442 ZUNI CREATION MYTHS. (etu.ann. 13 



making- ready thereby of the offerings of sacred plume- wands (feV/A-i- 

 nawe) and sacred water (hyaline). Choose then, four youths, so 

 young that tliey have neither known nor sinned aught of the flesh, and 

 being of the Seed and Water kinties are meet to bear to the Shrine of 

 the Middle, (tailed Hepatinane, these offerings of good meaning and 

 influence to the Earth-mother, the Maidens of Corn, and the Beloved 

 of the Ancient Spaces. Them four ye shall accompany, ye fathers of 

 the people, they in thy midst, bearing the things precious, tlie elder 

 Master-priest of the Bow leading, and the other following, the elder 

 before, the younger behind. Ye shall walk about the shrine four times, 

 once for each region and the breath and season thereof, and set within 

 the shrine and round about it with perfect speech and in order, as ye 

 would regulate the plantings of grains, these signs of thine hearts 

 and of the custom ye cherish. Rest ye contentedly thereafter until, 

 with the final moon's full growing, ye await our return-coming. Ye and 

 the others, fathers of this custom of the seed, shall then await us as 

 for far-coming runners bearing messages of import, wait ye thus in the 

 sacred gathering place of the north, which is the first, and which ye 

 call H6in Kiwitsinan. There shall ye bide our coming in good and per- 

 fect council, that ye receive perfectly the perfected seed of seeds." 



Again the father bent low, and Paiyatuma breathed upon him, and 

 saying "Thus much it is finished ere I depart," turned him about and 

 sped away so fleetly that none saw him when they went forth to see. 



THE SEEKING OF THE MAIDENS OF CORN BY PAIYATUMA. 



Beyond the first valley of the high plain to the southward, he set the 

 four plume- wands in this wise: First, the yellow, he planted upright, 

 and over it leaned, looking at it intently. And when it had ceased 

 to flutter, lo ! the eagle down on it leaned northward, but moved not. 

 Then he thus set the blue wand and watched it. and the white wand; 

 but the eagle down on them leaned to right and left and still north- 

 ward, yet moved not thereafter. 



Then farther on he planted the red wand, and breathing not, long 

 watched it closely, bending low. Soon the soft down-plumes began to 

 wave as though blown by the breath of some small creature; backward 

 and forward, northward and southward they swayed, as if in time to 

 the breath of one resting. 



"Ha! 'tis the breath of my maidens in Summerland!" quoth Pai- 

 yatuma, "for the plume of the southland sways, soft though, to then- 

 gentle breathing. Lo ! thus it is and thus shall it ever be when I set 

 the down of my mists on the plains, and scatter my bright beads in 

 the uorthland; summer shall go thither from afar, borne on the breaths 

 of the Seed maidens, and where they breathe, warmth, health, showers 

 and fertility shall follow with the birds of Summerland and the but- 

 terflies, northward over the world." This he said as he uprose and 

 sped, by the magic of his knowledge how, all swiftly, far southward 



