"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, O, 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 summon 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 head over its sacred completeness and beauty. Then he took up another, that of the west, then the red of the south and the white of the east. And gathering them in his arms he said, turning to go, "Now verily we approach."
As he thus turned to go, Pékwina the master, Speaker of the Sun, who, all wise, well knew the meaning of these lying speeches, arose, and taking two plumes, the banded wing-tip feathers of the turkey, the right and the left, shifted them as he advanced toward Paíyatuma, taking the left one in his right hand and the right one in his left hand. And nearing Paíyatuma he stroked him with the tips of the feathers, upward, breathing from them each time. Four times he stroked him, and then laid the feathers on his lips. And Paíyatuma spat upon them and breathed upon them, and all the people spat by his sign of command, uprising. Then the master-priest took the right feather in his right hand and the left feather in his left, and casting abroad the lying spittle, himself spat lightly and blew upon the feathers, and with them stroked the lips, then the person, of Paíyatuma, this time downward, breathing upon them. And this he did four times, and the face of Paíyatuma grew grave, and he lifted himself upward; and when he had so uplifted himself, lo! he was aged and grand and straight, as is a tall tree shorn by lightnings. Then placing the plume wands in the hands of the father, he took the banded plumes from him and breathed in from them, and out on the hands of the father, and folding his arms held upright in each hand the feather pertaining thereto. Then he spake:
"Thanks this day, thou father of the people. Thou art wise of thought and good of heart, divining that my evil of speech and act were but the assumption of the evils in thy children who, had they not turned false to good and fickle of their duties commanded, had else been followers of thee as are the fawns unerringly followers of the deer in the mountains and plains; and whose falsity, therefore lyingly, as it were, I did take unto myself and spit forth that they might be turned unto thee yet again and set straight in the paths of right commandment. From out of me, haply, thou hast now withdrawn the breath of reversal, and from out of me the speech of lying, even as thy children have spat forth, by my will and example, their wronging of commandments.
"Thanks this day; and therefore, in that ye, O, ye fathers, have kept thine hearts steadfastly right and straight of inclination, therefore will we show unto ye the light of our favor.
"Verily I will summon from Summerland, for there methinks they bide, once more the beautiful maidens, that ye look once more upon them and make offering in plumes of sacrifice meet for them, and that they consummate the seedfulness of the seed of seeds, presenting them all perfected, to ye; for lost are they as dwellers amongst ye, even as I warned ye aforetime they would be, if not held precious of person.
"Disperse, therefore, from this thy custom when ye shall have completed as is due and meet the song-lines and sacred speeches, and the making ready thereby of the offerings of sacred plume-wands (télikinawe) and sacred water (k‘yáline). Choose then, four youths, so young that they have neither known nor sinned aught of the flesh, and being of the Seed and Water kinties are meet to bear to the Shrine of the Middle, called Hépatinane, these offerings of good meaning and influence to the Earth-mother, the Maidens of Corn, and the Beloved of the Ancient Spaces. Them four ye shall accompany, ye fathers of the people, they in thy midst, bearing the things precious, the elder Master-priest of the Bow leading, and the other following, the elder before, the younger behind. Ye shall walk about the shrine four times, once for each region and the breath and season thereof, and set within the shrine and round about it with perfect speech and in order, as ye would regulate the plantings of grains, these signs of thine hearts and of the custom ye cherish. Rest ye contentedly thereafter until, with the final moon's full growing, ye await our return-coming. Ye and the others, fathers of this custom of the seed, shall then await us as for far-coming runners bearing messages of import, wait ye thus in the sacred gathering place of the north, which is the first, and which ye call Héin Kíwitsinan. There shall ye bide our coming in good and perfect council, that ye receive perfectly the perfected seed of seeds."
Again the father bent low, and Paíyatuma breathed upon him, and saying "Thus much it is finished ere I depart," turned him about and sped away so fleetly that none saw him when they went forth to see.