"Changed, verily and yet more changed shall ye be, oh our children!" cried the Twain gods in such fashion and voice that none failed of heeding in all that great council: Men now, shall ye be, Like the men of first nations, Like the perfect Corn Maidens; Walking straight in the pathways And full in the sunlight; Clothed in garments, and tailless (That ye straight sit in council And stand the more seemly). And your feet shall be webless, And hands void of talons, Yet full-furnished, for fighting. Then ranged were the clans In processions like dancers; First, the fronts of their faces Were shorn of their forelocks By the Twain with their weapons, And fires of the lightning, That the Sun on his journeys Might know them, his children, And warn them of shame. Again in processions, Their talons were severed And webbed fingers slitted; And again in processions Their webbed toes were parted With the knives of the lightnings. Then sore was the wounding And loud cried the foolish; But the Gods bade them "bear it" That they and their children "Be fitter as men." When lastly the people Were ranged in procession And their tails were razed sharply, There were many who cried (Little heeding the foremost Who recked now, no longer The pain they had suffered), And these, in their folly, Shrinking farther and farther Fled away, in their terror, Crazed, and chattering loudly, Climbing trees and high places, And bereft of their senses Wandered far (seeking safety, Sleeping ever in tree-tops) To the south Summer-country. Seen again by far walkers-- "Long of tail and long handed Like wizened man-children, Wild, and noisy of mouthing, Their kind still abide there, Eating raw things like creatures--" Say the words of the ancients. "Thus wise fared it ever With those who feared greatly The words of the fathers, Yet feared not their warnings!" Say the words of the ancients. Thereafter more and more goodly of favor became the people, for they dwelt long in Hán‘hlipíŋk‘ya, where, lo! that this might be so, their useless parts had in sacred theft been stolen, as it were, from them, and they gained great strength, and in the fulness thereof they sought more often than ever to war with all strangers (whereby they became still more changed in spirit), the which the Two Beloved watched amain, nor said they aught!