Gene Stratton-Porter

“ She slipped from her wigwam
And entered the ancient forest.
Soft as flame ascending, swift as night bird flying,
I circled past her among my familiar tree brothers.
Long before her coming to the bay of torture,
I dropped the snaring white flower,
Fresh and lovely, a convincing decoy,
Far into the heart of the pitiless death pool
Where the eager mouths of the swallowing sands
Embrace and draw, quietly, but so surely
[41] That no strength of arm can lift,
No power of spirit can save their victim. ”

“ When the hurrying blood of the trees
Ran fast in the red and yellow osiers,
When the birches, givers of large gifts,
Put out their little talking leaves of gold,
When strange birds made love chase in the forest
And the fish leaped high from the shallow water
As the yellow spawn they planted and quickened,
There came a night of quivering moon magic
When, after all the others had assembled,
Star Face entered the Council Lodge,
His head lifted to face the star country,
And the great wealth of his riches
Rode flauntingly from head-band to moccasins. ”

“ Ever the curers of the deer meat, and salmon,
The fillers and the guardians of the storehouses;
And stretching her hand toward Mountain Lion,
By strange words and by pretty sign talk
She asked of him like coaxing birds:
"Coarse meal and water. Coüy-oüy is hungry."
As a sudden wind bends a tall birch low,
Willing my man sprang to obey her bidding.
[24] Before the approving eyes of the watching Canawacs
Never had there been a sight so fair to see,
As when, clinging trustingly to her firm finger,
The broken bird fed from her hand of pity. ”

“ All the wisdom of our tribe,
All the strength in our power
And the cunning of our hearts of love,
The great Star Face, and I, his strong mate,
Strove over the life of our son.
Thou knowest how he shouted
When to us there came a little sister.
And then the black day, that dread day
Thou knowest well as any,
When tall and straight he entered the forest alone
To strive for the first vision from the Great Spirit.
[64]
Without food and without sleep
I knelt silent in my lonely wigwam ”

“ The black death, man's height and buffalo heavy,
Lay dead in the far uptorn pitying forest
Where they had battled for their lives.
It had been the greatest fight
That youth had ever waged in our tribe.
All night the anxious Medicine Men
Made their strongest Medicine for him;
But the green sickness was eating his slender body.
In the morning, O Medicine Man,
Coüy-oüy again danced her triumph dance,
Again scored victory over me,
[65] When our unavailing death wail
Beat against the copper face of heaven
For my little chieftain, my brave little warrior. ”

“ Not again did the eyes of Mountain Lion
Travel across the Council Lodge
To seek my eyes in understanding.
Coüy-oüy had taken his eyes;
On her face she proudly kept them,
For he saw nought but the blue mist around her,
The gleam of her hair, the red bow of her lips.
He heard nought but the luring music
Of her echo sweet voice,
And the happy song of her quilled robe
As she hourly passed among our people;
While always clinging to her breast or shoulder
Proud and fearless as in freedom,
Rode the sacred wounded bird of blood redness. ”

“ Who visited our campfires in confidence,
Would be added the wailing of our tribe for Yiada.
I rode my Father's swiftest remaining pony,
I turned my face between the sun's rising
And the hot suns of the South.
I slipped through the forest and on, and on,
Each moon on, and again on,
Fast and far as the pony could run, I journeyed
In the direction where my Mother had told me
Lay the encampment of her people, the Mandanas.
When the tired pony could travel no farther
I let him feed and rest and drink ”

“ I knew that for my Brave she was calling.
And I knew, too, how the wood and the water
Carried sound far distances to wild ears.
[43]
I wondered if Mountain Lion were on the water
Or if he were hunting the wide forest
Or if he were drilling ornaments of blue shell
Or weaving the sacred, singing fire bird
A new wigwam of gold osiers.
Only once she screamed that awful wild cry,
Then her struggles were the final battle.
Already her face of anguish was even
With the treacherous water hiding death,
Already her slender body was forever encased. ”

“ Of thy mighty son, Star Face.
If I dance the ancient Mating Dance
Of the unconquered Mandanas
This night before thee, for Star Face,
Even as he has danced before thee, for me,
Great and powerful Chief, am I of thy people?"
The Great Chief looked into my eyes and said:
"Thou art of mine, even as Star Face is my son;
With our last arrow, with our last battle axe,
With the stoutest blood of our hearts
Will our Braves defend thee forever."
The next sun, the young women
Set me a tall prideful wigwam apart. ”

“ Chief of Chiefs when his Father makes his journey
To the far country of the Great Spirit."
Mountain Lion was the tallest,
The strongest of our young men,
The fastest rider, the most skilful dancer,
The surest hunter among us,
The spy who never failed,
The warrior who always returned in triumph.
Like the young trees of the sea shore
He was slim and straight.
[5] Like the water rolling up the white sands
He was ever tireless.
Like the shining of the spirit sun
He lighted all the day with gold magic;
Like the kindly silver moon
He peopled all the night with friendly shadows. ”

“ And all the watching Canawacs:
"This is my daughter, a Princess of seven tribes,
She who can run with the foot of the hare,
Who can dance as the gold birch leaves,
When spring comes stealing from the Southland;
Who can guide the swift canoes surely
And ride the wild ponies on the chase,
Whose fingers are skilful in basket weaving,
In beading, and braiding, and polishing ornaments. ”

“ Was of their tribe in her youth,
That I had fled as the hunted for cave rights,
They held counsel, and they set me a tall wigwam;
They gave me the rich food of a welcome guest,
And they led me to my wrinkled, gray grandfather.
The great council of Chiefs and Medicine Men,
The wise men and all of the young Braves
Made Mandan sign talk to hold me securely,
[55] As if born of their tribe and village,
Even if Mountain Lion suspected treachery
And rode in war paint against them for vengeance. ”

“ I gathered the white flower riding like a spirit canoe
That had sheltered fatness for my sister Heron.
Clean and white as storm foam I washed it,
Carefully on the home trail I carried it,
[37] Like a living thing to my wigwam I took it,
And I put it in a cooking kettle
Overflowing cold water from mountain torrent,
Then I waited for the spirit to make me a sure sign.
That night, when Coüy-oüy's shadow touched me,
Like a star fallen from on high was her beauty. ”

“ Again and again I felt the eye of a mighty hunter,
A young Brave, with the broad shoulders
The round face of compassion,
[54] And the softer eye of the Mandanas
Of the lands where peace homed securely.
Little of my story had I told the Chieftain,
As straight and fearless I faced him,
Before I knew in my heart that over his head
I was speaking to the stirred heart of his son.
I was asking of him rest and meat, and tribe rights,
Even as Coüy-oüy had asked meal and water
Of Mountain Lion, instead of our women,
For the broken fire bird that rested on her breast. ”

“ Creeping through her white robe.
Then, Medicine Man, I told her this fair tale:
That I loved a young Brave
Son of the mighty Eagle Feather,
The Chief of a high mountain tribe far north of us,
And that when he saw me in the deep forest
Holding up high the fair water flower
[38] The lure of its white magic
Would make in his cold heart
That strong medicine I needed,
To bring him face to face with me
In that great understanding
Which is followed by union, among our tribes. ”

“ How hunters in the forest had found Coüy-oüy
Fleeing like a doe before the furious black killer.
When she fell, her utmost strength exhausted,
Over her raged the foaming black death.
Her beautiful breast and arms
Were forever shorn of their smoothness,
But she lived, and her hateful face of allurement
Her trouble-maker face, was untouched.
I knew what my Mother knew
When she turned from my doorway.
[35] Medicine Man, the killer had not struck
To the depth where life tented. ”

“ They said: "She is possessed of a devil;
Evil spirits drive her with secret arrows,
It is with strength stolen from the Spirits
That she works every sun at the fish drying,
The meat curing, the seed gathering
And the making of tents not needed. ”

“ Rode his hunting pony on the far chase beside him,
Sat on high in the councils of our Chieftains.
When the dancing and feasting were over
It was known through the voices of the criers
That for many moons our visitors
Would home beside our campfires,
Learning of our wisdom from us,
Teaching, where their customs differed. ”

“ I, Yiada, his one daughter, pride of Falcon Eye,
His daring chieftainess, from the far Mandanas.
Tall our wigwams of deer and bear and elk skins,
Stout our warm lodges of cedar and pine tree,
Many our robes of beaver and buffalo and marten,
[3] Heavy our necklaces with cunningly carved beads,
Polished elk teeth and eagle talons,
Shining black obsidian and precious blue shell;
Our war ponies flocking like birds fleeing winter. ”

“ Than our hard working women,
Though she had learned from the bee
To be busy and useful,
Though she had learned from the hunted fawn
To travel far journeys in daring wingéd leaps.
[22]
PART II COÜY-OÜY AND MOUNTAIN LION
Medicine Man, it were not enough,
Ha! it were not enough
That the stranger bore the song name
Of the fire bird our tribe worshipped;
For on her breast, sheltered with one slim hand,
With flaming wings outspread,
And panting saw-edged beak like fire,
Lay a brother of the spirit bird,
Flame red, blood red, feathers like wounds—
Dead coal black of face ”

“ Go and seek her, O mighty hunter!
Go and seek—until you find her!"
[49]
PART III YIADA'S FLIGHT TO THE MANDANAS
When the hunters had raced from our village
Toward the land of ice,
Toward the land of hot suns,
Toward the land of dawn,
And where the sun dives in the sea,
In the conflicting cross winds
Between the paths of their going,
On their stoutest ponies
Rode the young women and the squaws
Who could be spared with safety
From the watch of the campfires
And the care of the little happy children. ”

“ The names of the tribes used in "The Fire Bird" are fictitious. The country described begins in the land of the Salish tribes of Alaska, runs south to the lowest extent of British Columbia, and east to the vicinity north of North Dakota. All tribes and country described are Alaskan or Canadian. ”