Paiyatuma

Paiyatuma, also spelled Paiyatamu, is a Zuni kachina spirit known as the god of dew and of the dawn, credited by the Zuni as the inventor of the flute and its music. Tradition holds that he brought the seven Corn Maidens to the Zuni as his foster children, together with seven varieties of corn, teaching the people the flute music that caused the corn to grow. Some scholars regard Paiyatuma as a possible model behind the widely known Flute Player figure that popular culture usually calls by the Hopi name Kokopelli, already recorded on this atlas: both are Pueblo kachina spirits linked to fertility, music and growth, but the Zuni themselves understand Paiyatuma specifically as their own distinct Flute Player.