The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1898, Page 17

7, 7 A @D & 7 J 2 ' SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 1895. S T AN Wi SCENE OVERLOOKING THE PLAZA WHERE THE ZUNIS ARE NOW GATHERED HOLDING ONE OF THEIR [1YSTERIOUS DANCES. This time the dance lasted more than an hour. The muscular ‘movements of the dancers’ bodies, the weird native music, the thumping of the tom-toms and shrill notes of the chant as announced by the priests, the writhing, sinuous contortions through which they worked themselves, the fanatical fervor which permeated everything were amazing. But the conclusion of the dance was the most sensational and startling feature of all. At a shrill cry from the priest every plumed stick was raised on high and instantly thrust entirely down the throats of the dancers, only to be quickly withdrawn amid hissing, gurgling sounds and writhing contortions as the dance increased in vigor. and the War Department has therefore such an event transpire there will be There is but one ing to the d to. lively times in Zuni. They bave al- summit, and t dangerous had for cine man, circled around the plaza, keeping up a weird chant. d upon as "ma-kosh- chanting as they went. Both werear dT§:uu twenty-two men came fromha ready found one witch, they claim. She g 5. Within one dr She had also caused rayed in gorgeous dresses of brilliant darl ge ¢ at one side of the CONre oA r TortITed I ok AChre L T T oo uadns ortunes to happen, and hues, gaudily bedecked with feathers. plaza and took s behind the two hanged—all but killed, in fact, the accumulati s where therefore must be scourged by the The medicine man carried an earthen- priests at the box. The bones were priests and ultimately killed. ware bowl, filled with sacred ‘meal, Trubbed nineteen times each way, and which he sprinkled upon the ground as then thedpm s, ho had boonl kneel- i e o n the dances whi 8 ¢ the uri- he walked. Hav completed the cir- ing, stood up, cing the box and bones. Talts ihreathisn Lo B ol )’“ga"zfig\l‘-ifih e cle, he halted in front of a wood box They still held in their hands their { j- or chest, painted white, and adorned feather-bedecked swords. Another with Indian figures, which stood in the priest, who apparently was in charge of the twenty-two men, recited a score of words, which all joined in chanting, beating tom-toms as they sang. The two priests at the box kept perfect time with their wooden swords, but, during the hour or more that the chant lasted did not move a muscle, except their right hands. My interpreter informed me that the chant was a dissertation upon the wrongs of the Zunis, suffered through the machinations of numerous and v. jed devils, brought about, no doubt, XCITING scenes are been appe United Sta land, set a tre with Mexico which t Territories of New M Arizona to this Government, they hav. the right to follow their owa religious s and beliefs, the s 2 But if the d attempt to take human life, ready done, the troops 2NV d take a hand. Should (l)lfy:-lu' nis ‘are citizens of the dwelling upon their own t for them under the as been rescued by the whites, lach pilgrim :d the nursed back to life. and is now pro- to the shrine -0 and tected. The dances still go on, however, stone upon w. and will continue until the end of order that his fatigue may fall from Dary torture of the al March. him, and he may reach the summiz Still going on. The de: It is beyond my power to tell the untired and fresh. In the center of the t& would long since have been accom- W ” 2 meaning of all or any of the series of mesa which marks the summit of the Plished had It not been for the presence center of the plaza. dances now going on in Zuni. Their butte Is a rude stone crypt 1t of the United State Two old men then emerged from a meaning is too deep and complex for and upon which are cc fc where they doorway of a neighboring estufa, each but a student who devotes years and plumes, the significance of which . ) with a long wooden sword, to to the subject. The supersti- are known only to those who placed nted end ‘¥h“m““ ‘Ve!{e‘glmc;l_cd reed which the Zunis call their them there. ey opened the white st iR e s e b tnis shrine, omce a year, that DiEh degree of superstitious fervor. no i from it two sticks of is said to resemble the ceremo- salserigs s il year, that one can foretell. The state of mind in- ha ood, about two and a half feet n of th font A St oT S Db ts of the bow journey, and it to which they work themselves may in length and ‘three inches square, one hipers. Be this as it may, it requires welrd Incantations occur, be imagined from a description of one Side of which was notched like saw- % tuiftion for-8 Znet fo attain.: i e at which has never been of two of their dances onducted by teeth. -Two humen femur bones, doubt- 2 witnessed by a white man nor even by the priests of the bo nd their aco- less the former understanding of some be uni who has journeyed t the top has placed a Just here it is proper to state that troops before too far a as the: the Indians become worked up to a endary them on_tc ultimate c I of a season of fanatical ceremonie: that will end in human sacrifice unless position high In the priesthood of his i s ke A the” > 3 a Zuni who is not a member of the lytes., * priest of high degree, were produced o3 lh,‘,v ‘r::ns e "th“ .'m l{c] f d ;lr)ll}:d lt)l?i';p the oldest men are to” be priesthood. Here it was that at the I took my place upon the roof of from the box and rubbed over the cor- oL I e B O ool M 4 .0 Giopresitaat pot ta tendl ; o : beginning of the winter solstice the one of the houses overlooking the plaza, rugated sticks, which lay upon the Lhe chanting ceased abruptly, in the ) stream, a quarter of a mile from the out three miles from the village, priests repaired, and after several davs' when the Indians began to gather, in box lid, producing a hollow, rumbling niddie of @ sentence, it scemed to me, estufas of the priests, Uncle Sam's cav- rising abruptly from the sandy plain deliberation and petition, determined - the afternoon, and secured an excel- sound. The bones: were rubbed over e tWenty-two men and -the priest to a height of 500 feet, i i i : i ek alry Inheminpen’ AR ME boan. Lor Hie ght of 500 feet, is a flat topped ~that the village was beset by a witch lent place from which to view the the corrugated sticks, thirty-two times Sy e R T s b};:it?}; called by the priests Tai Yil'ani, who must die. She had caused the dances. First there entered the acting in one direction and then"thirty-two By st. B 3 4 which means ‘“thunder mountain.” death of Wa-weh, who, on account of high priest, who, followed by a medi- times in the other, the men meanwhile Continued on. Page Twenty-four. been powerless to prevent these orgies,