The Fire Bird Part 6

And thou knowest how the mighty Chiefs Rode with bowed, sorrowing heads before me.

Thou knowest how Star Face, my man, Stood stricken and mourning at our doorway, His empty hands turned down in sign of torture.

Thou knowest the tale the old wise man made Of how her glad voice chanted with the birds And her little hands clamoured and begged, When they pa.s.sed the white flowered still pool, The magic ornament of the valley breast, Where first she saw the flowers of dawn growing.

Thou knowest how she whimpered, How she reached pleading hungry hands, How she fought to be put down to pick them.

On his pony, Star-Face left her with the Braves, While he made the welcome sign talk to the visitors, While he spoke the brothers' friendly greeting, While he smoked the contented peace pipe That warmed the hearts of our visitors.

Thou knowest how she turned his war pony And flew back over the trail, wind driven.

Thou knowest how the frightened hunters Rode at racing speed to catch her, And how they saw only one little hand Not yet swallowed by the sand mouths The living sign of coming mourning, Tightly clutching the white flower of destruction With its lying heart of the gold of happiness.

And thou knowest how three of our young Braves Went down in the fierce sand mouths, Fighting with full man strength to save her, Until the mighty Chief, her grandfather, cried: "It is enough. The Great Spirit has spoken.

He has taken her back to the land of short shadows.

We cannot have her. I have said it!"

Medicine Man, O Medicine Man, Is there no magic in the toluache lily?

Is there no medicine in thy heaped storehouse, Fat with all the harvest of field and forest, That will quench the flaming fire bird, That will ease its coal hot scorching?

Medicine Man, O Medicine Man, Is there no magic granted by the Great Spirit That will take from my tortured hands This curse of snowy sweetness?

Call Couy-ouy and ask if she has finished.

Tell her she has taken my all, my last little fatling, Ask her, O Medicine Man, ask her in mercy To send you High Magic from the Spirits, That will empty my hands of the white flower, That will ease from my sickened heart The gnawing flame of the Fire Bird.

The names of the tribes used in "The Fire Bird" are fict.i.tious. The country described begins in the land of the Salish tribes of Alaska, runs south to the lowest extent of British Columbia, and east to the vicinity north of North Dakota. All tribes and country described are Alaskan or Canadian.

THE END