AT ZUffl AND MOQUI PUEBLOS. 93 



placed there with ceremony. One of these, the offering of 

 the Priesthood of the Bow, Pith-la-she-wa-ney ', is a stick 

 about six inches in length upon which is tied a miniature 

 hoop with cotton network and small bow and arrows with 

 small marine shells dangling from it. The enclosure in 

 which these offerings were found was surrounded by an 

 irregular wall of stones. 



On the sides of the same mesa 1 there are several shrines 

 in cave-like erosions in the rock. Some of these are sim- 

 ple rows of prayer plumes, great and small, while in others 

 there are the skulls and bones of animals arranged with 

 more or less regularity. Simpler shrines are numerous 

 about Zufii ; some of them are small heaps of stones in the 

 crevices of which are placed plumes ; others have rows 

 of prayer plumes deposited under an overhanging rock. 



The shrine of Her-pah-ti-nah situated a few rods from 

 Zuni on the south side of the river near the site of the old 

 town of Hal-o-na-wan is a rectangular rock enclosure with 

 two chambers with entrances on the east side closed with 

 flat slabs of stone. Within them there are offerings of 

 sacred water, meal and feather plumes, while a few water- 

 worn rocks are placed on the top of the shrine. This place 

 is a sacred one to the Zunians and was visited by them at 

 the close of the Ham-po-ney dance, as later described. 



Among the most conspicuous of the ceremonials of the 

 pueblos are the sacred dances. The Zufiians preserve these 

 observances in a comparatively primitive condition less 

 modified probably by white influence than among. those 



1 Ta-yal-o-ne, or Thunder Mountain, is a most conspicuous table-land to the south 

 east of Zuni. With it are connected many interesting Zuni folk-tales and at its 

 base are the ruins of former pueblos. The top was once inhabited as the ruins 

 there attest and to it the whole Zuni nation has more than once retreated for pro- 

 tection against their foes. This gigantic mesa is difficult to climb, the trail on the 

 side toward Zufii being often cut in the side of the precipitous cliff. There are also 

 shrines on the "Twin Buttes," Quil-le-yal-o-ne, to the north of Zuni. 



