It is instructive to compare superstition with science. Mythology is the term used to designate the superstitions of the ancients. Folklore is the term used to designate the superstitions of the ignor...

In the days of the ancients, when Mátsaki was the home of the children of men, there lived, in that town, which is called “Salt City,” because the Goddess of Salt made a white lake there in the days o...

In the days of the ancients, when Mátsaki was the home of the children of men, there lived, in that town, which is called “Salt City,” because the Goddess of Salt made a white lake there in the days o...

“Sonahtchi!” “Sons shonetchi!” (“There is left of my story”;) but I will tell you not alone of the Maid of Mátsaki, because the young man killed her, for he knew not his wife from the other. It is of ...

In forgotten times, in the days of our ancients, at the Middle Place, or what is now Shíwina (Zuni), there lived a youth who was well grown, or perfect in manhood. He had a pet Eagle which he kept in ...

Long, long ago, our ancients had neither sheep nor horses nor cattle; yet they had domestic animals of various kinds⁠—amongst them Turkeys. In Mátsaki, or the Salt City, there dwelt at this time many ...

In the days of the ancients, in the town under Thunder Mountain called Kʻiákime, there lived a most beautiful maiden. But one thing which struck the people who knew her was that she seldom came forth ...

The priest of the Kʻiáklu or epic-ritual of Zuni is never allowed to initiate the telling of short folk-stories. If he make such a beginning, he must complete the whole cycle before he ceases his reci...

The priest of the Kʻiáklu or epic-ritual of Zuni is never allowed to initiate the telling of short folk-stories. If he make such a beginning, he must complete the whole cycle before he ceases his reci...

In the times of our forefathers, under Thunder Mountain was a village called Kʻiákime (“Home of the Eagles”). It is now in ruins; the roofs are gone, the ladders have decayed, the hearths grown cold. ...

In the days of the ancients, when our ancestors lived in the Village of the Yellow Rocks,5 also in the Salt City,6 also in the Village of the Winds,7 and also in the Village of the White Flowering Her...

Once, long, long ago, at Háwikuh, there lived a maiden most beautiful. In her earlier years her father, who was a great priest, had devoted her to sacred things, and therefore he kept her always in th...

In very ancient times, there lived at Tâʻia,9 below the Zuni Mountains, an old shíwani or priest-chief, who had a young son named Héasailuhtiwa (“Metal-hand”), famed throughout the land of the Zunis f...

Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma, with their grandmother, lived where now stands the ancient Middle Place of Sacrifice on Thunder Mountain. One day they went out hunting prairie-dogs, and while they were runni...

We take up a story. Of the times of the ancients, a story. Listen, ye young ones and youths, and from what I say draw inference. For behold! the youth of our nation in these recent generations have be...

You may know the country that lies south of the valley in which our town stands. You travel along the trail which winds round the hill our ancients called Ishana-takʻyapon⁠—which means the Hill of Gre...

It was very long ago, in the days of the ancients. There stood a village in the canyon south of Thunder Mountain where the Gods of Prey all lived with their sisters and mothers: the Mountain Lion, the...

In the times of the ancients, when our people lived in various places about the valley of Zuni where ruins now stand, it is said that an old Coyote lived in Cedar Canyon with his family, which include...

In remote times, after our ancients were settled at Middle Ant Hill, a little thing occurred which will explain a great deal. My children, you have doubtless seen Tip-beetles. They run around on smoot...

One late autumn day in the times of the ancients, a large council of Blackbirds were gathered, fluttering and chattering, on the smooth, rocky slopes of Gorge Mountain, northwest of Zuni. Like ourselv...

In the times of the ancients, long, long ago, near the Highflowing River on the Zuni Mountains, there lived an old Turtle. He went out hunting, one day, and by means of his ingenuity killed a large, f...

In the days of the ancients, there lived south of Zuni, beyond the headland of rocks, at a place called Suski-ashokton (“Rock Hollow of the Coyotes”), an old Coyote. And this side of the headland of r...

Long, long ago, in the days of the ancients, there lived in Hómaiakwin, or the Canyon of the Cedars, a Coyote⁠—doubtless the same one I have told you of as having made friends with the Woodpounder bir...

Once, long, long ago, there stood in Prairie-dog Land a large Prairie-dog village. Prairie-dog Land is south of Zuni, beyond Grease Mountain; and in the middle of that country, which is one of our sma...

There was a time in the days of the ancients when the runners of Kʻiákime were famed above those of all other cities in the Valley of Shíwina for their strength, endurance, and swiftness of foot. In r...

Know you that long, long ago there lived at Yathlpewʻnan, as live there now, many Rattlesnakes; but then they were men and women, only of a Rattlesnake kind. One day the little children of one of the ...

In the days of the ancients, long, long ago, there lived in our town, which was then called the Middle Ant Hill of the World, a proud maiden, very pretty and very attractive, the daughter of one of th...

Anciently the Jackrabbit lived in a sage plain, and the Cottontail rabbit lived in a cliff hard by. They saw the clouds gather, so they went out to sing. The long-legged Jackrabbit sang for snow, thus...

It was long ago, in the days of the ancients, that a poor maiden lived at Kʻyawana Tehua-tsana (“Little Gateway of Zuni River”). You know there are black stone walls of houses standing there on the to...

In the days of the ancients there lived with his old grandmother, not far from Kʻiákime, east, where the sweet wafer-bread is pictured on the rocks, a frightfully ugly boy. The color of his body and f...

Long, long ago, there lived on Twin Mountain, Áhaiyúta and his younger brother, with their grandmother. They had a large flock of Turkeys of which they were very fond, but were not so attentive to the...

A long, long time ago, in Kʻiákime, there lived a young man, the son of the priest-chief of the town. It was this young man’s custom to dress himself as for a dance and run entirely around Thunder Mou...

In the days of the ancients, when the children of our forefathers lived in Héshokta (“Town of the Cliffs”), there also lived two beautiful maidens, elder and younger, sisters one to the other, daughte...

When all was new, and the gods dwelt in the ancient places, long, long before the time of our ancients, many were the gods⁠—some destined for good and some for evil or for the doing of things beneath ...

Heretofore I have withheld from publication such single examples of Zuni folklore as the following, in order that the completer series might be brought forth in the form of an unbroken collection, wit...

Heretofore I have withheld from publication such single examples of Zuni folklore as the following, in order that the completer series might be brought forth in the form of an unbroken collection, wit...

It seems⁠—so the words of the grandfathers say⁠—that in the Underworld were many strange things and beings, even villages of men, long ago. But the people of those villages were unborn-made⁠—more like...

Now, the Twain Little-ones, Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma,30 were ever seeking scenes of contention; for what was deathly and dreadful to others was lively and delightful to them; so that cries of distress ...

While on their pilgrimage to the “Ocean of Sunrise” in the summer of 1886, three Zunis⁠—Pálowahtiwa, Waíhusiwa, and Héluta⁠—with Mr. Cushing, were entertaining their assembled friends at Manchester-by...

While on their pilgrimage to the “Ocean of Sunrise” in the summer of 1886, three Zunis⁠—Pálowahtiwa, Waíhusiwa, and Héluta⁠—with Mr. Cushing, were entertaining their assembled friends at Manchester-by...

Once upon a time there were a cock and a mouse. One day the mouse said to the cock: “Friend Cock, shall we go and eat some nuts on yonder tree?” “As you like.” So they both went under the tree and the...

Thus it was in the Town of the Floods Abounding,38 long ago. There lived there an old woman, so they say, of the Italia-kwe,39 who, in the land of their nativity, are the parental brothers of the Mexi...

Deep down in canyons of the Southwest, especially where they are joined by other canyons, the traveller may see standing forth from or hugging the angles of the cliffs, great towering needles of stone...

Deep down in canyons of the Southwest, especially where they are joined by other canyons, the traveller may see standing forth from or hugging the angles of the cliffs, great towering needles of stone...

Häki Suto, or Foretop Knot, he whose hair was done up over his forehead like a quail’s crest, lived among the great cliffs of the north long ago, when the world was new. He was a giant, so tall that m...

Let it be about a person who lived in the Home of the Eagles (Kʻiákime), under the Mountain of Thunder, that I tell you today. So let it be. It was in the ancient, long-forgotten times. It was in the ...

The ancient pueblo of Zuni itself was called Hálonawan, or the Ant Hill, the ruins of which, now buried beneath the sands, lie opposite the modern town within the cast of a stone. Long before Hálonawa...