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2018 Program Notes, Book 2
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35
So the boys assembled at the mound. The little singer said: “I shall sing you
a new song that will lighten your hearts.” First, he made each of them fasten
on his head a little torch of birch bark, then he sat down in the middle and
thumped away at his little drum and sang:
Ki yi yi yah Ki yi yi yah
. And faster.
Ki yi yi yah Ki yi yi yah
. And faster still, till now they were spinning round.
Then:
Ki yi yi yah Ki yi yi yah Whoooooop
.
They were fairly whirling now, and, as the singer gave this last whoop of
the last dance on the mound, they and he went dancing over the treetops
into the sky; light of heart and heels and head, they went, and their parents
rushed out in time to see them go, but too late to stop them. (And now you
may see them every clear autumn night as winter draws near; you may see
the little torches sparkling as they dance, the six around the little one in the
middle. Of course, you can’t hear his song, or even his drum, but you must
remember he is a long way off now.)
Seven Sisters of the Sky
(Nez Perce myth)
In the sky were seven sister stars, each with a different name. Each one
loved something in nature and kept her love a secret. She did not tell her
sisters. They thought that if one of them should tell her troubles to the
others, she would either die or disappear from the sky. One of the sisters
was called Eyes-in-Different-Colors. She loved a man on the earth, and
she kept on loving him even after his death. She told her sisters about her
love, and they laughed at her for loving a mortal. But as time passed, she
became more and more sorrowful, and gradually her eyes became dim. So
she took the veil from off the sky and covered her face with it. The veil hid
her face from her sisters and from the world below. (That is why people can
see only six stars in the cluster of Pleiades.)
Epilogue: Sunrise Call
(a Zuni tune)
Brightly dawns the Sun.
Brightly dawns the light.
JUNE 20 AND 22, 2018