cusHiNG] ZUNI ANCESTRAL RELATIONS. 343 



formed, aud distinctively Keresan in kind — into their own tribe. Pre- 

 viously to that — previously, indeed, to their last and greatest union with 

 the settled people mentioned as the aboriginal Zuni — a large body of the 

 western branch and their earlier fellows (called in the myths of crea- 

 tion " Our lost others ") separated from them in the country south 

 and west of the Eio Puerco aud the Colorado Chiquito, and went, not 

 wholly as related in the myths, yet quite, undoubtedly, far away to 

 the southward. I have identitied and traced their remains in Arizona 

 toward and into Mexico as far as the coast, and if, as the Zufiis still 

 believe, any of them survive to this day, they are to be looked for lower 

 down in Mexico or in the still farther south, whither, it is said, they 

 disappeared so long ago. But, as before intimated, these relatives (by 

 adoption in the one case, by derivation in the other) were not, strictly 

 speaking, ancestral, and thus are barely alluded to in the myths, and 

 therefore concern us less than do the two main or parental branches. 



Of these, the one which contributed more largely in numbers, certain 

 culture characteristics, and the more peaceful arts of life to make the 

 Zunis what they were at the time of the Spanish conquest, was the 

 aboriginal branch. The intrusive or western branch is, strange to say, 

 although least numerous, the one most told of in the myths, the one 

 which speaks throughout them in the first person; that is, which claims 

 to be the original Shiwi or Zuni. Of this branch it is unnecessary to 

 say much more here than the myths themselves declare, save to add 

 that it was, if not the conquering, at least, and for a long time, the 

 dominant one; that to it the Zunis owe their vigor and many, if not 

 most, of their distinguishing traits; aud that, coming as they did from 

 the west, they located there, aud not in the north, as did all these other 

 Pueblo Indians (including even those whom thej' found and prevailed 

 over, or were joined by, in the present land of Zuni), the i)lace where 

 the human family originated, where the ancestral gods chiefly dwell, 

 and whither after death souls of men are supposed to return anon. 



According to their own showing in the myths they were, while a 

 masterful people, neither so numerous at the time of their coming, nor 

 so advanced, nor so settled, as were the peoples whom they " overtook" 

 from time to time as tlieyneared the land of Zuni or the " Middle of the 

 world," They did not cultivate the soil, or, at least, apparently did not 

 cultivate corn to any considerable extent before they met the first of 

 these peoples, for, to use their own words, they were " ever seeking seeds 

 of the grasses like birds on the mesas." 



There is abundant reason for supposing that the " elder nations " — 

 these jieoples whom they " overtook," the '' People of the Dew," the 

 " Black people," and the " Corn i^eople " of the ■' towns builded round" — 

 were direct and comparatively unchanged descendants of the famous 

 clifit" dwelleis of the Maucos, San Juan, and other canyons of Utah. 

 Colorado, and northern New Mexico. The evidences of this are numer- 

 ous aud detailed, but only the principal of them need here be examined. 



