The night-sun[17] sails in his gold canoe,
The spirits[18] walk in the realms of air
With their glowing faces and flaming hair,
And the shrill, chill winds o’er the prairies blow. 
In the Tee[19] of the Council the Virgins light
The Virgin-fire[20] for the feast to-night;
For the Sons of Heyoka will celebrate
The sacred dance to the giant great. 
The kettle boils on the blazing fire,
And the flesh is done to the chief’s desire. 
With his stoic face to the sacred East,[21]
He takes his seat at the Giant’s Feast.

For the feast of Heyoka[22] the braves are dressed
With crowns from the bark of the white-birch trees,
And new skin leggins that reach the knees;
With robes of the bison and swarthy bear,
And eagle-plumes in their coal-black hair,
And marvelous rings in their tawny ears
That were pierced with the points of their shining spears. 
To honor Heyoka Wakawa lifts
His fuming pipe from the Red-stone Quarry.[23]
The warriors follow.  The white cloud drifts
From the Council-lodge to the welkin starry,
Like a fog at morn on the fir-clad hill,
When the meadows are damp and the winds are still.

They dance to the tune of their wild “Ha-ha”
A warrior’s shout and a raven’s caw—­
Circling the pot and the blazing fire
To the tom-tom’s bray and the rude bassoon;
Round and round to their heart’s desire,
And ever the same wild chant and tune—­
A warrior’s shout and a raven’s caw—­
“Ha-ha,—­ha-ha,—­ha-ha,—­ha!”
They crouch, they leap, and their burning eyes
Flash fierce in the light of the flaming fire,
As fiercer and fiercer and higher and higher
The rude, wild notes of their chant arise. 
They cease, they sit, and the curling smoke
Ascends again from their polished pipes,
And upward curls from their swarthy lips
To the god whose favor their hearts invoke.

Then tall Wakawa arose and said: 
“Brave warriors, listen, and give due heed. 
Great is Heyoka, the magical god;
He can walk on the air; he can float on the flood. 
He’s a worker of magic and wonderful wise;
He cries when he laughs and he laughs when he cries;
He sweats when he’s cold, and he shivers when hot,
And the water is cold in his boiling pot. 
He hides in the earth and he walks in disguise,
But he loves the brave and their sacrifice. 
We are sons of Heyoka.  The Giant commands
In the boiling water to thrust our hands;
And the warrior that scorneth the foe and fire
Heyoka will crown with his heart’s desire.”

They thrust their hands in the boiling pot;
They swallow the bison-meat steaming hot;
Not a wince on their stoical faces bold,
For the meat and the water, they say, are cold: 
And great is Heyoka and wonderful wise;
He floats on the flood and he walks on the skies,
And ever appears in a strange disguise;
But he loves the brave and their sacrifice,
And the warrior that scorneth the foe and fire
Heyoka will crown with his heart’s desire.