Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 21.djvu/201

Rh of hundreds of folk-lore stories, Atchi a la to sa, or "he of the knife-feathered wings." He is supposed to carry ever about him his many-colored bow, a ni 'to lan, or the goddess of the rainbow, to walk upon his swift arrow, wi lo lo a'te, turquoise-pointed god of lightning, and to be guarded on the right and the left by his warriors, the mountain-lion of the North and the mountain-lion of the West.

Among other beings of ancient Zuñi mythology we have the marvelous example of Oohe pololon, or "the god of the north wind," whose breath sends the cold winds from the north region and drives the sands of the southwestern deserts, which have been stirred up by the will of the gods of the mountain. Dark and gloomy, like the clouds of the north-land home, ferocious with his shining teeth and glaring pendant eyeballs, wild with his iron-gray halo of ever-waving hair and beard, Oohe pololon is one of the most terrific of Zuñi demon-gods. Then we have the gentle moon, mother of the women of men, through whose will are born the children of women, the representative in this system of deities of the Shewan okao, or seed-priestess, younger sister of the priests of the temple; and the sister of the moon, the beautiful goddess of the ocean, through whose ministrations are awakened the loves of the Zuñi youth, and the good fortune of trade is secured.

While those gods in Zuñi mythology remaining unknown to me are legion, yet I might continue for hours to mention gods and their attributes; as for instance, "he who carries the clouds from the ocean of sunrise to the ocean of sunset and scatters them through the heavens between"; Kwe le le, or "he who infuses the roots of all trees with the spirit of fire, and swings his torch in mid-air, and it forthwith bursts into flames"; Te sha mink'ia, or "he who dwells in the cañons and cliffs of the mountains, ever echoing the cries of his children, men and beasts of mortality."

Interesting among the hero-gods is the great priest of all religious orders save that of the bow, Poskai ank'ia. In the days of the new, yet not until after men had begun their journey toward the east, he is supposed to have appeared among the ancestors of the Zuñis, the Taos, the Coconinos, and the Moqui Indians, so poor and ill-clad as to have been ridiculed by mankind. He it was who taught the fathers of the Zuñis their architecture and their arts, their agriculture and their system of worship, by plume and painted stick; but, driven to desperation by the ingratitude of his children, he vanished beneath the world, never to return to the abodes of men—yet he still sits in the city of the sun, ever listening to the prayers of his ungrateful children.

Let me add one more example: that of Kia nis ti pi, or "the great water-skate," who with his long legs measured the extent of the earth as with a compass, and between the oceans of sunrise and sunset deter-mined the center of the world as the home of the Zuñis. He is represented by a peculiar figure, and this introduces us to a new