440 ZUJil CREATION MYTHS. [eth.ann. 13 



disturbed. "Why come ye not?" said he, "cowards and f'onowers 

 of the people!" 



"Nay, but we are Priests of the Bow, the twain who lead them, 

 father, and we-do come." 



" Nay, but ye do not come! " 



"Yea, verily we do come, and to seek thy favor, asking that ye 

 accompany us to the council of the elders," said the two priests. 



" Still I say ye nay, and that ye are children, all ; and that if ye did 

 come, ye could not summon me, and that if ye did summon me, go 

 would 1 not, forsooth, to a council of little Children ; nay, not I ! " said he, 

 rising and preparing forthwith to follow them, as it were, but immedi- 

 ately taking the lead, and striding rudely into the presence of the 

 fathers whom he greeted noisily and with laughter like one distraught, 

 and without dignity or shame. 



"My poor little children," said he to the aged priests and the white 

 haired matrons, "good the night to ye all" (albeit in full dawning); 

 "ye fare happily, I see, which peri)lexes me with sorrow." 



" Comest thou, father?" said the chief ])riest; "pity thou our shame 

 and sorrow." 



"Father yourself; nay, not I!" 



"Father," said the chief priest once more, "verily we are guilty, but 

 lo ! yet the more sad from nuich seeking in vain for our maidens the 

 mothers of seed; and we have summoned thee to beseech the light 

 of thy wisdom and favor, earnestly, O, father, notwithstanding our 

 fault which thou thyself warned us in olden time to beware, yet do we 

 beseech thee!" 



"Ha! how good that I find ye so happy, guileless, arrogant and so 

 little needing of my counsel and helping." 



"But we beseech the light of thy favor, (), father, and aid in the 

 finding of our beautiful maidens." 



" Oh that is all, is it! But why find that which is not lost, or sum- 

 mon those who will not come! Even if they were lost and would come, 

 look now ! I would not go to seek them. And if I went to seek them I 

 could not find them, and if I found them and called them they would 

 not hearken and follow, and even if they would I should bid them bide 

 in Summerland if they were there, and tell them ye cared naught for 

 their presence, having too preciously cherished them." 



"Lo, now!" said he, looking down and at the fathers; "I see that 

 thine old ones, those whom ye follow, are all wise, while ye have been 

 foolish and negligent, not preparing sacredly the plumes of the spaces, 

 nor setting them in order before the uplifted terrace, nor yet here behind 

 the winding lines of the seed trays and the walkers by them," said he 

 as he stooped to pluck up the very plumes he had said were not there 

 and withal in front of the reclining terrace and the straight rows of 

 patient sitters. One — the yellow, that of the north — he took, and 

 breathed thereon. "Evil, all evil and ill made," quoth he, shaking his 



