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“Oh You! Goddess of the stars You––who gives the life! Why is there for me false magic? Mother mine of the starry skirt Why for me the darkened star? I, Master of spells, call to you! Ho:––there! It is I! Green and black spirit of power Seek elsewhere your victims! I seek the light––I find the light! Mother mine of the starry skirt I find the light! I––Master of spells!” |
He was no longer merely a singer of prayers now. The dance before the Ancient gods had begun as the first stars glimmered in the blue.
After many hours of the dance all the world drifts far. There is nothing real left but the circle where the prayer is, and the space where the feet touch in the dull pad-pad on the trail to the swoons where visions come.
A lone figure chanting breathless things:––not aloud now! The utterance is only broken whispers––only a god could read the meaning of them!
But he did not feel alone. All the Lost Others were back of him looking on from the dusk of the piñon boughs, and there to the right, ever in shadow, was a Presence! It stood close to the rock wall. The arms were folded, the line of the body strong and erect. The face was a hidden face, but if he––Tahn-té, faltered in the lines of the prayers,––or sank in the dance before the time––then he felt that the phantom there would become real, and the face would be seen, and that strong Thing would come forward––it would dance for jealous ghosts the dance of triumph––it would wipe out in mockery the unfinished homage to the gods!
The dawn came, and Tahn-té danced the stars of morning into the glow of the sun. The prayers had 127 been all said, and the Watcher no longer stood by the rock!
Tahn-té saw nothing now but the glare of the sun on the rock wall––a spot of light in the circle of black piñon.
He no longer even whispered. His moving arms seemed no longer a part of him––it was as if numbness was there. His feet moved mechanically––not able to lift themselves more quickly––neither able to cease by his own will.
The Trues were watching him now, waiting to help. There was the white bear of the North and the mountain lion of the East. There was the wildcat of the West, and the serpent of the South. There was the eagle of the upper world, and the mystic creature of the earth home which tells the weather wizards of the number of winter days.