cnsHiNoj SYMBOLISM OF THE "MIDDLE." 373 



two diverse jieoples actiug upou each other favorably to the develop- 

 ment of both in the application of such conceptions to tlie conduct 

 of tribal aft'airs. It would seem that the conception of the midmost, 

 or that group within all these groups which seems to be made ui) of 

 parts of them all, is inherent in such a system of world division and 

 tribal subdivision corresponding thereto; but it may also well be that 

 this conception of tlie middle was made more prominent with the Zuuis 

 than with any other of our southwestern peoples through the influ- 

 ence of the earthquakes, which obviously caused their ancestors from 

 the west again and again to change their places of abode, thus empha- 

 sizing tlie notion of getting nearer to or upon the lap or navel of the 

 earth mother, where all these terrific and destruc^tive movements, it was 

 thoirght, would naturally cease. 



Be this as it may, this notion of the " middle" and its relation to the 

 rest has become the central fact indeed of Zuiii organization. It has 

 given rise to the septuarchy I have so often alluded to; to the office of 

 the mortally immortal K'yiik'lu, keeper of the rituals of creation, from 

 which so much sanction for these fathers of the people is drawn; to the 

 consequent fixing in a series like a string of sacred epics, a sort of 

 inchoate Bible, of these myths of creation and migration; and finally, 

 through all this accumulated influence, it has served to give solidarity 

 to the Zufii tribe at the time of its division into separate tribes, making 

 the outlying pueblos they inhabited subsidiary to the central one, and 

 in the native accei>tation of the matter, mere parts of it. 



GENERAL EXPLANATIONS RELATIVE TO THE TEXT. 



As the space originally apportioned to this merely preliminary essay 

 on the Myths of Creation has already been greatly exceeded, the con- 

 sideration even in outline of the cultural characteristics of the Zuiiis, 

 which would do much to further illumine the meaning of the myths, 

 must be left to the second jjaper of the series. This will constitute a 

 key or appendix to the present paper, and will contain such glossaries 

 and detailed explanations as will render, it is hoped, all obsciu'e passages 

 clear, and will at the same time give my authority for framing and 

 translating the myths as I have. 



Chiefly, however, it will in turn introduce a third paper on the sacred 

 dances or creation dramas of the Ka'ka, which originally the myths 

 themselves (as the source of the songs, rituals, and forms of these 

 dramas) were designed to introduce. Lastly, the whole series are but 

 preliminary to a very extensive work on the subject which I contem- 

 plate producing so soon as health and opiiortunity for further researches 

 among the Zuhis will permit. 



As inclusive of the dramaturgies or dances, and nearly all other 

 ceremonials of the Zuiiis, this subject of their creation myths is almost 

 inexhaustible. I, at least, can not hope to complete it, and I have 



