Part 1 (2/2)

Gra.s.s-Bush-and-Blossom led him to another corner, and showed him crest helmets, and wooden armour; she showed him coppers like red rhododendron blooms, and plumes of eagles' wings. She gave him clubs of whalebone to handle, and cedar trumpets which blow a sound cool and sweet as the noise of bees. But Many Swans found no ease in looking save at her arms between the bracelets, and his trouble grew and pressed upon him until he felt strangled.

She led him farther and showed him a canoe painted silver and vermilion with white figures of fish upon it, and the gunwales fore and aft were set with the teeth of the sea-otter. She lifted out the paddles, the blades were shaped like hearts and striped with fire-hues. She said, ”Choose. These are mine and my grand-mother's. Take what you will.” But Many Swans was filled with the glory of her standing as a young tree about to blossom, and he took her and felt her sway and: fold about him with the tightness of new leaves. ”This” -- said Many Swans, ”this -- for am I not a man!” So they abode and the day ran gently past them, slipping as river water, and evening came, and someone entered, darkening the door.

Then Gra.s.s-Bush-and-Blossom wrapped her cedar-bark skirt about her and sprang up, and her silver and copper ornaments rang sweetly with her moving. The-One-Who-Walks-All-Over-the-Sky looked at Many Swans. ”You have not waited,” she said. ”Alas! It is an evil beginning. My son, my son, I wished to love you.” But he was glad and thought: ”It is a querulous old woman, I shall heed her no more than the snapping of a fire of dead twigs.”

The old woman went behind the door and hung up something. It pleased him. It was s.h.i.+ning. When he woke in the night, he saw it in the glow of the fire. He liked it, and he liked the skins he lay on and the woman who lay with him. He thought only of these things.

In the morning, the old woman unhooked the s.h.i.+ning object and went out, and he turned about to his wife and said sharp, glad words to her and she to him, and the sun shone into the house until evening, and in the night again he was happy, because of the thing that glittered and flashed and moved to and fro, clas.h.i.+ng softly on the wall.

The days were many. He did not count them. Every morning the old woman took out the s.h.i.+ning thing, and every evening she brought it home, and all night it shone and cried ”Ching-a-ling” as it dangled against the wall.

Moons and moons went by, no doubt. Many Swans did not reckon them out. Was there an earth? Was there a sky? He remembered nothing. He did not try. And then one day, wandering along the street of carved houses, he heard a song. He heard the beat of rattles and drums, and the shrill humming of trumpets blown to a broken rhythm:

”Haioo'a! Haioo!

Many salmon are coming ash.o.r.e, They are coming ash.o.r.e to you, the post of our heaven, They are dancing from the salmon's country to the sh.o.r.e.

I come to dance before you at the right-hand side of the world, overtowering, outs.h.i.+ning, surpa.s.sing all. I, the Salmon!

Haioo'a! Haioo!”

And the drums rumbled like the first thunder of a year, and the rattles pattered like rain on flower petals, and the trumpets hummed as wind hums in round-leafed trees; and people ran, jumping, out of the Spring Salmon house and leapt to the edge of the sky and disappeared, falling quickly, calling the song to one another as they fell so that the sound of it continued rising up for a long time.

Many Swans listened, and he recollected that when the Spring Salmon jump, the children say: ”Ayuu! Do it again!” He thought of his children and his wife whom he had left on the earth, and wondered who had brought them meat, who had caught fish for them, and he was sad at his thoughts and wept, saying: ”I want to shoot birds for my children. I want to spear trout for my children.”

So he went back to his house, and his feet dragged behind him like nets drawn across sand.

He lay down upon his bed and grieved, because he had no children in the sky, and because the wife of his youth was lost to him. He would not eat, but lay with his head covered and made no sound.

Then Gra.s.s-Bush-and-Blossom asked him: ”Why do you grieve?”

But he was silent. And again she said: ”Why do you grieve?” But he answered nothing. And she asked him many times, until at last he told her of his children, of his other wife whom he had left, and she was pitiful because she loved him.

When the old woman came, she also said: ”What ails your husband that he lies there saying nothing?” And Gra.s.s-Bush-and-Blossom answered: ”He is homesick. We must let him depart.”

Many Swans heard what she said, and he got up and made himself ready. Now the old woman looked sadly at him. ”My son,” she said, ”I told you it was a bad beginning. But I wish to love you.

Choose among these things what you will have and return to your people.”

Many Swans pointed to the s.h.i.+ning thing behind the door and said, ”I will have that.” But the old woman would not give it to him. She offered him spears of bone, and yew bows, and arrows winged with ducks' feathers. But he would not have them. She offered him strings of blue and white sh.e.l.ls, and a copper canoe with a stern-board of copper and a copper bailer. He would not take them.

He wanted the thing that glittered and cried ”Ching-a-ling” as it dangled against the wall. She offered him all that was in the house.

But he liked that great thing that was s.h.i.+ning there. When that thing turned round it was s.h.i.+ning so that one had to close one's eyes. He said: ”That only will I have.” Then she gave it to him saying: ”You wanted it. I wished to love you, and I do love you.”

She hung it on him. ”Now go home.”

Many Swans ran swiftly, he ran to the edge of the sky, there he found the land of the rainbow. He put his foot on it and went down, and he felt strong and able to do anything. He forgot the sky and thought only of the earth.

Many Swans made a song as he went down the rainbow ladder. He sang with a loud voice:

”I will go and tear to pieces Mount Stevens, I will use it for stones for my fire.

I will go and break Mount Qa-tsta-is, I will use it for stones for my fire.

All day and all night he went down, and he was so strong he did not need to sleep. The next day he made a new song. He shouted it with a great noise:

”I am going all round the world, I am at the centre of the world, I am the post of the world, On account of what I am carrying in my hand.”

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