LEGENDS OF THE INDIAN BY EDNA WAHLERT MCCOURT THE CLOUD WOMAN I found in the forest a white mist- And I said, "I have looked for you all my life, The white mist became a white woman Like a lily, a tall white woman. And I said, "We will dwell together in my home, But my lily became a white shadow Melted in the flame of my love to a shadow. I cried, "Not through the clod! I lie in the sun, for the sky holds me- My lover has left me! SCARLET WINGS Tell me, Traveller, have you seen my lover? In his eyes there was the call of the sea to the stream, And the call of time to the tide, And the call of the raw earth to the rain. I saw a bird with scarlet lips caress your lover on the lips "Follow me! Follow!" Your lover hid his eyes within his hands But not the scarlet wings Or "Follow me! Follow!" My lover followed the bird with scarlet wings WENEWELIR I was a maiden A beautiful maiden, My skin like the summer, my hair like the dawn; A beautiful maiden, My voice was the honey, the willow my form. I had a lover A warrior lover, Strong as the thunder and light as the deer; A warrior lover, Brave as the lightning and gay as the mere. She was a hag A thousand year old hag, Her body was like the dead roots of a tree; The devil's own witch, With powers as deep and as black as the sea, In the top of my head, Ah, my beautiful head, She bored a deep hole and through it she blew She blew and she blew She blew and she blew Till all my fair body from off me she blew. Over her bones Her hideous bones, She fitted the fair form that once had been mine; Patting it, smoothing it, Preening it, soothing it, The witch stood arrayed in my beauty divine. She and my lover My strong, my gay lover, Dwell in the teepee that he meant for me; Croon to the children that God meant for me. THE WATER LILY A silver star stared from a satin sky And from her heart there came a cry, "I must become a man, or die, I must touch the pretty world below!" So she swam down and dressed like any man, She felt the foul of winter and its ban, She heard the woe that through the nations ran, "I cannot be a man-to die!" She then became a bird that built in tops of trees, But O the weary rain that ran The withering wind born from the balmy breeze, The constant call to Come from overseas "I cannot live a bird's frail span." Then she became a lily in the water "I beheld a maiden with heavy hair In the arms of her lover, Smiling a smile than the flowers more fair, In the Valley of Doom with her lover." The father hurried to the Valley of Doom Side by side, Their branches blending together, As wet waves blend with the tangent tide, Their branches blended together. Through one the wind played a song Like rippling water The father looked full long, But never found his daughter. |