remember the
lame god of the Greeks, the master-smith. But their vulcan was the
Germanic Wieland, the master-smith captured and hamstrung lame of a leg
by Nidung, the kind of the Nids. But before that he was our
master-smith, our forger and hammerer, whom we named Il-marinen. And him
we begat of our fancy, giving him the bearded sun-god for father, and
nursing him by the stars of the bear. For, he, Vulcan, or Wieland, or Il-
marinen, was born under the pine tree, from the hair of the wolf, and was
called also the bear-father ere ever the Germans and Greeks purloined and
worshipped him. In that day we called ourselves the Sons of the Bear and
the Sons of the Wolf, and the bear and the wolf were our totems. That
was before our drift south on which we joined with the Sons of the Tree-
Grove and taught them our totems and tales.

Yes, and who was Kashyapa, who was Pururavas, but our lame master-smith,
our iron-worker, carried by us in our drifts and re-named and worshipped
by the south-dwellers and the east-dwellers, the Sons of the Pole and of
the Fire Drill and Fire Socket.

But the tale is too long, though I should like to tell of the
three-leaved Herb of Life by which Sigmund made Sinfioti alive again. For
this is the very soma-plant of India, the holy grail of King Arthur,
the--but enough! enough!

And yet, as I calmly consider it all, I conclude that the greatest thing
in life, in all lives, to me and to all men, has been woman, is woman,
and will be woman so long as the stars drift in the sky and the heavens
flux eternal change. Greater than our toil and endeavour, the play of
invention and fancy, battle and star-gazing and mystery--greatest of all
has been woman.

Even though she has sung false music to me, and kept my feet solid on the
ground, and drawn my star-roving eyes ever back to gaze upon her, she,
the conserver of life, the earth-mother, has given me my great days and
nights and fulness of years. Even mystery have I imaged in the form of
her, and in my star-charting have I placed her figure in the sky.

All my toils and devices led to her; all my far visions saw her at the
end. When I made the fire-drill and fire-socket, it was for her. It was
for her, although I did not know it, that I put the stake in the pit for
old Sabre-Tooth, tamed the horse, slew the mammoth, and herded my
reindeer south in advance of the ice-sheet. For her I harvested the wild
rice, tamed the barley, the wheat, and