41-^ THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. ann. 23 



one after another retnrned to consciousness without medical aid, except Catahna 

 and the Xavaho guest. This man's liody had T)eeu badly burned, and, though he 

 lived, his reason was gone. They all agreed that the shock was like a severe stroke 

 on the head with a club. The news was at once dispatched to Zuiii, and a man who 

 had been struck by lightning in the previous year hastened to Nutria. He adminis- 

 tered medicine to all who had been stunned. Catalina was restored by a piece of 

 wood from a tree which had been struck by lightning. The charred wood was 

 powdered and applied to the affected part, and an arrow point was then bound over 

 the charred wood powder. They all returned to Zuni and remained four days in 

 the lower room of the house of Catalina, observing a strict fast, taking nothing but a 

 little prayer meal in water. After the heads of the afflicted were washed in yucca 

 suds, te^likinawe (prayer plumes) were made and deposited in the fields to the light- 

 ning-makers on the morning after the fourth night; and so the Struck-by-lightning 

 fraternity was organized." 



It is a natural impulse of the human mind to seek for truth and to 

 endeavor to account for the phenomena of nature, and thus philosophy 

 grows, Mj'thologic philosophy is the fruit of the search for the 

 knowledge of causes. The reasoning of aboriginal peoples is by anal- 

 ogy, for at this stage of culture science is yet unborn. So the philos- 

 opher of early times is the myth-maker. The philosophy of primitive 

 peoples is the progenitor of natural religion. Religion was invented 

 through long processes of analogic reasoning. The Zuni is in this 

 stage of culture. He is conscious of the earth, but he does not know 

 its form; he knows something of what the earth contains beneath its 

 surface, of its rivers and mountains, and of the sun, moon, and all 

 celestial bodies which can be seen without optical instruments; he 

 sees the lightning, hears the thunder, feels the winds, and knows the 

 value of rains and snows; he is acquainted with the beasts of the for- 

 ests, the birds and insects of the air, the fishes of the rivers, and 

 knows that these living things possess attributes not attainable by 

 himself, so he endows these animals with superior or supernatural 

 qualities. When one becomes ill from any other cause than that of 

 a wound, he may be treated in a most practical manner with legiti- 

 mate drugs, but if the disease does not yield readily to treatment, 

 then it is attributed to some foreign element thrust into the body and 

 beyond the power of man to overcome. Nothing is left but to appeal 

 to the creatures of superior qualities, and thus a svsteni of theurgism 

 develops. Religion and medicine become a dual system. The animals 

 that are worshiped l)ecome healers, acting through the agency of the 

 theurgists. These theurgists have no power in themselves to avert the 

 evil of sorcery; they must first pass entirely under the infiuence of 

 tlie Beast Gods.* In order that the theurgist sliould heal his patient. 



"Though this fraternity had developed into a well-recognized organization in 1904, it is doubtful, 

 owing to the rapidly changing environment, whether the Struck-by-lightning fraternity will ever 

 be elas.sed with the older e.soteric fraternities. 



''The belief that beasts of prey employ human agents is not confined to the Zunis: it seems that 

 the same belief is held by the Cceur d'Alene Indians. "The medicine man was considered a very 

 Iiowerful being by his tribe. He could take away the life of a man at his word or cure a sick or 

 dying person. His power depended on the wild beasts that are fierce and powerful." (E.xtract from 

 a letter written by Lieutenant Campbell E. Babcock, U. S. Army, to the United States National 

 Museum.) 



