Excerpt from The Religious Life of the Zu i Child The first of the Ah-shi-wi, or Zuni, to cross this river were the Ah-shi i-que, or Bear gens; to-wa-que, Corn gens; and -ta-que, Sand Hill Crane gens. When in the middle of the river the children of these gentes were transformed into tortoises, frogs, snakes, ducks, and dragon flies. The children thus transformed, while tightly clinging to their mother's necks, began to bite and pinch. The mothers, trembling with fear, let them fall into the river. Ah-ai-i'i-ta and Ma-a se-we, missing the children, inquired, Where are the little ones? The mothers replied, We were afraid and dropped them into the water. The war gods then cried out to the remainder of the people, Wait, wait until we speak with you, and they told the women to be brave and cling tightly to the children until they crossed the river. Obeying the gods' commands, they carried the little ones over, though th were transformed just as the others. Upon reaching the opposit e, they were again restored to their natural forms, excepting their hands, which were duck-webbed. These webs were cut with Ah-ai-fi-ta's stone knife and thus restored to perfect hands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.