Ere long, the sound of music was heard, coming from up the river, and soon came Paíyatuma followed by his Flute people and singers and maidens of the Flute dance. Uprose the fathers and all the watching people, greeting the God of Dawn with outstretched hands and offerings of prayer-meal, and words of thanks and welcome. Then the singers took their places and sounded their drum, flutes, and song of clear waters, while the Maidens of the Dew danced their custom of the Flute dance. Greatly marveled the people when from the wands they bore forth came white clouds, and fine cool mists descended.
Now when the dance was ended and the Dew maidens, with Paíyatuma, had retired within the bower, forth came the beautiful and ever young Mothers of Corn. And when the players of the flutes saw them, they were enamored of their beauty, and gazed upon them so intently that fain were the maidens to let fall their hair and cast down their eyes. Yet the youths grew not less bold of eye. Then, yea and with jealousy now, bolder grew the youths mortal, who led the dance and attended the dancers, and lo! as the morning neared and the dancers of the flute came forth again, these, impassioned and in rivalry, sought all too freely the presence of the Mother-maidens, no longer holding them so precious as in olden time, but e'en plucking at their white garments.
Meanwhile the people, eagerly watching the new dance, gave little heed to aught else. For behold! the waters rose in the terraced bowl and flowed out toward the dancers, yea, and the mists increased greatly, shrouding the watchers and the dancers alike, until within them the Maidens of Corn, all white their garments, became invisible! Then sadly and noiselessly they stole in amongst the people and laid their corn-wands down amongst the trays, and passing the seed-corn over their persons, placed it back in the trays, and laid their white broidered garments thereupon as mothers lay soft kilting over their babes. Behold! having thus by their wonderful knowledge now placed within the corn the substance of their flesh, then even as the mists became they, and with the mists drifting, fled away, verily, to the far south Summerland!
As the day dawned the dancers of the flutes completed their custom, the players, waving their flutes over the people assembled, followed Paíyatuma as he strode, wordless, forth from the midst of the people.
The call was voiced, and the song of the Maidens of Corn sounded as when the others had retired before; the drum was beaten and the rattles were shaken—but all in vain. No maidens came forth from the bower. Then eagerly the leaders sought all through the bower. Naught found they save the precious wands and the garments all softly laid thereupon, of their beloved Maidens of the Seed. Deep was their grief and all silent were the people. Then spake the fathers: "Look ye now; ye have watched ill, ye matrons and elders, and therein grievously have ye sinned, wherefore lost be our beloved maidens, mothers of the Seed of Seed, for some amongst our children have dared to hold them less than precious, and look upon them as upon maidens of the people they look! Wherefore arise, and brush away from thy persons and spit forth from thy mouths the evil of this night, that the day find ye not shame-darkened, and further ill befall ye not than the grievous loss of our beautiful maidens; for the rash forwardness of our youths, and the negligence ye have proven guilty of in failing to watch all things well are sore, and are punished full meetly as was warned us aforetime by this our grievous loss!"
Then said they to one another, "We must seek (but how?) the maidens; and we must summon them forth from their hiding with solemn promise, if only that we may look upon them once more and see that they go forth at least content with those who have not wrought this evil, and content with us, not wroth; and that they be not thus wroth or sad hearted, and therefore withhold not from us their sacred breaths of blessing, lacking which the corn seed, life of flesh, can not flourish. But who shall seek them for us? They left no trail behind and far must have instant journeyed, being now of other-being—as may be seen by their cast-off garments, left here with us. O, woe! woe the day when we heeded not well their preciousness! If woe to us, woe indeed to our murmuring children who know not what they want, and lightly consider too many of the things they have, therein lightly holding them!"
Again, therefore, called they forth the two master-priests, and said: "Who, now, think ye, should journey to seek our precious maidens? Bethink ye, strong of will, who amongst the beings is even as ye are, strong of will and good of eyes?
"There is our great elder brother and father, the Eagle, he of the side floating down (sulahaiyan látane) and the terraced tail-fan (áwi‘hluiyan k‘yátine); surely he is enduring of will and surpassing of sight."
"Yea, most surely," said the fathers. "Go ye forth and beseech him."
Then northward fared the twain swiftly to Twin mountain, where dwelt with his mate and his young, in a grotto high up among the crags, the Eagle of the White Bonnet.
And when they climbed the mountain and spake in at the entrance of the grotto, behold! only the eaglets were there, who, frightened, screamed lustily, striving to hide themselves in the dark recesses to the rearward, "O, pull not our feathers, ye of hurtful touch, but wait, when we are older we will drop them e'en from the clouds for you!"
"Hush!" said the warriors, "wait ye in peace, for we seek not ye but thy father!"
But from afar came at once, a frown on his brow, the old Eagle. "Why disturb ye my pin-featherlings?" cried he.
"Behold, father and elder brother, we come seeking only the light of thy favor. Listen!"
Then they told him of the lost Corn maidens, and prayed him to seek them, that messages of conciliation might be sent them or given.
"Being so, be it well with thy wishes. Go ye before contentedly," answered the Eagle, smoothing his feathers.
Forthwith the warriors returned to the council of the fathers, relating how that their message had been well received, and the eagle leapt forth and winged his way high into the sky—high, high, until he circled among the clouds, small seeming and swift, as seed-down in a whirlwind. And all through the heights he circled and sailed, to the north, the west, the south and the east. Yet nowhere saw he trace of the Maidens. Then he flew lower, returning, and the people heard the roar of his wings almost ere the warriors were rested, and arose eagerly to receive his tidings. As he alighted, the fathers said, "Enter thou and sit, oh brother, and say to us what thou hast to say;" and they offered him the cigarette of the space-relations.
When they had puffed to the regions and purified his breath with smoke, and blown smoke over the sacred things, then the Eagle spake: "Far have I journeyed, scanning all the regions. Neither blue bird nor wood-rat can hide from my seeing," said he, snapping his beak and looking aslant. "Neither of them, unless they hide under bushes; yet have I failed to see aught of the maidens ye seek for. Send you, therefore, for my younger brother the Falcon; strong of flight is he, yet not so potently strong as I, and nearer the ground he takes his way ere sunrise."
Then the Eagle, scarce awaiting the thanks of the fathers, spread his wings and flew away to Twin mountain, and the Warrior Priests of the Bow, sought again fleetly over the plain to the westward for his younger brother, the Falcon.
They found him sitting on an ant hill; nor would he have paused but for their cries of peaceful import, for, said he, as they approached him, "If ye have snare-strings I will be off like the flight of an arrow well plumed of our feathers!"
"Nay, now!" said the twain. "Thy elder brother hath bidden us seek thee." Thereupon they told him what had passed, and how that the Eagle had failed to find their maidens so white and beautiful.
"Failed, say ye? Of course he failed! For he clambers aloft to the clouds and thinks, forsooth, that he can see under every bush and into every shadow, as sees the Sun-father who sees not with eyes! Go ye before," said the Falcon; and ere they had turned toward the town, he had spread his sharp wings and was skimming off over the tops of the trees and bushes as though verily seeking for field mice or birds' nests. And the warriors returned to tell the fathers and await his coming; but after he had sought far over the world to the north and the west, the east and the south, he too returned and was received as had been the Eagle; but when he had settled on the edge of a tray, before the altar, as on the ant hills he settles today, and had smoked and been smoked as had been the Eagle, he told the sorrowing fathers and mothers that he had looked behind every copse and cliff-shadow, but of the maidens had found no trace. "They are hidden more closely than ever sparrow hid," said he, gripping the cover of the tray on which he perched as though it were real feathers and blood, and ruffling his crest. Then he, too, flew away to his hills in the west.
"Alas! alas! our beautiful maiden mothers!" cried the matrons. "Lost, lost as the dead are they!" "Yea," said others, "where, how indeed, shall we seek them now? For the far-seeing Eagle and the close-searching Falcon alike have failed to find them."
"Stay your feet with patience," said the fathers. For some amongst them heard a Raven who was wandering about the edge of the town at break of day seeking food in the dirt and refuse, and they bethought themselves. "Look, now! There is Heavy-nose, whose beak never fails to find the substance of seed itself, however so little or well hidden it be. Surely he well must know then, of the maiden-mothers thereof. Let us call him." So they bade the warrior-priests go forth once more. Forth to the river side went the priests. "We carry no pricking quills," said they, raising their hands all weaponless, "and, O, Black-banded father, we seek your aid; for look now, the mother-maidens of seed whose substance is the food alike of thy people and our people, have fled away whither neither our grandfather the Eagle, nor yet his younger brother the Falcon, can trace them; and we pray thee to aid us or give us counsel of guidance."
"Ka! ka!" cried the Raven. "Nay, now; much too hungry am I to go abroad fasting on business for ye and thy kind. Ye are stingy! Here have I been since ever perching time, striving to win a throatful, but ye pick thy bones and lick thy bowls too clean for the like of that, be sure!"
"But come in then, thou poor grandfather. Surely we will give thee food to eat; yea, and a cigarette to smoke with all due observance!"
"Say ye so?" said the Raven, ruffling his collar and opening his mouth so wide with a lusty kwa-la-ka, that well he might have swallowed his own head. "Go ye before, then," said he, and he followed them closely into the court of dancers.
Not ill to look upon was he, for upon his shoulders were bands of cotton, white, and his back was blue and gleaming as the tresses of a maiden dancer in sunlight. When the warriors had spoken to the fathers, the master priest of them, rising, came forward and greeted the Raven, bidding him sit and smoke.
"Ha! there is corn in this, else why the stalk thereof?" said the Raven as, taking the cane cigarette of the far-spaces, he noticed the joint thereof. Therefore, forthwith, as he had seen the master do, so did he, only more greedily. He sucked in such a throatful of the smoke, fire and all, that it well nigh strangled him, and he coughed and grew giddy and sick to such a pass that the smoke, all hot and stinging, went through every part of him, and filled all his feathers, making even his brown eyes bluer and blacker in rings! It is not to be wondered at, this blueness of flesh, blackness of dress and tearfulness, yea and skinniness, of eye which we see in his kindred today. Nay, nor is it matter of wonder, either, that for all that, they are as greedy of corn-food as ever, for look now—no sooner had the old Raven recovered than he espied one of the ears of corn half hidden under the mantle-covers of the trays. He leapt from his sitting place laughing (as they always do when they find anything, these ravens), then catching up the ear of corn, he made off with it over the heads of the people and the tops of the houses, saying, "Ha! ha! in this wise and in no other meseems will ye find thy Seed maidens!"
Nevertheless, after some absence, he came back, saying, "A sharp eye have I for the flesh of the maidens, but of their breathing-beings, who might see them, ye dolts, save by help of the Father of Dawn Mist himself, whose breath makes others of breath seen as itself;" whereupon he flew away again kawkling.
"Truly now, truly," said the elders to one another; "but how shall we find, and how prevail on our father Paíyatuma to aid us, when so grievous is ours the fault? Which same, moreover, he warned us of in the old time."
Of a sudden, for the sun was rising, they heard Paíyatuma in his daylight mood and ‘hlímnan. Thoughtless and loud, uncouth of mouth, was he, as he took his way along the outskirts of the village. Joking was he, as today joke fearlessly of the fearful, his children the Néwe-kwe, for all his words and deeds were reversals (íyatï‘hlna pénawe) of themselves and of his sacred being. Thus, when quickly the warrior priests were sped to meet him, and had given to him their greetings and messages, he sat him down on a heap of vile refuse, saying that he was about to make festival thereof, and could in no wise be disturbed. "Why come ye not?" said he, "cowards and followers of the people?"
"Nay, but we are Priests of the Bow, the twain who lead them, father, and we do come."
"Nay, but ye do not come!"
"Yea, verily we do come, and to seek thy favor, asking that ye accompany us to the council of the elders," said the two priests.
"Still I say ye nay, and that ye are children, all; and that if ye did come, ye could not summon me, and that if ye did summon me, go would I not, forsooth, to a council of little children; nay, not I!" said he, rising and preparing forthwith to follow them, as it were, but immediately taking the lead, and striding rudely into the presence of the fathers whom he greeted noisily and with laughter like one distraught, and without dignity or shame.
"My poor little children," said he to the aged priests and the white haired matrons, "good the night to ye all" (albeit in full dawning); "ye fare happily, I see, which perplexes me with sorrow."
"Comest thou, father?" said the chief priest; "pity thou our shame and sorrow."
"Father yourself; nay, not I!"
"Father," said the chief priest once more, "verily we are guilty, but lo! yet the more sad from much seeking in vain for our maidens the mothers of seed; and we have summoned thee to beseech the light of thy wisdom and favor, earnestly, O, father, notwithstanding our fault which thou thyself warned us in olden time to beware, yet do we beseech thee!"
"Ha! how good that I find ye so happy, guileless, arrogant and so little needing of my counsel and helping."
"But we beseech the light of thy favor, O, father, and aid in the finding of our beautiful maidens."
"Oh that is all, is it? But why find that which is not lost, or summon those who will not come? Even if they were lost and would come, look now! I would not go to seek them. And if I went to seek them I could not find them, and if I found them and called them they would not hearken and follow, and even if they would I should bid them bide in Summerland if they were there, and tell them ye cared naught for their presence, having too preciously cherished them."
"Lo, now!" said he, looking down and at the fathers; "I see that thine old ones, those whom ye follow, are all wise, while ye have been foolish and negligent, not preparing sacredly the plumes of the spaces, nor setting them in order before the uplifted terrace, nor yet here behind the winding lines of the seed trays and the walkers by them," said he as he stooped to pluck up the very plumes he had said were not there and withal in front of the reclining terrace and the straight rows of patient sitters. One—the yellow, that of the north—he took, and breathed thereon. "Evil, all evil and ill made," quoth he, shaking his head over its sacred completeness and beauty. Then he took up another, that of the west, then the red of the south and the white of the east. And gathering them in his arms he said, turning to go, "Now verily we approach."
As he thus turned to go, Pékwina the master, Speaker of the Sun, who, all wise, well knew the meaning of these lying speeches, arose, and taking two plumes, the banded wing-tip feathers of the turkey, the right and the left, shifted them as he advanced toward Paíyatuma, taking the left one in his right hand and the right one in his left hand. And nearing Paíyatuma he stroked him with the tips of the feathers, upward, breathing from them each time. Four times he stroked him, and then laid the feathers on his lips. And Paíyatuma spat upon them and breathed upon them, and all the people spat by his sign of command, uprising. Then the master-priest took the right feather in his right hand and the left feather in his left, and casting abroad the lying spittle, himself spat lightly and blew upon the feathers, and with them stroked the lips, then the person, of Paíyatuma, this time downward, breathing upon them. And this he did four times, and the face of Paíyatuma grew grave, and he lifted himself upward; and when he had so uplifted himself, lo! he was aged and grand and straight, as is a tall tree shorn by lightnings. Then placing the plume wands in the hands of the father, he took the banded plumes from him and breathed in from them, and out on the hands of the father, and folding his arms held upright in each hand the feather pertaining thereto. Then he spake:
"Thanks this day, thou father of the people. Thou art wise of thought and good of heart, divining that my evil of speech and act were but the assumption of the evils in thy children who, had they not turned false to good and fickle of their duties commanded, had else been followers of thee as are the fawns unerringly followers of the deer in the mountains and plains; and whose falsity, therefore lyingly, as it were, I did take unto myself and spit forth that they might be turned unto thee yet again and set straight in the paths of right commandment. From out of me, haply, thou hast now withdrawn the breath of reversal, and from out of me the speech of lying, even as thy children have spat forth, by my will and example, their wronging of commandments.
"Thanks this day; and therefore, in that ye, O, ye fathers, have kept thine hearts steadfastly right and straight of inclination, therefore will we show unto ye the light of our favor.
"Verily I will summon from Summerland, for there methinks they bide, once more the beautiful maidens, that ye look once more upon them and make offering in plumes of sacrifice meet for them, and that they consummate the seedfulness of the seed of seeds, presenting them all perfected, to ye; for lost are they as dwellers amongst ye, even as I warned ye aforetime they would be, if not held precious of person.
"Disperse, therefore, from this thy custom when ye shall have completed as is due and meet the song-lines and sacred speeches, and the making ready thereby of the offerings of sacred plume-wands (télikinawe) and sacred water (k‘yáline). Choose then, four youths, so young that they have neither known nor sinned aught of the flesh, and being of the Seed and Water kinties are meet to bear to the Shrine of the Middle, called Hépatinane, these offerings of good meaning and influence to the Earth-mother, the Maidens of Corn, and the Beloved of the Ancient Spaces. Them four ye shall accompany, ye fathers of the people, they in thy midst, bearing the things precious, the elder Master-priest of the Bow leading, and the other following, the elder before, the younger behind. Ye shall walk about the shrine four times, once for each region and the breath and season thereof, and set within the shrine and round about it with perfect speech and in order, as ye would regulate the plantings of grains, these signs of thine hearts and of the custom ye cherish. Rest ye contentedly thereafter until, with the final moon's full growing, ye await our return-coming. Ye and the others, fathers of this custom of the seed, shall then await us as for far-coming runners bearing messages of import, wait ye thus in the sacred gathering place of the north, which is the first, and which ye call Héin Kíwitsinan. There shall ye bide our coming in good and perfect council, that ye receive perfectly the perfected seed of seeds."
Again the father bent low, and Paíyatuma breathed upon him, and saying "Thus much it is finished ere I depart," turned him about and sped away so fleetly that none saw him when they went forth to see.
Beyond the first valley of the high plain to the southward, he set the four plume-wands in this wise: First, the yellow, he planted upright, and over it leaned, looking at it intently. And when it had ceased to flutter, lo! the eagle down on it leaned northward, but moved not. Then he thus set the blue wand and watched it, and the white wand; but the eagle down on them leaned to right and left and still northward, yet moved not thereafter.
Then farther on he planted the red wand, and breathing not, long watched it closely, bending low. Soon the soft down-plumes began to wave as though blown by the breath of some small creature; backward and forward, northward and southward they swayed, as if in time to the breath of one resting.
"Ha! 'tis the breath of my maidens in Summerland!" quoth Paíyatuma, "for the plume of the southland sways, soft though, to their gentle breathing. Lo! thus it is and thus shall it ever be when I set the down of my mists on the plains, and scatter my bright beads in the northland; summer shall go thither from afar, borne on the breaths of the Seed maidens, and where they breathe, warmth, health, showers and fertility shall follow with the birds of Summerland and the butterflies, northward over the world." This he said as he uprose and sped, by the magic of his knowledge how, all swiftly, far southward into the countries of Summerland; yea, swiftly and all silently as the soft breath he sought for, bearing his painted flute before him. And when he paused as though to rest, he played on his painted flute, and quickly butterflies and birds sought the dew of his breathings therefrom.
Them he sent forth to seek the Maidens, following swiftly, and long ere he found them he greeted them, with the music of his song-sound, as the People of Seed now greet them in the song of their dances.
And when the Maidens heard his music and saw his tall form advancing through their great fields of ready quickened corn, they plucked ears thereof, each of her kind, and with them filled their colored trays and over all spread broidered mantles—broidered in all bright colors and with the creature-signs of Summerland. From eldest to youngest they sallied forth to meet and to welcome him, still in their great fields of corn! Then he greeted them, each with the touch of his hands and the breath of his flute, and bade them prepare to follow him erewhile to the northland home of their deserted children.
Lo! when the time had come, by the magic of their knowledge how, they lightened themselves of all weariableness or lingerfulness, and in their foster-father's lead, his swift lead, sped back as the stars speed over the world at night time toward the home of our ancients. Yet at night and dawn only journeyed they, as the dead do and the stars also. Thus journeying and resting by the way, that the appointed days might be numbered, they came at evening in the full of the last moon to the place of the Middle, bearing as at first their trays of seed, each her own kind.
No longer a clown speaking and doing reversals of meanings—as do his children (followers) the Néwekwe, today,—was Paíyatuma, as he walked into the court of the dancers ere the dusk of the evening, and stood with folded arms at the foot of the bow-fringed ladder of priestly council, he and his attendant follower (ánsetone) Shútsuk‘ya, brother of Kwélele! Nay, he was tall and beautiful, and banded with his own mists, and as wings carried upright in his hands, under his folded arms, banded also, the wing-plumes right and left, of the turkey, wherewithal he had winged his way from afar leading the Maidens and followed as by his own shadow, by the black being of corn-soot, who cries with the voice of the frost-wind when the corn has grown aged and the harvest is taken away—Shútsuk‘ya.
And again, surpassingly beautiful were the Maidens clothed in the white cotton and broidered garments of Summerland, even as far walkers have said are appareled our lost others! And each in her place stood the Maidens.
Shrill now whistled Shútsuk‘ya, so that all the people around, onlooking, started and shuddered. Then upward from the place of gathering came the chief priest, bearing a vessel of sacred meal—for below were gathered within, waiting (all the night and day) the fathers of the people and those of the Seed and Water and the keepers of the sacred things, praying and chanting—and when he saw Paíyatuma, him he welcomed, scattering the sacred meal which contains the substance of the life not of daylight, down the ladder-rungs, and thence leading from the sky-hole along the four sides of the roof terrace of the Kíwitsinan leftwardly, and then rightwardly into the entrance place of the descending ladder where stood high its bow-fringed standards. And as the priest retired down the descending ladder, Paíyatuma stepped easily forward and up the sanctified road-way on the ascending ladder (thus, of sacred substance made for him), followed by Shútsuk‘ya, him only. Then walking to the line-mark of each region, prayed he, standing straight, consecrating it; and when each consecration was uttered, Shútsuk‘ya touched him with his wands and shrilly whistled once.
Then when the words were all said, Shútsuk‘ya shrilly whistled again, four times, each time touching Paíyatuma with the wands four times as he turned him about, and then signed him to come forward to the outer ascending ladder below the which waited the Maidens watching.
Then Paíyatuma reached down, and the Maiden-mother of the North, who was first, advanced to the foot of the ladder and lifted from off her head the beautiful tray of yellow corn, and this, Paíyatuma taking, presented to the regions, each in succession, praying the while, at the mark of each on the sacred line, and being signaled unto, each time, by the four-times repeated whistle of Shútsuk‘ya. Thus, the Priest of the North, made aware when the number of presentations was fully accomplished, came upward and received from the hands of Paíyatuma the tray of most sacred seed and breathed deeply therefrom, saying thanks and bearing it below.
Now was the Maiden of the North, by retiring to the end of the line of her sisters, to the south stationed; and the Maiden of the West was thus become first, and she advanced as her elder sister had, when Paíyatuma turned forward, and gave up her tray of the blue corn which thus also as before, when the presentations were fully accomplished, the Master-priest of the West received, and breathed from deeply and for it said thanks, and bore it below; and so, each in turn, the Maidens gave up their trays of precious seed; the Maiden of the South, the red, which the Master-priest of the South received; the Maiden of the East, the white, which the Master-priest of the East received; and so, the tray many-colored and the tray black, and last, yet first at last, the tray of all-color seed, which the Priestess of Seed and All, herself received. And now, behold! the Maidens stood as before, she of the North at the northern end, but with her face southward far looking, she of the West next, and lo! the seventh, last, southward, and standing thus, the darkness of the night fell around them; and as shadows in deep night, so these Maidens of the Seed of Corn, the beloved and beautiful, were seen no more of men.
And Paíyatuma stood alone, at last, for Shútsuk‘ya walked now behind the Maidens, whistling shrilly (as the frost-wind whistles when the corn is gathered away) among the lone canes and dry leaves of a gleaned field. And Paíyatuma descended the ladder, and stood in the fire-light with folded arms, in the midst of the fathers. And he spake unto them:
"Behold! with my lost Maidens, mothers to ye, I have returned; and finding ye gathered in good and perfect council according to my commandments and the approval of thy wisdom, I have restored unto ye with mine own hands, that which they else could not have given ye, the flesh of each made perfect in generative seed. This ye shall cherish, apart in kind, for all time, as the seed of all thy seed, and in so far as ye cherish it, verily it shall be multiplied!
"As ye have done in the days now measured, so also ye shall do in the days to come; ye shall keep the beautiful custom of the Mother-maidens of Corn, all in due season, preparing therefor strenuously. Dance in it, shall thy maidens, chosen of the Seed kinties; thus, as it were, ye shall again see the beautiful Mothers of Seed and as it were also, they shall renew the seed of each season, and therein shall ye gain in them again the preciousness of the Mother-maidens, yet lose them even thus gained, each year; choosing, therefore, each season newly, the Maidens of the Seed, that these who be lost as maidens be replaced as maidens in the replacing of the Mother-maidens.
"And ye shall keep, after each custom of the Corn Maidens, the flute custom of the Water Maidens, and after, in due season, the custom of this day also, the which I have shown unto ye. Having danced first with thy maidens of the Seed kin for the ripening of the corn, ye shall next dance with thy maidens and youth of the Water kin for the fertilizing of the seed, and after, in the full of the last moon thy Maidens of Corn shall bring the seed unto ye of the house, as ye have seen, that it be perfected; and they shall lead others maidens of other kins—not seven, but many times seven in number—who shall bring seed and the food thereof (for multiplied many times seven shall be the seed!) unto ye and thy younger brothers, that the seed be finished as the substance of flesh. Amongst my followers, also, some shall represent me and my attendant Shútsuk‘ya ‘hlímna of us; and they shall choose maidens of the Water kin ‘hlímna of the Flute maidens for the flute custom, and after, shall lead Maidens of the Seed ‘hlímna of the Mother-maidens, as we have this day led the Mother-maidens themselves unto thy presence; and as I have this day elevated, offered to the spaces and given ye from them, the seed, each kind, so shall they, in after time, give ye the seed, that ye sanctify it, ye and the good Kâ´kâ, for the people and the plantings of the spring time to come.
"For look ye, and hearken! Ye loved the custom of the Maidens, whence verily ye had life; yet amongst ye some held not preciously their persons, hence them ye shall see no more save in the persons of thine own maidens ‘hlímna of them, or in dreams or visions like thereto. For, lo! they have departed, since the children of men would seek to change the sustaining blessedness of their flesh into suffering humanity which sustains not but is sustained, and they would perish—even as the maidenhood of thy daughters must perish—and in the loving of men and the cherishing of men's children, lo! they, even they, would forget the cherishing of their beautiful seed-growing!
"Lo! as a mother of her own being and blood gives life and sustenance to her offspring, so have these given unto ye—for ye are their children—the means of life and sustenance. The Mother-maidens are gone, but lo! the seed of each is with ye! From the beginning of the newly come sun each year, ye shall treasure their gifts throughout the Moon Nameless, the Moon of the Sacred Fire and the Earth-whitening, the Moon of the Snow-broken Boughs, the Moon of the Snowless Pathways, the Moon of the Greater Sand-driving Storms, and the Moon of the Lesser Sand-driving Storms, shall ye treasure these gifts, with them, making perfect, by means of sacred observances of thy rites and the rites of the Kâ´kâ, the Seed of Seeds. Then in the new soil which the winter winds, hail, snow and water have brought unto ye the possessors of the múetone, ye shall bury in perfect order as I instruct ye, these gifts, their flesh, as ye bury the flesh of the dead. And as the flesh of the finished dead decays, so shall this flesh decay; but as from the flesh of the finished dead, the other-being (soul) in the night light of the Kâ´kâ springs forth, so from this flesh shall spring forth in the day light of the Sun-father, new being, like to the first, yet in sevenfold amplitude.
"Of this food shall ye ever eat and be bereft of hunger. Behold! beautiful and perfect were the Maidens, and as this their flesh, derived from them in beauty and by beautiful custom is perfect and beautiful, so shall it confer on those nourished of it, perfection of person, and beauty, like to that of those from whom it was derived, so long as like them their customs are those of Maidens."
"And now will I teach ye the customs and song of the planting," said Paíyatuma; and then first he sat him down and smoked the cigarette of relationship with the fathers of the Seed and Water kinties, and all night long until the dawn the songs sounded and the sacred instructions of the seed (tâ´a téusu haítosh nawe) sounded.
And in the gray mists of the morning Paíyatuma was hidden—and is seen no more of men.