cusHiNCi] BESEECHING OF PAIYATUMA. 443 



into the couutries of SuiiiiiKnlaiid; yea, swittly aiul all silently as the 

 soft breath he sought for, bearing his painted tlute before him. And 

 when he paused as though to rest, he played on his painted flute, and 

 quickly butterflies and birds sought the dew of his breathings therefrom. 

 Them he sent forth to seek the Maidens, following swiftly, and long 

 ere he found them he greeted them with the music of his song-sound, 

 as tlie People of Seed now greet them in the song of their dances. 



THE FINDING OF THE MAIDENS OF CORN IN SUMMERLAND. 



And when the Maidens heard his music and saw his tall form 

 advancing through their great fields of ready (quickened corn, they 

 plucked ears thereof, each of her kind, and with them fllled their 

 colored trays and over all spread broidered mantles — broidered in all 

 bright colors and with the creatui-e-sigus of Summerland. From 

 eldest to youngest they sallied forth to meet and to welcome him, still 

 in their great tields of corn ! Then he greeted them, each with the touch 

 of his hands and the breath of his flute, and bade them prepare to fol- 

 low him e.rewhile to the uorthland home of their deserted children. 



THE RETURN OF THE MAIDENS OF CORN WITH PAIYATUMA. 



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 Newekwe, today, — was Paij-atuma, 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 (dnsetone) Shutsuk'ya, brother 

 of Kw^lele! 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 — Shiitsuk'ya. 



And again, surpassingly beautiful were the Maidens clothed in the 

 white cotton and broidered garments of Summerland, even as far 



