When, up the trail of the river, they had some time passed Mátsaki,
they heard the sound of a drum and strains of song now and then echoing
down from Thunder mountain. Then they knew that the sounds came from
the Cavern of the Rainbow, and so hastened forward; and as they neared
the entrance, mists enshrouded them, and they knew now also that verily
Paíyatuma was there. Then they called to know if there were gathering
within. The singing ceased, and they were bidden to enter and sit. As
they did so, Paíyatuma came forward to them and said:
"Ye come well. I have commanded the singers to cease and the players to
draw breath from their flutes, that we might hearken to the messages ye
bear, since for naught never stranger visits the place of a stranger."
"True," replied the two, "our fathers have sent us to seek and greet
ye, it having been declared by our children that thy song-sounds and
the customs thereof so far surpass our own, even those of our beloved
Maidens, makers of the seed of seeds."
"Ah, well!" replied he, "thus ever is it with men, children, verily!
Athirst ever are they for that which is not or which they have not. Yet
it is well that ye come, and it shall be as ye wish. Sit ye yet longer,
watch and listen."
To the left, grouped around a great world-bowl, clad in broidered
cotton vestment, were a splendid band of players, long flutes in their
hands and the adornments of god-priests on their faces and persons. In
their midst, too, was a drummer and also a bearer of the song-staff;
aged, they, and dignified with years.
Paíyatuma scattered a line of pollen on the floor, and folding his
arms strode to the rear of the cavern, then turned him about and with
straightened mien (_tsámo‘hlanishi_), advanced again. Following him,
lo, and behold! came seven maidens beauteous like to the Maidens of
Corn, but taller and fainter of form. Like to them also in costume,
yet differing somewhat in the hue of the mantles they wore. And in
their hands they carried, not tablets of the sun, moon, and each her
star with cross symbol of the Corn priests above them, but, verily,
wands of cottonwood from the branchlets and buds of which tiny clouds
flowed forth.
"These be the sisters of our Maidens of Corn, of the House of the
Stars, seen these too, as they, so these more faintly, as, when above
are seen the stars of the House of Seven, others seven are seen below
in the waters. Like in form of gesture is their dance custom, but
fertile not of the seed, but of the water of life wherewith the seed is
quickened," said Paíyatuma.
He lifted his flute, then took his place in the line of the dancers,
as the _yä´poto_ does in the line of the Corn dance. The drum sounded
until the cavern shook as with thunder. The flutes sang and sighed as
the wind in a wooded canyon whilst still the storm is distant. White
mists floated up from the wands of the maidens and mingled with the
breath of the flutes over the terraced world-bowl, above which sported
the butterflies of Summerland, about the dress of the Rainbow in the
strange blue light of the night.
Awed and entranced with the beauty of it were the Priests of the Bow,
insomuch that when they arose to go they feared to speak their further
message. But Paíyatuma, smiling, gave them his breath with his hands
and said, "Go ye the way before, telling the fathers of our custom, and
straightway we will follow."
THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE COMING OF PAÍYATUMA AND HIS PEOPLE OF THE
FLUTE.
Then silently the Priests of the Bow returned as they had come, and
entering the dance-court and bower, bowed low and breathed over
the hands of the fathers and by them being breathed and smoked in
turn, told of what they had seen and listened to in the Cave of the
Rainbow. But the watchers had grown weary, and only the fathers heard
and understood. While the people nodded their heads all drowsily,
some sleeping, the leaders arose as their father ancients had arisen
on that night of the birth of Corn in the olden time, and carried the
sacred gourds aside and placed them around a great world-bowl wherein
was water, and over them in secret (as in the olden time those
fathers-ancients had done with the prayer-wands and grass seeds, so
now) they performed rites, and said mystic prayer-words. And in the
bowl they put dew of honey and sacred honey-dust of corn-pollen, and
the ancient stones--ancient of water whence water increases. Then, to
the left and northward side they placed the bowl and with it a great
drum jar, and spread blankets as for singers other than those already
sitting on the southern side.
After that they sat them down again, and then the Priests of the Bow
signed their guardian younger brothers to bestir the people assembled
that they might sit the more seemly for the coming, mayhap, of precious
strangers.