Zuni (Ashiwi)

(map)

A great flood once forced the Zunis out of their valley to take refuge on a nearby tableland. But the flood rose nearly to the top of the tableland, and the people, fearing it would drown them all, decided to offer a human sacrifice to appease the angry waters. A youth and maiden, children of two Priests of the Rain, were dressed in finery and thrown into the flood. The waters began subsiding immediately. The two young people turned to stone; they may be seen as two great pinnacles rising from the tableland.

Frazer, 1919, 287-288.

The people were living at Itiwana. The young people of the corn clan, the largest clan, played with each other and lay together. Only one man, a priest's son, could not overlook their wrongdoing. He sought help from his uncle, who had been killed by the Navajo. Having made prayersticks and sprinked prayer meal in a hole before him, he prayed for his uncle to come. Presently he heard the moaning and rattling of a dead man coming. They went together towards Itiwana. Along the way, the uncle brushed againt a boy, and he became dead.

In the kivas, the corn clan was practicing its shameful ways. The dead man went from kiva to kiva, and the people became terrified. They started to run towards Corn Mountain, trying to gain refuge from the earthquake that they now feared.

The last to hear what was happening were the sister of the priest's son, her grandmother, and her two children. They fled as fast as they could to Corn Mountain. Halfway there, the earth trembled, and the boy who had died now turned into the plumed water serpent Kolowisi. They said to their grandmother, "Stay here, grandmother. It is too dangerous to wait for you." The grandmother agreed, and they fled on without her. Kolowisi held back the flood waters until they had reached the mountain. Then he let loose the waters, filling the valley.

One of the priests told the people, "This flood came because of the shameful practices of the corn clan. From now on you who are of one clan should be as brothers and sisters, and never desire one another."

Ruth Benedict, Zuni Mythology, Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology no. 21 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1935), 10-11. Variant, pp. 12-15.