cDSHiNol MOURNING FOR THE CORN MAIDENS. 437 



screamed lustily, striving to bide 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 droi) 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 ftithers, relat- 

 ing 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 whirl- 

 wind. 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 tlew 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. 



THE SEEKING OF THE MAIDENS OF CORN BY 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 lind their maidens so white and beautiful. 



