U-u-u-u—
U-u-u-u-a!”
As the song floated down from on high, “Save us! By our eyes!” exclaimed the people. “The Eagle and the youth! They are escaping; they are leaving us!”
And so the word went from mouth to mouth, and from ear to ear, until the whole town was gazing at the Eagle and the youth, and the song died away in the distance, and the Eagle became smaller and smaller, winding its way upward until it was a mere speck, and finally vanished in the very zenith.
The people shook their heads and resumed their work, but the Eagle and the youth went on until at last they came to the great opening in the zenith of the sky. In passing upward by its endless cliffs they came out on the other side into the sky-world; and still upward soared the Eagle, until it alighted with its beloved burden on the summit of the Mountain of Turquoises, so blue that the light shining on it paints the sky blue.
“Huhua!” said the Eagle, with the weariness that comes at the end of a long journey. “We have reached our journey’s end for a time. Let us rest ourselves on this mountain height of my beloved world.”
The youth descended and sat by the Eagle’s side, and the Eagle, raising its wings until the tips touched above, lowered its head, and catching hold of its crown, shook it from side to side, and then drew upon it, and then gradually the eagle-coat parted, and while the youth looked and wondered in love and joy, a beautiful maiden was uncovered before him, in garments of dazzling whiteness, softness, and beauty. No more beautiful maiden could be conceived than this one,—bright of face, clear and clean, with eyes so dark and large and deep, and yet sharp, that it was bewildering to look into them. Such eyes have never been seen in this world.
“Come with me, my youth—you who have loved me so well,” said she, approaching him and reaching out her hand. “Let us wander for a while on this mountain side and seek the home of my people.”
They descended the mountain and wound round its foot until, looking up in the clear light of the sky-world, they beheld a city such as no man has ever seen. Lofty were its walls,—smooth, gleaming, clean, and white; no ladders, no smoke, no filth in any part whatsoever.
“Yonder is the home of my people,” said the maiden, and resuming her eagle-dress she took the youth on her back again, and, circling upward, hovered for a moment over this home of the Eagles, then, through one of the wide entrances which were in the roof, slowly descended. No ladders were there, inside or outside; no need of them with a people winged like the Eagles, for a people they were, like ourselves—more a people, indeed, than we, for in one guise or the other they might appear at will.