136 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 



the medical profession cannot be discriminated against, any more 

 than the members of any other profession or trade. This decision 

 will, we presume, be appealed from, and the final result will be 

 watched with interest. 



WASHINGTON SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Zuni Mythology and Religion: a Valuable Contribution to Anthio- 

 pology. — The Life-History of Tfenia Peclinata : Does the 

 Presence of this Parasite explain the Winter-Killing of Sheep? — 

 The Function of the Bone in Anchoring Implanted Teeth : 

 Result of Dr. W. M. Gray's Investigations. — Some Recent Dis- 

 cussions of Target. Shooting. — Obscure and Conflicting Phenom- 

 ena of the Drift North of Lake Ontario. — Sources of Error in the 

 Determination of Atomic Weights. — The Pristine Homes of the 

 Indian Tribes of this Continent. 



Zuili Religion. 



The annual meeting of The Woinen's Anthropological Society, 

 held March 8, was a memorable one in the history of that organiza- 

 tion. The paper of the evening was read by Mrs. T. E. Stevenson, 

 the president of the society, on the Zuni religion ; and the most ac- 

 complished anthropologists in Washington, who were present as 

 guests, pronounced it, in the conversational discussion which fol- 

 lowed, to be the best presentation of a savage religion yet written. 



Introducing her subject, Mrs. Stevenson said, that, according to 

 Zuni tradition, all Indians entered this world in the far North-west, 

 having ascended through three lower worlds before their advent 

 here. " The Zuni came to this world by the command of the Sun,'' 

 she said, " who sent his sons, Ah-ai-u-ta and Ma-a-se-we (two 

 little war-gods) as bearers of his message, and to guide them to his 

 presence. They ascended from the lower world through a huge 

 reed. Po-shai-yan-tka, the high priest oftheZufii, followed immedi- 

 ately after the gods. The other priests came next in succession ; 

 then the eight original medicine orders and all carnivorous animals. 

 Upon reaching this world, the Zufii for the first time beheld the 

 light of day, and they bowed to the earth, and hid their faces in 

 fear. It was discovered by the light of day that the Zufii possessed 

 long, hairless tails, which Ah-ai-u-ta amputated with his stone 

 knife. According to the word of the present priest of the warriors, 

 the people also had long ears, reaching to the ground, which they 

 rolled and tied up by day. while at night they served as a bed and 

 covering. 



" The Zufii do not believe they existed in interior worlds as 

 animal species, other than Zuiti theinselves, with their great ears 

 and hairless tails. The other animals could communicate with 

 them as between man and man. These aniinals were superior to 

 the Zufii, and were then, as now, mediators between them and the 

 gods. They held all medicine secrets, which they revealed to the 

 Zufii only after coming to this world." 



Mrs. Stevenson then enumerated the medicine orders in the suc- 

 cession in which they reached this world. " These orders," she 

 said, " also the priests of the cardinal points and others, brought many 

 precious articles from the lower world, which they carried on their 

 backs in sacred blankets, the E-to-ne being the most valued fetich 

 they brought. The E-to-ne is a miniature sarcophagus, in which 

 two frogs and two tadpoles, the first offspring of the frog, seeds of 

 cotton, and other vegetation, are incased. On the top of this stone 

 case are eight te-lik-yi-na-we, or plume-sticks, laid lengthwise, 

 about an inch of each one projecting over the edge of the box. 

 Between the eight plume-sticks is an ear of corn representing the 

 mother-corn, or fecundity. The case is wrapped with a piece of 

 ancient cotton cloth, and around the whole are strings of turquoise 

 and ko-ha-qua beads. In some instances the E-to-na is so heavily 

 wrapped with beads that nothing else is to be seen except the pro- 

 jecting ends of the plume-sticks. On the end of each stick a breast- 

 feather of the eagle is attached, pendent, by a cotton cord of native 

 manufacture. The Order of Rain has, in place of the E-to-na, a 

 female stone image, eight inches high, — the Wi-ha-tsan-na Ah- 

 win-tsi-ta, the great mother of all infants. 



" The Order of the Ha-lo-o-que has, instead of the E-to-na, a 

 stone knife, the destroyer of all enemies. This knife is about twelve 

 inches in length." 



After enumerating the other medicine orders, Mrs. Stevenson 

 gave in very brief outline the story in connection with the forming 

 of the Order of the Hunters, as follows : — 



"A strange people were discovered by certain ancestral gods. 

 Three of the gods were captured, and a battle was the result. The 

 lines of the enemy were protected by the tCha-que-na, the keeper 

 of all game : she passes to and fro, shaking a rattle. Great efforts 

 were made to kill the woman, and, though many arrows pierced 

 her breast, she still continued to walk, and shake the rattle. The 

 war-god, Ah-ai-u-ta, finally declared she was carrying her heart in 

 the rattle : he aimed his arrow at the rattle, struc^c it, and the tCha- 

 que-na fell dead. It was now an easy matter to rout the enemy 

 and enter their home, which they did, opening the wall that en- 

 closed all game, permitting it to go where it would, and thus the 

 game spread over the earth." 



The stories of the origin of the other orders were also given 

 briefly, and then Mrs. Stevenson continued the Zurii account of 

 their establishment in their present home, as follows : — 



" Po-shai-yan-tka did not remain long with his people after reach- 

 ing this world : he travelled with them for a time southward, then, 

 separating from the main party, he, accompanied by the orders of 

 the Ne-we-e-que and Shu-ma-a-que, his wife, l-ya-ti-ku (who was 

 very beautiful and good), and all the animals that came to this- 

 world with him, travelled far to the east, then south. A long time 

 was consumed in his journeying, and he built many villages on the 

 way, and, finally reaching the Rio Grande, built houses in the cliffs. 

 These the Zufii locate as the line of Cavate houses west of the 

 pueblos of San Juan and Santa Clara, in New Mexico. They ex- 

 tended some thirty miles along the right bank of the Rio Grande. 

 These ruins are known to the Zufii as the singing house of Po-shai- 

 yan-tka ; for it was here the animals gave to Po-shai-yan-tka their 

 songs and medicine secrets, he in turn instructing the people. Po- 

 shai-yan-tka, before separating from his people, gave to them the 

 priest Yan-a-o-loo-a to be to them a father in his absence, he 

 promising to return to them, wherever they might be. Old Zuni 

 priests say they are weary with watching for his return. The 

 name of this departed priest is so reverently held by these people, 

 that it is seldom mentioned excepting in prayer, and each day 

 prayers of supplication are made for his return. This priest is be- 

 lieved by the Zuni to be the Montezuma known in Mexican history. 



" The Zuiii, led by the war-gods, travelled inany years to the 

 south, then east, stopping often to build villages, where they for a 

 tiine lived. Besides the thirteen medicine orders of Zuni, there is 

 an order to which I referred in a paper previously presented before 

 this society, — the Order of the Kok-ko, the mythological period. 

 It will be remembered that I mentioned in that paper the transfor- 

 mation of a boy and girl upon a mountain-top, who had been sent 

 in advance to look for a place on which to build a village. After 

 the transformation, the youth descended to the plains below, swept 

 his toot through the sands, and created a river and a lake, and in 

 the lake a group of houses, the centre one being the great assembly- 

 house for the Kok-ko. The first three gentes to cross this river 

 were the Sand-hill Crane, Bear, and Corn. The women were 

 afraid, and dropped their children into the water ; and the little 

 ones were transformed into ducks, snakes, lizards, etc., and after- 

 wards changed into the Kok-ko, becoming ancestral gods. The 

 three gentes who lost their children composed the Order of Wood, 

 and this order, after becoming childless, determined to leave their 

 party, and go in search of their beloved priest Po-shai-N'un-tkn. 

 From this point the Zuiii advanced eastward some sixty miles, 

 locating upon the present site of Zufii. The present village, how- 

 ever, was built upon the old village after their return from a mesa 

 near by, upon which they lived for a long period, and where exten- 

 sive ruins are now to be seen. 



" The Wood Order, after separating from the Zuni, took first a 

 northerly course, then easterly, reaching the Rio Grande, and pass- 

 ing down this river till they at last found the home of the much- 

 longed-for father. During this journey they built four villages 

 about equal distance from one another, remaining at each village 

 four years, which words, however, according to Zuni tradition, refer 

 to periods of time. This order found the home of their father, Po- 

 shai-yan-tka, guarded by formidable sentinels. The first was a 

 mountain-lion decorated with two eagle-plumes, — one attached to 



