The Land of Little Rain by Mary Hunter Austin
page 73 of 118 (61%)
page 73 of 118 (61%)
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East and North, but count forward and back by the progress of the
season; the time of taboose, before the trout begin to leap, the end of the pinon harvest, about the beginning of deep snows. So they get nearer the sense of the season, which runs early or late according as the rains are forward or delayed. But whenever Seyavi cut willows for baskets was always a golden time, and the soul of the weather went into the wood. If you had ever owned one of Seyavi's golden russet cooking bowls with the pattern of plumed quail, you would understand all this without saying anything. Before Seyavi made baskets for the satisfaction of desire,--for that is a house-bred theory of art that makes anything more of it,--she danced and dressed her hair. In those days, when the spring was at flood and the blood pricked to the mating fever, the maids chose their flowers, wreathed themselves, and danced in the twilights, young desire crying out to young desire. They sang what the heart prompted, what the flower expressed, what boded in the mating weather. "And what flower did you wear, Seyavi?" "I, ah,--the white flower of twining (clematis), on my body and my hair, and so I sang:-- "I am the white flower of twining, Little white flower by the river, Oh, flower that twines close by the river; Oh, trembling flower! So trembles the maiden heart." |
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