Happy Hunting Ground Page: 72

                                
Texas Folk-Lore Society

'Twas a land of lakes and rivers,
Beautiful beyond description,
With its jungles and its forests,
With its broad and level valleys,
With its peaks and snow-capped mountains
And its high plateaus and lowlands.
Such was this, the Land of Promise
Wherein dwelt the great caciques
When the pale-faced men, the Spanish,
Forced their way into the country.
You shall hear how, at the Conquest,
Tisquesuxa, chief of rulers,
With his retinue of courtiers
Held the feasts and sacred functions
For the myriads of his subjects
At the sacred lakes and temples
Of the great Sun-god, Bochica,
At the temples of Bachue,
Mother-moon of all the living,
And the shrines of brave Chibchacum,
Father of the Chibcha nation.
At the seed-time and the harvest
Festive rites and worship held he
On the shores of Guatabita:
In the springtime to Bachue,
In the autumn to Bochica,
When the golden maize was garnered
As the gift of the great Sun-god.
You shall hear of all the legends
Told by sages and by singers:
Of the great Chiminigagua,
Of the prophet-bard, Bochica,
Of the Dawn and the Creation,
Of the Fall and all that caused it;
Of the Flood, and of the Fire
That was sent to earth from heaven.
Give ye heed, for these old legends
Have a great and glorious meaning:
Treasure in your hearts, I pray you,
All the morals of these fables.
Hearken to the words of wisdom
Told by sages of the Chibcbhas.
Draw ye from their words of sterling
Gems of thought to guard forever.
For these men, though dead, are speaking,
And the truths they speak are living:
Learn them in their pristine beauty,
These, the folk-tales of the Chibchas!

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