438 THE ZUNI INDIANS [eth. ann. 23 



is spread on the ledge which extends aoross the north side of the 

 plaza, and another is pinned to the wall behind it, in imitation of a 

 church altar; two of the fraternity disappear, to return with two 

 torches, which they place upon the mock altar, and then they seat 

 the "santo'' between these. So the day passes until the evening shad- 

 ows fall upon the most ridiculous and revolting sights that are to be 

 .seen in the pueblo of Zufii. 



^San'iakiakwe (Hunters Fraternity) 



The 'San'iakiakwe, also called Sus'kikwe (Coyote), fraternity has 

 two orders — Hunters and Fire. The members of the latter order do 

 not eat fire, but they play with large live coals and rub them over 

 their bodies. 



The painting made at the time of the initiation into the order of 

 ^San'iakiakwe is a disk with a ground color of white, and around the 

 periphery two concentric circles in black which are blocked in white, 

 symbolic of the house of the clouds. A spread eagle painted in the 

 center of the disk is surrounded by game, and groups of grains of 

 corn are scattered over the surface. The tablet altar is similar to 

 those of the other fraternities. Plate lix shows the altar of the 

 ^Siin'iakiakwe with its accessories removed. This fraternit}' has a 

 second altar which differs from any the writer has observed, in that it 

 is capped with eagle's tail plumes. The songs of the order of the 

 *San'iakiakwe invoke the gods to give them power over the gamcAvhen 

 on the hunt, and there are also most attractive songs of thanksgiving- 

 after the capturing of game. Songs, too, are addressed directly to 

 such animals and birds as prey upon game. 



The ceremonial chamber of the Hunters fraternitv is one of the 

 few that extends north and south, and on the occasion of a cere- 

 monial the tablet altar is erected in the north end of the room. The 

 pictures on the walls are permanent; the writer has never seen 

 the walls without tliem except when the chamber was undergoing 

 repairs. The bear plays no part in the 'San'iakiakwe, for although 

 it will devour flesh, it lives principally on vegetable food; but the 

 cougar, the gra)^ wolf, the lynx, and the coyote are represented upon 

 the walls in the chase after elk, mountain sheep, deer, jack rabbits, and 

 the cottontail, which are fleeing from their pursuers. Certain birds 

 are also represented in the decoration — the su'lulukia (butcher bird, 

 Lanius ludovicianus), "which pecks at the deer's head when he sleeps 

 until it kills the deer;" the kie'wia (Oreospiza chlorura), which kills 

 the deer by pecking at his eyes; the pi'pi (a species of hawk), which 

 surprises the deer when grazing and kills him by striking him with 

 his beak first on one side of the jaw and then the other; and the 

 kiakiali (eagle), which does the same, not only to deer but to mountain 



