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gpmf.orgPrologue: Sunset Song
(based on a Zuni tune with the following lyrics by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.
Nanuk the Bear
(Inuit myth)
Nanuk the Bear was attacked by a pack of large, fierce dogs. He tried to
escape by running away over the ice, but the dogs followed close behind.
For many hours the dogs chased Nanuk and he could not lose them.
Eventually, they had come to the very edge of the world, but neither Nanuk
or the dogs noticed. Suddenly they all fell off the edge into the sky, where
they all turned into stars, the Pleiades.
Pawnee Song to the Pleiades
(translated by Alice C. Fletcher, 1838–1923)
They come to us, they rise, behold!
Over the marge [edge] of Mother Earth
Into Father Sky, they rise, they rise
Chakaa [the Pawnee name for the Pleiades], the silent brethren!
Ah, ’tis a blessed thing to behold them yonder,
More blessed yet for us to mount with them,
To shine together each in his place as they!
They come to us, they rise,
We come to them, we rise,
We as Chakaa mount on high!
Behold them coming, climbing,
And we as they,
Brethren in unity together.
Seven Dancers
(Native American myth, from the
Book of Woodcraft
by Ernest Thompson Seton [1860–1946])
Once there were seven little Indian boys, who used to take their bowl of
succotash each night and eat their suppers together on a mound outside
the village. Six were about the same size; one was smaller than the rest,
but he had a sweet voice and knew many songs, so after supper the others
would dance around the mound to his singing, and he marked time on his
drum. When the frosty days of autumn were ending, and winter threatened
to stop the nightly party, they said, “Let us have a grand feast and dance for
the last time on the mound.”