In every one of these 

 towns kuuque was offered to the scalps. 



At the feast of the Little God of Fire among the Zuiii, in 1881, my 

 personal notes relate that &quot; the moment the head of the procession 

 touched the knoll upon which the pueblo is built the mass of people 

 began throwing kuuque upon the Little God and those with him as well 

 as on the ground in front of, beside, and behind them. This kunque 

 was contained in sacred basket-shaped bowls of earthenware. The 

 spectators kept the air fairly misty with clouds of the sacred kunque. 

 This procession passed atound the boundaries of the pueblo of Zuiii, 

 stopping at eight holes in the ground for the purpose of enacting a cer 

 emonial of consecranon suggestive of the terminalia of the Romans. 

 They visited each of the holes, which were 18 inches deep and 12 inches 

 square, with a sandstone slab to serve as a cover. Each hole was filled 

 with kuuque and sacrificial plumes. * * * Every morning of the year, 

 when the sky is clear, at the rising of Lucero [the morning star], at the 

 crowing of the cock, we throw corn flour [kunque] to the sun. I am never 

 without my bag of kunque; here it is [drawing it from his belt]. Every 

 Zuni has one. We offer it to the sun for good rain and good crops.&quot;&quot; 



1 Interview with Pedro Pino. 



