620 ZUNI RITUAL POETRY [eth. akn. 47 



The use of obsolete or special words has occasioned some difficulty. 

 The expression Kacima ?apela for ladder is one case. Tapela, the 

 Zunis say, is an "old word" for ladder. Tapelan-e, however, was a 

 load of wood tied up as it used to be in the days when wood was 

 brought on foot. Wood is no longer brought in this waj^, but the 

 word, fixed in metaphor, has survived. There are a number of simi- 

 lar examples. In such cases the old translation has been retained. 



It has been impossible, of course, to render the original rhythm. 

 One characteristic feature, however, has been retamed, namely, its 

 irregularity, the unsymmetrical alternation of long and short lines. 

 Cushing, in his commendable desire to render Zufii verse into vivid 

 and intelligible English verse, committed the inexcusable blunder of 

 reducing the Zuiii line to regular short-line rhymed English stanzas. 

 If one were to choose a familiar English verse form it should be the 

 line of Milton or, better still, the free verse of the King James version 

 of the psalms. I have tried to retain the sense in the original of the 

 fluidity and variety of the verse form. In reading the translations 

 one must be mindful of Zufii methods of declamation. The short 

 lines are declaimed sloAvly and with marked emphasis, the long lines 

 are spoken rapidly, unaccented syllables are slurred or elided, and the 

 ^\-ord accents pile up on each other. The two types of line are like 

 the booming of the surf and the rushing of the brook. 



Zufii poetry has no feminine endings. ° The heavy accent with 

 noticeable lengthening on the final syllable can not be transferred to 

 English. The translation therefore suffers greatly from loss of sonor- 

 ity and \dgor. In the original every fine is lilie the declaration 

 of a creed — an effect which no translation can adequately render. 

 It is interesting to note that although the natural cadence of Zufii is 

 trochaic, the poetic rhythm is predominantly iambic. The principal 

 word accent in Zufii is invariably on the first syllable, with a secondary 

 accent, in words of four or more syllables, on the penult. The final 

 syllable is always unaccented, yet the important poetic stress is 

 always on the final syllable of the line, which gives the verse a curious 

 syncopated quality, very difficult of reproduction. The final syl- 

 lable is usually distinguished by prolongation and a high falling tone. 



'' Every line ends in a vowel. Most Zuni words terminate in vowels, but words ending in consonants — 

 for example, the participles in -nan and -ap take special forms -na or -nana and -ap'a when occurring 

 finally; -a is the most usual vocalic ending, but there Is no true rhyming. 



