340 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS. [eth.ann. is 



especially by tbe lueu, clothing of gaudy calico and otlier thin products 

 of the looms of civilization. Indeed, if one did not see these things 

 and rate them as at first the gifts to this people of those noble old 

 Franciscan friars and their harder-handed less noble Spanish com- 

 panions, influitely more i)athetic than it is would be the history of the 

 otherwise vain effort I have above outlined; for it is not to be for- 

 gotten that the principal of these gifts have been of incalculalile value 

 to the Zuni. They have heli)ed to preserve him, througli an era of new 

 external conditions, from the fate that met more than thirty other and 

 less favored Pueblo tribes — annihil.ition by the better-armed, cease- 

 lessly prowling Navajo and Apache. And for this alone, their almost 

 sole accomplishment of lasting good to the Znui, not in vain were 

 spent and given the lives of the early mission fathers. 



It is intimated that aside from adding such resources to the tribe 

 as enabled it to survive a time of fearful stress and danger, even the 

 introduction of Spanish plants, animals, and products did not greatly 

 change the Zunis. This is truer than would at first seem possible. The 

 Zuni was already a tiller of the soil when wheat and peaches were 

 given him. To this day he plants and irrigates bis peach trees and 

 wheat crops much as he anciently planted and watered his corn^ — in 

 hills, hoeing all with equal assiduity; and he does not reap his wheat, 

 but gathers it as he gathers his corn in the ear. Thus, only the kind of 

 grain is new. The art of rearing it and ways of husbanding and using 

 it remain unchanged. The Zufu was already a herder when sheep and 

 goats were given him. He had not only extensive preserves of rabbits 

 and deer, but also herds — rather than flocks — of turkeys, which by day 

 were driven out over the plains and mesas for feeding, and at night 

 housed near the towns or in distant shelters and corrals. It is probable 

 that his ancestry had even other domesticated animals. And he used 

 the flesh of these animals as food, their feathers and fur as the materials 

 for his wonderfully knitted, woven, and twilled garments and robes, as 

 he now uses the mutton and goat meat for food, and the wool of the 

 sheep for his equally well-knitted, woven, and twilled, though le.'-s 

 beautiful, garments and robes. Thus, only the kinds (and degree 

 of productivity) of the animals are new, the arts of caring for them 

 and modes of using their products, are unchanged. This is true 

 even in detail. When I first went to live with the Zunis their sheep 

 were plucked, not sheared, with flat strips of band iron in place of 

 the bone spatulie originally used in plucking the turkeys; and the 

 herders always scrupulously picked up stray flecks of wool— calling 

 it "down," not hair, nor fur — and spinning it, knitting, too, at their 

 long woolen leggings as they followed their sheep, all as their fore 

 fathers used ever to pick up and twirl the stray feathers and knit at 

 their down kilts and tunics as they followed and herded their turkeys. 

 Even the silversmiths of Zuni today work coins over as their ancestors 

 of the stone-using age worked up bits of copper, not only using tools 



