FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   >>  
e, the leader, had been born and had come to them; the Flute of the Ancient Gods he had carried as the Sign!--and as they whispered it to each other, their eyes had a new terror, and they sought wildly for reasons to justify themselves. He had come. They had choice, and they chose the new white brothers, and the new god promises! He had come;--and they had closed their hearts against his words--they had driven him away as in other days the Ancient Fathers had driven Po-se-yemo to the south:--for the gods only live where the hearts of men are true, and strong, and of faith! These things they had been told by the Ancients, but they remembered it now anew as they followed each other in silence to the hills, and to the white walls of Pu-ye--and to the tomb there newly built that the Woman of the Twilight might rest where her people had lived in the lost centuries. The portal of it was closed, and the sign of her order was cut in the rock at the portal. The priests made many prayers, but no trace of the lost Ruler could they find. All was silence in that place of the dead, but for the song of a bluebird flitting from one ancient dwelling to another. Younger men went far to the west where the people of the Hopi mesas had loved him;--somewhere in the world he must be found! But the Hopi people mourned also, for they had heard the strange call of a flute across the sands in the night time, and had feared to answer to the call, and in the morning there was no sound of the flute, and no priest of the flute to be found:--only a trail across the desert sand--and the trail led the way of the sun trail, and the Winds of the Four Ways blew, and swept it from sight--and they knew in their hearts that Tahn-te had sent his good-bye call ere he went from the land of men to the land of gods. They knew also that he went alive--for the god-born do not die. This word the couriers took back to the Te-hua people of the Rio Grande, and fires were lit for him as they have been lighted for centuries that the god Po-se-yemo might know that their faith in the valley of the great river was yet strong for the ancient gods. Three centuries of the religion of the white strangers have not made dim the signal fires to those born of the sky! The walls of Povi-whah have melted again into Mother Earth. Silent are the groves where the Ancient Others carved their homes from the rock walls of the heights. Wings of vivid blue flit in the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   >>  



Top keywords:

people

 
hearts
 
centuries
 

Ancient

 
ancient
 
strong
 
silence
 

portal

 

driven

 

closed


feared
 
desert
 

priest

 
morning
 
answer
 

leader

 
Mother
 

melted

 

Silent

 

groves


heights

 

Others

 

carved

 

signal

 

Grande

 

couriers

 

lighted

 
religion
 
strangers
 

valley


remembered

 

Ancients

 
things
 

whispered

 

Twilight

 

promises

 

wildly

 

reasons

 

brothers

 
choice

justify

 

sought

 

Fathers

 

terror

 
carried
 

Younger

 

dwelling

 

bluebird

 

flitting

 

mourned