Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 21.djvu/198

188 members of his own order. Likewise the head chief creates his own three sub-chieftaincies as well as the second political head-chieftaincy or chief, who in turn names his own three sub-chiefs. We find, then, that the democracy, or republic, of popular tradition, in its reference to the sedentary Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, is, like most other popular traditions regarding these comparatively unknown peoples, erroneous; that in reality their political fabric is set up and woven by an elaborate priesthood, the only semblance of democracy reposing in the power of the council—itself composed of all adults of good standing in the nation—to reject a political head chief as thus chosen, while the power of choosing a substitute remains still in the hands of the martial priests, and that of confirming him in the hands of the four priests of the temple. The latter are considered the mouth-pieces of the priest of the sun, just as the two priests of war are considered at once the mouth-pieces and, in martial and political affairs, the commanders of the four priests of the temple; and, again, the third priest of war, or head war-chief, and the first political chief, brothers to one another, yet differentiated in their functions, are considered to be the mouth-pieces of the two priests of war, the one in times of national disturbance, the other in times of peace. And yet, again, the sub-chiefs of the war-chief, as well as those of the two political head chiefs, are considered the mouth-pieces of their respective superiors.

Now, the organization of each one of the sacred or medicine orders of Zuñi, less in importance than the order of the priesthood of the bow, is a miniature representation of the national ecclesiastical and martial organizations—that is, each order has its pekwina, or high-priest, its four kia kwe armosi, or priests of the temple, its two pithlan shiwan mosun atchi, or priests of the bow, and in accordance with its special office its medicine or prayer-priest or master, and its sacred council. Less strictly secret, yet more sacred, and organized upon similar though more elaborate principles of office, is the church of Zuñi, the order of the sacred dances, or the kâ kâ, which is lodged in six places of worship—the half-underground estufas of the north, west, south, and east, the upper and lower regions of the universe. While the kâ kâ, as a whole, has its supreme high-priests, its priests of the temple, its warrior-priests, and its prayer-masters, each one of these six temples of worship has also its like special system of priesthood, with the added offices of song-priests or masters. Both in its organization as a whole and in its lesser organizations, the kâ kâ seems to be a perfect mirror, as it were, of the mythology of the Zuñi nation, just as the mythology is a reflection of the sociologic organization of the same nation. It is, then, to a study of the organization and functions of the kâ kâ, based upon a knowledge of the national sociologic organization, that we are to look for the most complete and clear exemplification of their system of gods, just as we are to look to the