Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-04-23

1 ihSdV W dS 81 WITH
| the taste of tars that never could l
force my palate to accept it, And of
course, too, there remained the peril
| of the greater lizards and the other
dangers native to the place.
But as the months began to mount
into years, and the brute part of my
nature became more satisfied, there
| came other longings which it was less
easy to provide for. From the ivory
of river-horse's tooth l had endeav-
| ored to carve me representation of
Nais as last i had seen her. But.
though my fingers might be loving and
my will good. my art was of the dull
est, and the result-though / tried
time and time again-was always
| clumsy and pitiful. Still, in my eyes
it carried some suggestion of the origi-
nal-a curve here, an outline there
and it made my old love glow anew
within me as / sat and ate it with my
| eyes. Yet it did little to satisfy my
| longings for the woman / had lost;
rather it whetted my cravings to be
with her again, or at least to have
some knowledge of her fate.
Other men of the Priests clan have
| come out and made an abode in these
Dangerous Lands, and by Notifying
the flesh have gained an intimacy
with the higher mysteries which has
carried them far past what mere hui
man learning and repetition could
teach. Indeed, here and there one.
who from some cause and another
has returned to the abodes of men,
has carried with him knowledge that
| has brought, him the reputation
among the vulgar for the workings
of magic and miracles, which-since
all arts must be allowed which aid so
| holy cause-have added very ma
terially to the ardor with which these
common people pursue the cult of the
gods. But for myself could not free
my mind to the necessary clearness
| for following these abstruse studies
During that voyage home from Yucca
tan l had communed with them with
growing insight; hut now my mind
was not my own. Nais had lien upon
it, and refused to be ousted; and, in
truth, her sweet trespass was my
chief solace.
| But at last my longing could no
further be denied. Through one of
| the arrow-slit windows of my tree
| house I could see far away "a great
mountain-top whitened with perpet-
| ual snow, which our Lord the Sun
dyed with blood every night of His
setting. Night after night I used to
watch that rudy light with wide
straining eyes. Night after night I
used to remember that in days agone
when 1 was entering upon the priest
hood it had been my duty to adore
our great Lord as He rose for His day
behind the SHOWS of that very noun
tain. And always the thought fol-
lowed on these musings that from
that distant crest [ could see across
the continent to the Sacred Mount
which had the city below it where I
had buried my ,ove alive.
So at last I gave way and set out,
and perilous journey 1 made of it.
In the heavy mists which hung always
on the lower ground, my way lay blind
before me, and l was constantly los
ing it. Indeed, to say that / trav-
ersed three times the direct distance
is setting a low estimate. Through
out all those swamps the great lizards
hunted, and as the country was new
to me 1 did not know places of har-
Dor, and hundred times was within
an ace of being spied and devoured at
a mouthful. But the high gods still
desired me for their own purposes,
and blinded the great beasts eyes
when l skunk to cover as they passed
Twice rivers of scalding water roared
boiling across my path, and 1 had
to delay till I could collect enough
black timber from the forests to build
RATS that would give me dry ferri-
| age.
It will be seen then that my Jour
ney was in way infinitely tedious, but
to me, after all those years of wait
ing, the time passed on winged feet. ]
had been separated from my love till
| could bear the strain no longer; let
me but see from a distance the place
where she lay, and feast my eyes upon
it for awhile, and then 1 could go back
to my abode in the tree and there re-
main patiently awaiting the will OF
the gods.
The air grew more chilly as / began
to come out above the region of trees
on to that higher ground which glares
down on the rest of the world, and ]
made buskins and coat of woven
grasses to protect my body from the
cold, which began to blow upon me
| keenly. And later on, where the snow