382 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS. [eth.ann.13 



Sun-father imparted, still retaining, coutrol-tbougbt and Lis own knowl- 

 edge-wisdom, even as to the ofitspring of wise i)arents their knowing- 

 ness is imparted and as to his light hand and his left hand a skillful 

 man gives craft freely surrendering not his knowledge. He gave them, 

 of himself and their mother the Foam-cap, the great cloud-bow, and for 

 arrows the thunderbolts of the four quarters (twain to either), and for 

 buckler the fog-making shield, which (spun of the floating clouds and 

 spray and woven, as of cotton we spin and weave) supports as on wind, 

 yet hides (as a shadow hides) its bearer, defending also. And of men 

 and all creatures he gave them the fathership and dominion, also as 

 a man gives over the control of his work to the management of his 

 hands. Well instructed of the Sun-father, they lifted the Sky-father 

 with their great cloud-bow into the vault of the high zenith, that the 

 earth might become warm and thus fitter for their children, men and 

 the creatures. Then along the trail of the sun-seeking Poshaiyaijk'ya, 

 they sped backward swiftly on their floating fog-shield, westward to the 

 Mountain of Generation. With their magic knives of the thunderbolt 

 they spread open the uncleft depths of the mountain, and still on their 

 cloud-shield — even as a spider in her web descendeth — so descended 

 they unerringly, into the dark of the under- world.. There they abode 

 with men and the creatures, attending them, coming to know them, 

 and becoming known of them as masters and fathers, thus seeking the 

 ways for leading them forth. 



THE BIRTH AND DELIVERY OF MEN AND THE CREATURES. 



Now there were growing things in the depths, like grasses and crawl- 

 ing vines. So now the Beloved Twain breathed on the stems, of these 

 grasses (growing tall, as grass is wont to do toward the light, under 

 the opening they had cleft and whereby they had descended), causing 

 them to increase vastly and rapidly by grasping and walking round 

 and round them, twisting them upward until lo! they reach forth even 

 into the light. And where successively they grasped the stems ridges 

 were formed and thumb-marks whence sprang branching leaf-stems. 

 Therewith the two formed a great ladder whereon men and the crea- 

 tures might ascend to the second cave-floor, and thus not be violently 

 ejected in after-time by the throes of the Earth-mother, and thereby be 

 made demoniac and deformed. 



Up this ladder, into the second cave-world, men and the beings 

 crowded, following closely the Two Little but Mighty Ones. Yet many 

 fell back and, lost in the darkness, peopled the under- world, whence 

 they were delivered in after- time amid terrible earth shakings, becoming 

 the monsters and fearfully strange beings of olden time. Lo ! iu this 

 second womb it was dark as is the night of a stormy season, but larger 

 of space and higher than had been the first, because it was nearer the 

 navel of the Earth-mother, hence named K'61in tehuli (the Umbilical- 

 womb, or the Place of Gestation). Here again men and the beings 



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