The Unstable World - Zuni

As it was with men and the creatures, so with the world; it was young and unripe (k'yaíyuna). Its surface was unstable like that of a marsh, and dank, even the high places, like the floor of a cavern, so that seeds dropped on it sprang forth, and even the substance of excrement became growing things.

Earthquakes shook the world and rent it. Beings of sorcery, demons and monsters of the under-world fled forth. Creatures turned fierce, becoming beasts of prey, and others turned timid, becoming their quarry; wretchedness and hunger abounded, black magic, war, and contention entered when fear entered into the hearts of men and the creatures. Fear was everywhere among them; everywhere the people hugging their precious possessions in dread became wanderers and lived on the seeds of grasses, eaters of dead and slain things! Yet still they were guided by the Two Beloved in the direction of the east, told and taught that they must seek, in the light and under the pathway of the Sun, the middle of the world, over which alone could they find the earth stable, or rest them and bide them in peace.