The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems by Hanford Lennox Gordon
page 18 of 448 (04%)
page 18 of 448 (04%)
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And the water is cold in his boiling pot.
He hides in the earth and he walks in disguise, But he loves the brave and their sacrifice. We are sons of _Heyóka_. The Giant commands In the boiling water to thrust our hands; And the warrior that scorneth the foe and fire _Heyóka_ will crown with his heart's desire." They thrust their hands in the boiling pot; They swallow the bison-meat steaming hot; Not a wince on their stoical faces bold, For the meat and the water, they say, are cold: And great is _Heyóka_ and wonderful wise; He floats on the flood and he walks on the skies, And ever appears in a strange disguise; But he loves the brave and their sacrifice, And the warrior that scorneth the foe and fire Heyóka will crown with his heart's desire. Proud was the chief of his warriors proud, The sinewy sons of the Giant's race; But the bravest of all was the tall Red Cloud; The eyes of the panther were set in his face; He strode like a stag and he stood like a pine; Ten feathers he wore of the great _Wanmdeé_,[13] With crimsoned quills of the porcupine His leggins were worked to his brawny knee. Blood-red were the stripes on his swarthy cheek, And the necklace that girdled his brawny neck Was the polished claws of the great Mató[14] |
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