The Flight of the Red Horse.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2045, 15 August 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Flight of the Red Horse.

A Dakota Leosnd, " Mx son, W,oneya, I must make A journey to the Sacred Lake. Far to the north, 'mid ice and enow, A long, long way it is I go. An arrow flying all the night Would fail to reach it in its flight. You are my son ; I give to-day Full leave to all your childish play. All things are thine ; go where you will, Save to the Bed Houfcj on the hill. Try not its door, turn not the key ; There death and ruin wait for thee, But how and why I may not tell, For there is laid on me a spell, So all my love must turn to hate, And no man oan e3eape his fate." Waahaka goes. In boyish play The child wean out the summer day ; He swims the stream, his crafty hook Draws shining treasure from the brook ; The (shattering squirrel huge his limb As the swift arrow grazes him.

But ewr, nq ha pliwpfl, h° hiM 1 T V ,-t I-i thnre i n the Hou^e of R^d ? " (r . i\;.»jrp I- <vnuld, each pathway still L (1 to the It d House on the h*U. \e i A^f 1-,-- i.t .idri trf >re the door, V ''1 nu^M.- synbilfl pictured o'er What, could my father mean, ' be wi, "T> kfP|i mo from the House of Bad ? " \>\ 130 ' lip will not disobey, A' l > -u^h tie ai-e ii fur twiy; V if) yet, wha*- harm ronld oomo of it For him to ace which hey would fit? Arid now he tries them, one by one, [i )til a* last — what has he done? 3 mii thnnnbeleas pressure of the lock, L'^o d hit tl'es open with a shook. t-omors ran along the ground ; Tli i -vorli is full of direful sound ; Stningp voices talk : strange whispers rise ; S'runpe portent* in the earth and Bkies. t%ron?h the wide door the youth oan see A'J mati nat there is of mystery. H 'ore him stood a Horse of R°d, V ih inane of gold, who sternly said : " Unhappy boy 1 what have you done ? \V ',*haka now mußt slay his son." Struck down with terror and remorse Th° yn>it,h falls prone before the horse. Oi, h» a lp me, help I" Woneya cries, Wiih gnvping breath and streaming eyes. ' Teach me some way ; show me the path Where I may flee my father's wrath." Trie Iflorse repheß: " The wrong is great, Yet I have pity for thy fate. One way alone is left to flee, With perils fraught to thee and me. I charge thee, on thy life, thy soul, To jHd thee up to my oontrol. Book neither backward, left, nor right ; B2 brave, and yield no place to fright. Thy father now wiil try each art To strike a terror to thy heart ; But if thy heart begin to quail, That instant all my strength will fail ; \nd if Waahaku ua o'ertake, I, too, must perish for thy sike. Take in thy hand tkia eo'ijurc-i's sack. Away 1 away I Spring to my back 1" said, fo done. Away they sped. Ino dsrk sky «lamored overhead ; I mighty *md blew from the east, Which momently its force incresssd ; "he eun vrent down, but, through the night, Hi holds his tireless, even flight. Ko neod is there for spur or rcm ; L\fe is the prize he strives to gain. But. though the horse flies like the wind, The father presses herd behind, Ind, ere the break of morn appears, A dreadful voice is in his eara : " Stop ! stop 1 thou traitor, whfto my knife Shall qnicMy end your wretched life." " Boware ! beware 1 Turn not your head ! P>j brave ! be brave I" the II d Horse said. " Put now your hand within the sack; What first you find throw quickly back." Woneya in an instant found An egg, and tossed it to the ground : It bursts, it spreads — a wide morals, Through which the father may not pass I Fierce lightnings firo Wa3haka's ey< s 4.s westward still the Bed Horse tlies. Longtime the father sought, in vain, Some passage o'er the m&ish to gam, Where long necked lizards batU'-d or fnu^W .Vhcre wingsd dragons ruin vwot{, it, N hero serpents coiled and U:s-«J, \v).o=o breath Soiled up in clouds of firo and death. At last he throws the magic bone, Which turns that teeming hfp to sMne ; And where ho picks his cauful w.\y, There are the Bad Lands to thin diy. The morn blooms in the eastern sky ; The day comes on, the noon is niyii ; The noon i« past, the sun is low, The evening red begins to glow ; But, driven still by sorest neod, Still swift and swifter flies the steed. Vast, sky-rimmed plains on either side Begin to turn in circles wide, While rock, and shrub, and hush within In dizzy circles spin and spin. So swift the flight, so hot the race, The wind blows backward in his faoe ; But swifter far than any wind Toe father presses on bahind, And to their ears is borne the cry That summons them again to die. " B9ware 1 Be bravo 1 Turn not thy head 1 Put in thy hand ! " the Eed Iloree u?,u\ ; 1 The first thing that thy hand shall find, That take, and quickly h'irl behind." He draws and throws a bit of stone, When, 'twixt father and the Fon, A range of mountains rears its height On either hand beyond the sight. Wafhaka seeks a paaa in vain ; To left and right, above the plain, The stroog grim rocks confront, hn eyes. While westward still the lied Horse fldis!. At last he draws his feathered spear And hurls against the rampart sliter. So swift it datheq on the rock, Fire-strearas burst outward at the shoc'.f, And where against the «hff he drives, From base te top it rends and rives; A narrow gorsc ia opened through, By which Wasbaka n;ay pur&ue. And now the Red IIor;e knows the need To lavish all his iiarncrcd "p'-id. His tioof-beats fall liko thurnk-r dints, And kindle showers of flying flints ; So swift hp flies that oho afar Might doeia he aaw a falling Ft3r ; BiU swifter atill upon hid path Washaka follows in his wrath. And now tint frarfu! voice again Comes o'er the horror ehol'Pii plain : " Stop, wretches, stop! Behold the liool ! Now shall my knife run red with bl I Who now can save you from my hate, And who has ever conquered fate ? " Alas I what hope i 3 left, and where ? What refuge now from blink de^piir ? The end is oome, where shill they fl je ? B fore them is the open sea. 1 Beware ! beware I Turn not thy head. Pat in thy hand ! " the lted Horse sail ; " Just ai we reach the ocean shore, Draw out and quickly hurl before. B • strong of heur t Ba calm ;be brave ; The sea is not to b-i our griva." Woneya thrusts his hand within, Draws forth the byd-wrought serpent's skin, And casts it forth, when Io I a boat Upin tho gleaming waves afloat ! Thpy gain it with a single tenp That sends it forward on the deep. The sails are set ; before the breeze It draws its white trail o'er the Hens. In vain the bright blade of thr eire Whirls through the air in rings of fire. He gains the heach a moment late— What man has ever conquered fate ? Vain are his curses, vain his prayer ; The glittering waves are everywhere. Washaka stoops along +he sands, Uproots a hngc cliff with his hands ; He heaves aloft with tug md strain, And sends it wheeling o'er tho main. High iv the air it rooks and swings, A moment to the cloud 3 it clings ; Then, as from lofty mountain wMls, Like tome vast avalanche, it falls. Tho ppa shrink 0 , cringing, from the shook Of that dark, shapeless bulk of rock, Li'.e some great fragment of a world From out the stellar spaces hurled. Like chaff beneath the fUil outspread The wave q , and bare the ocean's bed. One vast wall, sweeping to tho west, Bears on itrf toptnoat curving ere»t Tho tiny boat, so feather-light, Through all thnt long and fearful night. Ac morn thpy rest, their journey done, In a fair land bayond the sun ; And one, with awful rush and roar, Spring! tiger-hkc against the shore, DragH down Wanhnka from the land, And hides him 'neath the sliding sand. Still fruin that coast a slender bar, Like a long finger, stretching far, When tiJea aie low, points o'er the waveThat is Washak&'s lonely grave. — H. E. Warner, in the Century.