XXVI ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 
months of 1883 he successfully exerted himself to increase his 
influence among the Zuni Indians with special reference to se- 
curing his complete initiation (begun by the seaside at Boston, 
in 1882) into their Ka-Ka& or sacred dance organization. 
While awaiting the long deferred opportunity for recording 
the.ancient epic rituals of the tribe, which he hoped to gain by 
means of initiation into the Ka-Ka, he undertook, at intervals 
during the winter of 1883—84, systematic explorations of the 
sacrificial grottoes and native shrines of the Zuni in the main 
and tributary valleys of their pueblos. In and upon the mesa 
of Taai-yal-lon-ne (Thunder Mountain) alone he found eight 
of these depositories, three of which proved to be entirely pre- 
historic. On the headlands, both north and south of Zuni, he 
traced eleven additional shrines, and near both Pescado and 
Nutria he found others, all rich in ancient remains. More im- 
portant than any of these, however, were three caverns, or rock 
shelters, situated in two canons, one about nine miles east of 
Zuni, the other southeast and nearer the pueblo by three miles. 
Two of these caves were at a remote date used as receptacles, 
one containing a burial cairn, the other an extensive accumu- 
lation of well preserved idols of war and rain gods, symbolie 
altar tablets, sacred cigarettes, long and short prayer wands, 
and numerous examples of textile, cordage, and plume work. 
The latter depository was the more important in that it is still 
used and held sacred by the Zuni, and hence is clearly referable 
to their ancestry. Its contents evidently connected it with the 
crater and cave shrines discovered by Mr. Cushing on the Up- 
per Colorado Chiquito, in 1881, and described in the report of 
his explorations for that year. As, however, he was forced to 
visit these places either in company with Indians or by stealth, 
the objects could not be disturbed. 
Pursuing his explorations southward, he discovered, between 
twenty and thirty miles from the central Zuni Valley, not only 
two caves containing sacrificial remains, but also a number of 
cemeteries of undoubted ancient Pueblo Indian origin. These 
burial places yielded perfect crania and well preserved vessels 
of pottery and in all respects, save in extent, corresponded to 
5s Yaladlies 
