THE INDIAN IN LITERATURE — TEN KATE. 521 



customs, etc., of the Pueblo Indians, which she couched in a form 

 of high literary value. The following quotations will give an idea 

 of this excellent poem : 



We are the Ancient People ; 



Our father is the Sun ; 

 Our mother, the Earth, where the mountains tower 



And the rivers seaward run . . . 



Of the Corn-maids she sings : 



The dews that guard the Corn-maids, 



And the fields keep fair to view ; 

 But the Rainbow is false and cruel, 



For it ends the gentle showers, 

 And the opening leaves and the tender buds 



Like the ruthless worm devours, 

 And still its stolen tints are won 



From the blanching, withering flowers . . . 



With regard to Po'-shai-an-k'ya, whose role somewhat resembles 

 that of Hiawatha, this kind of Demiurgus, according to tradition, 

 returned to Shi-pa-pu-li-ma, "the mist enshrouded city," after he 

 had performed his task ; which the poet renders thus : 



His voice was sweet as the summer wind, 



But his robe was poor and old, 

 And, scorned of men, he journeyed far 



To the city the mists enfold, 

 • • • • . ... 



Unseen, as the summer wind departs, 



He vanished in mist away ! 



Some verses of the Song are full of pathos, rendering the lament 

 of a vanishing people : 



Words are dead and lips are dumb 



Our hopeless woe to speak. 



For the fires grow cold, and the dances fail, 



And the songs in their echoes die ; 



And what have we left but the graves beneath , 



And above the waiting sky? 



And further: 



Of the grandeur of our temple-walls 

 But mounds of earth remain, 

 And over our altars and our graves 

 Your towers rise proud and high ! 



Still another American woman writer has been inspired by the 

 romance of the Southwest, namely, Mrs. Marah Ellis Kyan, who 

 wrote the Indian Love Letters (1907) 12 and The Flute of the Gods 



12 A Dutch free translation of these Letters, with introduction and explanatory notes, 

 by Doctor ten Kate, was published in De Indische Gids of 1920 at Amsterdam. 



