410 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS. [eth.ann, 13 



PAiitiwa and the ancient K'yau'bliwa, liad dispatched to bid the Duck 

 dive down and lay before them whatsoever message she might bear. 

 The Duck followed down, down, into the great assembly halls. There 

 she told of the far jmirneys she had made, of her finding and leading 

 the K'yiik'lu, and how now K'yiik'lu sat blind of eyes, maimed aud 

 hearing naught of her calling, in the plain beyond the mountains. 



HOW THE GODS OF THE KA'KA COUNSELLED THE DUCK. 



" Tea, him know we well ! " replied the gods. " Of our sacred breath 

 breathed his father and his mother when days were new aud of us 

 shall be numbered they, when time is full. Lo ! therefore because 

 changed violently of his grief and sore hardships whilst yet but 

 Jc^yaiyuna, he hath become ^hlimna, and yet unchanging, since fin- 

 ished so; yea, and unceasing, as one of ourselves, thus shall he remain. 

 True also is this, of his brother and sister who dwell with their 

 uncouth offspring in the mountain hard by. Go upward, now, and 

 with thy tinkling shells entice the.se children to the lake shore. 

 Loudly will they talk of the marvel as in their wilder moments they 

 ever talk of anything new to hap. And they will give no peace to the 

 old ones until these come down also to see thee ! Thou wearest the 

 sacred shells and strands of K'yak'lu wherewith he was ever wont to 

 count his talks in other days when days were new to men. When 

 these they see, lo ! instant grave will become they and listen to thy 

 words, for they will know the things they watched him wear and 

 coveted when they were still little, all in the days that were new to 

 men. Bid them make forthwith of poles and reeds, a litter, and bear it 

 away, the father of them all with his children (nay not the sister- 

 mother, to sore hurt the love of a brother eldest for a sister youngest, 

 wherefore so pitiably he mourneth even now) to where, in the far 

 plain, K'yiik'lu sits so mourning. Bid them greet him, and bring him 

 hence. They may not enter, but they may point the way and tell him 

 how, fearlessly, to win into our i^resence, for as one even of ourselves 

 is he become; yea, and they al.so, save that they stayed themselves for 

 the ages, midway betwixt the living and the dead, by their own rash 

 acts did they stay themselves so, wherefore it i.s become their office to 

 point the way of the again living to the newly dead, for aye. Tell 

 the grandchild, thy father withal, K'yak'lu, to mourn not any longer, 

 neither tarry, but to get him straightway hither, that he may learn from 

 us of his people of the meanings of past times, and of how it shall be 

 in times to come." 



HOW BY BEHEST OF THE DUCK THE KA'YEMASHI SOUGHT 

 K'YAK'LU TO CONVEY HIM TO THE LAKE OF THE DEAD. 



Even so did the Duck, as bidden, even so did the Ka'yemSshi, one 

 and all, as it had been said they would do as the Duck bade them, and 



