But the Zuni custom
is marked by certain features which appear to place it in a somewhat
different class from the preceding cases. It may be well therefore
to describe it at full length in the words of an eye-witness.
"With midsummer the heat became intense. My brother [_i.e._ adopted
Indian brother] and I sat, day after day, in the cool under-rooms of
our house,--the latter [_sic_] busy with his quaint forge and crude
appliances, working Mexican coins over into bangles, girdles,
ear-rings, buttons, and what not, for savage ornament. Though his
tools were wonderfully rude, the work he turned out by dint of
combined patience and ingenuity was remarkably beautiful. One day as
I sat watching him, a procession of fifty men went hastily down the
hill, and off westward over the plain. They were solemnly led by a
painted and shell-bedecked priest, and followed by the torch-bearing
Shu-lu-wit-si or God of Fire. After they had vanished, I asked old
brother what it all meant.
"'They are going,' said he, 'to the city of Ka-ka and the home of
our others.
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