With other primitive peoples as with the Zuñis, there seems to be no bent of their minds so strong or pervasive of and influential upon their lives as the dramaturgic tendency. That tendency to suppose that even the phenomena of nature can be controlled and made to act more or less by men, if symbolically they do first what they wish the elements to do, according to the ways in which, as taught by their mystic lore, they suppose these things were done or made to be done by the ancestral gods of creation time. And this may be seen in a searching analysis not only of the incidents and symbolisms in folk-tales as well as myths of such primitive peoples, but also in a study of the moods in which they do the ordinary things of life; as in believing that because a stone often struck wears away faster than when first struck it is therefore helpful in overcoming its obduracy to strike it—work it—by a preliminary dramatic and ritualistic striking, whereupon it will work as though already actually worked over, and will be less liable to breakage, etc.
All this and much more to the same effect will be illustrated in the papers which I have mentioned as designed to follow the present one.
There remain still a few points in this preliminary paper which must be commented upon—points regarding my own hand in the work chiefly. I use very freely such terms as "religious," "sacred," "priest," and "god," not because they always express exactly the native meaning, but for the reason that they do so more approximately than any other terms I could select. The fearful and mysterious, the magical and occult, all these and many other elements are usually included in the primitive man's religion, and hence terms like "sacred" must be given a less restricted value than they have in our speech or culture.
Again, while the Zuñi word shíwani, "priest," literally signifies guardian and possessor, as well as maker or keeper of the flesh, or seed of life of the Zuñis, it must not be supposed to represent a medicine-man, shaman, or sorcerer—for all of which there are specific differentiated terms in the Zuñi tongue. Those who bear that title are also divided into four classes, but among all these the functions of possessing a shrine, being ritualists, performing before the altars, and leading as well as ordering all organized sacerdotal ceremonials, is common. Therefore the simple term "priest," in the Pagan rather than in the Christian sense, is the best and truest that can be found.
Frequently I have occasion to reproduce portions of songs or rituals, or, again, words of the Uánami or "Beloved Gods." In the originals these are almost always in faultless blank verse meter, and are often even grandly poetic. I do not hesitate either to reproduce as nearly as possible their form, or to tax to the uttermost my power of expression in rendering the meanings of them where I quote, clear and effective and in intelligible English. Yet in doing this I do not have to depart very far from "scientific" accuracy, even in the linguistic sense.
Finally, I have entitled the originative division of this paper "Outlines of Zuñi Creation Myths," because, in the first place, this is but a preliminary rendering of these, and, properly speaking, they are a series of explanation-myths. Now, while such myths are generally disconnected, often, indeed, somewhat contradictory episode-legends with primitive peoples, they are, with the Zuñis, already become serial, and it is in their serial or epic form (but merely in outline) that I here give them. Although each is called a talk, and is held specifically by a particular organization or social division, yet all are called "the speech." This comes about in Zuñi by the presence in the tribal organization, as already explained, of a class of men and priests there called the "Midmost," or the "All," because hereditary in a single clan (the Macaw), yet representative sacerdotally of all the clans and all the priesthoods, which they out-rank as "Masters of the House of Houses."
With them all these various myths are held in brief and repeated in set form and one sequence as are placed the beads of a rosary or on a string, each entire, yet all making a connected strand. Here, then, we see the rudiment or embryo of a sacred epic such as that of the K‘yäk´lu or "Speaker of all times whensoever."
As finally published, this paper will contain the most ample explanation of all these points and many others, and will not ask, as it does today, catholic judgment and charitable interpretation.
The so-called dances of the Zuñis, and presumably those of all similar primitive peoples, are essentially religio-sociologic in character and always at least dramatic, or, more properly speaking, dramaturgic. It follows that to endeavor to describe and treat at all adequately of any one such ceremonial becomes a matter of exceeding difficulty, for it should involve a far more perfect scheme of the sociologic organization as well as at least a general survey of the mythology and religious institutions of the tribe to which it relates, such as I here present, as well as an absolutely searching description of all details in both the preparation for and the performance of such ceremonial.
For example, the celebrated Kâ´kâ or mythic drama-dance organization of the Zuñis, and for that matter all other of their ceremonials, are, any one of them, made up in personnel from specific clans. Thus formed, they are organized, and the actors and their parts divided in accordance with the groupings of these clans in relation to the symbolic regions of the world, or in this case literally septs. Finally, the paraphernalia and costumings, no less than the actions, songs, and rituals, are as distinctly founded on and related to the legend or legends dramatized.