rock; then
Juanna leapt to the plain, Otter following her. For twenty yards or so
she walked in silence, holding the dwarf by the hand; then suddenly she
burst into singing wild and sweet. This was the refrain of the sacred
song which she sang in the ancient language of the People of the Mist,
the tongue that Soa had taught her as a child:

"I do but sleep.
Have ye wept for me awhile?
Hush! I did but sleep.
I shall awake, my people!
I am not dead, nor can I ever die.
See, I have but slept!
See, I come again, made beautiful!
Have ye not seen me in the faces of the children?
Have ye not heard me in the voices of the children?
Look on me now, the sleeper arisen;
Look on me, who wandered, whose name is the Dawning!
Why have ye mourned me, the sleeper awakened?"

Thus she sang, ever more sweetly and louder, till her voice rang
through the still air like the song of a bird in winter. Hushed were the
companies of the Great Men as she drew towards them with slow gliding
steps--hushed with fear and wonder, as though her presence awoke a
memory or fulfilled a promise.

Now she was in front of their foremost rank, and, halting there, was
silent for a moment. Then she changed her song.

"Will ye not greet me, children of my children?
Have ye forgotten the promise of the dead?
Shall I return to the dream-land whence I wander?
Will ye refuse me, the Mother of the Snake?"

The soldiers looked upon one another and murmured each to each. Now she
saw that they understood her words and were terror-stricken by them.
For another moment there was silence, then suddenly the three priests or
medicine-men, who had drawn near together, passed through the ranks and
stood before her, accompanied by the warrior-chief.

Then one of them, the most aged, a man who must have numbered ninety
years, spoke in the midst of an intense silence. To Juanna's joy, as
they had understood her, so she understood him, for his language was the
same that Soa taught her many years before, and in which, for the sake
of practice, they had always conversed together for the last two months.

"Art thou woman, or spirit?" asked the ancient priest.

"I am both woman and spirit," she answered.

"And he with thee, he whom we know of"--went on the priest, pointing
tremblingly to Otter--"is he god or man?"

"He is both god and man," she answered.

"And those yonder; who are they?"