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He rode in a golden coach drawn by twenty gold-red horses, and he brought thirty presents with him. But all his grandeur went for nothing with Lindu, for she said: "I do not love you. You follow the same track day by day, just like the Moon. I love the changing seasons, the changing winds, anything that changes." At that the gold-red horses leaped away and Lindu was alone with her birds.
The song-birds of Earth gathered about her and sang their sweetest songs. With her white bridal veil streaming far out on the air and a happy smile on her lips, Lindu sailed across the sky to Uko's palace. There she lives now, happy as her father Uko. Her white veil spreads from one end of the heavens to the other, and whoever lifts his eyes to the Milky Way beholds the maiden in her bridal robes.
Her father's name was Uko. She knew all the birds of passage, and where they should go in autumn, and she sent each flock on its way. Lindu cared for the birds tenderly, like a mother for her children, and gave them help whenever it was possible. She sent the stormy wind to blow dust into the eyes of the fierce hunters when they were seeking to slay her pets.
It was agreed that the wedding should be when the birds flew south. Back to his home in the midnight land went the Northern Light, knowing that Lindu loved him best. The torrent which fell half a thousand feet over the mountain side sent Lindu her bridal veil.
At length the Northern Light came from his home in the midnight land in a diamond coach drawn by a thousand white horses. He was so grand that Lindu went to the door to meet him. His servants carried a whole coach-load of gold and silver, pearls and jewels into her house. She loved this bright suitor at once. "You do not travel the same path all the time like the others.
Then came the Moon drawn in a silver coach by ten gray horses, and the Moon brought twenty presents. But Lindu did not love the Moon. "You change your face too often and not your path, and that will never suit me," she said. So the Moon drove away wearing his saddest face. Scarcely had the Moon gone before the Sun drove up.
From there she directs her birds. From there she waves her white hand in greeting to the Northern Light as his thousand horses leap through the sky. She has forgotten his unkindness and her sorrow. The Northern Light still loves her, but is so changeful that he can never keep a promise. Uko has given Lindu her station in the heavens and her work.
Summer came and went. The birds flew south, and Lindu waited for the Northern Light's return. Snow sparkled on the earth, but no hoof-beat of his thousand white horses broke the stillness of the midnight air. Spring came, but never the Northern Light. Then Lindu began to weep, and from her tears sprang the little brooks in the valleys of Earth.
The birds flew about her head and rested on her shoulders. They tried to caress her in a hundred ways, but Lindu did not heed them. Then they flew away and wandered in strange places, building nests where no nests were ever seen before. Many an egg was lost and many a nestling stolen because Lindu was not near to help her birds. At last Uko heard their sad songs and then saw his daughter's grief.
You set out when you wish and rest when it pleases you. Each time you wear a new robe, and each time you ride in a new coach with new horses. You shall be my bridegroom." And Lindu's choice was made. The news was sent throughout the world, and guests came from the four sides of the sky and of the earth to greet Lindu and the Northern Light.
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