When the flowers dry up, the birds of summer flee. See also proverbs relative to summer birds (15).
When the world is damp, spring the seeds of the beloved (mushrooms and other apparently spontaneous growths).
18. “When the locks of the Navajos grow damp in the scalp-house, surely it will rain.”
The seasons in Zuñi are only three—spring, summer, and winter. They are supposed to result from the change of weather and the will of the sun; hence are themselves prognosticated.
The months are lunar, and there are no days of the Christian week, save Sunday, when the Indians cannot trade, and which for this reason they know of.
Relative to proverbs of the months and seasons, I can only say there are many, but, as in the case with other matters above alluded to, they are rather relative to the affairs of life (mostly sacred obligations and observances) than to weather and agricultural operations.
Very respectfully,
G. H. CUSHING,
Assistant Ethnologist.