One of the most important characters in Zuni mythology, the Kaek-l[=o], finding himself alone in the far Northwest, saw many roads, but could not tell which one led to his people, and he wept bitterly.  The tear marks are still to be seen on the Kaek-l[=o]’s face.  A duck, hearing some one’s cries, appeared and inquired the cause of the trouble.  “I wish to go to my people, but the roads are many, and I do not know the right one.”  The sagacious duck replied, “I know all roads, and I will lead you to your people.”  Having led the Kaek-l[=o] to the spirit lake, he said, “Here is the home of the K[=o]k-k[=o]; I will guide you to the kiva and open for you the door.”  After entering the kiva the Kaek-l[=o] viewed all those assembled and said, “Let me see; are all my people here?  No; the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si (plumed serpent) is not here; he must come,” and two of the K[=o]k-k[=o] (the Soot-[=i]ke) were dispatched for him.  This curious creature is the mythical plumed serpent whose home is in a hot spring not distant from the village of Tk[=a]p-qu[=e]-n[=a], and at all times his voice is to be heard in the depths of this boiling water.

In the days of the old, a young maiden, strolling along, saw a beautiful little baby boy bathing in the waters of this spring; she was so pleased with his beauty that she took him home and told her mother that she had found a lovely little boy.  The mother’s heart told her it was not a child really, and so she said to the daughter; but the daughter insisted that she would keep the baby for her own.  She wrapped it carefully in cotton cloth and went to sleep with it in her arms.  In the morning, the mother, wondering at her daughter’s absence, sent a second daughter to call her.  Upon entering the room where the girl had gone to sleep she was found with a great serpent coiled round and round her body.  The parents were summoned, and they said, “This is some god, my daughter; you must take him back to his waters,” and the maiden followed the serpent to the hot spring, sprinkling him all the while with sacred meal.  Upon reaching the spring the serpent entered it, the maiden following, and she became the wife of the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si.

The K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si soon appeared with the two Soot-[=i]ke who had been dispatched for him.  They did not travel upon the earth, but by the underground waters that pass from the spring to the spirit lake.  Upon the arrival of the K[=o]-l[=o]-oo-w[)i]t-si, the Kaek-l[=o] issued to this assemblage his commands, for he is the great father of the K[=o]k-k[=o].  Those who were to go to the North, West, South, East, to the Heavens, and to the Earth to procure cereals for the [=A]h-shi-wi he designated as the Sae-lae-m[=o]-b[=i]-ya.  Previous to this time the [=A]h-shi-wi had subsisted on seeds of a grass.  “When the seeds are gathered,” he said, addressing the serpent, “you will carry them with water to the [=A]h-shi-wi and tell them what to do with the seeds.  I will go