A
flood of light has, moreover, been shed on this class of subjects by the
recent remarkable investigations among the Zunis. [Footnote: Made by Mr.
F. H. Cushing, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution.]
Most American Indians are in the matriarchal period of development, which
precedes the patriarchal; and it is then, should they become sedentary,
that caste appears to be born. Some valuable secret, such as a cure for
the bite of the rattlesnake, is discovered, and this gives the finder, and
chosen members of his clan with whom he shares it, a peculiar sanctity in
the eyes of the rest of the tribe. Like facts, however, become known to
other clans, and then coalitions are made which take the form of esoteric
societies, and from these the stronger savages gradually exclude the
weaker and their descendants. Meanwhile an elaborate ritual is developed,
and so an hereditary priesthood comes into life, which always claims to
have received its knowledge by revelation, and which teaches that
resistance to its will is sacrilege. Nevertheless the sacerdotal power is
seldom firmly established without a struggle, the memory whereof is
carefully preserved as a warning of the danger of incurring the divine
wrath. A good example of such a myth is the fable of the rebellious Zuni
fire-priest, who at the prayer of his orthodox brethren was destroyed with
all his clan by a boiling torrent poured from the burning mountain, sacred
to their order, by the avenging gods.
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