Page 259 - TheHopiIndians

MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 251

The white men who tracked across the vast stretches
of the "Great American Desert" no doubt saw ruined
towns sown over the waste, and perhaps believed them,
lost to history, little suspecting that within reach lived
dusky-hued men to whom these potsherd-strewn
mounds and crumbling walls were no sealed book.
The newer explorers have drawn the old-world stories
from the lips of living traditionists, and by their
friendly aid have gathered the clues which, when
joined, will throw a flood of light on the wanderings
of the ancient people. Through them it has been
learned that each pueblo preserves with faithful care
the history of its beginnings and the wanderings of
its clans. This at proper times the old men repeat
and the story often takes a poetical form chanted with
great effect in the ceremonies. As an example of these
interesting myths, one should read the Zuni Ritual of
Creation, that Saga of the Americans which reveals a
beauty and depth of thought and form surprising to
those who have a limited view of the ability of the
Indian.
One thing is settled in the minds of the Pueblo
dwellers. In the beginning all the people lived in the
seven-story cave of the underworld, whence they
climbed toward the light and after reaching the sur
face of the earth, migrated, led by supernatural be
ings. Where the mythical underworld adventures
leave off begins a real account, telling the wanderings
of the clans and the laying of the foundations of the