370 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS. Ieth.a.nn.13 



north, west, south, and eust — is the home or center of a special element, 

 as well as of one of the four seasons each element produces. Thus the 

 north is the place of wind, breath, or air, the west of water, the south 

 of fire, and the east of earth or the seeds of earth; correspondingly, 

 the north is of course the place of winter or its origin, the west of 

 spring, the south of summer, and the east of autumn. This is all 

 because from the north and iu winter blow the fiercest, the greatest 

 winds or breaths, as these people esteem them ; from the west early in 

 spring come the moistened breaths of the waters in early rains; from 

 the south comes the greatest heat that with dryness is followed by 

 summer, aud from the east blow the winds that bring the frosts that 

 in turn mature the seeds and perfect the year in autumn. By means 

 of this arrangement no ceremonial is ever performed and no council 

 ever held in which there is the least doubt as to the position which a 

 member of a given clan shall occupy in it, for according to the season 

 iu which the ceremonial is held, or according to the reason for which 

 a council is convened, one or another of the clan groups of one or 

 another of the regions will take precedence for the time; the natural 

 sequence being, however, first the north, second the west, third the 

 south, fourth the east, fifth the upper, and sixth the lower; but first, 

 as well as last, the middle. But this, to the Zuni, normal sequence of 

 the regions and clan groups, etc., has been determined by the apparent 

 sequence of the phenomena of the seasons, and of their relations to one 

 another; for the masterful, all conquering element, the first necessity of 

 life itself, and to all activity, is the wind, the breath, and its cold, the 

 latter overmastering, in winter all the other elements as well as all 

 other existences save those especially adapted to it or potent in it, like 

 those of the totems and gods and their children of the north. But iu 

 spring, when with the first appearance of the bear and the first sup- 

 posed growls of his spirit masters in the thunders and winds of that 

 time their breaths begin to bring water from the ocean world, then the 

 strength of the winter is broken, and the snows thereby melted away, 

 and the earth is revivified with drink, in order that with the warmth of 

 summer from the south things may grow and be cherished toward their 

 old age or maturity and perfection, and finally toward their death or 

 sleeping in winter by the frost-laden breaths of autumn and the east. 

 Believing, as the Zufiis do, in this arrangement of the universe and 

 this distribution of the elements and beings chiefly concerned in them, 

 and finally in the relationship of their clans and the members thereof 

 to these elementary beings, it is but natural that they should have 

 societies or secret orders or cult institutions composed of the elders or 

 leading members of each group of their clans as above classified. 

 The seriatiou of these secret and occult medicine societies, or, better, 

 perhaps, societies of magic, is one of the greatest consequence and 

 interest. Tet it can but be touched upon here. In strict accordance 

 with succession of the four seasons and their elements, and with their 



