By Katharine Berry Judson, 1916
Zuni Men.
Eight years was only four days and nights when the world was new. While such days and nights continued, men were led out in the night shine of the World of Seeing. Even when they saw the great star, they thought it was the Sun-father himself, and it burned their eyes.
Men and creatures were more alike then than now. Our fathers were black, like the caves they came from; their skins were cold and scaly like those of mud creatures; their eyes were goggled like an owl’s; their ears were like those of cave bats; their feet were webbed like those of walkers in wet and soft places; they had tails, long or short, as they were old or young. Men crouched when they walked or crawled along the ground like lizards. They feared walking straight but crouched as before in their cave worlds to avoid stumbling or falling in the uncertain light.
When the morning star arose, they blinked excessively when they beheld its brightness and cried out that now surely the Father was coming. But it was only the elder of the Bright Ones heralding the approach of the Sun-father with his shield of flame. And when the Sun-father appeared low down in the east, though shrouded in the midst of the world waters, they were blinded and heated by his light and glory. They fell wallowing and covered their eyes with their hands and arms, yet ever as they looked toward the light, they struggled toward the Sun as moths and other night creatures sought the light of a campfire. Thus, they became used to the light. But when they rose, walked straight, no longer bending, and looked upon each other, they sought to clothe themselves with girdles and garments of bark and rushes. And when by walking only upon their hinder feet they were bruised by stone and sand, they plaited sandals of yucca fiber.
Compiled by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated May 2025.
Excerpted from the book Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson, 1916. Katharine Berry Judson first published this book in 1916, which collects the oral traditions of the Zuni, Hopi, Achomawi, Sia, Pima, Paiute, and other tribes of the Southwest. She compiled and edited four collections of native myths and tales. Judson was a professor of history at the University of Washington.
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