68 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



him. " How fair its valleys! How far its mountains reach sky- 

 ward! And its forests, one could wander within these forever. No 

 one to watch, no one to follow," thought Gus-tah-ote, and once 

 again he gazed at the motionless rock with a sullen frown of con- 

 tempt as he walked forth from it into the wide earth. 



All through its plains of plenty and its forests of fulness he 

 traveled, yet neither a bird nor a beast nor a human was he, and 

 he grew lonely and strange in the new land life. In his loitering he 

 would tarry awhile with the animals, but they were absorbed in 

 their own, and there was no time for a stranger. Then to the birds 

 he wandered. They were nesting, and the days were too short, 

 the sun too fast to trouble with an unknown. He coaxed the forest. 

 Each tree had its own spirit which was leafing it and nourishing 

 its shadows, Gus-tah-ote was an intruder. All over the earth he 

 journeyed, no place offered shelter, no life would share with him. 



Thus was he despairing when the voice of the Rescuer whispered, 

 " Return to your rock where you can defy all the earth. The 

 waters may overflow you but they can not drown you ; the tempests 

 may strike you, they can not overthrow you; the sun may glance 

 at you, it can not burn you; the rains may fall heavy upon you, 

 they can not blind you; seas may drift to you and overwhelm you, 

 but they can not push you into their deep places; old age, who 

 hunts for his victims all over the earth, can not wrinkle you; death 

 can not pain nor claim you; unyielding and stanch, you will outlive 

 all the land, the seas and the skies! The rivers may shrink and 

 grow small at your feet; the forests will fall into the dust; the 

 whole earth will die and fold itself over and over anew; you only 

 are powerful and firm. The skies will change and the stars grow 

 dim and smaller; you will watch from your stronghold, unchanged 

 and changeless! " 



Gus-tah-ote listened. He had laughed in the rivers until he had 

 drifted lost in the sea; he had winged the great sky, gleeful in his 

 race with the clouds, to be tossed by the tempest and whirled to the 

 earth ; he had once sought the earth to find one vacant place which 

 called for a spirit, not one on the earth! 



In his rock rest he had seen the growing earth and sky. When 

 they were nameless infants he was guarding the valleys. From his 

 fastness he had known all these, and now they reared above him as 

 he skulked like a homeless coward beneath them. 



His rock? Yes! No more to wander to the vain things which 



would crumble and fall to the dust while he lingered beyond them. 



^And Gus-tah-ote, the Rock Spirit, dwells there content as over- 



