STEVENSON] INTRODUCTION 15 



truthfulness. A Zufii must speak with one tonj>iie in ordiT to have 

 his pra3^ers received by the gods, and unk^ss the prayers are accepted 

 no rains will come, which means starvation. His voice must be gentle 

 and he must speak and act with kindness to all, for the gods care not 

 for those whose lips speak with harshness. The morning prayer (fig- 

 ure 1) he must utter out of doors, looking toward the rising sun. All 

 must observe continence four days previous to and four days following 

 the sending of breath praAcrs through the spiiitual essence of plume 

 offerings, and thus their passions are brought under control. They 

 look to their gods for nourishment and for all things pertaining to 

 their welfare in this world, and while the woof of their religion is col- 

 ored with poetic conceptions, when the fabric is separated thread by 

 thread we iind the web composed of a few simple, practical concepts. 

 Their highest conception of happiness is physical nourishment and 

 enjoyment, and the worship of their pantheon of gods is designed to 

 attain this end. 



It has been said that the Pueblo Indians are attached to tlie Koman 

 Catholic faith; but such is not the case, at least with the Zunis. For 

 a time their ancestors were compelled to worship in that church, but 

 their pagan belief was not seriously affected thereby. The ritual 

 pleased them, and they were allowed to decorate their walls with sym- 

 bols of their own belief, and so the church became more or less an 

 object of interest to them, and to some extent the ritual of Catholicism 

 modified their own. The Rio Grande pueblos, however, have been 

 brought more under the influence of the church, and superficial 

 observers have supposed them to be permanently Christianized. 



In July, 1870, the birth year of the Buivau of Ethnology, an expe- 

 dition was sent to make researches among the pueblos and the more 

 important ruins of New Mexico and Arizona, and at the same time to 

 make a special study of some particular pueblo. Zuni, in western 

 New Mexico, was selected as the place for the more detailed work. 

 Mr James Stevenson was placed in charge of the expedition, and with 

 a small party, including Mr Frank H. Cushing, Mr .1. K. Killers, 

 and the writer, started for Zuni. 



The first point of interest visited after leaving Las Vegas, N. Mex., 

 then the terminus of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, was 

 the ruin of the pueblo of Pecos, situated on a knoll about 10(» feet 

 above the Rio Pecos, 25 miles south of east of Santa Fe. At that tiv.ie 

 the walls of the old church erected under the command of the Spanish 

 fathers were standing, and some of the interior wood carvings were 

 silent witnesses to the former presence of the conquerors. ^\ ith iio 

 other implements than knives and stilettos the party worked during 

 the night, by the light of the 1)rilliant moon, opening one chaniber. An 

 impression of a hand and arm in color, probal)ly of a m:iid(Mi. was found 



