The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-10-13
A MODERN WOOD DEITY.

In very ancient times, when men be-
lieved that almost every mountain and
river, brook and grove, was presided
over by deity of some sort, it was said
that nectar and ambrosia were the drink
and food of these gods. Because those
old poets and philosophers INDUCED in
those fine stories about nymphs and
satyrs, fawns, naiads and dryads. we
call them heather; but, after all, their
myths, like the fictions of our own
writer's, are beautiful and entertaining.
l have often thought of charming story
which might be written by some mag
NATIVE boy or girl about wood deity
which haunts some of The groves of
America. 1t can be said with much
truth that nectar and ambrosia fill the
cups and pots of this bright and joyous
being. l have seen him slipping nectar
more fragrant than the tabled sweets of
Hybla and Hymettus. This is saying
much, for Hybla used to be the most
famous town in the world for its honey,
and Hymettus was mountain, south
east of Athens, in Greece, where the
bees stored their combs with the purest
Installations from the flowers. But
have looked into the clean, curiously
wrought cups of our American grove
god, when they were full to overlooking
with clear fluid. l have even tasted the
nectar, although the cups were so small
that only the merest bit of my tongue
could enter. 1t is slightly acrid, this
nectar, but it he's in its taste hints, so to
speak, of all the perfumes and sweets
of the winds and leaves and fiowers-a
fragrance of green wood when cut. and
of the inner tender bark of young trees.
And racy flavor. too. which comes
from the aromatic roots of certain of our
evergreens, is sometimes discoverable
in it.
The being of which speak is an in
dustrious little fellow. Many times
have watched him making pots to catch
nectar in, and cups to hold the precious
ambrosia- These he hollows out so
neatly that they all look alike, and he
arranges them in rows around the bole
of a tree-sometimes maple, often an
ash, may be a pine, and frequently a
cedar. He has great many of these
pots and cups-so many, indeed, that
it seems to keep him busy for a great
part of the day drinking their delicious
contents. He has very quiet ways, and
you must be silent, and watchful if you
wish ever to see him. He rarely uses
his voice, except when disturbed, and
then he utters a keen cry and steals off
through the air, soon disappearing in
the shadows of the woods.
In the warm, dreamful weather of
our early spring days you may find him
by keeping sharp lookout for the pots.
which are little holes or pits bored
through the bark and through the soft
outer ring of the wood of certain trees.
Very often you can find rings and rings
of these pits on the trunks of the APPLE
trees of the orchards, every one of them
full of nectar.
And now you discover that, after all,
my winged grove deity is nothing but
little bird that many persons call by
the undignified but very significant
name of Sap-sucker! Well, what of it?
Ny story is truer than those of the old
Greek and Latin poets, for mine has
something real in it, as well as some
thing beautiful and interesting. / sus-
pect that many of the ancient myths
are based upon the facts of nature and
are embellished with fantastic dressing,
Just as some imaginative boy or girl
might dress up this true story of our sap
drinking woodpecker.
In fact, how much happier. how much
more redolent of joyous sweets, is the
life of this quiet bird than that of such
beings-if they could have existed-as
those with which the ancients peopled
their groves and mountains! Think of
flying about on real wings among the
shadows of the spring and summer
woods, alighting here apd there to sip
real nectar and ambrosia from fragrant
cedar pots!-Maurice Thompson, in st.
Nicholas.