THE FIRST POND LILY AN OLD INDIAN LEGEND

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22249, 13 November 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE FIRST POND LILY AN OLD INDIAN LEGEND

In the long ago, so the story goes, all the Indians were happy. The wild animals were not fierce, and they never attacked and killed the people, but came to the lodges of the Indians, and talked with them. All the animals and Indians used the same language. Everybody was good, and there were no wars. The winters were not cold, and there were wild strawberries and other fruits all the year round. On pleasant evenings, the Indians would sit outside their lodges, smoke and tell stories or watch the stars. One night they saw a meteor, or falling star, which came down about halfway to the ground, and there stood still. They all began to wonder in which lodge a baby would soon be born; for the Indians believed that a falling star was a sure sign of a coming baby. That night one of the young men dreamed that the star, having taken the form of a beautiful woman, came down, stood by his bed and talked with him. She told him that she had been watching the Indian.village for a long time, and had come to love the Indians so much that she wanted to live near them. She had been wondering what form she could take to please the villagers; for she might take any form she liked. She asked him to talk with the old men and ask them to help her decide.

In the morning the young man told some of the elders what the Star Woman had said, and a meeting of the Council was held to talk it over. They finally said they would leave the form to her, but it would be nice if she would live in the top of the tall pine tree near the vUlage or in the heart of a flower. . That night she agam came to the young man in a dream, and he

told her what the wise old men of the tribe, had said. So the star entered the heart of a wild rose on the hill near the village. But she soon found it a lonesome life. The hill was steep, very rocky, and was visited by few Indians. It was so far from the village that she could not hear the people talking or see the children at play. Therefore she came down and went into the heart of a lily on the prairie close to the trail leading to the village.

But the first night a great herd of buffaloes charged past, and she was so frightened by the noise of their hoofs and the shaking of the ground that she again changed into a star, and started to go back to her former home in the sky. Flying over the small lake near the village, she saw her reflection and that of many other stars in the clear water. This so pleased her that she called many other stars to Join her, and they all settled down

on the surface of the lake in the form of white pond lilies, and have remained there ever since. The villagers were greatly pleased when, in the morning, they saw the lake nearly covered with the beautiful flowers. A meeting of the council was called to find a name for the new flower, and they decided to call it, Wahbahgawannees. In English this is Star Flower. yfe call it Pond Lily. , _.