cnsHiNQj THE CORN MAIDEN CHERISHING. 431 



tbey were awed thereby, and bethought that the music was, mayhap, 

 that of the ghosts of ancient men who had dwelt above in the times 

 of the high waters; but it was lar more beautiful, at least, than the 

 music of the 'Hlahekwe singers when danced the Corn maidens. 



Others said yea, and lingering near they had seen, as the day- 

 light increased, white clouds roll u])ward from the grotto in Tliunder 

 mountain like to the mists that leave behind them the dew itself, and 

 as the sun rose, lo! withiTi them even as they faded, the bright gar- 

 ments of the Rainbow-women might sometimes be seen fluttering, and 

 the broidery and paintings of these dancers of the mists were more 

 beautiful than the costumes of even the Maidens of Corn. 



THE COUNCIL OF THE FATHERS THAT THE PERFECTION OF 

 THE CUSTOM BE ACCOMPLISHED. 



Then were the fathers of the People-priests of the House of Houses 

 sore displeased at these murmurings of their children, and bade them 

 to be hushed; yet they pondered, and bethought themselves how to 

 still these foolish children yet more completely, so that the precious 

 Mothers of Corn be not made sad by their plaints. 



"What is this ye tell us?" said they. "These things be to the simple 

 as the wind and other mo vings, speechless; but to us, they be signs, 

 even as erst the warnings of the under-world were signs to our fathers 

 the beloved, and ourselves, that we seek still further the Middle, so are 

 these things signs to us. Stay, therefore, thy feet with patience, 

 while we devise that ye be made content and happy." Then to one 

 another they said, "It may well be Paiyatuina, the liquid voices his 

 flute and the flutes of his players that they tell of. Come now, we will 

 await the time of our custom and then learn if iierchaiice our hearts 

 guess aright." 



THE OBSERVANCE OF THE 'HLAHEKWE CUSTOM, OR DANCE OF 

 THE CORN MAIDENS. 



Now when the time of ripening corn was near, the fathers ordered 

 Iirejiaration for the 'Hlahekwe, or dance of the Corn maidens. 



When the days of preparing had been well nigh numbered, the 

 old ones, even the Ka'yemiishi themselves who had come with the 

 KiVka (subject now to the prayerful breaths of the priest-fathers of 

 the people) in the spring and summer times of the Ka'k'okshi dances, 

 came forth yet again from the west, and with fun and much noise of 

 mouth, made — as for his sister their father had first made — a bower of 

 cedar. But this bower they built, not in the open plain, but in the 

 great court of the town where the dances and customs of the Ka'ka 

 were held. For in these days the people and the kinties of Seed no 

 longer came as strangers to the abode of other people, hence builded 

 not their bower in the plain, but in the plaza of tiieir own town. Ami 

 the Ka'yenuishi diligently collected cedar-boughs and rafter-poles 



