ye before contentedly."

So the warriors returned to the council. But Eagle winged his way high
into the sky. High, high, he rose, until he circled among the clouds,
small-seeming and swift, like seed-down in a whirlwind. Through all the
heights, to the north, to the west, to the south, and to the east, he
circled and sailed. Yet nowhere saw he trace of the Corn Maidens. Then
he flew lower, returning. Before the warriors were rested, people heard
the roar of his wings. As he alighted, the fathers said, "Enter thou and
sit, oh brother, and say to us what thou hast to say." And they offered
him the cigarette of the space relations.

When they had puffed the smoke toward the four points of the compass,
and Eagle had purified his breath with smoke, and had blown smoke over
sacred things, he spoke.

"Far have I journeyed, scanning all the regions. Neither bluebird nor
woodrat can hide from my seeing," he said, snapping his beak. "Neither
of them, unless they hide under bushes. Yet I have failed to see
anything of the Maidens ye seek for. Send for my younger brother, the
Falcon. Strong of flight is he, yet not so strong as I, and nearer the
ground he takes his way ere sunrise."

Then the Eagle spread his wings and flew away to Twin Mountain. The
Warrior-Priests of the Bow sped again fleetly over the plain to the
westward for his younger brother, Falcon.

Sitting on an ant hill, so the warriors found Falcon. He paused as they
approached, crying, "If ye have snare strings, I will be off like the
flight of an arrow well plumed of our feathers!"

"No," said the priests. "Thy elder brother hath bidden us seek thee."

Then they told Falcon what had happened, and how Eagle had failed to
find the Corn Maidens, so white and beautiful.

"Failed!" said Falcon. "Of course he failed. He climbs aloft to the
clouds and thinks he can see under every bush and into every shadow, as
sees the Sunfather who sees not with eyes. Go ye before."

Before the Warrior-Priests had turned toward the town, the Falcon had
spread his sharp wings and was skimming off over the tops of the trees
and bushes as though verily seeking for field mice or birds' nests. And
the Warriors returned to tell the fathers and to await his coming.

But after Falcon had searched over the world, to the north and west, to
the east and south, he too returned and was received as had been Eagle.
He settled on the edge of a tray before the altar, as on the ant hill he
sett