When all else was prepared, they made a shrine around their múetone (or medicine seed of hail and soil) their k‘yáetone (or medicine seed of the water and rain) and their chúetone (or medicine seed of grains). And around these, and reaching out toward the Sun before them, they set their plumed wands of message. For the plain was dry and barren, and they wanted fresh soil by the hail torrents, moisture by the rain, and growth of seed-substance, that they might the better exhibit their powers to these strangers; if perchance, in response to their labors and beseechings, these things would be vouchsafed them. Therefore, that the meaning of their beseechings might be the more plain and sure of favor, certain ones of the sage priests, sought out and placed the largest and most beautifully colored grass seeds they could find among the stores of their way-farings, in the gourd with the chúetone, and then cut from branches of the easy growing cottonwood and willow, gleaned from the ways of water, goodly wands which they plumed and painted, like in color to each kind of seed they had selected; yellow, green, red, white, black, speckled, and mottled; one for each side of the sacred gourd, one to be laid upon it, one to be laid under it, and one to be placed within it; and as soon as finished, thus they disposed the wands.
Now when night came, these master-priests took the chúetone—all secretly, whilst the others were drowsy—and carried it, with the plumed wands they had made, out into the plain, in front of the bower. There they breathed into these things the prayers and over them softly intoned the incantations which had been taught them in the new time of the world. Then they placed the chúetone on the ground of the plain and on each side of it, by the light of the seven great stars which were at that time rising bright above them, they planted one of the plumed wands with the seeds of its color; first, the brightest, yellow with the yellow grass seeds, on the north; then the blue with the green grass seeds, on the west; then the red with the red seeds, to the south, and the white with the white seeds to the east; but the other three plumed wands they could not plant, one above, the other below, and the last within the gourd; so looking at the stars they saw how that they were set, four of them as though around a gourd like their own, and three others as though along its handle! "Há! Chukwé!" said they. "'Tis a sign, mayhap, of the Sky-father!" whereupon they set each of the others in a line, the black one with its seeds of black, nearest to the sacred gourd below the handle; the speckled one with its spotted seeds next, on the other side of the handle, and the mottled one with its dappled seeds far out at the end of the handle, that it might (being of the colors of all the others) point out each of them, as it were, and lead them all!
And when, on the morrow, the watchers saw the plumes standing there all beautiful in the plain, and asked who planted them, and for what, the priests replied, "Verily they were planted in the night, while ye heedlessly drowsed, by the seven stars." Thereat the people, mistaking their meaning, exclaimed, "Behold! the seed wands of the stars themselves!" and they joyed in the omen that their prayers had been heard so far. And lo! during the eight days and nights there arose thick mists, hail and rain descended until torrents poured down from the mountains bringing new soil and spreading it evenly over the plain. And when on the morning of the ninth day the clouds rolled away, "Eluu!" shouted our fathers of the Seed kin to the stranger people; "Water and new soil bring we, where erst was barren hardness; yea, even grasses, tall and plumed as were our wands, and spiked with seed, for the grass seed had sprouted and the new wands taken root and grown, and now had long feathery blades and tall, tasseled stems, waving in the wind."
"Yea, verily!" cried the People of the First-growing-grass kin (Aik‘yaho-kwe), chief of the clans of Seed, "we are the People of the Seed!"
But the strangers, heeding not their boastings, replied, "Yea, verily, enough! It is well! Truly water and new soil ye have brought, and grasses growing great therefrom, yet ye have not brought forth new life therefor of the flesh of men or the seed of seeds! Come now, let us labor together, in order that what ye have begun may be perfected. New soil and the seed of its production, the seed of water, yea even the substance of seed itself we had not, yet of the seed of seed we are verily the people, and our maidens are the mothers thereof, as ye shall see."
Then they, too, set apart eight days, during which to prepare for their custom, and they further said, "That we may be perfect in the plenishing and generation of the seed of seeds, send us forth, O, ye comers, a youth of the kin of Water and of those who hold possession of the precious k‘yáetone, which give unto us likewise, that we join it to the chúetone ye have placed in the midst of the growing plants, according to our understanding of its meaning and relation. And let the youth be goodly and perfect and whole of seed."
Therefore the fathers of the people chose forth, it is said, Yápotuluha, of the clans of Water, foster child of the great Sun-priest Yanáuluha, and named of him. And into his hand they gave the k‘yáetone and certain of their wands of worship, and sent him to the strangers glorious to look upon. Now there were in the village of the stranger Seed people seven maidens, sisters of one another, virgins of one house, and foster children of Paíyatuma (the God of Dew) himself. And they were surpassingly beautiful, insomuch so that they were likened to the seven bright stars and are sung of in the songs of the Seed people and told of in their stories. They, too, were chosen and breathed upon by all the fathers and matrons of the Seed, and with the youth Yápotuluha, instructed in the precious rites and incantations of their custom. And during all the time of preparation rain fell as before, only gently and warm, and on the eighth day the matrons and fathers led the maidens and youth, all beautifully arrayed, down into the plain before the bower where watched the people and grew the grasses. And there they danced and were breathed of the sacred medicine seeds. All through the night backward and forward danced they to the song line of the elders, and in accordance therewith by the side of the growing plants, motioning them upward with their magic wands and plumes, as we, with implements of husbandry, encourage the growth upward of the corn plants today. As time went on, the matron of the dance led the youth and the first maiden apart, and they grasped, one on either side, the first plants, dancing around them, gently drawing them upward as they went, even as the Two Beloved had caused to grow the canes of the under-world. So also did the youth and each maiden in turn grasp the other plants in their turn, until all had grown to the tallness of themselves and were jointed where they had grasped them; yea, and leaved as with waving plumes of the macaw himself. And now, in the night, the keepers of the great shells (of the Badger kin), brought forth fire with their hands from roots, and kindled it in front of the bower toward the east, that its heat might take the place of the Sun and its light shine brightly on the dancers, making their acts verily alive; and as the dawn approached, the youth and first maiden were led apart as before by the Mother-making matron, and together embraced the first of the full grown plants, and so, in turn, the youth and each of the other maidens embraced the other plants.
And as they embraced the first plant, the fire flamed brightly, with the first catching and flush of the wood, and yellow was its light; and as they embraced the second plant, the flames were burning smokily with the fuller grasping of the wood, and blue was the light; and as they were embracing the third plant, the fire reached its fullness of mastery over the wood, and red was its light; and as they were embracing the fourth plant, the fire was fumeless and triumphant over the wood, and white was its light; and as they were embracing the fifth plant, the fire gave up its breath in clouds of sparks, and streaked, of many colors, was its light; and as they were embracing the sixth plant, the fire swooned and slept, giving more heat, as 'twere, than light, thus somber was the light, yet, as they were embracing the seventh plant, it wakened afresh, did the fire, in the wind of the morning, and glowed as does the late fire of the wanderer, with a light of all the colors.
Now, when the day dawned, lo! where the mid-persons of the youth and the maidens had touched most unitedly and warmly the plants, new parts appeared to the beholders, showing, through their coverings, many colors, soft hair shrouding them, as if to make precious their beauty.
Whilst the people still gazed at these, wondering, out from the Eastland came Paíyatuma and Ténatsali of the All-colored flowers (God of the Seasons), followed by Kwélele with his flame-potent fire-wand. Paíyatuma touched the plants with the refreshing breath of his flute; Ténatsali with the flesh-renewing breath of his flowers; Kwélele, with the ripening breath of his torch, whereby the new parts were hardened, some to fruitfulness; others, being too closely touched, burned to the very heat of generative warmth, unfruitful in itself, but fruitful making! Then, as Paíyatuma waved his flute, lo! following Ténatsali, the maidens and the attendant Kwélele went forth and disappeared in the mist of the morning. As they vanished, Paíyatuma turned to where, full in the light of the rising sun, stood the seven plants. Lithe and tall stood he there beside them like a far journeyer, and said to the awed watchers: