"S. A. Gorden - Eyes of an Eagle a Novel of Gravity Controlled" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gorden S A)

line of trees, he heard the drumming of the woodpecker and saw the bobbing of the red head in a cedar
tree. As he got closer, he saw the bird was beating on a branch filled with holes that it had made. A
breeze blew through the forest and the woods were filled again with the music.

The young man watched and listened and discovered that the hollow branch was making the beautiful
music. He climbed the tree and broke off the branch the wind was singing through. He called the
watching woodpecker a friend. He thanked the redheaded bird for the gift he had made.

When the young man got back to his village, he hid in his tipi and tried to make the branch sing. He blew
hard on the branch and then soft. He held it in one hand and then the other. He swung it through the air,
but no sound came.

The young man then went to the sweat lodge. After, he climbed a lonely hill. For four days and four
nights without food or water, he cried for a vision, which would show him how to make the song. With
his head resting on a large rock during the last night of his quest, the redheaded woodpecker came to him
in the night breeze. The woodpecker turned himself into a man. Cautioning the youth to watch carefully,
the redheaded man showed him how to make the branch sing.

Awaking the next day from the vision, the young man found a cedar tree. Breaking off a branch the length
of his forearm, he used his bow-drill and knife to whittle the cedar wood branch. The shape he whittled
was of a bird with a long neck and open beak. He painted the bird's head sacred red. He smoked the
branch with sage, cedar, and sweet grasses. He put his mouth to the flute calling his bride and his destiny
in the beautiful melancholy music. And the redheaded bird watched.
****
From the Kalevala
Vainamoinen was born an old man from the sea, the ageless singer and harpist. His mother was
air-daughter and his father the foam raised by the strong east wind. Vainamoinen's song brought the small
man from the sea who chopped down the evil old oak. Vainamoinen had a sharp axe made, cleared the
land and sowed the seven seeds he found. He left one birch tree standing in the cleared fields. The eagle
stopped and rested there. Curious, the eagle asked Vainamoinen why he left the birch in the middle of the
fields. “So you will have a place to rest,” he replied. The cuckoo stopped and rested on the birch.
Curious, he asked Vainamoinen why he left the birch in the middle of the fields. “So you will have a place
to rest,” he replied. All the creatures of the air stopped and rested on the birch tree. They watched and
listened to Vainamoinen sing the eternal magical songs and play his enchanting harp.

When the Day-god rises over the land of Kaleva and the heat of midday comes, the birds still rest in the
birch trees. The leaves of the birch still whisper the melody of the harp and the echo of the songs of the
man of quiet water, the knower eternal, Vainamoinen. And the birds still watch.
Chapter 1
Watching
I spent the morning being watched by an eagle. This was the day of the week I did outside work. It was
early fall. The leaves were just beginning to change. The light frost had melted and the grass had dried
enough for me to start mowing the lawn. I had just finished mowing one track around the lawn when he
flew in.

He came in low from the slight rise in the west. I saw the dark shape crest the tree line and started
immediately to reject the shapes it wasn't. Not a crow ... too big. Not a heron ... wrong neck. Not a
hawk ... An eagle! He flew right in front of me and landed in the tallest tree in the yard. As he spread his
wings in landing, I saw the white head and a small white spot. He was a young bird then; maybe that was
why he landed?