the flight of the gull, and the storm-vexed sea, flowering in foam, and
the light of the moon on sea and barren land, have taught them this art,
and a swiftness and grace which they alone possess.
"Yet does this moonlight dance, which is the chief glory of the House of
Coradine, grow pale in the mind, and is speedily forgotten, when another
is seen; and, going on our way from house to house, we learn how
everywhere the various riches of the world have been taken into his soul
by man, and made part of his life. Nor are we inferior to others, having
also an art and chief excellence which is ours only, and the fame of
which has long gone forth into the world; so that from many distant
lands pilgrims gather yearly to our fields to listen to our harvest
melody, when the sun-ripened fruits have been garnered, and our lips and
hands make undying music, to gladden the hearts of those that hear it
all their lives long. For then do we rejoice beyond others, rising like
bright-winged insects from our lowly state to a higher life of glory and
joy, which is ours for the space of three whole days. Then the august
Mother, in a brazen chariot, is drawn from field to field by milk-white
bulls with golden horns; then her children are gathered about her in
shining yellow garments, with armlets of gold upon their arms; and with
voice and instruments of forms unknown to the stranger, they make glad
the listening fields with the great harvest melody.
"In ancient days the children of our house conceived it in their hearts,
hearing it in all nature's voices; and it was with them day and night,
and they whispered it to one another when it was no louder than the
whisper of the wind in the forest leaves; and as the Builder of the
world brings from an hundred far places the mist, and the dew, and the
sunshine, and the light west wind, to give to the morning hour its
freshness and glory; and as we, his humbler followers, seek far off in
caverns of the hills and in the dark bowels of the earth for minerals
and dyes that outshine the flowers and the sun, to beautify the walls of
our house, so everywhere by night and day for long centuries did we
listen to all sounds, and made their mystery and melody ours, until this
great song was perfected in our hearts, and the fame of it in all lands
has caused our house to be called the House of the Harvest Melody; and
when the yearly pilgrims behold our procession in the fields, and listen
to our song, all the glory of the world seems to pass before them,
overcoming their hearts, until, bursting into tears and loud cries, they
cast themselves upon the earth and worship the Father of the whole
world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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