BOI-HKE.] USES OF KUNQUE. 509 



Subsequently Pedro went on to describe iu detail a phallic dance and 

 ceremony, in which there was a sort of divination. The young maiden 

 who made the lucky guess was richly rewarded, while her less fortunate 

 companions were presented with a handful of kuuque, which they kept 

 during the ensuing year. This dance is (tailed &quot;ky aklu,&quot; and is independ 

 ent of the great phallic dance occurring in the month of December. 

 Pedro also stated that until very recently the Zufii were in the habit of 

 celebrating a fire dance at Noche Hucna (Christmas). There were four 

 piles of wood gathered for the occasion, and upon each the medicine 

 men threw kunque in profusion. This dance, as Pedro described it, 

 closely resembled one mentioned by Landa in his Cosas de Yucatan. 

 High up on the vertical face of the precipice of Taaiyalana there is a 

 phallic shrine of the Zuui to which I climbed with Mr. Frank dishing. 

 We found that the place had been visited by young brides who were 

 desirous of becoming mothers. The offerings in every case included 

 kunque. 



In the account given in the National Tribune, Washington, District of 

 Columbia, May 20, 1886, of the mode of life of the Zuni woman Wehwa 

 while in the national capital, and while engaged in the kirmes, we read: 



She also strewed sacred corn meal along on her way to the theater to bring good 

 luck to her and the other dancers. * She has gone from her comfortable room 



to pray iu the street at daylight every morning, whatever the weather lias been. 

 * * At such times she strews corn meal all around her until the front-door steps 

 and the sidewalk are much daubed with dough, lint this is not the corn meal in 

 common use in the United States, l&amp;gt;nt is sacred meal ground in /iifii with sacred 

 stones. 1 



So long a time has elapsed since any of the Pueblos have been on the 

 warpath that no man can describe their actual war customs except from 

 the dramatic ceremonial of their dances or from the stories told him by 

 the &quot; old men.&quot; The following from an eyewitness will therefore be ot 

 interest: &quot;Before the Pueblos reached the heights they were ordered to 

 scale they halted on the way to receive from their chiefs some medicine 

 from the medicine bags which each of them carried about his person. 

 This they rubbed upon their heart, as they said, to make it big and 

 brave, and they also rubbed it upon other parts of their bodies and 

 upon their rifles for the same purpose.&quot; 2 



The constant use of kunque by the different Pueblo tribes has been 

 noticed from the first days of European contact. In the relation of 

 Don Antonio de Kspejo (1583) we are told that upon the approach of 

 the Spaniards to the town of Zaguato, lying 28 leagues west of Zuui, 

 &quot;a great multitude of Indians came forth to meete them, and among the 

 rest their Caciques, with so great demonstration of joy and gladues, 



1 Kunque has added to the comment the meal of two varieties of corn, blue uud yellow, a small quantity 

 of pulverized sea shells, and some sand, and when possible a fragment of the blue stone called &quot; chalchi- 

 huitl.&quot; In grinding the meal on the metates the squaws are stimulated by the medicine-men who 

 tee]) up a constant singing and drumming. 



Simpson, Expedition to the Navajo Country, in Senate l&amp;gt;oc. 64, 31st Cong., 1st sess., 1849- 50, p. 95 



