THE URINE DANCE

                                OF THE

                      ZUNI INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO




                        NOT FOR GENERAL PERUSAL

                            THE URINE DANCE
                                OF THE
                      ZUNI INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO

                                  BY

                        CAPTAIN JOHN G. BOURKE
                       THIRD CAVALRY, U. S. ARMY

             FROM THE ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES COLLECTED BY HIM

                        UNDER THE DIRECTION OF

             LIEUTENANT GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN, U. S. ARMY

                               IN 1881.

                           PRIVATELY PRINTED
                                 1920




                     THE URINE DANCE OF THE ZUNIS
                                  by
          JOHN G. BOURKE, Captain, Third Cavalry, U. S. Army


On the evening of November 17, 1881, during my stay in the village of
Zuni, New Mexico, the _Nehue-Cue_, one of secret orders of the Zunis,
sent word to Mr. F. Cushing (whose guest I was) that they would do
us the unusual honor of coming to our house to give us one of their
characteristic dances, which, Cushing said, was unprecedented.

The squaws of the Governor’s family put the long “living room” to
rights, sweeping the floor and sprinkling it with water to lay the
dust. Soon after dark the dancers entered; they were twelve in number,
two being boys. The center men were naked with the exception of black
breech-clouts of archaic style. The hair was worn naturally with a
bunch of wild turkey feathers tied in front, and one of corn-husks
over each ear. White bands were painted across the face at eyes and
mouth. Each wore a collar or neckcloth of black woolen stuff. Broad
white bands, one inch wide, were painted around the body at the navel,
around the arms, the legs at mid-thighs and knees. Tortoise-shell
rattles hung from the right knee. Blue woolen footless leggins were
worn with low-cut moccasins, and in the right hand each waved a wand
made of an ear of corn, trimmed with the plumage of the wild turkey and
macaw. The others were arrayed in old cast-off American army clothing,
and all wore white cotton night-caps, with corn-husks twisted into
the hair at top of head and ears. Several wore, in addition to the
tortoise-shell rattles, strings of brass sleigh-bells at knees. One was
more grotesquely attired than the rest in a long India-rubber gossamer
“over all” and a pair of goggles, painted white, over his eyes. His
general “get-up” was a spirited take-off upon a Mexican priest. Another
was a very good counterfeit of a young woman.

To the accompaniment of an oblong drum, and of the rattles and bells
spoken of, they shuffled into the long room, crammed with spectators
of both sexes, and of all sizes and ages. Their song was apparently
a ludicrous reference to everything and everybody in sight, Cushing,
Mendeleff, and myself receiving special attention, to the uncontrolled
merriment of the red-skinned listeners. I had taken my station at one
side of the room, seated upon the banquette, and having in front of me
a rude bench or table upon which was a small coal-oil lamp. I suppose
that in the halo diffused by the feeble light and in my “stained-glass
attitude” I must have borne some resemblance to the pictures of saints
hanging upon the walls of old Mexican churches; to such a fancied
resemblance I at least attribute the performance which followed.

The dancers suddenly wheeled into line, threw themselves on their knees
before my table, and with extravagant beatings of breast began an
outlandish but faithful mockery of a Mexican Catholic congregation at
vespers. One bawled out a parody upon the Pater Noster, another mumbled
along in the manner of an old man reciting the rosary, while the fellow
with the India-rubber coat jumped up and began a passionate exhortation
or sermon, which for mimetic fidelity was inimitable. This kept the
audience laughing with sore sides for some moments, until at a signal
from the leader the dancers suddenly countermarched out of the room, in
single file, as they had entered.

An interlude followed of ten minutes, during which the dusty floor
was sprinkled by men who spat water forcibly from their mouths. The
_Nehue-Cue_ re-entered; this time two of their number were stark
naked. Their singing was very peculiar and sounded like a chorus of
chimney-sweeps, and their dance became a stiff-legged jump, with heels
kept twelve inches apart. After they had ambled around the room two
or three times, Cushing announced in the Zuni language that a “feast”
was ready for them, at which they loudly roared their approbation and
advanced to strike hands with the munificent “Americanos,” addressing
us in a funny gibberish of broken Spanish, English, and Zuni. They then
squatted upon the ground and consumed with zest large “ollas” full of
tea, and dishes of hard tack and sugar. As they were about finishing
this a squaw entered, carrying an “olla” of urine, of which the filthy
brutes drank heartily.

I refused to believe the evidence of my senses, and asked Cushing if
that were really human urine. “Why, certainly,” replied he, “and here
comes more of it.” This time, it was a large tin pail-full, not less
than two gallons. I was standing by the squaw as she offered this
strange and abominable refreshment. She made a motion with her hand to
indicate to me that it was urine, and one of the old men repeated the
Spanish word _mear_ (to urinate), while my sense of smell demonstrated
the truth of their statements.

The dancers swallowed great draughts, smacked their lips, and, amid the
roaring merriment of the spectators, remarked that it was very, very
good. The clowns were now upon their mettle, each trying to surpass his
neighbors in feats of nastiness. One swallowed a fragment of corn-husk,
saying he thought it very good and better than bread; his _vis-à-vis_
attempted to chew and gulp down a piece of filthy rag. Another
expressed regret that the dance had not been held out of doors, in one
of the plazas; there they could show what they could do. There they
always made it a point of honor to eat the excrement of men and dogs.

For my own part I felt satisfied with the omission, particularly as the
room, stuffed with one hundred Zunis, had become so foul and filthy as
to be almost unbearable. The dance, as good luck would have it, did not
last many minutes, and we soon had a chance to run into the refreshing
night air.

To this outline description of a disgusting rite I have little to add.
The Zunis, in explanation, stated that the _Nehue-Cue_ were a Medicine
Order which held these dances from time to time to inure the stomachs
of members to any kind of food, no matter how revolting. This statement
may seem plausible enough when we understand that religion and medicine
among primitive races are almost always one and the same thing, or,
at least, so closely intertwined that it is a matter of difficulty to
decide where one begins and the other ends.

Religion in its dramatic ceremonial preserves, to some extent, the
history of the particular race in which it dwells. Among nations of
high development, miracles, moralities, and passion plays have taught,
down to our own day, in object lessons, the sacred history in which
the spectators believed. Some analogous purpose may have been held
in view by the first organizers of the urine dance. In their early
history, the Zunis and other Pueblos suffered from constant warfare
with savage antagonists and with each other. From the position of their
villages, long sieges must of necessity have been sustained, in which
sieges famine and disease, no doubt, were the allies counted upon by
the investing forces. We may have in this abominable dance a tradition
of the extremity to which the Zunis of the long ago were reduced at
some unknown period. A similar catastrophe in the history of the Jews
is intimated in II Kings, xviii, 27: “But Rab-shakeh said unto them:
hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee to speak these words?
hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may
_eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you_?” In the course
of my studies, I came across a reference to a very similar dance,
occurring among one of the fanatical sects of the Arabian Bedouins, but
the journal in which it was recorded, the _London Lancet_, I think, was
unfortunately mislaid.

As illustrative of the tenacity with which such vile ceremonial, once
adopted by a sect, will adhere to it and become ingrafted upon its
life, long after the motives which have suggested or commended it
have vanished in oblivion, let me quote a few lines from Max Muller’s
“Chips from a German Workshop,” “Essay upon the Parsees,” pp. 163, 164,
Scribner’s edition, 1869:

“The _Nirang_ is the urine of cow, ox, or she-goat, and the rubbing
of it over the face and hands is the second thing a Parsee does after
getting out of bed. Either before applying the _Nirang_ to the face
and hands, or while it remains on the hands after being applied, he
should not touch anything directly with his hands; but, in order to
wash out the _Nirang_, he either asks somebody else to pour water on
his hands, or resorts to the device of taking hold of the pot through
the intervention of a piece of cloth, such as a handkerchief, or his
_sudra_, _i. e._, his blouse. He first pours water on his hand, then
takes the pot in that hand and washes his other hand, face, and feet.”
(Quoting from _Dadabhai-Nadrosi’s_ Description of the Parsees.)

Continuing, Max Muller says: “Strange as this process of purification
may appear, it becomes perfectly disgusting when we are told that
women, after childbirth, have not only to undergo this sacred ablution,
but actually to drink a little of the _Nirang_, and that the same
rite is imposed on children at the time of their investiture with the
_Sudra_ and _Koshti_, the badges of the Zoroastrian faith.”


     _One hundred copies printed strictly for private circulation_


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 Transcriber’s Note:

 ――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).

 ――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.