While he was ill it was usual for him to lie with his head covered. There came a day when he heard the sound of voices, which he inferred were those of women. Uncovering his head he listened intently to learn something about the voices he heard. Then he [[650]]heard one woman addressing another: “What do you think of this matter? The man who dwells with us is very ill; truly he is in a wretched condition, and he lacks care and attention.” Then he heard the reply: “It is befitting, it would seem, that we assist him at once to recover his health, for we know that while he enjoyed good health it was customary for him to respect and honor us in his travels. This is, indeed, what he was wont to do: In whatever place he was traveling, on finding along the trail one of our sisters who had strayed or become lost, and so had become the victim of want, he would take her up and speak to her words of pity, saying: ‘Thou art in need and in distress; thou art lost on thy way, and there is no possibility for anyone except me to have mercy on thee.’ Then he would care for her. For this reason we should now repay him for all these acts of kindness by aiding him, since now it is he who is forsaken and in need of care.” The man who was ill now sat up with uncovered head, thinking, “I shall see them; I shall have a look at the two women who are conversing.” But he saw no one, and so was disappointed. For several days he overheard these two women talking, but he was not able to see any person around him.
There came a night, however, when the ill man had a dream, in which he saw a woman of low stature but of fine appearance, with beautiful long hair. In the dream she said to him: “I have been requested to come to you (do you know it?) to tell you that we will now aid you in your illness. We desire to have you stop thinking that you are about to die and that you are poor and wretched because you have no kindred or friends. Moreover, be of good courage, for you shall be well again before long, and shall again travel much. This, too, shall come to pass: A shower of rain shall come, whereupon you must arise and place some receptacle where the raindrops may fall into it, and all the water that falls into this receptacle you must drink. This shall suffice to cure you of your illness. It is we who are making a repayment of an obligation which is due you from us. We are merely doing our part in aiding you at this time, because you have so many times had compassion on us during the long time you have been traveling over the earth. For it was your wont when you were traveling on whatsoever paths they were, when you saw lying on the trail ‘Corn,’ ‘a Bean,’ or the ‘Seed of the Ancient Squash’—we are of course sisters—to take her up and have pity on her, saying: ‘Thou art lost and forsaken even on the trail.’ It is for these acts of kindness that we shall now, I say, repay thee.[449]
“Moreover, it shall come to pass that you will hear us when we sing and dance the Corn dances to give thanks that you are again to travel over the earth, for such is, indeed, our custom when we are happy. [[651]]
“Know this, too, that when mankind give attention to us, when we are born (sprout) out of the earth, and when they till the ground whereon we stand, we give thanks for this attention. Again, when they form the hills of earth around us, we also rejoice; then, too, when they enlarge the hills to accommodate our growing bodies we regularly give thanks by singing and dancing the Corn dances; and when they pluck the ears of corn, gather them in heaps in the middle of the field, husk them, and braid them into osteⁿʼsaʼs (corn-strings), and hang these on frames or lintels of poles, we also give thanks in like manner; and as soon as these strings have dried and they bring us into the lodges we give thanks and rejoice by singing and dancing Corn dances.
“Now, I bid you do this. Tell all human beings whom you shall meet that they, too, must sing and dance the Corn dances when they wish to express their thanksgiving at the time they are pleased to see us come to maturity again; and this is the reason that they must perform this ceremony. It is we, of course, who continue to assist you by furnishing that on which you human beings subsist. So be of good courage and cherish my words.”
Then the ill man awoke and verily he saw a rainstorm on the horizon which was approaching. He arose, and taking a bark bowl he set it outside of the lodge where the raindrops would fall into it. In a short time it began to rain and the raindrops soon filled the bowl. He proceeded at once to drink the rain water and began to recover his health.
The following night as he lay on his couch he heard the voices of women singing. He noticed that there had come on the drying poles in the lodge several strings of ears of corn and further that these strings swayed slightly to and fro, and that the singing proceeded from the grains of corn, in the guise of women, on the ears. Some of the words employed in these songs were: “Among the Flowers I am moving reverently,” “Among the Flowers I am singing and dancing;” and the women’s voices he heard saying: “The Fruit or Berries are ripe, the Fruit or Berries are ripe,” and many other songs of the Corn dances. Thereafter the sick man rapidly regained his wonted health and again traveled over the earth.
In time the man returned to his own people and related to them all his experiences, and he sang for them the songs that he had heard sung by the Corn women. It was at this time that the Council of Ancients—the Elders—of the people said publicly: “We are indeed fortunate to learn of this matter; and we must regularly perform this ceremony in the time to come.”
Not long after this event the man who had been ill again heard the singing of the Corn women; he heard them singing in the place [[652]]where the corn had been planted. Moreover, he saw them—a great company of Corn people, Bean people, and Squash people, and so far as he could see they were in all respects perfect human beings. They danced in a slow, gentle manner in imitation of the waving of the corn stalks as they stand in the ground. Women and girls took part in the dance.
The man again heard all the songs and so learned them. At once he told his people what he had seen and heard. Again the Council of Ancients said: “We must perform this ceremony, too, for this is part and parcel of the other.”