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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



shade as they fringe to the sun. When the tassels plume, O-na-tah 

 is crowning the maize with her triumph sign and the rustling 

 leaves spear to the harvest breeze. 



The custom of " blessing the fields " is still continued among 

 some of the Iroquois. When the leaf of the dogwood is " the size 

 of a squirrel's ear," the planting season has come. Before the 

 dawn of the first day of the planting, a virgin girl is sent to the 

 fields, where she scatters a few grains of corn to the earth as she 

 invokes the assistance of the Spirit of the Corn for the harvest. 



GUS-TAH-OTE, SPIRIT OF THE ROCK 



Since the beginning of the earth, when the Sky Woman descended 

 to the back of the Turtle, the strong rock had overhung the valley, 

 and since that beginning, Gus-tah-ote, 1 the Spirit, had been im- 

 prisoned within its silent majesty. 



Gus-tah-ote had seen all the creations of earth grow and set 

 themselves in place. He had seen each spirit of the animals assigned 

 to its duty and power and had waited with observing patience till, 

 by the law of transmigration, he too had been proffered his choice 

 of change, whether to the river, or sea, or land or forest or sky. 

 He could enter them, and whichever he might choose as his future 

 abode, should be his. 



" The majestic river flows free through its broad lands; I have 

 looked down upon it for ages. There, no one would dispute my 

 possessions," thought Gus-tah-ote. " I will try." 



As he emerged from the rock, he trod his new way bold and 

 fearlessly strong and slipped into the river. 



Down the valleys sped he, and the rhyming brooks echoed back 

 his free song of joy. Through rocky gorges he tossed the foaming 

 waves to the sky, and they came back to him rainbowed with 

 sunbeams. 



He wound around towering mountains and they lowered their 

 peaks and wrapped him in their shadows. 



Down a steep fall he leaped, and exulted in rapturous gladness 

 as he tangled the waves into combating rivals. 



Through stately forests he floated, and the fragant trees dipped 

 low their branches as majestically he sped through their silences. 



On and on, restlessly drifting, the ambitious river grew broader 

 till no more Gus-tah-ote saw its green borders. Past the mountains 



'Meaning "standing rock." 



