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.
THE PRESENTATION OF THE PERFECTED SEED TO THE FATHERS OF MEN, AND THE
PASSING OF THE MAIDENS OF SEED.
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.
THE INSTRUCTIONS OF PAÍYATUMA FOR THE ORDINANCES AND CUSTOMS OF THE
CORN PERFECTING.
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."