PREY GODS OF THE SIX REGIONS. 



THEIR ORIGIN. 



Therefore it happens that the use of these fetiches is chiefly connected 

 with the chase. To this, however, there are some exceptions. One of 

 these may be jiartly explained by the following myth concerning P6- 

 shai-ag-k'ia, the God (Father) of the Medicine societies or sacred esoteric 

 orders, of which there are twelve in Zuiii, and others among the differ- 

 ent pueblo tribes. He is supposed to have appeared in human form, 

 poorly clad, and therefore reviled by men ; to have taught the ancestors 

 of the Zuni, Taos, Oraibi, and Oogonino Indians their agricultural and, 

 other arts, their systems of worship by means of plumed and painted 

 prayer-sticks; to have organized their medicine societies; and then to 

 have disappeared toward his home in Shi-pa-pu-li ma (from sM-pi-a= 

 mist, vapor; M-Kn=surrounding; and i-mo-Ma= sitting place of — "The 

 mist-enveloped city "), and to have vanished beneath the world, whence 

 he is said to have departed for the home of the Sun. He is still the 

 conscious auditor of the prayers of his children, the in\isible ruler of 

 the spiritual Shi-pa-pu-li-ma, and of the lesser gods of the medicine or- 

 ders, the principal " Finisher of the Paths of our Lives." He is, so far 

 as any identity can be established, the "Montezuma" of popular and 

 usually erroneous Mexican tradition. 



P6-SHiI-Aiy-K'IA. 



In ancient times, while yet all beings belonged to one family, P6- 

 shai-ag-k'ia, the father of our sacred bands, lived with his children (dis- 

 ciples) in the City of the Mists, the middle place (center) of the Medicine 

 societies of the world. There he was guarded on all sides by his six 

 warriors, A-pi-thlan shi-wa-ni (pi-thlan— how, s/«'-wa-Mi= priests), the prey 

 gods; toward the North by the Mountain Lion (Long Tail); toward the 

 West by the Bear (Clumsy Foot) ; toward the South by the Badger (Black 

 Mark Face) ; toward the East by the Wolf (Hang Tail) ; above by tht 

 Eagle (White Cap) ; and below by the Mole. When he was about to go 

 forth into the world, he divided the universe into six regions, namely, 

 the North (Pi'sh-lan-kwin t<1h-na=Direction of the Swept or Barren 

 place) ; the West (K'ia'-li-shi-iu-kwin t4h-na=Direction of the Home 

 of the Waters) ; the South (A-la-ho in-kwiin tAhna= Direction of the 

 Place of the Beautiful Eed); the East(T^-lu-a-in-kwin tdh-na=Direction 

 of the Home of Day) ; the Upper Kegions (I-ya ma-'in-kwin t^h-nar = 

 Direction of the Home of the High) ; and the Lower Eegions (Ma-no- 



lam-in-kwin tAh-na=Direction of the Home of the Low)." ," 



16 



