Zuñi, New Mexico,
September 29, 1882.
D. D. Graham, Esq.,
Acting subagent of the Zuñi Pueblo Indians:
Dear Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a few hastily-prepared statements from my notes relative to the weather prognostics, proverbs, &c., of the Zuñi Indians:
With these Indians the study of weather, both from practical and superstitious standpoints, has been the result of necessity, the growth of generations. It is therefore no matter of surprise that the accompanying questions penetrate a rich domain with them of research.
Indeed, nothing short of a moderately lengthy treatise would do the subject, which is withal popularly a most interesting one, justice.
Zuñi worship, like that of the ancient Greeks, relates principally to this life.
To this life water is considered the greatest of necessities and blessings. Hence, rain, the clouds, springs, and all beings, things, and phenomena related to them, are regarded as sacred. A better understanding of this may be gleaned from the fact that in Zuñi mythology the sky and the celestial bodies, many terrestrial objects, and all phenomena of either, are regarded not less than all organized beings as animate and conscious existences, the whole, including man, being denominated á hâ i, or, The Beings. The greater number of the latter are included under two great classes:
1. Kia-pin = á-hâ-i; and