The Elves - An Iroquois Legend
by
Harriet Maxwell Converse (Adapted)
The
little Elves of Darkness, so says the old Iroquois grandmother, were wise and
mysterious. They dwelt under the earth, where were deep forests and broad
plains. There they kept captive all the evil things that wished to injure human
beings - the venomous reptiles, the wicked spiders, and the fearful monsters.
Sometimes one of these evil creatures escaped and rushed upward to the bright,
pure air, and spread its poisonous breath over the living things of the
upper-world. But such happenings were rare, for the Elves of Darkness were
faithful and strong, and did not willingly allow the wicked beasts and reptiles
to harm human beings and the growing things.
When
the night was lighted by the moon's soft rays, and the woods of the upper-world
were sweet with the odor of the spring-flowers, then the Elves of Darkness left
the under-world, and creeping from their holes, held a festival in the woods.
And under many a tree, where the blades of grass had refused to grow, the
Little People danced until rings of green sprang up beneath their feet. And to
the festival came the Elves of Light - among whom were Tree-Elves,
Flower-Elves, and Fruit-Elves. They too danced and made merry.
But
when the moonlight faded away, and day began to break, then the Elves of
Darkness scampered back to their holes, and returned once more to the
under-world - while the Elves of Light began their daily tasks.
For in
the springtime these Little People of the Light hid in sheltered places. They
listened to the complaints of the seeds that lay covered in the ground, and
they whispered to the earth until the seeds burst their pods and sent their
shoots upward to the light. Then the little Elves wandered over the fields and
through the woods, bidding all growing things to look upon the sun.
The
Tree-Elves tended the trees, unfolding their leaves, and feeding their roots
with sap from the earth. The Flower-Elves unwrapped the baby buds, and tinted
the petals of the opening flowers, and played with the bees and the
butterflies.
But
the busiest of all were the Fruit-Elves. Their greatest care in the spring was
the strawberry plant. When the ground softened from the frost, the Fruit-Elves
loosened the earth around each strawberry root, that its shoots might push
through to the light. They shaped the plant's leaves, and turned its blossoms
toward the warm rays of the sun. They trained its runners, and assisted the
timid fruit to form. They painted the luscious berry, and bade it ripen. And
when the first strawberries blushed on the vines, these guardian Elves
protected them from the evil insects that had escaped from the world of
darkness underground.
And
the old Iroquois grandmother tells, how once, when the fruit first came to
earth, the Evil Spirit, Hahgwehdaetgah, stole the strawberry plant, and carried
it to his gloomy cave, where he hid it away. And there it lay until a tiny
sunbeam pierced the damp mould, and finding the little vine carried it back to
its sunny fields. And ever since then the strawberry plant has lived and
thrived in the fields and woods. But the Fruit-Elves, fearing lest the Evil One
should one day steal the vine again, watch day and night over their favorite.
And when the strawberries ripen they give the juicy, fragrant fruit to the
Iroquois children as they gather the spring flowers in the woods.
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