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diff --git a/9913.txt b/9913.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c3fea8 --- /dev/null +++ b/9913.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8217 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trail Book, by Mary Austin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Trail Book + +Author: Mary Austin + +Illustrator: Milo Winter + +Posting Date: December 11, 2011 [EBook #9913] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 30, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAIL BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Debra Storr, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE TRAIL BOOK + +BY + +MARY AUSTIN + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY MILO WINTER + +1918 + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "'Arr-rr-ump!' I said"] + + + +TO MARY, MY NIECE + +IN THE HOPE THAT SHE MAY FIND THROUGH THE TRAILS OF HER OWN COUNTRY THE +ROAD TO WONDERLAND CONTENTS + + + + + I HOW OLIVER AND DORCAS JANE FOUND THE TRAIL + + II WHAT THE BUFFALO CHIEF TOLD + + III HOW THE MASTODON HAPPENED FIRST TO BELONG TO A MAN, AS TOLD BY + ARRUMPA + + IV THE SECOND PART OF THE MASTODON STORY, CONCERNING THE TRAIL TO THE + SEA AND THE TALKING STICK OF TAKU-WAKIN + + V HOW HOWKAWANDA AND FRIEND-AT-THE-BACK FOUND THE TRAIL TO THE BUFFALO + COUNTRY; TOLD BY THE COYOTE + + VI DORCAS JANE HEARS HOW THE CORN CAME TO THE VALLEY OF THE MISSI-SIPPU; + TOLD BY THE CORN WOMAN + + VII A TELLING OF THE SALT TRAIL, OF TSE-TSE-YOTE AND THE DELIGHT-MAKERS; + TOLD BY MOKE-ICHA + +VIII YOUNG-MAN-WHO-NEVER-TURNS-BACK: A TELLING OF THE TALLEGEWI, BY ONE + OF THEM + + IX HOW THE LENNI-LENAPE CAME FROM SHINAKI AND THE TALLEGEWI FOUGHT THEM: + THE SECOND PART OF THE MOUND-BUILDER'S STORY + + X THE MAKING OF A SHAMAN: A TELLING OF THE IROQUOIS TRAIL, BY THE + ONONDAGA + + XI THE PEARLS OF COFACHIQUE: HOW LUCAS DE AYLLON CAME TO LOOK FOR THEM + AND WHAT THE CACICA FAR-LOOKING DID TO HIM; TOLD BY THE PELICAN. + + XII HOW THE IRON SHIRTS CAME TO TUSCALOOSA: A TELLING OF THE TRIBUTE + ROAD BY THE LADY OF COFACHIQUE. + +XIII HOW THE IRON SHIRTS CAME LOOKING FOR THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA; + TOLD BY THE ROAD-RUNNER. + + XIV HOW THE MAN OF TWO HEARTS KEPT THE SECRET OF THE HOLY PLACES; TOLD + BY THE CONDOR. + + XV HOW THE MEDICINE OF THE ARROWS WAS BROKEN AT REPUBLICAN RIVER; TOLD + BY THE CHIEF OFFICER OF THE DOG SOLDIERS + + +APPENDIX + +GLOSSARY + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"'ARR-RR-UMP!' I SAID" + +THE BUFFALO CHIEF + +THE MASTODON + +TAKU AND ARRUMPA + +THE TRAIL TO THE SEA + +THE TRAIL TO THE BUFFALO COUNTRY + +SHOT DOWNWARD TO THE LEDGE WHERE HOWKAWANDA AND YOUNGER BROTHER HUGGED +THEMSELVES (in color) + +THE CORN WOMEN + +SIGN OF THE SUN AND THE FOUR QUARTERS + +MOKE-ICHA + +TSE-TSE-YOTE AND MOKE-ICHA (in Color) + +TSE-TSE-YOTE AND MOKE-ICHA + +THE MOUND-BUILDERS + +THE IROQUOIS TRAIL + +THE GOLD-SEEKERS + +SHE COULD SEE THE THOUGHTS OF A MAN WHILE THEY WERE STILL IN HIS HEART +(in Color) + +THE CACICA FAR-LOOKING MEETS THE IRON SHIRTS + +THE DESERT + +THE CONDOR THAT HAS HIS NEST ON EL MORRO + +THE DOG SOLDIERS + +LINE ART OF BUFFALO + +THE TRAIL BOOK + + + + +I + +HOW OLIVER AND DORCAS JANE FOUND THE TRAIL + + +From the time that he had first found, himself alone with them, Oliver +had felt sure that the animals could come alive again if they wished. +That was one blowy afternoon about a week after his father had been made +night engineer and nobody had come into the Museum for several hours. + +Oliver had been sitting for some time in front of the Buffalo case, +wondering what might be at the other end of the trail. The cows that +stood midway in it had such a _going_ look. He was sure it must lead, +past the hummock where the old bull flourished his tail, to one of those +places where he had always wished to be. All at once, as the boy sat +there thinking about it, the glass case disappeared and the trail shot +out like a dark snake over a great stretch of rolling, grass-covered +prairie. + +He could see the tops of the grasses stirring like the hair on the old +Buffalo's coat, and the ripple of water on the beaver pool which was +just opposite and yet somehow only to be reached after long travel +through the Buffalo Country. The wind moved on the grass, on the surface +of the water and the young leaves of the alders, and over all the +animals came the start and stir of life. + +And then the slow, shuffling steps of the Museum attendant startled it +all into stillness again. + +The attendant spoke to Oliver as he passed, for even a small boy is +worth talking to when you have been all day in a Museum where nothing is +new to you and nobody comes. + +"You want to look out, son," said the attendant, who really liked the +boy and hadn't a notion what sort of ideas he was putting into Oliver's +head. "If you ain't careful, some of them things will come downstairs +some night and go off with ye." + +And why should MacShea have said that if he hadn't known for certain +that the animals _did_ come alive at night? That was the way Oliver put +it when he was trying to describe this extraordinary experience to +his sister. + +Dorcas Jane, who was eleven and a half and not at all imaginative, eyed +him suspiciously. Oliver had such a way of stating things that were not +at all believable, in a way that made them seem the likeliest things in +the world. He was even capable of acting for days as if things were so, +which you knew from the beginning were only the most delightful of +make-believes. Life on this basis was immensely more exciting, but then +you never knew whether or not he might be what some of his boy friends +called "stringing you," so when Oliver began to hint darkly at his +belief that the stuffed animals in the Mammal room of the Museum came +alive at night and had larks of their own, Dorcas Jane offered the most +noncommittal objection that occurred to her. + +"They couldn't," she said; "the night watchman wouldn't let them." There +were watchmen, she knew, who went the rounds of every floor. + +But, insisted Oliver, why should they have watchmen at all, if not to +prevent people from breaking in and disturbing the animals when they +were busy with affairs of their own? He meant to stay up there himself +some night and see what it was all about; and as he went on to explain +how it would be possible to slip up the great stair while the watchmen +were at the far end of the long hall, and of the places one could hide +if the watchman came along when he wasn't wanted, he said "we" and "us." +For, of course, he meant to take Dorcas Jane with him. Where would be +the fun of such an adventure if you had it alone? And besides, Oliver +had discovered that it was not at all difficult to scare himself with the +things he had merely imagined. There were times when Dorcas Jane's frank +disbelief was a great comfort to him. Still, he wasn't the sort of boy +to be scared before anything has really happened, so when Dorcas Jane +suggested that they didn't know what the animals might do to any one who +went among them uninvited, he threw it off stoutly. + +"Pshaw! They can't do anything to us! They're stuffed, Silly!" + +And to Dorcas Jane, who was by this time completely under the spell of +the adventure, it seemed quite likely that the animals should be stuffed +so that they couldn't hurt you, and yet not stuffed so much that they +couldn't come alive again. + +It was all of a week before they could begin. There is a kind of feeling +you have to have about an adventure without which the affair doesn't +come off properly. Anybody who has been much by himself in the woods has +had it; or sometime, when you are all alone in the house, all at once +there comes a kind of pricking of your skin and a tightness in your +chest, not at all unpleasant, and a kind of feeling that the furniture +has its eye on you, or that some one behind your shoulder is about to +speak, and immediately after that something happens. Or you feel sure it +would have happened if somebody hadn't interrupted. + +Dorcas Jane _never_ had feelings like that. But about a week after +Oliver had proposed to her that they spend a part of the night in the +long gallery, he was standing in front of the Buffalo case, wondering +what actually did happen when a buffalo caught you. Quite unexpectedly, +deep behind the big bull's glassy eye, he caught a gleam as of another +eye looking at him, meaningly, and with a great deal of friendliness. +Oliver felt prickles come out suddenly all over his body, and without +quite knowing why, he began to move away from that place, tip-toe and +slippingly, like a wild creature in the woods when it does not know who +may be about. He told himself it would never do to have the animals come +alive without Dorcas Jane, and before all those stupid, staring folk who +might come in at any minute and spoil everything. + +That night, after their father had gone off clanking to his furnaces, +Dorcas heard her brother tapping on the partition between their rooms, +as he did sometimes when they played "prisoner." She knew exactly what +he meant by it and tapped back that she was ready. + +Everything worked out just as they had planned. They heard the strange, +hollow-sounding echoes of the watchman's voice dying down the halls, as +stair by stair they dropped the street lamps below them, and saw strange +shadows start out of things that were perfectly harmless and familiar +by day. + +There was no light in the gallery except faint up-and-down glimmers from +the glass of the cases, and here and there the little spark of an eye. +Outside there was a whole world of light, the milky way of the street +with the meteor roar of the Elevated going by, processions of small +moons marching below them across the park, and blazing constellations in +the high windows opposite. Tucked into one of the window benches between +the cases, the children seemed to swing into another world where almost +anything might happen. And yet for at least a quarter of an hour +nothing did. + +"I don't believe nothing ever does," said Dorcas Jane, who was not at +all careful of her grammar. + +"Sh-sh!" said Oliver. They had sat down directly in front of the Buffalo +Trail, though Dorcas would have preferred to be farther away from the +Polar Bear. For suppose it hadn't been properly stuffed! But Oliver had +eyes only for the trail. + +"I want to see where it begins and where it goes," he insisted. + +So they sat and waited, and though the great building was never allowed +to grow quite cold, it was cool enough to make it pleasant for them to +sit close together and for Dorcas to tuck her hand into the crook of +his arm.... + +All at once the Bull Buffalo shook himself. + +[Illustration: Line Art of Mastadons] + + + + +II + +WHAT THE BUFFALO CHIEF TOLD + + +"_Wake! Wake!_" said the Bull Buffalo, with a roll to it, as though the +word had been shouted in a deep voice down an empty barrel. He shook the +dust out of his mane and stamped his fore-foot to set the herd in +motion. There were thousands of them feeding as far as the eye could +reach, across the prairie, yearlings and cows with their calves of that +season, and here and there a bull, tossing his heavy head and sending up +light puffs of dust under the pawings of his hoof as he took up the +leader's signal. + +"Wake! Wa--ake!" + +It rolled along the ground like thunder. At the sound the herds gathered +themselves from the prairie, they turned back from the licks, they rose +up _plop_ from the wallows, trotting singly in the trails that rayed out +to every part of the pastures and led up toward the high ridges. + +"Wa-ak--" began the old bull; then he stopped short, threw up his head, +sniffing the wind, and ended with a sharp snort which changed the words +to "_What? What?_" + +"What's this," said the Bull Buffalo, "Pale Faces?" + +"They are very young," said the young cow, the one with the _going_ +look. She had just been taken into the herd that season and had the +place of the favorite next to the leader. + +"If you please, sir," said Oliver, "we only wished to know where the +trail went." + +"Why," said the Buffalo Chief, surprised, "to the Buffalo roads, of +course. We must be changing pasture." As he pawed contempt upon the +short, dry grass, the rattlesnake, that had been sunning himself at the +foot of the hummock, slid away under the bleached buffalo skull, and the +small, furry things dived everywhere into their burrows. + +"That is the way always," said the young cow, "when the Buffalo People +begin their travels. Not even a wolf will stay in the midst of the +herds; there would be nothing left of him by the time the hooves had +passed over." + +The children could see how that might be, for as the thin lines began to +converge toward the high places, it was as if the whole prairie had +turned black and moving. Where the trails drew out of the flat lands to +the watersheds, they were wide enough for eight or ten to walk abreast, +trodden hard and white as country roads. There was a deep, continuous +murmur from the cows like the voice of the earth talking to itself +at twilight. + +"Come," said the old bull, "we must be moving." + +"But what is that?" said Dorcas Jane, as a new sound came from the +direction of the river, a long chant stretching itself like a snake +across the prairie, and as they listened there were words that lifted +and fell with an odd little pony joggle. + +"That is the Pawnees, singing their travel song," said the Buffalo +Chief. + +And as he spoke they could see the eagle bonnets of the tribesmen coming +up the hollow, every man mounted, with his round shield and the point of +his lance tilted forward. After them came the women on the pack-ponies +with the goods, and the children stowed on the travoises of lodge-poles +that trailed from the ponies' withers. + +"Ha-ah," said the old bull. "One has laid his ear to the ground in their +lodges and has heard the earth tremble with the passing of the +Buffalo People." + +"But where do they go?" said Dorcas. + +"They follow the herds," said the old bull, "for the herds are their +food and their clothes and their housing. It is the Way Things Are that +the Buffalo People should make the trails and men should ride in them. +They go up along the watersheds where the floods cannot mire, where the +snow is lightest, and there are the best lookouts." + +"And, also, there is the easiest going," said a new voice with a snarly +running whine in it. It came from a small gray beast with pointed ears +and a bushy tail, and the smut-tipped nose that all coyotes have had +since their very first father blacked himself bringing fire to Man from +the Burning Mountain. He had come up very softly at the heels of the +Buffalo Chief, who wheeled suddenly and blew steam from his nostrils. + +"That," he said, "is because of the calves. It is not because a buffalo +cannot go anywhere it pleases him; down ravines where a horse would +stumble and up cliffs where even you, O Smut Nose, cannot follow." + +"True, Great Chief," said the Coyote, "but I seem to remember trails +that led through the snow to very desirable places." + +This was not altogether kind, for it is well known that it is only when +snow has lain long enough on the ground to pack and have a hard coating +of ice, that the buffaloes dare trust themselves upon it. When it is +new-fallen and soft they flounder about helplessly until they die of +starvation, and the wolves pull them down, or the Indians come and kill +them. But the old bull had the privilege which belongs to greatness, of +not being obliged to answer impertinent things that were said to him. He +went on just as if nothing had interrupted, telling how the buffalo +trails had found the mountain passes and how they were rutted deep into +the earth by the migrating herds. + +"I have heard," he said, "that when the Pale Faces came into the country +they found no better roads anywhere than the buffalo traces--" + +"Also," purred Moke-icha, "I have heard that they found trails through +lands where no buffalo had been before them." Moke-icha, the Puma, lay +on a brown boulder that matched so perfectly with her watered coat that +if it had not been for the ruffling of the wind on her short fur and the +twitchings of her tail, the children might not have discovered her. +"Look," she said, stretching out one of her great pads toward the south, +where the trail ran thin and white across a puma-colored land, streaked +with black lava and purple shadow. Far at the other end it lifted in +red, wall-sided buttes where the homes of the Cliff People stuck like +honeycombs in the wind-scoured hollows. + +"Now I recall a trail in that country," said Moke-icha, "that was older +than the oldest father's father of them could remember. Four times a +year the People of the Cliffs went down on it to the Sacred Water, and +came back with bags of salt on their shoulders." + +Even as she spoke they could see the people coming out of the Cliff +dwellings and the priests going into the kivas preparing for +the journey. + +That was how it was; when any animal spoke of the country he knew best, +that was what the children saw. And yet all the time there was the +beginning of the buffalo trail in front of them, and around them, drawn +there by that something of himself which every man puts into the work of +his hands, the listening tribesmen. One of these spoke now in answer to +Moke-icha. + +"Also in my part of the country," he said, "long before there were Pale +Faces, there were trade trails and graded ways, and walled ways between +village and village. We traded for cherts as far south as Little River +in the Tenasas Mountains, and north to the Sky-Blue Water for copper +which was melted out of rocks, and there were workings at Flint Ridge +that were older than the great mound at Cahokia." + +"Oh," cried both the children at once, "Mound-Builders!"--and they +stared at him with interest. + +He was probably not any taller than the other Indians, but seemed so on +account of his feather headdress which was built up in front with a +curious cut-out copper ornament. They thought they recognized the broad +banner stone of greenish slate which he carried, the handle of which was +tasseled with turkey beards and tiny tails of ermine. He returned the +children's stare in the friendliest possible fashion, twirling his +banner stone as a policeman does his night stick. + +"Were you? Mound-Builders, you know?" questioned Oliver. + +"You could call us that. We called ourselves Tallegewi, and our trails +were old before the buffalo had crossed east of the Missi-Sippu, the +Father of all Rivers. Then the country was full of the horned people, +thick as flies in the Moon of Stopped Waters." As he spoke, he pointed +to the moose and wapiti trooping down the shallow hills to the +watering-places. They moved with a dancing motion, and the multitude of +their horns was like a forest walking, a young forest in the spring +before the leaves are out and there is a clicking of antlered bough on +bough. "They would come in twenty abreast to the licks where we lay in +wait for them," said the Tallega. "They were the true trail-makers." + +"Then you must have forgotten what I had to do with it," said a voice +that seemed to come from high up in the air, so that they all looked up +suddenly and would have been frightened at the huge bulk, if the voice +coming from it in a squeaky whisper had not made it seem ridiculous. It +was the Mastodon, who had strolled in from the pre-historic room, though +it was a wonder to the children how so large a beast could move +so silently. + +"Hey," said a Lenni-Lenape, who had sat comfortably smoking all this +time, "I've heard of you--there was an old Telling of my +father's--though I hardly think I believed it. What are you doing here?" + +"I've a perfect right to come," said the Mastodon, shuffling +embarrassedly from foot to foot. "I was the first of my kind to have a +man belonging to me, and it was I that showed him the trail to the sea." + +"Oh, please, would you tell us about it?" said Dorcas. + +The Mastodon rocked to and fro on his huge feet, embarrassedly. + +"If--if it would please the company--" + +Everybody looked at the Buffalo Chief, for, after all, it was he who +began the party. The old bull pawed dust and blew steam from his +nostrils, which was a perfectly safe thing to do in case the story +didn't turn out to his liking. + +"Tell, tell," he agreed, in a voice like a man shouting down twenty rain +barrels at once. + +And looking about slyly with his little twinkling eyes at the attentive +circle, the Mastodon began. + + + + +III + +HOW THE MASTODON HAPPENED FIRST TO BELONG TO A MAN, AS TOLD BY ARRUMPA + + +"In my time, everything, even the shape of the land was different. From +Two Rivers it was all marsh, marsh and swamp with squidgy islands, with +swamp and marsh again till you came to hills and hard land, beyond which +was the sea. Nothing grew then but cane and coarse grass, and the water +rotting the land until there was no knowing where it was safe treading +from year to year. Not that it mattered to my people. We kept to the +hills where there was plenty of good browse, and left the swamp to the +Grass-Eaters--bunt-headed, woolly-haired eaters of grass!" + +Up came Arrumpa's trunk to trumpet his contempt, and out from the +hillslope like a picture on a screen stretched for a moment the flat +reed-bed of Two Rivers, with great herds of silly, elephant-looking +creatures feeding there, with huge incurving trunks and backs that +sloped absurdly from a high fore-hump. They rootled in the tall grass or +shouldered in long, snaky lines through the canes, their +trunks waggling. + +"Mammoths they were called," said Arrumpa, "and they hid in the swamp +because their tusks curved in and they were afraid of Saber-Tooth, the +Tiger. There were a great many of them, though not so many as our +people, and also there was Man. It was the year my tusks began to grow +that I first saw him. We were coming up from the river to the +bedding-ground and there was a thin rim of the moon like a tusk over the +hill's shoulder. I remember the damp smell of the earth and the good +smell of the browse after the sun goes down, and between them a thin +blue mist curling with a stinging smell that made prickles come along +the back of my neck. + +"'What is that?' I said, for I walked yet with my mother. + +"'It is the smell which Man makes so that other people may know where he +is and keep away from him,' she said, for my mother had never been +friends with Man and she did not know any better. + +"Then we came up over the ridge and saw them, about a score, naked and +dancing on the naked front of the hill. They had a fire in their midst +from which the blue smell went up, and as they danced they sang-- + +"'Hail, moon, young moon! +Hail, hail, young moon! +Bring me something that I wish, +Hail, moon, hail!' + +"--catching up fire-sticks in their hands and tossing them toward the +tusk of the moon. That was how they made the moon grow, by working fire +into it, so my man told me afterwards. But it was not until I began to +walk by myself that he found me. + +"I had come up from the lower hills all one day," said the Mastodon. +"There was a feel in the air as if the Great Cold had breathed into it. +It curdled blue as pond water, and under the blueness the forest color +showed like weed under water. I walked by myself and did not care who +heard me. Now and then I tore up a young tree, for my tusks had grown +fast that year and it was good to feel the tree tug at its roots and +struggle with me. Farther up, the wind walked on the dry leaves with a +sound like a thousand wapiti trooping down the mountain. Every little +while, for want of something to do, I charged it. Then I carried a pine, +which I had torn up, on my tusks, until the butt struck a boulder which +went down the hill with an avalanche of small stones that set all the +echoes shouting. + +"In the midst of it I lifted up my voice and said that I was I, Arrumpa, +walking by myself,--and just then a dart struck me. The men had come up +under cover of the wind on either side so that there was nothing for me +to do but to move forward, which I did, somewhat hurriedly. + +"I had not come to my full size then, but I was a good weight for my +years," said Arrumpa modestly,--"a very good weight, and it was my +weight that saved me, for the edge of the ravine that opened suddenly in +front of me crumbled, so that I came down into the bottom of it with a +great mass of rubbish and broken stone, with a twisted knee, and very +much astonished. + +"I remember blowing to get the blood and dust out of my eyes,--there was +a dart stuck in my forehead,--and seeing the men come swarming over the +edge of the ravine, which was all walled in on every side, shaking their +spears and singing. That was the way with men; whatever they did they +had to sing about it. 'Ha-ahe-ah!' they sang-- + +"'Great Chief, you're about to die, +The Gods have said it.' + +"So they came capering, but there was blood in my eyes and my knee hurt +me, so when one of them stuck his spear almost up to the haft in my +side, I tossed him. I took him up lightly on my tusks and he lay still +at the far end of the ravine where I had dropped him. That stopped the +shouting; but it broke out again suddenly, for the women had come down +the wild vines on the walls, with their young on their shoulders, and +the wife of the man I had tossed found him. The noise of the hunters was +as nothing to the noise she made at me. Madness overtook her; she left +off howling over her man and seizing her son by the hand,--he was no +more than half-grown, not up to my shoulder,--she pushed him in front of +me. 'Take him! Take my son, Man-Killer!' she screamed. 'After you have +taken the best of the tribe, will you stop at a youngling?' Then all the +others screeched at her like gulls frightened from their rock, and +stopped silent in great fear to see what I would do about it. + +"I did not know what to do, for there was no way I could tell her I was +sorry I had killed her husband; and the lad stood where she had pushed +him, not making any noise at all but a sharp, steady breathing. So I +took him up in my trunk, for, indeed, I did not know what to do, and as +I held him at the level of my eyes, I saw a strange thing,--that the boy +was not afraid. He was not in the least afraid, but very angry. + +"'I hate you, Arrumpa,' he said, 'because you have killed my father. I +am too little to kill you for it now, but when I am a man I shall kill +you.' He struck me with his fists. 'Put me down, Man-Killer!' + +"So I put him down. What else was there to do? And there was a sensation +in my breast, a sensation as of bending the knees and bowing the +neck--not at all unpleasant--He stood where I placed him, between my +tusks, and one of the hunters, who was a man in authority, called out to +him to come away while they killed me. + +"'That you shall not,' said my manling, 'for he has killed my father, +therefore he is mine to kill according to the custom of killing.' + +"Then the man was angry. + +"'Come away, little fool,' he said. 'He is our meat. Have we not +followed him for three days and trapped him?' + +"The boy looked at him under his brows, drawn level. + +"'That was my father's spear that stuck in him, Opata,' he said. + +"Now, as the man spoke, I began to see what they had done to me these +three days, for there was no way out of the ravine, and the women had +brought their fleshing-knives and baskets: but the boy was quicker even +than my anger. He reached up a hand to either of my tusks,--he could +barely lay hands on them,--and his voice shook, though I do not think it +was with anger. 'He is mine to kill,' he said, 'according to custom. He +is my Arrumpa, and I call the tribe to witness. Not one of you shall lay +hands on him until one of us has killed the other.' + +"Then I lifted up my trunk over him, for my heart swelled against the +hunters, and I gave voice as a bull should when he walks by himself. + +"'Arr-rr-ump!' I said. And the people were all silent with astonishment. + +"Finally the man who had first spoken, spoke again, very humbly, 'Great +Chief, give us leave to take away your father.' So we gave them leave. +They took the hurt man--his back was broken--away by the vine ladders, +and my young man went and lay face down where his father had lain, and +shook with many strange noises while water came out of his eyes. When he +sat up at last and saw me blowing dust on the spear-cut in my side to +stop the bleeding, he gathered broad leaves, dipped them in pine gum, +and laid them on the cut. Then I blew dust on these, and seeing that I +was more comfortable, Taku-Wakin--that was what I learned to call +him--saluted with both hands to his head, palms outward. 'Friend,' he +said,--'for if you are not my friend I think I have not one other in the +world,--besides, I am too little to kill you,--I go to bury my father.' + +"For three days I bathed my knee in the spring, and saw faces come to +peer about the edge of it and heard the beat of the village drums. The +third day my young man came, wearing his father's collar of bear's +teeth, with neither fire-stick nor food nor weapon upon him. "'Now I am +all the man my mother has,' he said; 'I must do what is necessary to +become a tribesman.' + +"I did not know then what he meant, but it seems it was a custom." + +All the Indians in the group that had gathered about the Mastodon, +nodded at this. + +"It was so in my time," said the Mound-Builder. "When a youth has come +to the age where he is counted a man, he goes apart and neither eats nor +drinks until, in the shape of some living thing, the Great Mystery has +revealed itself to him. + +"It was so he explained it to me," agreed Arrumpa; "and for three days +he ate and drank nothing, but walked by himself talking to his god. +Other times he would talk to me, scratching my hurts and taking the +ticks out of my ears, until--I do not know what it was, but between me +and Taku-Wakin it happened that we understood, each of us, what the +other was thinking in his heart as well as if we had words--Is this also +a custom?" + +A look of intelligence passed between the members of his audience. + +"Once to every man," said an Indian who leaned against Moke-icha's +boulder, "when he shuts all thought of killing out of his heart and +gives himself to the beast as to a brother, knowledge which is different +from the knowledge of the chase comes to both of them. + +"Oh," said Oliver, "I had a dog once--" But he became very much +embarrassed when he discovered that he had drawn the attention of the +company. It had always been difficult for him to explain why it was he +had felt so certain that his dog and he had always known what the other +was thinking; but the Indians and the animals understood him. + +"All this Taku explained to me," went on Arrumpa. "The fourth day, when +Taku fainted for lack of food, I cradled him in my tusks and was greatly +troubled. At last I laid him on the fresh grass by the spring and blew +water on him. Then he sat up laughing and spluttering, but faintly. + +"'Now am I twice a fool,' he said, 'not to know from the first that you +are my Medicine, the voice of the Mystery.' + +"Then he shouted for his mother, who came down from the top of the +ravine, very timidly, and fed him. + +"After that he would come to me every day, sometimes with a bough of +wild apples or a basket of acorns, and I would set him on my neck so he +could scratch between my ears and tell me all his troubles. His father, +he said, had been a strong man who put himself at the head of the five +chiefs of the tribe and persuaded them to leave off fighting one another +and band together against the enemy tribes. Opata, the man who had +wished to kill me, was the man likeliest to be made High Chief in his +father's place. + +"'And then my bad days will begin,' said Taku-Wakin, 'for he hates me +for my father's sake, and also a little for yours, Old Two-Tails, and he +will persuade the Council to give my mother to another man and I shall +be made subject to him. Worse,' he said,--'the Great Plan of my father +will come to nothing.' + +"He was always talking about this Great Plan and fretting over it, but I +was too new to the customs of men to ask what he meant by it. + +"'If I had but a Sign,' he said, 'then they would give me my father's +place in the Council ... but I am too little, and I have not yet killed +anything worth mentioning.' + +"So he would sit on my neck and drum with his heels while he thought, +and there did not seem to be anything I could do about it. By this time +my knee was quite well. I had eaten all the brush in the ravine and was +beginning to be lonely. Taku wasn't able to visit me so often, for he +had his mother and young brothers to kill for. + +"So one night when the moon came walking red on the trail of the day, +far down by Two Rivers I heard some of my friends trumpeting; therefore +I pulled down young trees along the sides of the ravine, with great +lumps of earth, and battered the rotten cliffs until they crumbled in a +heap by which I scrambled up again. + +"I must have traveled a quarter of the moon's course before I heard the +patter of bare feet in the trail and a voice calling:-- + +"'Up! Take me up, Arrumpa!' + +"So I took him up, quite spent with running, and yet not so worn out but +that he could smack me soundly between the eyes, as no doubt I deserved. + +"'Beast of a bad heart,' he said, 'did I not tell you that to-morrow the +moon is full and the Five Chiefs hold Council?' So he had, but my thick +wits had made nothing of it. 'If you leave me this night,' said Taku, +'then they will say that my Medicine has left me and my father's place +will be given to Opata.' + +"'Little Chief,' I said, 'I did not know that you had need of me, but it +came into my head that I also had need of my own people. Besides, the +brush is eaten.' + +"'True, true!' he said, and drummed on my forehead. 'Take me home,' he +said at last, 'for I have followed you half the night, and I must not +seem wearied at the Council.' + +"So I took him back as far as the Arch Rock which springs high over the +trail by which the men of Taku's village went out to the hunting. There +was a cleft under the wing of the Arch, close to the cliff, and every +man going out to the hunt threw a dart at it, as an omen. If it stuck, +the omen was good, but if the point of the dart broke against the face +of the cliff and fell back, the hunter returned to his hut, and if he +hunted at all that day, he went out in another direction. We could see +the shafts of the darts fast in the cleft, bristling in the moonlight. + +"'Wait here, under the Arch,' said Taku-Wakin, 'till I see if the arrow +of my thought finds a cleft to stick into.' + +"So we waited, watching the white, webby moons of the spiders, wet in +the grass, and the man huts sleeping on the hill, and felt the Dawn's +breath pricking the skin of our shoulders. The huts were mere heaps of +brush like rats' nests. + +"'Shall I walk on the huts for a sign, Little Chief?' said I. + +"'Not that, Old Hilltop,' he laughed; 'there are people under the huts, +and what good is a Sign without people?' + +"Then he told me how his father had become great by thinking, not for +his own clan alone, but for all the people--it was because of the long +reach of his power that they called him Long-Hand. Now that he was gone +there would be nothing but quarrels and petty jealousies. 'They will +hunt the same grounds twice over,' said Taku-Wakin; 'they will kill one +another when they should be killing their enemies, and in the end the +Great Cold will get them.' + +"Every year the Great Cold crept nearer. It +came like a strong arm and pressed the people west and south so that the +tribes bore hard on one another. + +"'Since old time,' said Taku-Wakin, 'my people have been sea people. But +the People of the Great Cold came down along the ice-rim and cut them +off from it. My father had a plan to get to the sea, and a Talking Stick +which he was teaching me to understand, but I cannot find it in any of +the places where he used to hide it. If I had the Stick I think they +would make me chief in my father's place. But if Opata is made chief, +then I must give it to him if I find it, and Opata will have all the +glory. If I had but a Sign to keep them from making Opata chief...' So +he drummed on my head with his heels while I leaned against the Arch +Rock--oh, yes, I can sleep very comfortably, standing--and the moon slid +down the hill until it shone clear under the rock and touched the +feathered butts of the arrows. Then Taku woke me. + +"'Up, put me up, Arrumpa! For now I have thought of a Sign that even the +Five Chiefs will have respect for.' + +"So I put him up until his foot caught in the cleft of the rock and he +pried out five of the arrows. + +"'Arrows of the Five Chiefs,' he said,--'that the chiefs gave to the +gods to keep, and the gods have given to me again!' + +"That was the way always with Taku-Wakin, he kept all the god customs of +the people, but he never doubted, when he had found what he wanted to +do, that the gods would be on his side. He showed me how every arrow was +a little different from the others in the way the blood drain was cut or +the shaft feathered. + +"'No fear,' he said. 'Every man will know his own when I come to the +Council.' + +"He hugged the arrows to his breast and laughed over them, so I hugged +him with my trunk, and we agreed that once in every full moon I was to +come to Burnt Woods, and wait until he called me with something that he +took from his girdle and twirled on a thong. I do not know what it was +called, but it had a voice like young thunder. + +"Like this?" The Mound-Builder cut the air with an oddly shaped bit of +wood swung on an arm's-length of string, once lightly, like a covey of +quail rising, and then loud like a wind in the full-branched forest. + +"Just such another. Thrice he swung it so that I might not mistake the +sound, and that was the last I saw of him, hugging his five arrows, with +the moon gone pale like a meal-cake, and the tame wolves that skulk +between the huts for scraps, slinking off as he spoke to them." + +"And did they--the Five Chiefs, I mean--have respect for his arrows?" +Dorcas Jane wondered. + +"So he told me. They came from all the nine villages and sat in a +council ring, each with the elders of his village behind him, and in +front his favorite weapon, tied with eagle feathers for enemies he had +slain, and red marks for battles, and other signs and trophies. At the +head of the circle there was the spear of Long-Hand, and a place left +for the one who should be elected to sit in it. But before the Council +had time to begin, came Taku-Wakin with his arms folded--though he told +me it was to hide how his heart jumped in his bosom--and took his +father's seat. Around the ring of the chiefs and elders ran a growl like +the circling of thunder in sultry weather, and immediately it was turned +into coughing; every man trying to eat his own exclamation, for, as he +sat, Taku laid out, in place of a trophy, the five arrows. + +"'Do we sit at a game of knuckle-bone?' said Opata at last, 'or is this +a Council of the Elders?' + +"'Game or Council,' said Taku-Wakin, 'I sit in my father's place until I +have a Sign from him whom he will have to sit there.'" + +"But I don't understand--" began Oliver, looking about the circle of +listening Indians. "His father was dead, wasn't he?" + +"What is 'dead'?" said the Lenni-Lenape; "Indians do not know. Our +friends go out of their bodies; where? Into another--or into a beast? +When I was still strapped in my basket my father set me on a bear that +he had killed and prayed that the bear's cunning and strength should +pass into me. Taku-Wakin's people thought that the heart of Long-Hand +might have gone into the Mastodon." + +"Why not?" agreed Arrumpa gravely. "I remember that Taku would call me +Father at times, and--if he was very fond of me--Grandfather. But all he +wanted at that tune was to keep Opata from being elected in his father's +place, and Opata, who understood this perfectly, was very angry. + +"'It is the custom,' he said, 'when a chief sleeps in the High +Places,'--he meant the hilltops where they left their dead on poles or +tied to the tree branches,--'that we elect another to his place in +the Council.' + +"'Also it is a custom,' said Taku-Wakin, 'to bring the token of his +great exploit into Council and quicken the heart by hearing of it. You +have heard, O Chiefs," he said, "that my people had a plan for the good +of the people, and it has come to me in my heart that that plan was +stronger in him than death. For he was a man who finished what he had +begun, and it may be that he is long-handed enough to reach back from +the place where he has gone. And this is a Sign to me, that he has taken +his cut stick, which had the secret of his plan, with him.' + +"Taku-Wakin fiddled with the arrows, laying them straight, hardly daring +to look up at Opata, for if the chief had his father's cut stick, now +would be the time that he would show it. Out of the tail of his eye he +could see that the rest of the Council were startled. That was the way +with men. Me they would trap, and take the skin of Saber-Tooth to wrap +their cubs in, but at the hint of a Sign, or an old custom slighted, +they would grow suddenly afraid. Then Taku looked up and saw Opata +stroking his face with his hand to hide what he was thinking. He was no +fool, and he saw that if the election was pressed, Taku-Wakin, boy as he +was, would sit in his father's place because of the five arrows. +Taku-Wakin stood up and stretched out his hand to the Council. + +"'Is it agreed, O Chiefs, that you keep my father's place until there is +a Sign?'--and a deep _Hu-huh_ ran all about the circle. It was sign +enough for them that the son of Long-Hand played unhurt with arrows that +had been given to the gods. Taku stretched his hand to Opata, 'Is it +agreed, O Chief?' + +"'So long as the tribe comes to no harm,' said Opata, making the best of +a bad business. 'It shall be kept until Long-Hand or his Talking Rod +comes back to us.' + +"'And,' said Taku-Wakin to me, 'whether Opata or I first sits in it, +depends on which one of us can first produce a Sign.'" + +[Illustration: TAKU AND ARRUMPA.] + + + + +IV + +THE SECOND PART OF THE MASTODON STORY CONCERNING THE TRAIL TO THE SEA +AND THE TALKING STICK OF TAKU-WAKIN + + +"It was the Talking Stick of his father that Taku-Wakin wanted," said +Arrumpa. "He still thought Opata might have it, for every now and then +Taku would catch him coming back with marsh mud on his moccasins. That +was how I began to understand that the Great Plan was really a plan to +find a way _through_ the marsh to the sea on the other side of it. + +"'Opata has the Stick,' said Taku, 'but it will not talk to him; +therefore he goes, as my father did, when the waters are low and the +hummocks of hard ground stand up, to find a safe way for the tribe to +follow. But my father had worked as far as the Grass Flats and beyond +them, to a place of islands.' + +"'Squidgy Islands,' I told him. 'The Grass-Eaters go there to drop their +calves every season.' Taku kicked me behind the ears. + +"'Said I not you were a beast of a bad heart!' he scolded. But how +should I know he would care to hear about a lot of silly Mammoths. +'Also,' he said, 'you are my Medicine. You shall find me the trail of +the Talking Stick, and I, Taku, son of Long-Hand, shall lead +the people.' + +"'In six moons,' I told him, 'the Grass-Eaters go to the Islands to +calve--' + +"'In which time,' said Taku, 'the chiefs will have quarreled six times, +and Opata will have eaten me. Drive them, Arrumpa, drive them!' + +"Umph, uh-ump!" chuckled the old beast reminiscently. "We drove; we +drove. What else was there to do? Taku-Wakin was my man. Besides, it was +great fun. One-Tusk helped me. He was one of our bachelor herd who had +lost a tusk in his first fight, which turned out greatly to his +advantage. He would come sidling up to a refractory young cow with his +eyes twinkling, and before anybody suspected he could give such a prod +with his one tusk as sent her squealing.... But that came afterward. The +Mammoth herd that fed on our edge of the Great Swamp was led by a +wrinkled old cow, wise beyond belief. Scrag we called her. She would +take the herd in to the bedding-ground by the river, to a landing-point +on the opposite side, never twice the same, and drift noiselessly +through the canebrake, choosing blowy hours when the swish of cane over +woolly backs was like the run of the wind. Days when the marsh would be +full of tapirs wallowing and wild pig rootling and fighting, there might +be hundreds feeding within sound of you and not a hint of it except the +occasional _toot-toot_ of some silly cow calling for Scrag, or a young +bull blowing water. + +"They bedded at the Grass Flats, but until Scrag herself had a mind to +take the trail to the Squidgy Islands, there was nobody but Saber-Tooth +could persuade her. + +"'Then Saber-Tooth shall help us,' said my man. + +"Not for nothing was he called Taku-Wakin, which means 'The Wonderful.' +He brought a tiger cub's skin of his father's killing, dried stiff and +sewed up with small stones inside it. At one end there was a thong with +a loop in it, and it smelled of tiger. I could see the tip of One-Tusk's +trunk go up with a start every time he winded it. There was a curled +moon high up in the air like a feather, and a moon-white tusk glinting +here and there, where the herds drifted across the flats. There was no +trouble about our going among them so long as Scrag did not wind us. +_They_ claimed to be kin to us, and they cared nothing for Man even when +they smelled him. We came sidling up to a nervous young cow, and Taku +dropped from my neck long enough to slip the thong over a hind foot as +she lifted it. The thong was wet at first and scarcely touched her. +Presently it tightened. Then the cow shook her foot to free it and the +skin rattled. She squealed nervously and started out to find Scrag, who +was feeding on the far side of the hummock, and at every step the +tiger-skin rattled and bounced against her. Eyes winked red with alarm +and trunks came lifting out of the tall grass like serpents. One-Tusk +moved silently, prod-prodding; we could hear the click of ivory and the +bunting of shoulder against shoulder. Then some silly cow had a whiff of +the skin that bounded along in their tracks like a cat, and raised the +cry of 'Tiger! Tiger!' Far on the side from us, in the direction of the +Squidgy Islands, Scrag trumpeted, followed by frantic splashing as the +frightened herd plunged into the reed-beds. Taku slipped from my neck, +shaking with laughter. + +"'Follow, follow,' he said; 'I go to bring up the people.' + +"It was two days before Scrag stopped running. + +"From the Grass Flats on to the Islands it was all one reed-bed where +the water gathered into runnels between hummocks of rotten rushes, where +no trail would lie and any false step might plunge you into black bog to +the shoulder. About halfway we found the tiger-skin tramped into the +mire, but as soon as we struck the Islands I turned back, for I was in +need of good oak browse, and I wished to find out what had become of +Taku-Wakin. It was not until one evening when I had come well up into +the hills for a taste of fir, that I saw him, black against the sun with +the tribe behind him. The Five Chiefs walked each in front of his own +village, except that Taku-Wakin's own walked after Opata, and there were +two of the Turtle clan, each with his own head man, and two under +Apunkewis. Before all walked Taku-Wakin holding a peeled stick upright +and seeing the end of the trail, but not what lay close in front of him. +He did not even see me as I slipped around the procession and left a wet +trail for him to follow. + +"That was how we crossed to the Islands, village by village, with +Taku-Wakin close on my trail, which was the trail of the Grass-Eaters. +They swam the sloughs with their children on their shoulders, and made +rafts of reeds to push their food bundles over. By night they camped on +the hummocks and built fires that burned for days in the thick litter of +reeds. Red reflections glanced like fishes along the water. Then there +would be the drums and the--the thunder-twirler--" + +"But what kept him so long and how did he persuade them?" Dorcas Jane +squirmed with curiosity. + +"He'd been a long time working out the trail through the canebrake," +said Arrumpa, "making a Talking Stick as his father had taught him; one +ring for a day's journey, one straight mark for so many man's paces; +notches for turns. When he could not remember his father's marks he made +up others. When he came to his village again he found they had all gone +over to Opata's. Apunkewis, who had the two villages under Black Rock +and was a friend of Long-Hand, told him that there would be a Sign. + +"'There will,' said Taku-Wakin, 'but I shall bring it.' He knew that +Opata meant mischief, but he could not guess what. All the way to +Opata's his thought went round and round like a fire-stick in the +hearth-hole. When he heard the drums he flared up like a spark in the +tinder. Earlier in the evening there had been a Big Eating at Opata's, +and now the men were dancing. + +"'_Eyah, eyah!_' they sang. + +"Taku-Wakin whirled like a spark into the ring. '_Eyah, eyah!_' he +shouted,-- + +"'Great are the people +They have found a sign, +The sign of the Talking Rod! +Eyah! My people!' + +"He planted it full in the firelight where it rocked and beckoned. +'_Eyah_, the rod is calling,' he sang. + +"The moment he had sight of Opata's face he knew that whatever the chief +had meant to do, he did not have his father's Stick. Taku caught up his +own and twirled it, and finally he hid it under his coat, for if any one +had handled it he could have seen that this was not the Stick of +Long-Hand, but fresh-peeled that season. But because Opata wanted the +Stick of Long-Hand, he thought any stick of Taku's must be the one he +wanted. And what Opata thought, the rest of the tribe thought also. So +they rose up by clans and villages and followed after the Sign. That was +how we came to the Squidgy Islands. There were willows there and young +alders and bare knuckles of rock holding up the land. + +"Beyond that the Swamp began; the water gathered itself into bayous that +went slinking, wolflike, between the trees, or rose like a wolf through +the earth and stole it from under your very foot. It doubled into black +lagoons to doze, and young snakes coiled on the lily-pads, so that when +the sun warmed them you could hear the shi-shisi-ss like a wind rising. +Also by night there would be greenish lights that followed the trails +for a while and went out suddenly in whistling noises. Now and then in +broad day the Swamp would fall asleep. There would be the plop of +turtles falling into the creek and the slither of alligators in the mud, +and all of a sudden not a ripple would start, and between the clacking +of one reed and another would come the soundless lift and stir of the +Swamp snoring. Then the hair on your neck would rise, and some man +caught walking alone in it would go screaming mad with fear. + +"Six moons we had to stay in that place, for Scrag had hidden the herd +so cleverly that it was not until the week-old calves began to squeak +for their mothers that we found them. And from the time they were able +to run under their mother's bodies, One-Tusk and I kept watch and watch +to see that they did not break back to the Squidgy Islands. It was +necessary for Taku-Wakin's plan that they should go out on the other +side where there was good land between the Swamp and the Sea, not +claimed by the Kooskooski. We learned to eat grass that summer and +squushy reeds with no strength in them--did I say that all the +Grass-Eaters were pot-bellied? Also I had to reason with One-Tusk, who +had not loved a man, and found that the Swamp bored him. By this time, +too, Scrag knew what we were after; she covered her trail and crossed it +as many times as a rabbit. Then, just as we thought we had it, the wolf +water came and gnawed the trail in two. + +"Taku-Wakin would come to me by the Black Lagoon and tell me how Opata +worked to make himself chief of the nine villages. He had his own and +Taku-Wakin's, for Taku had never dared to ask it back again, and the +chief of the Turtle clan was Opata's man. + +"'He tells the people that my Stick will not talk to me any more. But +how can it talk, Arrumpa, when you have nothing to tell it?' + +"'Patience,' I said. 'If we press the cows too hard they will break back +the way they have come, and that will be worse than waiting.' + +"'And if I do not get them forward soon,' said Taku-Wakin, 'the people +will break back, and my father will be proved a fool. I am too little +for this thing, Grandfather,' he would say, leaning against my trunk, +and I would take him up and comfort him. + +"As for Opata, I used to see him sometimes, dancing alone to increase +his magic power,--I speak but as the people of Taku-Wakin spoke,--and +once at the edge of the lagoon, catching snakes. Opata had made a noose +of hair at the end of a peeled switch, and he would snare them as they +darted like streaks through the water. I saw him cast away some that he +caught, and others he dropped into a wicker basket, one with a narrow +neck such as women used for water. How was I to guess what he wanted +with them? But the man smelled of mischief. It lay in the thick air like +the smell of the lagoons; by night you could hear it throbbing with the +drums that scared away the wandering lights from the nine villages. + +"Scrag was beginning to get the cows together again; but by that time +the people had made up their minds to stay where they were. They built +themselves huts on platforms above the water and caught turtles in +the bayous. + +"'Opata has called a Council,' Taku told me, 'to say that I must make my +Stick talk, or they will know me for a deceiver, a maker of short life +for them.' + +"'Short life to him,' I said. 'In three nights or four, the Grass-Eaters +will be moving.' + +"'And my people are fast in the mud,' said Taku-Wakin. 'I am a mud-head +myself to think a crooked rod could save them.' He took it from his +girdle warped by the wet and the warmth of his body. 'My heart is sick, +Arrumpa, and Opata makes them a better chief than I, for I have only +tried to find them their sea again. But Opata understands them. This is +a foolish tale that will never be finished.' + +"He loosed the stick from his hand over the black water like a boy +skipping stones, but--this is a marvel--it turned as it flew and came +back to Taku-Wakin so that he had to take it in his hand or it would +have struck him. He stood looking at it astonished, while the moon came +up and made dart-shaped ripples of light behind the swimming snakes in +the black water. For he saw that if the Stick would not leave him, +neither could he forsake--Is this also known to you?" For he saw the +children smiling. + +The Indian who leaned against Moke-icha's boulder drew a crooked stick, +shaped something like an elbow, from under his blanket. Twice he tossed +it lightly and twice it flew over the heads of the circle and back like +a homing pigeon as he lightly caught it. + +"Boomerangs!" cried the children, delighted. + +"We called it the Stick-which-kills-flying," said the Indian, and hid it +again under his blanket. + +"Taku-Wakin thought it Magic Medicine," said the Mastodon. "It was a +Sign to him. Two or three times he threw the stick and always it came +back to him. He was very quiet, considering what it might mean, as I +took him back between the trees that stood knee-deep in the smelly +water. We saw the huts at last, built about in a circle and the sacred +fire winking in the middle. I remembered the time I had watched with +Taku under the Arch Rock. + +"'Give me leave,' I said, 'to walk among the huts, and see what will come +of it.' + +"Taku-Wakin slapped my trunk. + +"'Now by the oath of my people, you shall walk,' he said. 'If the herds +begin to move, and if no hurt comes to anybody by it, you shall walk; +for as long as they are comfortable, even though the Rod should speak, +they would not listen.' + +"The very next night Scrag began to move her cows out toward the hard +land, and when I had marked her trail for five man journeys, I came back +to look for Taku-Wakin. There was a great noise of singing a little back +from the huts at the Dancing-Place, and all the drums going, and the +smoke that drifted along the trails had the smell of a Big Eating. I +stole up in the dark till I could look over the heads of the villagers +squatted about the fire. Opata was making a speech to them. He was +working himself into a rage over the wickedness of Taku-Wakin. He would +strike the earth with his stone-headed spear as he talked, and the tribe +would yelp after him like wolves closing in on a buck. If the Talking +Stick which had led them there was not a liar, let it talk again and +show them the way to their sea. Let it talk! And at last, when they had +screeched themselves hoarse, they were quiet long enough to hear it. + +"Little and young, Taku-Wakin looked, standing up with his Stick in his +hand, and the words coming slowly as if he waited for them to reach him +from far off. The Stick was no liar, he said; it was he who had lied to +them; he had let them think that this was his father's Stick. It was a +new stick much more powerful, as he would yet show them. And who was he +to make it talk when it would not? Yet it would talk soon...very +soon...he had heard it whispering... Let them not vex the Stick lest it +speak strange and unthought-of things... + +"Oh, but he was well called 'The Wonderful.' I could see the heads of +the tribesmen lifting like wolves taking a new scent, and mothers +tighten their clutch on their children. Also I saw Opata. Him I watched, +for he smelt of mischief. His water-basket was beside him, and as the +people turned from baiting Taku-Wakin to believing him, I saw Opata push +the bottle secretly with his spear-butt. It rolled into the cleared +space toward Taku-Wakin, and the grass ball which stopped its mouth fell +out unnoticed. _But no water came out!_ + +"Many of the waters of the Swamp were bitter and caused sickness, so it +was no new thing for a man to have his own water-bottle at Council. But +why should he carry a stopped bottle and no water in it? Thus I watched, +while Taku-Wakin played for his life with the people's minds, and Opata +watched neither the people nor him, but the unstopped mouth of the +water-bottle. + +"I looked where Opata looked, for I said to myself, from that point +comes the mischief, and looking I saw a streak of silver pour out of the +mouth of the bottle and coil and lift and make as a snake will for the +nearest shadow. It was the shadow of Taku-Wakin's bare legs. Then I knew +why Opata smelled of mischief when he had caught snakes in the lagoon. +But I was afraid to speak, for I saw that if Taku moved the snake would +strike, and there is no cure for the bite of the snake called +Silver Moccasin. + +"Everybody's eyes were on the rod but mine and Opata's, and as I saw +Taku straighten to throw, I lifted my voice in the dark and trumpeted, +'Snake! Snake!' Taku leaped, but he knew my voice and he was not so +frightened as the rest of them, who began falling on their faces. Taku +leaped as the Silver Moccasin lifted to strike, and the stick as it flew +out of his hand, low down like a skimming bird, came back in a +circle--he must have practiced many times with it--and dropped the snake +with its back broken. The people put their hands over their mouths. They +had not seen the snake at all, but a stick that came back to the +thrower's hand was magic. They waited to see what Opata would do +about it. + +"Opata stood up. He was a brave man, I think, for the Stick was Magic to +him, also, and yet he stood out against it. Black Magic he said it was, +and no wonder it had not led them out of the Swamp, since it was a false +stick and Taku-Wakin a Two-Talker. Taku-Wakin could no more lead them +out of the Swamp than his stick would leave him. Like it, they would be +thrown and come back to the hand of Taku-Wakin for his own purposes. + +"He was a clever man, was Opata. He was a fine tall man, beaked like an +eagle, and as he moved about in the clear space by the fire, making a +pantomime of all he said, as their way is in speech-making, he began to +take hold on the minds of the people. Taku-Wakin watched sidewise; he +saw the snake writhing on the ground and the unstopped water-bottle with +the ground dry under it. I think he suspected. I saw a little ripple go +over his naked body as if a thought had struck him. He stepped aside +once, and as Opata came at him, threatening and accusing, he changed his +place again, ever so slightly. The people yelped as they thought they +saw Taku fall back before him. Opata was shaking his spear, and I began +to wonder if I had not waited too long to come to Taku-Wakin's rescue, +when suddenly Opata stopped still in his tracks and shuddered. He went +gray in the fire-light, and--he was a brave man who knew his death when +he had met it--from beside his foot he lifted up the broken-backed snake +on his spear-point. Even as he held it up for all of them to see, his +limbs began to jerk and stiffen. + +"I went back to look for One-Tusk. The end of those who are bitten by +the moccasin is not pretty to see, and besides, I had business. One-Tusk +and I walked through all nine villages...and when we had come out on the +other side there were not two sticks of them laid together. Then the +people came and looked and were afraid, and Taku-Wakin came and made a +sound as when a man drops a ripe paw-paw on the ground. 'Pr-r-utt!' he +said, as though it were no more matter than that. 'Now we shall have the +less to carry.' But the mother of Taku-Wakin made a terrible outcry. In +the place where her hut had been she had found the Talking Stick of +Taku's father, trampled to splinters. + +"She had had it all the time hidden in her bundle. Long-Hand had told +her it was Magic Medicine and she must never let any one have it. _She_ +thought it was the only thing that had kept her and her children safe on +this journey. But Taku told them that it was his father's Rod which had +bewitched them and kept them from going any farther because it had come +to the end of its knowledge. Now they would be free to follow his own +Stick, which was so much wiser. So he caught their minds as he had +caught the Stick, swinging back from disaster. For this is the way with +men, if they have reason which suits them they do not care whether it is +reasonable or not. It was sufficient for them, one crooked stick being +broken, that they should rise up with a shout and follow another." + +Arrumpa was silent so long that the children fidgeted. + +"But it couldn't have been just as easy as that," Dorcas insisted. "And +what did they do when they got to the sea finally?" + +"They complained of the fishy taste of everything," said Arrumpa; "also +they suffered on the way for lack of food, and Apunkewis was eaten by an +alligator. Then they were afraid again when they came to the place +beyond the Swamp where the water went to and fro as the sea pushed it, +until some of the old men remembered they had heard it was the sea's +custom. Twice daily the water came in as if to feed on the marsh grass. +Great clouds of gulls flew inland, screaming down the wind, and across +the salt flats they had their first sight of the low, hard land. + +"We lost them there, for we could not eat the salt grass, and Scrag had +turned north by a mud slough where the waters were bitter, and red moss +grew on the roots of the willows. We ate for a quarter of the moon's +course before we went back around the hard land to see what had become +of Taku-Wakin. We fed as far as there was any browse between the sea and +the marsh, and at last we saw them come, across the salt pastures. They +were sleek as otters with the black slime of the sloughs, and there was +not a garment left on them which had not become water-soaked and +useless. Some of the women had made slips of sea-birds' skins and nets +of marsh grass for carrying their young. It was only by these things +that you could tell that they were Man. They came out where the hard +land thinned to a tusk, thrust far out into the white froth and the +thunder. We saw them naked on the rocks, and then with a great shout +join hands as they ran all together down the naked sand to worship the +sea. But Taku-Wakin walked by himself..." + +"And did you stay there with him?" asked Oliver when he saw by the stir +in the audience that the story was quite finished. + +"We went back that winter--One-Tusk and I; in time they all went," said +Arrumpa. "It was too cold by the sea in winter. And the land changed. +Even in Taku-Wakin's time it changed greatly. The earth shook and the +water ran out of the marsh into the sea again, and there was hard ground +most of the way to Two Rivers. Every year the tribes used to go down by +it to gather sea food." + +The Indians nodded. + +"It was so in our time," they said. "There were great heaps of shells by +the sea where we came and dried fish and feasted." + +"Shell Mounds," said Oliver. "I've heard of those, too. But I never +thought they had stories about them." + +"There is a story about everything," said the Buffalo Chief; and by this +time the children were quite ready to believe him. + +[Illustration] + + + + +V + +HOW HOWKAWANDA AND FRIEND-AT-THE-BACK FOUND THE TRAIL TO THE BUFFALO +COUNTRY TOLD BY THE COYOTE + + +"Concerning that Talking Stick of Taku-Wa-kin's,"--said the Coyote, as +the company settled back after Arrumpa's story,--"there is a Telling of +_my_ people ... not of a Rod, but a Skin, a hide of thy people, Great +Chief,"--he bowed to the Bull Buffalo,--"that talked of Tamal-Pyweack +and a Dead Man's Journey--" The little beast stood with lifted paw and +nose delicately pointed toward the Bighorn's country as it lifted from +the prairie, drawing the earth after it in great folds, high crest +beyond high crest flung against the sun; light and color like the inside +of a shell playing in its snow-filled hollows. + +Up sprang every Plainsman, painted shield dropped to the shoulder, right +hand lifted, palm outward, and straight as an arrow out of every throat, +the "Hey a-hey a-huh!" of the Indian salutation. + +"Backbone of the World!" cried the Blackfoot. "Did you come over that, +Little Brother?" + +"Not I, but my father's father's first father. By the Crooked Horn,"--he +indicated a peak like a buffalo horn, and a sag in the crest below it. + +"Then that," said Bighorn, dropping with one bound from his aerial +lookout, "should be _my_ story, for my people made that trail, and it +was long before any other trod in it." + +"It was of that first treading that the Skin talked," agreed the Coyote. +He looked about the company for permission to begin, and then addressed +himself to Arrumpa. "You spoke, Chief Two-Tails, of the 'tame wolves' of +Taku-Wakin; _were_ they wolves, or--" + +"Very like you, Wolfling, now that I think of it," agreed the Mastodon, +"and they were not tame exactly; they ran at the heels of the hunters +for what they could pick up, and sometimes they drove up game for him." + +"Why should a coyote, who is the least of all wolves, hunt for himself +when he can find a man to follow?" said the Blackfoot, who sat smoking a +great calumet out of the west corridor. "Man is the wolf's Medicine. In +him he hears the voice of the Great Mystery, and becomes a dog, which is +great gain to him." + +Pleased as if his master had patted him, without any further +introduction the Coyote began his story. + +"Thus and so thought the First Father of all the Dogs in the year when +he was called Friend-at-the-Back, and Pathfinder. That was the time +of the Great Hunger, nearly two years after he joined the man pack +at Hidden-under-the-Mountain and was still known by his lair name +of Younger Brother. He followed a youth who was the quickest +afoot and the readiest laugher. He would skulk about the camp at +Hidden-under-the-Mountain watching until the hunters went out. Sometimes +How-kawanda--that was the young man he followed--would give a coyote cry +of warning, and sometimes Younger Brother would trot off in the +direction where he knew the game to be, looking back and pointing until +the young men caught the idea; after which, when they had killed, the +hunters would laugh and throw him pieces of liver. + +"The Country of Dry Washes lies between the Cinoave on the south and the +People of the Bow who possessed the Salmon Rivers, a great gray land cut +across by deep gullies where the wild waters come down from the +Wall-of-Shining-Rocks and worry the bone-white boulders. The People of +the Dry Washes live meanly, and are meanly spoken of by the People of +the Coast who drove them inland from the sea borders. After the Rains, +when the quick grass sprang up, vast herds of deer and pronghorn come +down from the mountains; and when there were no rains the people ate +lizards and roots. In the moon of the Frost-Touching-Mildly clouds came +up from the south with a great trampling of thunder, and flung out over +the Dry Washes as a man flings his blanket over a maiden. But if the +Rains were scant for two or three seasons, then there was Hunger, and +the dust devils took the mesas for their dancing-places. + +"Now, Man tribe and Wolf tribe are alike in one thing. When there is +scarcity the packs increase to make surer of bringing down the quarry, +but when the pinch begins they hunt scattering and avoid one another. +That was how it happened that the First Father, who was still called +Younger Brother, was alone with Howkawanda when he was thrown by a buck +at Talking Water in the moon of the Frost-Touching-Mildly. Howkawanda +had caught the buck by the antlers in a blind gully at the foot of the +Tamal-Pyweack, trying for the throw back and to the left which drops a +buck running, with his neck broken. But his feet slipped on the grass +which grows sleek with dryness, and by the time the First Father came up +the buck had him down, scoring the ground on either side of the man's +body with his sharp antlers, lifting and trampling. Younger Brother +leaped at the throat. The toss of the antlers to meet the stroke drew +the man up standing. Throwing his whole weight to the right he drove +home with his hunting-knife and the buck toppled and fell as a tree +falls of its own weight in windless weather. + +"'Now, for this,' said Howkawanda to my First Father, when they had +breathed a little, 'you are become my very brother.' Then he marked the +coyote with the blood of his own hurts, as the custom is when men are +not born of one mother, and Younger Brother, who had never been touched +by a man, trembled. That night, though it made the hair on his neck rise +with strangeness, he went into the hut of Howkawanda at +Hidden-under-the-Mountain and the villagers wagged their heads over it. +'Hunger must be hard on our trail,' they said, 'when the wolves come to +house with us.' + +"But Howkawanda only laughed, for that year he had found a maiden who +was more than meat to him. He made a flute of four notes which he would +play, lying out in the long grass, over and over, until she came out to +him. Then they would talk, or the maiden would pull grass and pile it in +little heaps while Howkawanda looked at her and the First Father looked +at his master, and none of them cared where the Rains were. + +"But when no rain fell at all, the camp was moved far up the shrunken +creek, and Younger Brother learned to catch grasshoppers, and ate +juniper berries, while the men sat about the fire hugging their lean +bellies and talking of Dead Man's Journey. This they would do whenever +there was a Hunger in the Country of the Dry Washes, and when they were +fed they forgot it." + +The Coyote interrupted his own story long enough to explain that though +there were no buffaloes in the Country of the Dry Washes, on the other +side of the Wall-of-Shining-Rocks the land was black with them. "Now and +then stray herds broke through by passes far to the north in the Land of +the Salmon Rivers, but the people of that country would not let +Howkawanda's people hunt them. Every year, when they went up by tribes +and villages to the Tamal-Pyweack to gather pine nuts, the People of the +Dry Washes looked for a possible trail through the Wall to the Buffalo +Country. There was such a trail. Once a man of strange dress and speech +had found his way over it, but he was already starved when they picked +him up at the place called Trap-of-the-Winds, and died before he could +tell anything. The most that was known of this trail at +Hidden-under-the-Mountain was that it led through Knife-Cut Canyon; but +at the Wind Trap they lost it. + +"I have heard of that trail, 'said the First Father of all the Dogs to +Howkawanda, one day, when they had hunted too far for returning and +spent the night under a juniper: 'a place where the wind tramples +between the mountains like a trapped beast. But there is a trail beyond +it. I have not walked in it. All my people went that way at the +beginning of the Hunger.' + +"'For your people there may be a way,' said Howkawanda, 'but for +mine--they are all dead who have looked for it. Nevertheless, Younger +Brother, if we be not dead men ourselves when this Hunger is past, you +and I will go on this Dead Man's Journey. Just now we have other +business.' + +"It is the law of the Hunger that the strongest must be fed first, so +that there shall always be one strong enough to hunt for the others. But +Howkawanda gave the greater part of his portion to his maiden. + +"So it happened that sickness laid hold on Howkawanda between two days. +In the morning he called to Younger Brother. 'Lie outside,' he said, +'lest the sickness take you also, but come to me every day with your +kill, and let no man prevent you.' + +"So Younger Brother, who was able to live on juniper berries, hunted +alone for the camp of Hidden-under-the-Mountain, and Howkawanda held +back Death with one hand and gripped the heart of the First Father of +all the Dogs with the other. For he was afraid that if he died, Younger +Brother would turn wolf again, and the tribe would perish. Every day he +would divide what Younger Brother brought in, and after the villagers +were gone he would inquire anxiously and say, 'Do you smell the Rain, +Friend and Brother?' + +"But at last he was too weak for asking, and then quite suddenly his +voice was changed and he said, 'I smell the Rain, Little Brother!' For +in those days men could smell weather quite as well as the other +animals. But the dust of his own running was in Younger Brother's nose, +and he thought that his master's mind wandered. The sick man counted on +his fingers. 'In three days,' he said, 'if the Rains come, the back of +the Hunger is broken. Therefore I will not die for three days. Go, hunt, +Friend and Brother.' + +"The sickness must have sharpened Howkawanda's senses, for the next day +the coyote brought him word that the water had come back in the gully +where they threw the buck, which was a sign that rain was falling +somewhere on the high ridges. And the next day he brought word, 'The +tent of the sky is building.' This was the tentlike cloud that would +stretch from peak to peak of the Tamal-Pyweack at the beginning of the +Rainy Season. + +"Howkawanda rose up in his bed and called the people. 'Go, hunt! go, +hunt!' he said; 'the deer have come back to Talking Water.' Then he lay +still and heard them, as many as were able, going out joyfully. 'Stay +you here, Friend and Brother,' he said, 'for now I can sleep a little.' + +"So the First Father of all the Dogs lay at his master's feet and whined +a little for sympathy while the people hunted for themselves, and the +myriad-footed Rain danced on the dry thatch of the hut and the baked +mesa. Later the creek rose in its withered banks and began to talk to +itself in a new voice, the voice of Raining-on-the-Mountain. + +"'Now I shall sleep well, 'said the sick man. So he fell into deeper and +deeper pits of slumber while the rain came down in torrents, the grass +sprouted, and far away Younger Brother could hear the snapping of the +brush as the Horned People came down the mountain. + +"It was about the first streak of the next morning that the people waked +in their huts to hear a long, throaty howl from Younger Brother. +Howkawanda lay cold, and there was no breath in him. They thought the +coyote howled for grief, but it was really because, though his master +lay like one dead, there was no smell of death about him, and the First +Father was frightened. The more he howled, however, the more certain the +villagers were that Howkawanda was dead, and they made haste to dispose +of the body. Now that the back of the Hunger was broken, they wished to +go back to Hidden-under-the-Mountain. + +"They drove Younger Brother away with sticks and wrapped the young man +in fine deerskins, binding them about and about with thongs, with his +knife and his fire-stick and his hunting-gear beside him. Then they made +ready brush, the dryest they could find, for it was the custom of the +Dry Washes to burn the dead. They thought of the Earth as their mother +and would not put anything into it to defile it. The Head Man made a +speech, putting in all the virtues of Howkawanda, and those that he +might have had if he had been spared to them longer, while the women +cast dust on their hair and rocked to and fro howling. Younger Brother +crept as close to the pyre as he dared, and whined in his throat as the +fire took hold of the brush and ran crackling up the open spaces. + +"It took hold of the wrapped deerskins, ran in sparks like little deer +in the short hair, and bit through to Howkawanda. But no sooner had he +felt the teeth of the flame than the young man came back from the place +where he had been, and sat up in the midst of the burning. He leaped out +of the fire, and the people scattered like embers and put their hands +over their mouths, as is the way with men when they are astonished. +Howkawanda, wrapped as he was, rolled on the damp sand till the fires +were out, while Younger Brother gnawed him free of the death-wrappings, +and the people's hands were still at their mouths. But the first step he +took toward them they caught up sticks and stones to threaten. + +"It was a fearful thing to them that he should come back from being +dead. Besides, the hair was burned half off his head, and he was +streaked raw all down one side where the fire had bitten him. He stood +blinking, trying to pick up their meaning with his eyes. His maiden +looked up from her mother's lap where she wept for him, and fled +shrieking. + +"'Dead, go back to the dead!' cried the Head Man, but he did not stop to +see whether Howkawanda obeyed him, for by this time the whole pack was +squealing down the creek to Hidden-under-the-Mountain. Howkawanda looked +at his maiden running fast with the strength of the portion he had saved +for her; looked at the empty camp and the bare hillside; looked once at +the high Wall of the Pyweack, and laughed as much as his burns would +let him. + +"'If we two be dead men, Brother,' he said, 'it may be we shall have +luck on a Dead Man's Journey.' + +"It would have been better if they could have set out at once, for rain +in the Country of Dry Washes means snow on the Mountain. But they had to +wait for the healing of Howkawanda's burns, and to plump themselves +out a little on the meat--none too fat--that came down on its +own feet before the Rains. They lay in the half-ruined huts and +heard, in the intervals of the storm, the beating of tom-toms at +Hidden-under-the-Mountain to keep off the evil influences of one who had +been taken for dead and was alive again. + +"By the time they were able to climb to the top of Knife-Cut Canyon the +snow lay over the mountains like a fleece, and at every turn of the wind +it shifted. From the Pass they dropped down into a pit between the +ranges, where, long before they came to it, they could hear the wind +beating about like a trapped creature. Here great mountain-heads had run +together like bucks in autumn, digging with shining granite hooves deep +into the floor of the Canyon. Into this the winds would drop from the +high places like broken-winged birds, dashing themselves against the +polished walls of the Pyweack, dashing and falling back and crying +woundedly. There was no other way into this Wind Trap than the way +Howkawanda and Younger Brother had come. If there was any way out only +the Four-Footed People knew it. + +"But over all their trails snow lay, deepening daily, and great rivers +of water that fell into the Trap in summer stood frozen stiff like ice +vines climbing the Pyweack. + +"The two travelers made them a hut in broad branches of a great fir, for +the snow was more than man-deep already, and crusted over. They laid +sticks on the five-branched whorl and cut away the boughs above them +until they could stand. Here they nested, with the snow on the upper +branches like thatch to keep them safe against the wind. They ran on the +surface of the snow, which was packed firm in the bottom of the Trap, +and caught birds and small game wintering in runways under the snow +where the stiff brush arched and upheld it. When the wind, worn out with +its struggles, would lie still in the bottom of the Trap, the two would +race over the snow-crust whose whiteness cut the eye like a knife, +working into every winding of the Canyon for some clue to the Dead +Man's Journey. + +[Illustration: "Shot downward to the ledge where Howkawanda and Younger +Brother hugged themselves"] + +"On one of these occasions, caught by a sudden storm, they hugged +themselves for three days and ate what food they had, mouthful by +mouthful, while the snow slid past them straight and sodden. It closed +smooth over the tree where their house was, to the middle branches. Two +days more they waited until the sun by day and the cold at night had +made a crust over the fresh fall. On the second day they saw something +moving in the middle of the Canyon. Half a dozen wild geese had been +caught in one of the wind currents that race like rivers about the High +Places of the World, and dropped exhausted into the Trap. Now they rose +heavily; but, starved and blinded, they could not pitch their flight to +that great height. Round and round they beat, and back they dropped from +the huge mountain-heads, bewildered. Finally, the leader rose alone +higher and higher in that thin atmosphere until the watchers almost lost +him, and then, exhausted, shot downward to the ledge where Howkawanda +and Younger Brother hugged themselves in the shelter of a wind-driven +drift. They could see the gander's body shaken all over with the pumping +of his heart as Younger Brother took him hungrily by the neck. + +"'Nay, Brother,' said Howkawanda, 'but I also have been counted dead, +and it is in my heart that this one shall serve us better living than +dead.' He nursed the great white bird in his bosom and fed it with the +last of their food and a little snow-water melted in his palm. In an +hour, rested and strengthened, the bird rose again, beating a wide +circle slowly and steadily upward, until, with one faint honk of +farewell, it sailed slowly out of sight between the peaks, sure of its +direction. + +"'That way,' said Howkawanda, 'lies Dead Man's Journey.' + +"When they came back over the same trail a year later, they were +frightened to see what steeps and crevices they had covered. But for +that first trip the snow-crust held firm while they made straight for +the gap in the peaks through which the wild goose had disappeared. They +traveled as long as the light lasted, though their hearts sobbed and +shook with the thin air and the cold. + +"The drifts were thinner, and the rocks came through with clusters of +wind-slanted cedars. By nightfall snow began again, and they moved, +touching, for they could not see an arm's length and dared not stop lest +the snow cover them. And the hair along the back of Younger Brother +began to prick. + +"'Here I die, indeed,' said Howkawanda at last, for he suffered most +because of his naked skin. He sank down in the soft snow at Younger +Brother's shoulder. + +"'Up, Master,' said Younger Brother, 'I hear something.' + +"'It is the Storm Spirit singing my death song,' said Howkawanda. But +the coyote took him by the neck of his deerskin shirt and dragged him +a little. + +"'Now,' he said, 'I smell something.' + +"Presently they stumbled into brush and knew it for red cedar. Patches +of it grew thick on the high ridges, matted close for cover. As the +travelers crept under it they heard the rustle of shoulder against +shoulder, the moving click of horns, and the bleat of yearlings for +their mothers. They had stumbled in the dark on the bedding-place of a +flock of Bighorn. + +"'Now we shall also eat,' said Younger Brother, for he was quite empty. + +"The hand of Howkawanda came out and took him firmly by the loose skin +between the shoulders. + +"'There was a coyote once who became brother to a man,' he said, 'and +men, when they enter a strange house in search of shelter and direction, +do not first think of killing.' + +"'One blood we are,' said the First Father of Dogs, remembering how +Howkawanda had marked him,' but we are not of one smell and the rams may +trample me.' + +"Howkawanda took off his deerskin and put around the coyote so that he +should have man smell about him, for at that time the Bighorn had not +learned to fear man. + +"They could hear little bleats of alarm from the ewes and the huddling +of the flock away from them, and the bunting of the Chief Ram's horns on +the cedars as he came to smell them over. Younger Brother quivered, for +he could think of nothing but the ram's throat, the warm blood and the +tender meat, but the finger of Howkawanda felt along his shoulders for +the scar of the Blood-Mixing, the time they had killed the buck at +Talking Water. Then the First Father of all the Dogs understood that Man +was his Medicine and his spirit leaped up to lick the face of the man's +spirit. He lay still and felt the blowing in and out of Howkawanda's +long hair on the ram's breath, as he nuzzled them from head to heel. +Finally the Bighorn stamped twice with all his four feet together, as a +sign that he had found no harm in the strangers. They could feel the +flock huddling back, and the warmth of the packed fleeces. In the midst +of it the two lay down and slept till morning. + +"They were alone in the cedar shelter when they woke, but the track of +the flock in the fresh-fallen snow led straight over the crest under the +Crooked Horn to protected slopes, where there was still some browse and +open going. + +"Toward nightfall they found an ancient wether the weight of whose horns +had sunk him deep in the soft snow, so that he could neither go forward +nor back. Him they took. It was pure kindness, for he would have died +slowly otherwise of starvation. That is the Way Things Are," said the +Coyote; "when one _must_ kill, killing is allowed. But before they +killed him they said certain words. + +"Later," the Coyote went on, "they found a deer occasionally and +mountain hares. Their worst trouble was with the cold. Snow lay deep +over the dropped timber and the pine would not burn. Howkawanda would +scrape together moss and a few twigs for a little fire to warm the front +of him and Younger Brother would snuggle at his back, so between two +friends the man saved himself." + +The Blackfoot nodded. "Fire is a very old friend of Man," he said; "so +old that the mere sight of it comforts him; they have come a long way +together." "Now I know," said Oliver, "why you called the first dog +Friend-at-the-Back." + +"Oh, but there was more to it than that," said the Coyote, "for the next +difficulty they had was to carry their food when they found it. +Howkawanda had never had good use of his shoulder since the fire bit it, +and even a buck's quarter weights a man too much in loose snow. So he +took a bough of fir, thick-set with little twigs, and tied the kill on +that. This he would drag behind him, and it rode lightly over the +surface of the drifts. When the going was bad, Younger Brother would try +to tug a little over his shoulder, so at last Howkawanda made a harness +for him to pull straight ahead. Hours when they would lie storm-bound +under the cedars, he whittled at the bough and platted the twigs +together till it rode easily. + +"In the moon of Tender Leaves, the people of the Buffalo Country, when +they came up the hills for the spring kill, met a very curious +procession coming down. They saw a man with no clothes but a few tatters +of deerskin, all scarred down one side of his body, and following at his +back a coyote who dragged a curiously plaited platform, by means of two +poles harnessed across his shoulders. It was the first travoise. The men +of the Buffalo Country put their hands over their mouths, for they had +never seen anything like it." + +The Coyote waited for the deep "huh-huh" of approval which circled the +attentive audience at the end of the story. + +"Fire and a dog!" said the Blackfoot, adding a little pinch +of sweet-grass to his smoke as a sign of thankfulness,-- +"Friend-on-the-Hearth and Friend-at-the-Back! Man may go far with them." + +Moke-icha turned her long flanks to the sun. "Now I thought the tale +began with a mention of a Talking Skin--" + +"Oh, that!" The Coyote recalled himself. "After he had been a year in +the Buffalo Country, Howkawanda went back to carry news of the trail to +the Dry Washes. All that summer he worked over it while his dogs hunted +for him--for Friend-at-the-Back had taken a mate and there were four +cubs to run with them. Every day, as Howkawanda worked out the trail, he +marked it with stone and tree-blazes. With colored earth he marked it on +a buffalo skin; from the Wind Trap to the Buffalo Country. + +"When he came to Hidden-under-the-Mountain he left his dogs behind, for +he said, 'Howkawanda is a dead man to them.' In the Buffalo Country he +was known as Two-Friended, and that was his name afterward. He was +dressed after the fashion of that country, with a great buffalo robe +that covered him, and his face was painted. So he came to +Hidden-under-the-Mountain as a stranger and made signs to them. And when +they had fed him, and sat him in the chief place as was the custom with +strangers, he took the writing from under his robe to give it to the +People of the Dry Washes. There was a young woman near by nursing her +child, and she gave a sudden sharp cry, for she was the one that had +been his maiden, and under the edge of his robe she saw his scars. But +when Howkawanda looked hard at her she pretended that the child had +bitten her." + +Dorcas Jane and Oliver drew a long breath when they saw that, so far as +the rest of the audience was concerned, the story was finished. There +were a great many questions they wished to ask,--as to what became of +Howkawanda after that, and whether the People of the Dry Washes ever +found their way into the Buffalo Country,--but before they could begin +on them, the Bull Buffalo stamped twice with his fore-foot for a sign of +danger. Far down at the other end of the gallery they could hear the +watchman coming. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VI + +DORCAS JANE HEARS HOW THE CORN CAME TO THE VALLEY OF THE MISSI-SIPPU; +TOLD BY THE CORN WOMAN + + +It was one of those holidays, when there isn't any school and the Museum +is only opened for a few hours in the afternoon, that Dorcas Jane had +come into the north gallery of the Indian room where her father was at +work mending the radiators. This was about a week after the children's +first adventure on the Buffalo Trail, but it was before the holes had +been cut in the Museum wall to let you look straight across the bend in +the Colorado and into the Hopi pueblo. Dorcas looked at all the wall +cases and wondered how it was the Indians seemed to have so much corn +and so many kinds of it, for she had always thought of corn as a +civilized sort of thing to have. She sat on a bench against the wall +wondering, for the lovely clean stillness of the room encouraged +thinking, and the clink of her father's hammers on the pipes fell +presently into the regular _tink-tink-a-tink_ of tortoise-shell rattles, +keeping time to the shuffle and beat of bare feet on the dancing-place +by the river. The path to it led across a clearing between little +hillocks of freshly turned earth, and the high forest overhead was +bursting into tiny green darts of growth like flame. The rattles were +sewed to the leggings of the women--little yellow and black +land-tortoise shells filled with pebbles--who sang as they danced and +cut themselves with flints until they bled. + +"Oh," said Dorcas, without waiting to be introduced, "what makes you do +that?" + +"To make the corn grow," said the tallest and the handsomest of the +women, motioning to the others to leave off their dancing while she +answered. "Listen! You can hear the men doing their part." + +From the forest came a sudden wild whoop, followed by the sound of a +drum, little and far off like a heart beating. "They are scaring off the +enemies of the corn," said the Corn Woman, for Dorcas could see by her +headdress, which was of dried corn tassels dyed in colors, and by a kind +of kilt she wore, woven of corn husks, that that was what she +represented. + +"Oh!" said Dorcas; and then, after a moment, "It sounds as if you were +sorry, you know." + +"When the seed corn goes into the ground it dies," said the Corn Woman; +"the tribe might die also if it never came alive again. Also we lament +for the Giver-of-the-Corn who died giving." + +"I thought corn just grew," said Dorcas; "I didn't know it came from any +place." + +"From the People of the Seed, from the Country of Stone Houses. It was +bought for us by Given-to-the-Sun. Our people came from the East, from +the place where the Earth opened, from the place where the Noise was, +where the Mountain thundered.... This is what I have heard; this is what +the Old Ones have said," finished the Corn Woman, as though it were some +sort of song. + +She looked about to the others as if asking their consent to tell the +story. As they nodded, sitting down to loosen their heavy leggings, +Dorcas could see that what she had taken to be a shock of last year's +cornstalks, standing in the middle of the dancing-place, was really tied +into a rude resemblance to a woman. Around its neck was one of the +Indian's sacred bundles; Dorcas thought it might have something to do +with the story, but decided to wait and see. + +"There was a trail in those days," said the Corn Woman, "from the +buffalo pastures to the Country of the Stone House. We used to travel it +as far as the ledge where there was red earth for face-painting, and to +trade with the Blanket People for salt. + +"But no farther. Hunting-parties that crossed into Chihuahua returned +sometimes; more often they were given to the Sun.--On the tops of the +hills where their god-houses were," explained the Corn Woman seeing that +Dorcas was puzzled. "The Sun was their god to them. Every year they gave +captives on the hills they built to the Sun." + +Dorcas had heard the guard explaining to visitors in the Aztec room. +"Teocales," she suggested. + +"That was one of their words," agreed the Corn Woman. "They called +themselves Children of the Sun. This much we knew; that there was a +Seed. The People of the Cliffs, who came to the edge of the Windswept +Plain to trade, would give us cakes sometimes for dried buffalo tongues. +This we understood was _mahiz_, but it was not until Given-to-the-Sun +came to us that we thought of having it for ours. Our men were hunters. +They thought it shame to dig in the ground. + +"Shungakela, of the Three Feather band, found her at the fork of the +Turtle River, half starved and as fierce as she was hungry, but _he_ +called her 'Waits-by-the-Fire' when he brought her back to his tipi, and +it was a long time before we knew that she had any other name. She +belonged to one of the mountain tribes whose villages were raided by the +People of the Sun, and because she had been a child at the time, she was +made a servant. But in the end, when she had shot up like a red lily and +her mistress had grown fond of her, she was taken by the priests of +the Sun. + +"At first the girl did not know what to make of being dressed so +handsomely and fed upon the best of everything, but when they painted +her with the sign of the Sun she knew. Over her heart they painted it. +Then they put about her neck the Eye of the Sun, and the same day the +woman who had been her mistress and was fond of her, slipped her a seed +which she said should be eaten as she went up the Hill of the Sun, so +she would feel nothing. Given-to-the-Sun hid it in her bosom. + +"There was a custom that, in the last days, those who were to go up the +Hill of the Sun could have anything they asked for. So the girl asked to +walk by the river and hear the birds sing. When they had walked out of +sight of the Stone Houses, she gave her watchers the seed in their food +and floated down the river on a piece of bark until she came ashore in +the thick woods and escaped. She came north, avoiding the trails, and +after a year Shungakela found her. Between her breasts there was the +sign of the Sun." + +The Corn Woman stooped and traced in the dust the ancient sign of the +intertwined four corners of the Earth with the Sun in the middle. +"Around her neck in a buckskin bag was the charm that is known as the +Eye of the Sun. She never showed it to any of us, but when she was in +trouble or doubt, she would put her hand over it. It was her Medicine." + +"It was good Medicine, too," spoke up the oldest of the dancing women. + +"We had need of it," agreed the Corn Woman. "In those days the Earth was +too full of people. The tribes swarmed, new chiefs arose, kin hunted +against kin. Many hunters made the game shy, and it removed to new +pastures. Strong people drove out weaker and took away their +hunting-grounds. We had our share of both fighting and starving, but our +tribe fared better than most because of the Medicine of +Waits-by-the-Fire, the Medicine of the Sun. She was a wise woman. She +was made Shaman. When she spoke, even the chiefs listened. But what +could the chiefs do except hunt farther and fight harder? So +Waits-by-the-Fire talked to the women. She talked of corn, how it was +planted and harvested, with what rites and festivals. + +"There was a God of the Seed, a woman god who was served by women. When +the women of our tribe heard that, they took heart. The men had been +afraid that the God of the Corn would not be friendly to us. I think, +too, they did not like the idea of leaving off the long season of +hunting and roving, for corn is a town-maker. For the tending and +harvesting there must be one place, and for the guarding of the winter +stores there must be a safe place. So said Waits-by-the-Fire to the +women digging roots or boiling old bones in the long winter. She was a +wise woman. + +"It was the fight we had with the Tenasas that decided us. That was a +year of great scarcity and the Tenasas took to sending their young men, +two or three at a time, creeping into our hunting-grounds to start the +game, and turn it in the direction of their own country. When our young +men were sure of this, they went in force and killed inside the borders +of the Tenasas. They had surprised a herd of buffaloes at Two Kettle +Licks and were cutting up the meat when the Tenasas fell upon them. +Waits-by-the-Fire lost her last son by that battle. One she had lost in +the fight at Red Buttes and one in a year of Hunger while he was little. +This one was swift of foot and was called Last Arrow, for Shungakela had +said, 'Once I had a quiver full.' Waits-by-the-Fire brought him back on +her shoulders from the place where the fight was. She walked with him +into the Council. + +"'The quiver is empty,' she said; 'the food bags, also; will you wait +for us to fill one again before you fill the other?' + +"Mad Wolf, who was chief at the time, threw up his hand as a man does +when he is down and craves a mercy he is too proud to ask for. 'We have +fought the Tenasas,' he said; 'shall we fight our women also?' + +"Waits-by-the-Fire did not wait after that for long speeches in the +Council. She gathered her company quickly, seven women well seasoned and +not comely,--'The God of the Corn is a woman god,' she said, sharp +smiling,--and seven men, keen and hard runners. The rest she appointed +to meet her at Painted Rock ten moons from their going." + +"So long as that!" said Dorcas Jane. "Was it so far from where you lived +to Mex--to the Country of Stone Houses?" + +"Not so far, but they had to stay from planting to harvest. Of what use +was the seed without knowledge. Traveling hard they crossed the River of +the White Rocks and reached, by the end of that moon, the mountain +overlooking the Country of Stone Houses. Here the men stayed. +Waits-by-the-Fire arranged everything. She thought the people of the +towns might hesitate to admit so many men strangers. Also she had the +women put on worn moccasins with holes, and old food from the year +before in their food bags." + +"I should think," began Dorcas Jane, "they would have wanted to put on +the best they had to make a good impression." + +"She was a wise woman," said the Corn Woman; "she said that if they came +from near, the people of the towns might take them for spies, but they +would not fear travelers from so far off that their moccasins had +holes in them." + +The Corn Woman had forgotten that she was telling a story older than the +oaks they sat under. When she came to the exciting parts she said "we" +and "us" as though it were something that had happened to them all +yesterday. + +"It was a high white range that looked on the Country of Stone Houses," +she said, "with peaks that glittered, dropping down ridge by ridge to +where the trees left off at the edge of a wide, basket-colored valley. +It hollowed like a meal basket and had a green pattern woven through it +by a river. Shungakela went with the women to the foot of the mountain, +and then, all at once, he would not let them go until Waits-by-the-Fire +promised to come back to the foot of the mountain once in every moon to +tell him how things went with us. We thought it very childish of him, +but afterward we were glad we had not made any objection. + +"It was mid-morning when the Seven walked between the fields, with +little food in their bags and none whatever in their stomachs, all in +rags except Waits-by-the-Fire, who had put on her Shaman's dress, and +around her neck, tied in a bag with feathers, the Medicine of the Sun. +People stood up in the fields to stare, and we would have stared back +again, but we were afraid. Behind the stone house we saw the Hill of the +Sun and the priests moving up and down as Waits-by-the-Fire had +described it. + +"Below the hill, where the ground was made high, at one side of the +steps that went up to the Place of Giving, stood the house of the Corn +Goddess, which was served by women. There the Seven laid up their +offering of poor food before the altar and stood on the steps of the +god-house until the head priestess noticed them. Wisps of incense smoke +floated out of the carved doorways and the drone of the priestess like +bees in a hollow log. All the people came out on their flat roofs to +watch--Did I say that they had two and even three houses, one on top of +the other, each one smaller than the others, and ladders that went up +and down to them?--They stood on the roofs and gathered in the open +square between the houses as still and as curious as antelopes, and at +last the priestess of the Corn came out and spoke to us. Talk went on +between her and Waits-by-the-Fire, purring, spitting talk like water +stumbling among stones. Not one word did our women understand, but they +saw wonder grow among the Corn Women, respect and amazement. + +"Finally, we were taken into the god-house, where in the half dark, we +could make out the Goddess of the Corn, cut in stone, with green stones +on her forehead. There were long councils between Waits-by-the-Fire and +the Corn Woman and the priests that came running from the Temple of the +Sun. Outside the rumor and the wonder swelled around the god-house like +a sudden flood. Faces bobbed up like rubbish in the flood into the +bright blocks of light that fell through the doorway, and were shifted +and shunted by other faces peering in. After a long tune the note of +wonder outside changed to a deep, busy hum; the crowd separated and let +through women bearing food in pots and baskets. Then we knew that +Waits-by-the-Fire had won." + +"But what?" insisted Dorcas; "what was it that she had told them?" + +"That she had had a dream which was sent by the Corn Spirit and that she +and those with her were under a vow to serve the Corn for the space of +one growing year. And to prove that her dream was true the Goddess of +the Corn had revealed to her the speech of the Stone House tribe and +also many hidden things. These were things which she remembered from her +captivity which she told them." + +"What sort of things?" + +"Why, that in such a year they had had a pestilence and that the father +of the Corn Woman had died of eating over-ripe melons. The Corn Women +were greatly impressed. But she carried it almost too far ... perhaps +... and perhaps it was appointed from the beginning that that was the +way the Corn was to come. It was while we were eating that we realized +how wise she was to make us come fasting, for first the people pitied +us, and then they were pleased with themselves for making us +comfortable. But in the middle of it there was a great stir and a man in +chief's dress came pushing through. He was the Cacique of the Sun and he +was vexed because he had not been called earlier. He was that kind of +a man. + +"He spoke sharply to the Chief Corn Woman to know why strangers were +received within the town without his knowledge. + +"Waits-by-the-Fire answered quickly. 'We are guests of the Corn, O +Cacique, and in my dream I seem to have heard of your hospitality to +women of the Corn.' You see there had been an old story when he was +young, how one of the Corn Maidens had gone to his house and had been +kept there against her will, which was a discredit to him. He was so +astonished to hear the strange woman speak of it that he turned and went +out of the god-house without another word. The people took up the +incident and whispered it from mouth to mouth to prove that the strange +Shaman was a great prophet. So we were appointed a house to live in and +were permitted to serve the Corn." + +"But what did you do?" Dorcas insisted on knowing. + +"We dug and planted. All this was new to us. When there was no work in +the fields we learned the ways of cooking corn, and to make pots. +Hunting-tribes do not make pots. How should we carry them from place to +place on our backs? We cooked in baskets with hot stones, and sometimes +when the basket was old we plastered it with mud and set it on the fire. +But the People of the Corn made pots of coiled clay and burned it hard +in the open fires between the houses. Then there was the ceremony of the +Corn to learn, the prayers and the dances. Oh, we had work enough! And +if ever anything was ever said or done to us which was not pleasant, +Waits-by-the-Fire would say to the one who had offended, 'We are only +the servants of the Corn, but it would be a pity if the same thing +happened to you that happened to the grandfather of your next-door +neighbor!' + +"And what happened to him?" + +"Oh, a plague of sores, a scolding wife," or anything that she chanced +to remember from the time she had been Given-to-the-Sun. _That_ stopped +them. But most of them held us to be under the protection of the Corn +Spirit, and when our Shaman would disappear for two or three days--that +was when she went to the mountain to visit Shungakela--_we_ said that +she had gone to pray to her own gods, and they accepted that also." + +"And all this time no one recognized her?" + +"She had painted her face for a Shaman," said the Corn Woman slowly, +"and besides it was nearly forty years. The woman who had been kind to +her was dead and there was a new Priest of the Sun. Only the one who had +painted her with the sign of the Sun was left, and he was doddering." +She seemed about to go on with her story, but the oldest dancing woman +interrupted her. + +"Those things helped," said the dancing woman, "but it was her thought +which hid her. She put on the thought of a Shaman as a man puts on the +thought of a deer or a buffalo when he goes to look for them. That which +one fears, that it is which betrays one. She was a Shaman in her heart +and as a Shaman she appeared to them." + +"She certainly had no fear," said the Corn Woman, "though from the first +she must have known-- + +"It was when the seed corn was gathered that we had the first hint of +trouble," she went on. "When it was ripe the priests and Caciques went +into the fields to select the seed for next year. Then it was laid up in +the god-houses for the priestess of the Corn to keep. That was in case +of an enemy or a famine when the people might be tempted to eat it. +After it was once taken charge of by the priestess of the Corn they +would have died rather than give it up. Our women did not know how they +should get the seed to bring away from the Stone House except to ask for +it as the price of their year's labor." + +"But couldn't you have just taken some from the field?" inquired Dorcas. +"Wouldn't it have grown just the same?" + +"That we were not sure of; and we were afraid to take it without the +good-will of the Corn Goddess. Centcotli her name was. Waits-by-the-Fire +made up her mind to ask for it on the first day of the Feast of the Corn +Harvest, which lasts four days, and is a time of present-giving and +good-willing. She would have got it, too, if it had been left to the +Corn Women to decide. But the Cacique of the Sun, who was always +watching out for a chance to make himself important, insisted that it +was a grave matter and should be taken to Council. He had never forgiven +the Shaman, you see, for that old story about the Corn Maiden. + +"As soon as the townspeople found that the Caciques were considering +whether it was proper to give seed corn to the strangers, they began to +consider it, too, turning it over in their minds together with a great +many things that had nothing to do with it. There had been smut in the +corn that year; there was a little every year, but this season there was +more of it, and a good many of the bean pods had not filled out. I +forgot," said the Corn Woman, "to speak of the beans and squashes. They +were the younger sisters of the corn; they grew with the corn and twined +about it. Now, every man who was a handful or two short of his crop +began to look at us doubtfully. Then they would crowd around the Cacique +of the Sun to argue the matter. They remembered how our Shaman had gone +apart to pray to her own gods and they thought the Spirit of the Corn +might have been offended. And the Cacique would inquire of every one who +had a toothache or any such matter, in such a way as to make them think +of it in connection with the Shaman.--In every village," the Corn Woman +interrupted herself to say, "there is evil enough, if laid at the door +of one person, to get her burned for a witch!" + +"Was she?" Dorcas Jane squirmed with anxiety. + +"She was standing on the steps at the foot of the Hill of the Sun, the +last we saw of her," said the Corn Woman. "Of course, our women, not +understanding the speech of the Stone Houses, did not know exactly what +was going on, but they felt the changed looks of the people. They +thought, perhaps, they could steal away from the town unnoticed. Two of +them hid in their clothing as much Seed as they could lay hands on and +went down toward the river. They were watched and followed. So they came +back to the house where Waits-by-the-Fire prayed daily with her hand on +the Medicine of the Sun. + +"So came the last day of the feast when the sacred seed would be sealed +up in the god-house. 'Have no fear,' said Waits-by-the-Fire, 'for my +dream has been good. Make yourselves ready for the trail. Take food in +your food bags and your carriers empty on your backs.' She put on her +Shaman's dress and about the middle of the day the Cacique of the Sun +sent for them. He was on the platform in front of the god-house where +the steps go up to the Hill of the Sun, and the elders of the town were +behind him. Priests of the Sun stood on the steps and the Corn Women +came out from the temple of the Corn. As Waits-by-the-Fire went up with +the Seven, the people closed in solidly behind them. The Cacique looked +at the carriers on their backs and frowned. + +"'Why do you come to the god-house with baskets, like laborers of the +fields?' he demanded. + +"'For the price of our labor, O Cacique,' said the Shaman. 'The gods are +not so poor that they accept labor for nothing.' + +"'Now, it is come into my heart,' said the Cacique sourly, 'that the +gods are not always pleased to be served by strangers. There are signs +that this is so.' + +"'It may be,' said Waits-by-the-Fire, 'that the gods are not pleased. +They have long memories.' She looked at him very straight and somebody +in the crowd snickered." + +"But wasn't it awfully risky to keep making him mad like that?" asked +Dorcas. "They could have just done anything to her!" + +"She was a wise woman; she knew what she had to do. The Cacique _was_ +angry. He began making a long speech at her, about how the smut had come +in the corn and the bean crop was a failure,--but that was because there +had not been water enough,--and how there had been sickness. And when +Waits-by-the-Fire asked him if it were only in that year they had +misfortune, the people thought she was trying to prove that she hadn't +had anything to do with it. She kept reminding them of things that had +happened the year before, and the year before. The Cacique kept growing +more and more angry, admitting everything she said, until it showed +plainly that the town had had about forty years of bad luck, which the +Cacique tried to prove was all because the gods had known in advance +that they were going to be foolish and let strangers in to serve the +Corn. At first the people grew excited and came crowding against the +edge of the platform, shouting, 'Kill her! Kill the witch!' as one and +then another of their past misfortunes were recalled to them. + +"But, as the Shaman kept on prodding the Cacique, as hunters stir up a +bear before killing him, they began to see that there was something more +coming, and they stood still, packed solidly in the square to listen. On +all the housetops roundabout the women and the children were as still as +images. A young priest from the steps of the Hill, who thought he must +back up the Cacique, threw up his arms and shouted, 'Give her to the +Sun!' and a kind of quiver went over the people like the shiver of still +water when the wind smites it. It was only at the time of the New Fire, +between harvest and planting, that they give to the Sun, or in great +times of war or pestilence. Waits-by-the-Fire moved out to the edge of +the platform. + +"'It is not, O People of the Sun, for what is given, that the gods grow +angry, but for what is withheld,' she said, 'Is there nothing, priests +of the Sun, which was given to the Sun and let go again? Think, O +priests. Nothing?' + +"The priests, huddled on the stairs, began to question among themselves, +and Waits-by-the-Fire turned to the people. 'Nothing, O Offspring of +the Sun?' + +"Then she put off the Shaman's thought which had been a shield to her. +'Nothing, Toto?' she called to a man in the crowd by a name none knew +him by except those that had grown up with him. She was +Given-to-the-Sun, and she stood by the carved stone corn of the +god-house and laughed at them, shuffling and shouldering like buffaloes +in the stamping-ground, and not knowing what to think. Voices began to +call for the man she had spoken to, 'Toto, O Toto!' + +"The crowd swarmed upon itself, parted and gave up the figure of the +ancient Priest of the Sun, for they remembered in his day how a girl who +was given to the Sun had been snatched away by the gods out of sight of +the people. They pushed him forward, doddering and peering. They saw the +woman put back her Shaman's bonnet from her head, and the old priest +clap his hand to his mouth like one suddenly astonished. + +"Over the Cacique's face came a cold glint like the coming of ice on +water. 'You,' he said, 'you are Given-to-the-Sun?' And he made a gesture +to the guard to close in on her. + +"'Given-to-the-Sun,' she said. 'Take care how you touch that which +belongs to the gods, O Cacique!' + +"And though he still smiled, he took a step backward. + +"'So,' he said, 'you are that woman and this is the meaning of those +prophecies!' + +"'I am that woman and that prophet,' she said with her hand at her +throat and looked from priests to people. 'O People of the Sun, I have +heard you have a charm,' she said,--'a Medicine of the Sun called the +Eye of the Sun, strong Medicine.' + +"No one answered for a while, but they began to murmur among themselves, +and at last one shouted that they had such a charm, but it was not for +witches or for runaway slave women. + +"You _had_ such a charm,' she said, for she knew well enough that the +sacred charm was kept in the god-house and never shown to the people +except on very great occasions. She was sure that the priests had never +dared to tell the people that their Sacred Stone had disappeared with +the escaped captive. + +"Given-to-the-Sun took the Medicine bag from her neck and swung it in +her fingers. _'Had!'_ she said mockingly. The people gave a growl; +another time they would have been furious with fright and anger, but +they did not wish to miss a syllable of what was about to happen. The +priests whispered angrily with the guard, but Given-to-the-Sun did not +care what the priests did so long as she had the people. She signed to +the Seven, and they came huddling to her like quail; she put them +behind her. + +"'Is it not true, Children of the Sun, that the favor of the Sun goes +with the Eye of the Sun and it will come back to you when the Stone +comes back?' + +"They muttered and said that it was so. + +"'Then, will your priests show you the Eye of the Sun or shall I show +you?' + +"There was a shout raised at that, and some called to the priests to +show the Stone, and others that the woman would bring trouble on them +all with her offenses. But by this time they knew very well where the +Stone was, and the priests were too astonished to think of anything. +Slowly the Shaman drew it out of the Medicine bag--" + +The Corn Woman waited until one of the women handed her the sacred +bundle from the neck of the Corn image. Out of it, after a little +rummaging, she produced a clear crystal of quartz about the size of a +pigeon's egg. It gave back the rays of the Sun in a dazzle that, to any +one who had never seen a diamond, would have seemed wonderfully +brilliant. Where it lay in the Corn Woman's hand it scattered little +flecks of reflected light in rainbow splashes. The Indian women made the +sign of the Sun on their foreheads and Dorcas felt a prickle of +solemnity along the back of her neck as she looked at it. Nobody spoke +until it was back again in the Medicine bundle. + +"Given-to-the-Sun held it up to them," the story went on, "and there was +a noise in the square like a noise of the stamping-ground at twilight. +Some bellowed one thing and some another, and at last a priest of the +Sun moved sharply and spoke:-- + +"'The Eye of the Sun is not for the eyes of the vulgar. Will you let +this false Shaman impose on you, O Children of the Sun, with a +common pebble?' + +"Given-to-the-Sun stooped and picked up a mealing-stone that was used +for grinding the sacred meal in the temple of the Corn. + +"'If your Stone is in the temple and this is a common pebble,' said she, +'it does not matter what I do with it.' And she seemed about to crush it +on the top of the stone balustrade at the edge of the platform. The +people groaned. They knew very well that this was their Sacred Stone and +that the priests had deceived them. Given-to-the-Sun stood resting one +stone upon the other. + +"'The Sun has been angry with you,' she said, 'but the Goddess of the +Corn saves you. She has brought back the Stone and the Sacrifice. Do not +show yourselves ungrateful to the Corn by denying her servants their +wages. What! will you have all the gods against you? Priestess of the +Corn,' she called toward the temple, 'do you also mislead the people?' + +"At that the Corn Women came hurrying, for they saw that the people were +both frightened and angry; they brought armsful of corn and seeds for +the carriers, they took bracelets from their arms and put them for gifts +in the baskets. The priests of the Sun did not say anything. One of the +women's headbands slipped and the basket swung sideways. +Given-to-the-Sun whipped off her belt and tucked it under the basket rim +to make it ride more evenly. The woman felt something hard in the belt +pressing her shoulder, but she knew better than to say anything. In +silence the crowd parted and let the Seven pass. They went swiftly with +their eyes on the ground by the north gate to the mountain. The priests +of the Sun stood still on the steps of the Hill of the Sun and their +eyes glittered. The Sacrifice of the Sun had come back to them. + +"When our women passed the gate, the crowd saw Given-to-the-Sun restore +what was in her hand to the Medicine bag; she lifted her arms above her +head and began the prayer to the Sun." + + * * * * * + +"I see," said Dorcas after a long pause; "she stayed to keep the People +of the Sun pacified while the women got away with the seed. That was +splendid. But, the Eye of the Sun, I thought you saw her put that in the +buckskin bag again?" + +"She must have had ready another stone of shape and size like it," said +the Corn Woman. "She thought of everything. She was a wise woman, and so +long as she was called Given-to-the-Sun the Eye of the Sun was hers to +give. Shungakela was not surprised to find that his wife had stayed at +the Hill of the Sun; so I suppose she must have told him. He asked if +there was a token, and the woman whose basket she had propped with her +girdle gave it to him with the hard lump that pressed her shoulder. So +the Medicine of the Sun came back to us. + +"Our men had met the women at the foot of the mountain and they fled all +that day to a safe place the men had made for them. It was for that they +had stayed, to prepare food for flight, and safe places for hiding in +case they were followed. If the pursuit pressed too hard, the men were +to stay and fight while the women escaped with the corn. That was how +Given-to-the-Sun arranged it. + +"Next day as we climbed, we saw smoke rising from the Hill of the Sun, +and Shungakela went apart on the mountain, saying, 'Let me alone, for I +make a fire to light the feet of my wife's spirit...' They had been +married twenty years. + +"We found the tribe at Painted Rock, but we thought it safer to come on +east beyond the Staked Plains as Given-to-the-Sun had advised us. At Red +River we stopped for a whole season to plant corn. But there was not +rain enough there, and if we left off watching the fields for a day the +buffaloes came and cropped them. So for the sake of the corn we came +still north and made friends with the Tenasas. We bought help of them +with the half of our seed, and they brought us over the river, the +Missi-Sippu, the Father of all Rivers. The Tenasas had boats, round like +baskets, covered with buffalo hide, and they floated us over, two +swimmers to every boat to keep us from drifting downstream. + +"Here we made a town and a god-house, to keep the corn contented. Every +year when the seed is gathered seven ears are laid up in the god-house +in memory of the Seven, and for the seed which must be kept for next +year's crop there are seven watchers"--the Corn Woman included the +dancers and herself in a gesture of pride. "We are the keepers of the +Seed," she said, "and no man of the tribe knows where it is hidden. For +no matter how hungry the people may become the seed corn must not be +eaten. But with us there is never any hunger, for every year from +planting time till the green corn is ready for picking, we keep all the +ceremonies of the corn, so that our cribs are filled to bursting. Look!" + +The Corn Woman stood up and the dancers getting up with her shook the +rattles of their leggings with a sound very like the noise a radiator +makes when some one is hammering on the other end of it. And when Dorcas +turned to look for the Indian cribs there was nothing there but the +familiar wall cases and her father mending the steam heater. + +[Illustration: SIGN OF THE SUN AND THE FOUR QUARTERS] + +[Illustration] + + + + +VII + +A TELLING OF THE SALT TRAIL, OF TSE-TSE-YOTE AND THE DELIGHT-MAKERS; +TOLD BY MOKE-ICHA + + +Oliver was so interested in his sister's account of how the corn came +into the country, that that very evening he dragged out a tattered old +atlas which he had rescued from the Museum waste, and began to look for +the places named by the Corn Woman. They found the old Chihuahua Trail +sagging south across the Rio Grande, which, on the atlas map, carried +its ancient name of River of the White Rocks. Then they found the Red +River, but there was no trace of the Tenasas, unless it might be, as +they suspected from the sound, in the Country of the Tennessee. It was +all very disappointing.. "I suppose," suggested Dorcas Jane, "they don't +put down the interesting places. It's only the ones that are too dull to +be remembered that have to be printed." + +Oliver, who did not believe this was quite the principle on which +atlases were constructed, had made a discovery. Close to the Rio Grande, +and not far from the point where the Chihuahua Trail, crossed it, there +was a cluster of triangular dots, marked Cliff Dwellings. "There was +corn there," he insisted. "You can see it in the wall cases, and Cliff +Dwellings are the oldest old places in the United States. If they were +here when the Corn Woman passed, I don't see why she had to go to the +Stone Houses for seed." And when they had talked it over they decided to +go that very night and ask the Buffalo Chief about it. + +"There was always corn, as I remember it," said the old bull, "growing +tall about the tipis. But touching the People of the Cliffs--that would +be Moke-icha's story." + +The great yellow cat came slipping out from the over-weighted thickets +of wild plum, and settled herself on her boulder with a bound. +Stretching forth one of her steel-tipped pads toward the south she +seemed to draw the purple distance as one draws a lady by her scarf. The +thin lilac-tinted haze parted on the gorge of the Rio Grande, between +the white ranges. The walls of the canyon were scored with deep +perpendicular gashes as though the river had ripped its way through them +with its claws. Yellow pines balanced on the edge of the cliffs, and +smaller, tributary canyons, that opened into it, widened here and there +to let in tall, solitary trees, with patches of sycamore and wild cherry +and linked pools for trout. + +"That was a country!" purred Moke-icha. "What was it you wished to know +about it?" + +"Ever so many things," said Oliver promptly--"if there were people +there, and if they had corn--" + +"Queres they were called," said Moke-icha, "and they were already a +people, with corn of four colors for the four corners of the earth, and +many kinds of beans and squashes, when they came to Ty-uonyi." + +"Where were they when the Corn Woman passed? Who were the Blanket +People, and what--" + +"Softly," said Moke-icha. "Though I slept in the kivas and am called +Kabeyde, Chief of the Four-Footed, I did not know _all_ the tales of the +Queres. They were a very ancient people. On the Salt Trail, where it +passed by Split Rock, the trail was bitten deep into the granite. I +think they could not have been more than three or four hundred years in +Ty-uonyi when I knew them. They came from farther up the river where +they had cities built into the rock. And before that? How should I know? +They said they came from a hole in the ground, from Shipapu. They traded +to the south with salt which they brought from the Crawling Water for +green stones and a kind of white wool which grew on bushes, from which +they made their clothes. There were no wandering tribes about except the +Dine and they were all devils." + +"Devils they may have been," said the Navajo, "but they did not say +their prayers to a yellow cat, O Kabeyde." + +"I speak but as the People of the Cliffs," said Moke-icha soothingly. +"If they called to Dine devils, doubtless they had reason; and if they +made prayers and images to me, it was not without a reason: not without +good reason." Her tail bristled a little as it curled at the tip like a +snake. Deep yellow glints swam at the backs of her half-shut eyes. + +"It was because of the Dine, who were not friendly to the Queres, that +the towns were built as you see, with the solid outer wall and the doors +all opening on a court, at the foot of the cliff. It was hot and quiet +there with always something friendly going on, children tumbling about +among the dogs and the turkeys, an old man rattling a gourd and singing +the evil away from his eyes, or the _plump, plump_ of the mealing-stone +from the doorways. Now and then a maiden going by, with a tray of her +best cooking which she carried to her young man as a sign that she had +accepted him, would throw me a morsel, and at evenings the priests would +come out of the kivas and strike with a clapper of deer's shoulder on a +flint gong to call the people to the dancing-places." + +The children turned to look once more at the narrow rift of Ty-uonyi as +it opened from the canyon of the Rio Grande between two basalt columns to +allow the sparkling Rito to pass where barely two men could walk +abreast. Back from the stream the pale amber cliffs swept in smooth laps +and folds like ribbons. Crowded against its sheer northern face the +irregularly terraced heaps of the communal houses looked little as ant +heaps at the foot of a garden wall. Tiers and tiers of the T-shaped +openings of the cave dwellings spotted the smooth cliff, but along the +single two-mile street, except for an occasional obscure doorway, ran +the blank, mud-plastered wall of the kivas. + +Where the floor of the canyon widened, the water of the Rito was led out +in tiny dikes and ditches to water the garden patches. A bowshot on the +opposite side rose the high south wall, wind and rain washed into tents +and pinnacles, spotted with pale scrub and blood-red flowers of nopal. +Trails spidered up its broken steep, and were lost in the cloud-drift or +dipped out of sight over the edge of the timbered mesa. + +"We would go over the trail to hunt," said Moke-icha. "There were no +buffaloes, but blacktail and mule deer that fattened on the bunch grass, +and bands of pronghorn flashing their white rumps. Quail ran in droves +and rose among the mesas like young thunder. + +"That was my cave," said the Puma, nodding toward a hole high up like a +speck on the five-hundred-foot cliff, close up under the great +ceremonial Cave which was painted with the sign of the Morning and the +Evening Star, and the round, bright House of the Sun Father. "But at +first I slept in the kiva with Tse-tse-yote. Speaking of devils--there +was no one who had the making of a livelier devil in him than my young +master. Slim as an arrow, he would come up from his morning dip in the +Rito, glittering like the dark stone of which knives are made, and his +hair in the sun gave back the light like a raven. And there was no man's +way of walking or standing, nor any cry of bird or beast, that he could +not slip into as easily as a snake slips into a shadow. He would never +mock when he was asked, but let him alone, and some evening, when the +people smoked and rested, he would come stepping across the court in the +likeness of some young man whose maiden had just smiled on him. Or if +some hunter prided himself too openly on a buck he had killed, the first +thing he knew there would be Tse-tse-yote walking like an ancient +spavined wether prodded by a blunt arrow, until the whole court roared +with laughter. + +"Still, Kokomo should have known better than to try to make him one of +the Koshare, for though laughter followed my master as ripples follow a +skipping stone, he laughed little himself. + +"Who were the Koshare? They were the Delight-Makers; one of their secret +societies. They daubed themselves with mud and white paint to make +laughter by jokes and tumbling. They had their kiva between us and the +Gourd People, but Tse-tse-yote, who had set his heart on being elected +to the Warrior Band, the Uakanyi, made no secret of thinking small of +the Koshare. + +"There was no war at that time, but the Uakanyi went down with the +Salt-Gatherers to Crawling Water, once in every year between the +corn-planting and the first hoeing, and as escort on the trading trips. +They would go south till they could see the blue wooded slope below the +white-veiled mountain, and would make smoke for a trade signal, three +smokes close together and one farther off, till the Men of the South +came to deal with them. But it was the Salt-Gathering that made +Tse-tse-yote prefer the Warrior Band to the Koshare, for all that +country through which the trail lay was disputed by the Dine. It is true +there was a treaty, but there was also a saying at Ty-uonyi, 'a sieve +for water and a treaty for the Dine.'" + +[Illustration: Tse-tse-yote and Moke-icha] + +The Navajo broke in angrily, "The Tellings were to be of the trails, O +Kabeyde, and not of the virtues of my ancestors!" The children looked at +him, round-eyed. + +"Are you the Dine?" they exclaimed both at once. It seemed to bring the +Cliff People so much nearer. + +"So we were named, though we were called devils by those who feared us, +and Blanket People by the Plainsmen. We were a tree whose roots were in +the desert and whose branches were over all the north, and there is no +Telling of the Queres, Cochiti, or Ty-uonyi, O Kebeyde,"--he turned to +the puma,--"which I cannot match with a better of those same Dine." + +"There were Dine in this Telling," purred Moke-icha, "and one puma. +There was also Pitahaya, the chief, who was so old that he spent most of +the time singing the evil out of his eyes. There was Kokomo, who wished +to be chief in his stead, and there was Willow-in-the-Wind, the turkey +girl, who had no one belonging to her. She had a wind-blown way of +walking, and her long hair, which she washed almost every day in the +Rito, streamed behind her like the tips of young willows. Finally, there +was Tse-tse-yote. But one must pick up the trail before one settles to +the Telling," said Moke-icha. + +"Tse-tse-yote took me, a nine days' cub, from the lair in Shut Canyon and +brought me up in his mother's house, the fifth one on the right from the +gate that was called, because of a great hump of arrow-stone which was +built into it, Rock-Overhanging. When he was old enough to leave his +mother and sleep in the kiva of his clan, he took me with him, where I +have no doubt, we made a great deal of trouble. Nights when the moon +called me, I would creep out of Tse-tse's arms to the top of the ladder. +The kivas opened downward from a hole in the roof in memory of Shipapu. +Half-awake, Tse-tse would come groping to find me until he trod on one +of the others by mistake, who would dream that the Dine were after him +and wake the kiva with his howls. Or somebody would pinch my tail and +Tse-tse would hit right and left with his pillows--" + +"Pillows?" said Oliver. + +"Mats of reed or deerskin. They would slap at one another, or snatch at +any convenient ankle or hair, until Kokomo, the master of the kiva, +would have to come and cuff them apart. Always he made believe that +Tse-tse or I had started it, and one night he tried to throw me out by +the skin of my neck, and I turned in his hand--How was I to know that +the skin of man is so tender?--and his smell was the smell of a man who +nurses grudges. + +"After that, even Tse-tse-yote saw that I was too old for the kiva, so +he made me a cave for myself, high up under the House of the Sun Father, +and afterward he widened it so that he could sit there tying prayer +plumes and feathering his arrows. By day I hunted with Tse-tse-yote on +the mesa, or lay up in a corner of the terrace above the court of the +Gourd Clan, and by night--to say the truth, by night I did very much as +it pleased me. There was a broken place in the wall-plaster by the gate +of the Rock-Overhanging, by which I could go up and down, and if I was +caught walking on the terrace, nobody minded me. I was Kabeyde, and the +hunters thought I brought them luck." + +Thus having picked up the trail to her satisfaction, Moke-icha tucked +her paws under her comfortably and settled to her story. + +"When Tse-tse-yote took me to sleep with him in the kiva of his clan, +Kokomo, who was head of the kiva, objected. So Tse-tse-yote spent the +three nights following in a corner of the terrace with me curled up for +warmth beside him. Tse-tse's father heard of it and carried the matter +to Council. Tse-tse had taken me with his own hands from the lair, +knowing very well what my mother would have done to him had she come +back and found him there; and Tse-tse's father was afraid, if they took +away the first fruits of his son's courage, the courage would go with +it. The Council agreed with him. Kokomo was furious at having the +management of his kiva taken out of his hands, and Tse-tse knew it. +Later, when even Tse-tse's father agreed that I was too old for the +kiva, Tse-tse taught me to curl my tail under my legs and slink on my +belly when I saw Kokomo. Then he would scold me for being afraid of the +kind man, and the other boys would giggle, for they knew very well that +Tse-tse had to beat me over the head with a firebrand to teach me +that trick. + +"It was a day or two after I had learned it, that we met +Willow-in-the-Wind feeding her turkey flock by the Rito as we came from +hunting, and she scolded Tse-tse for making fun of Kokomo. + +"'It is plain,' she said, 'that you are trying to get yourself elected +to the Delight-Makers.' + +"'You know very well it is no such thing,' he answered her roughly, for +it was not permitted a young man to make a choice of the society he +would belong to. He had to wait until he was elected by his elders. The +turkey girl paddled her toes in the Rito. + +"'There is only one way,' she said, 'that a man can be kept from making +fun of the Koshare, and that is by electing him a member. Now, _I_ +thought you would have preferred the Uakanyi,'--just as if she did not +know that there was little else he thought of. + +"Tse-tse pulled up the dry grass and tossed it into the water. 'In the +old days,' he said, 'I have heard that Those Above sent the +Delight-Makers to make the people laugh so that the way should not seem +long, and the Earth be fruitful. But now the jests of the Koshare are +scorpions, each one with a sting in its tail for the enemies of the +Delight-Makers. I had sooner strike mine with a knife or an arrow.' + +"'Enemies, yes,' said Willow-in-the-Wind, 'but you cannot use a knife on +those who sit with you in Council. You know very well that Kokomo wishes +to be chief in place of Pitahaya.' + +"Tse-tse looked right and left to see who listened. 'Kokomo is a strong +man in Ty-uonyi,' he said; 'it was he who made the treaty with the Dine. +And Pitahaya is blind.' + +"'Aye,' said the turkey girl; 'when you are a Delight-Maker you can make +a fine jest of it.' + +"She had been brought up a foundling in the house of the old chief and +was fond of him. Tse-tse, who had heard and said more than became a +young man, was both angry and frightened; therefore he boasted. + +"'Kokomo shall not make me a Koshare,' he said; 'it will not be the +first time I have carried the Council against him.' + +"At that time I did not know so much of the Dine as that they were men. +But the day after Willow-in-the-Wind told Tse-tse that Kokomo meant to +have him elected to the Koshare if only to keep him from making a mock +of Kokomo, we went up over the south wall hunting. + +"It was all flat country from there to the roots of the mountains; great +pines stood wide apart, with here and there a dwarf cedar steeping in +the strong sun. We hunted all the morning and lay up under a dark oak +watching the young winds stalk one another among the lupins. Lifting +myself to catch the upper scent, I winded a man that was not of +Ty-uonyi. A moment later we saw him with a buck on his shoulders, +working his way cautiously toward the head of Dripping Spring Canyon. +'Dine!' said Tse-tse; 'fighting man.' And he signed to me that we must +stalk him. + +"For an hour we slunk and crawled through the black rock that broke +through the mesa like a twisty root of the mountain. At the head of +Dripping Spring we smelled wood smoke. We crept along the canyon rim and +saw our man at the bottom of it. He had hung up his buck at the camp and +was cutting strips from it for his supper. + +"'Look well, Kabeyde,' said my master; 'smell and remember. This man is +my enemy.' I did not like the smell in any case. The Queres smell of the +earth in which they dig and house, but the Dine smelled of himself and +the smoke of sagebrush. Tse-tse's hand was on the back of my neck. +'Wait,' he said; 'one Dine has not two blankets.' We could see them +lying in a little heap not far from the camp. Presently in the dusk +another man came up the canyon from the direction of the river and +joined him. + +"We cast back and forth between Dripping Spring and the mouth of the +Ty-uonyi most of the night, but no more Dine showed themselves. At +sunrise Willow-in-the-Wind met us coming up the Rito. + +"'Feed farther up,' Tse-tse told her; 'the Dine are abroad.' + +"Her face changed, but she did not squeal as the other women did when +they heard it. Therefore I respected her. That was the way it was with +me. Every face I searched, to see if there was fear in it, and if there +was none I myself was a little afraid; but where there was fear the back +of my neck bristled. I know that the hair rose on it when we came to +tell our story to the Council. That was when Kokomo was called; he came +rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, pretending that Tse-tse had made a +tale out of nothing. + +"'We have a treaty with the Dine,' he said. 'Besides, I was out +rehearsing with the Koshare last night toward Shut Canyon; if there had +been Dine _I_ should have seen them.' + +"It was then that I was aware of Tse-tse's hand creeping along my +shoulders to hide the bristling. + +"'He is afraid,' said Tse-tse to me in the cave; 'you saw it. Yet he is +not afraid of the Dine. Sometimes I think he is afraid of me. That is +why he wished me to join the Koshare, for then he will be my Head, and +without his leave I can do nothing.' + +"This was a true saying. Only a few days after that, I found one of +their little wooden images, painted and feathered like a Delight-Maker, +in my cave. It was an invitation. It smelled of Kokomo and I scratched +dirt on it. Then came Tse-tse, and as he turned the little Koshare over +in his hand, I saw that there were many things had come into his head +which would never come into mine. Presently I heard him laugh as he did +when he had hit upon some new trick for splitting the people's sides, +like the bubble of a wicker bottle held under water. He took my chin in +his hand. 'Without doubt,' he said, 'this is Kokomo's; he would be very +pleased if you returned it to him.' I understood it as an order. + +"I carried the little Delight-Maker to Kokomo that night in the inner +court, when the evening meal was over and the old men smoked while the +younger sat on the housetops and moaned together melodiously. Tse-tse +looked up from a game of cherry stones. 'Hey, Kokomo, have you been +inviting Kabeyde to join the Koshare? A good shot!' he said, and before +Kokomo could answer it, he began putting me through my tricks." + +"Tricks?" cried the children. + +"Jumping over a stick, you know, and showing what I would do if I met +the Dine." The great cat flattened herself along the ground to spring, +put back her ears, and showed her teeth with a snarly whine, almost too +wicked to be pretended. "I was very good at that," said Moke-icha. + +"'The Delight-Maker was for you, Tse-tse,' said the turkey girl next +morning. 'Kokomo cannot prove that you gave it to Kabeyde, but he will +never forgive you.' + +"True enough, at the next festival the Koshare set the whole of Ty-uonyi +shouting with a sort of play that showed Tse-tse scared by rabbits in +the brush, and thinking the Dine were after them. Tse-tse was furious +and the turkey girl was so angry on his account that she scolded _him_, +which is the way with women. + +"You see," explained Moke-icha to the children, "if he wanted to be made +a member of the Warrior Band, it wouldn't help him any to be proved a +bad scout, and a bringer of false alarms. And if he could be elected to +the Uakanyi that spring, he would probably be allowed to go on the salt +expedition between corn-planting and the first hoeing. But after I had +carried back the little Delight-Maker to Kokomo, there were no signs of +the four-colored arrow, which was the invitation to the Uakanyi, and +young men whom Tse-tse had mimicked too often went about pretending to +discover Dine wherever a rabbit ran or the leaves rustled. + +"Tse-tse behaved very badly. He was sharp with the turkey girl because +she had warned him, and when we hunted on the mesa he would forget me +altogether, running like a man afraid of himself until I was too winded +to keep up with him. I am not built for running," said Moke-icha, "my +part was to pick up the trail of the game, and then to lie up while +Tse-tse drove it past and spring for the throat and shoulder. But when I +found myself neglected I went back to Willow-in-the-Wind who wove +wreaths for my neck, which tickled my chin, and made Tse-tse furious. + +"The day that the names of those who would go on the Salt Trail were +given out--Tse-tse's was not among them--was two or three before the +feast of the corn-planting and the last of the winter rains. +Tse-tse-yote was off on one of his wild runnings, but I lay in the back +of the cave and heard the myriad-footed Rain on the mesa. Between +showers there was a soft foot on the ladder outside, and +Willow-in-the-Wind pushed a tray of her best cooking into the door of +the cave and ran away without looking. That was the fashion of a +love-giving. I was much pleased with it." + +"Oh!--" Dorcas Jane began to say and broke off. "Tell us what it was!" +she finished. + +Moke-icha considered. + +"Breast of turkey roasted, and rabbit stew with pieces of squash and +chia, and beans cooked in fat,--very good eating; and of course thin, +folded cakes of maize; though I do not care much for corn cakes unless +they are well greased. But because it was a love-gift I ate all of it +and was licking the basket-tray when Tse-tse came back. He knew the +fashion of her weaving,--every woman's baskets had her own mark,--and as +he took it from me his face changed as though something inside him had +turned to water. Without a word he went down the hill to the chief's +house and I after him. + +"'Moke-icha liked your cooking so well,' he said to the turkey girl, +'that she was eating the basket also. I have brought it back to you.' +There he stood shifting from one foot to another and Willow-in-the-Wind +turned taut as a bowstring. + +"'Oh,' she said, 'Moke-icha has eaten it! I am very glad to hear it.' +And with that she marched into an inner room and did not come out again +all that evening, and Tse-tse went hunting next day without me. + +"The next night, which was the third before the feast of planting, being +lonely, I went out for a walk on the mesa. It was a clear night of wind +and moving shadow; I went on a little way and smelled man. Two men I +smelled, Dine and Queresan, and the Queresan was Kokomo. They were +together in the shadow of a juniper where no man could have seen them. +Where I stood no man could have heard them. + +"'It is settled, then,' said Kokomo. 'You send the old man to Shipapu, +for which he has long been ready, and take the girl for your trouble.' + +"'Good,' said the Dine. 'But will not the Ko-share know if an extra man +goes in with them?' + +"'We go in three bands, and we have taken in so many new members that no +one knows exactly.' + +"'It is a risk,' said the Dine. + +"And as he moved into the wind I knew the smell of him, and it was the +man we had seen at Dripping Spring; not the hunter, but the one who had +joined him. + +"'Not so much risk as the chance of not finding the right house in the +dark,' said Kokomo; 'and the girl has no one belonging to her. Who shall +say that she did not go of her own accord?' + +"'At any rate,' the Dine laughed, 'I know she must be as beautiful as +you say she is, since you are willing to run the risk of my seeing her.' + +"They moved off, and the wind walking on the pine needles covered what +they said, but I remembered what I had heard because they smelled +of mischief. + +"Two nights later I remembered it again when the Delight-Makers came out +of the dark in three bands and split the people's sides with laughter. +They were disguised in black-and-white paint and daubings of mud and +feathers, but there was a Dine among them. By the smell I knew him. He +was a tall man who tumbled well and kept close to Kokomo. But a Dine is +an enemy. Tse-tse-yote had told me. Therefore I kept close at his heels +as they worked around toward the house of Pitahaya, and my neck +bristled. I could see that the Dine had noticed me. He grew a little +frightened, I think, and whipped at me with the whip of feathers which +the Koshare carried to tickle the tribesmen. I laid back my ears--I am +Kabeyde, and it is not for the Dine to flick whips at me. All at once +there rose a shouting for Tse-tse, who came running and beat me over the +head with his bow-case. + +"'They will think I set you on to threaten the Koshare because they +mocked me,' he said. 'Have you not done me mischief enough already?' + +"That was when we were back in the cave, where he penned me till +morning. There was no way I could tell him that there was a Dine among +the Koshare." + +"But I thought--" began Oliver, he looked over to where Arrumpa stood +drawing young boughs of maple through his mouth like a boy stripping +currants. "Couldn't you just have told him?" + +"In the old days," said Moke-icha, "men spoke with beasts as brothers. +The Queres had come too far on the Man Trail. I had no words, but I +remembered the trick he had taught me, about what to do when I met a +Dine. I laid back my ears and snarled at him. + +"'What!' he said; 'will you make a Dine of _me_?' I saw him frown, and +suddenly he slapped his thigh as a man does when thought overtakes him. +Being but a lad he would not have dared say what he thought, but he took +to spending the night on top of the kiva. I would look out of my cave +and see him there curled up in a corner, or pacing to and fro with the +dew on his blanket and his face turned to the souls of the prayer plumes +drifting in a wide band across the middle heaven. + +"I would have been glad to keep him company, but as neither Tse-tse nor +Willow-in-the-Wind paid any attention to me in those days, I decided +that I might as well go with the men and see for myself what lay at the +other end of the Salt Trail. + +"I gave them a day's start, so that I might not be turned back; but it +was not necessary, since no man looked back or turned around on that +journey, and no one spoke except those who had been over the trail at +least two times. They ate little,--fine meal of parched corn mixed with +water,--and what was left in the cup was put into the earth for a thank +offering. No one drank except as the leader said they could, and at +night they made prayers and songs. + +"The trail leaves the mesa at the Place of the Gap, a dry gully snaking +its way between puma-colored hills and boulders big as kivas. Lasting +Water is at the end of the second day's journey; rainwater that slips +down into a black basin with rock overhanging, cool as an olla. The +rocks in that place when struck give out a pleasant sound. Beyond the +Gap there is white sand in waves like water, wild hills and raw, red +canyons. Around a split rock the trail dips suddenly to Sacred Water, +shallow and white-bordered like a great dead eye." + +"I know that place," said the Navajo, "and I think this must be true, +for there is a trail there which bites deep into the granite." + +"It was deep and polished even in my day," said Moke-icha, "but that did +not interest me. There was no kill there larger than rabbits, and when I +had seen the men cast prayer plumes on the Sacred Water and begin to +scrape up the salt for their packs, I went back to Ty-uonyi. It was not +until I got back to Lasting Water that I picked up the trail of the +Dine. I followed it half a day before it occurred to me that they were +going to Ty-uonyi. One of the smells--there were three of them--was the +Dine who had come in with the Koshare. I remembered the broken plaster +on the wall and Tse-tse asleep on the housetops. _Then_ I hurried. + +"It was blue midnight and the scent fresh on the grass as I came up the +Rito. I heard a dog bark behind the first kiva, and, as I came opposite +Rock-Overhanging, the sound of feet running. I smelled Dine going up the +wall and slipped back in my hurry, but as I came over the roof of the +kiva a tumult broke out in the direction of Pitahaya's house. There was +a scream and a scuffle. I saw Tse-tse running and sent him the puma cry +at which does asleep with their fawns tremble. Down in the long passage +between Pitahaya's court and the gate of Rock-Overhanging, Tse-tse +answered with the hunting-whistle. + +"There was a fight going on in the passage. I could feel the cool +draught from the open gate,--they must have opened it from the inside +after scaling the wall by the broken plaster,--and smelled rather than +saw that one man held the passage against Tse-tse. He was armed with a +stone hammer, which is no sort of weapon for a narrow passage. Tse-tse +had caught bow and quiver from the arms that hung always at the inner +entrance of the passage, but made no attempt to draw. He was crouched +against the wall, knife in hand, watching for an opening, when he heard +me padding up behind him in the darkness. + +"'Good! Kabeyde,' he cried softly; 'go for him.' + +"I sprang straight for the opening I could see behind the Dine, and felt +him go down as I cleared the entrance. Tse-tse panted behind +me,--'Follow, follow!' I could hear the men my cry had waked, pouring +out of the kivas, and knew that the Dine we had knocked over would be +taken care of. We picked up the trail of those who had escaped, straight +across the Rito and over the south wall, but it was an hour before I +realized that they had taken Willow-in-the-Wind with them. Old Pitahaya +was dead without doubt, and the man who had taken Willow-in-the-Wind +was, by the smell, the same that had come in with Kokomo and +the Koshare. + +"We were hot on their trail, and by afternoon of the next day I was +certain that they were making for Lasting Water. So I took Tse-tse over +the rim of the Gap by a short cut which I had discovered, which would +drop us back into the trail before they had done drinking. Tse-tse, who +trusted me to keep the scent, was watching ahead for a sight of the +quarry. Thus he saw the Dine before I winded them. I don't know whether +they were just a hunting-party, or friends of those we followed. We +dropped behind a boulder and Tse-tse counted while I lifted every scent. + +"'Five,' he said, 'and the Finisher of the Paths of Our Lives knows how +many more between us and Lasting Water!' + +"We did not know yet whether they had seen us, but as we began to move +again cautiously, a fox barked in the scrub that was not a fox. Off to +our left another answered him. So now we were no longer hunters, +but hunted. + +"Tse-tse slipped his tunic down to his middle and, unbinding his queue, +wound his long hair about his head to make himself look as much like a +Dine as possible. I could see thought rippling in him as he worked, like +wind on water. We began to snake between the cactus and the black rock +toward the place where the fox had last barked." + +"But _toward_ them---" Oliver began. + +"They were between us and Lasting Water,"--Moke-icha looked about the +listening circle and the Indians nodded, agreeing. "When a fox barked +again, Tse-tse answered with the impudent folly of a young kit talking +back to his betters. Evidently the man on our left was fooled by it, for +he sheered off, but within a bowshot they began to close on us again. + +"We had come to a thicket of mesquite from which a man might slip +unnoticed to the head of the gully, provided no one watched that +particular spot too steadily. There we lay among the thorns and the +shadows were long in the low sun. Close on our right a twig snapped and +I began to gather myself for the spring. The ground sloped a little +before us and gave the advantage. The hand of Tse-tse-yote came along +the back of my neck and rested there. 'If a puma lay up here during the +sun,' he whispered, 'this is the hour he would go forth to his hunting. +He would go stretching himself after sleep and having no fear of man, +for where Kabeyde lies up, who expects to find man also.' His hand came +under my chin as his custom was in giving orders. This was how I +understood it; this I did--" + +The great cat bounded lightly to the ground, took two or three stretchy +steps, shaking the sleep from her flanks, yawned prodigiously, and +trotted off toward a thicket of wild plums into which she slipped like a +beam of yellow light into water. A moment later she reappeared on the +opposite side, bounded back and settled herself on the boulder. Around +the circle ran the short "Huh! Huh!" of Indian approval. The Navajo +shifted his blanket. + +"A Dine could have done no more for a friend," he admitted. + +"I see," said Oliver. "When the Dine saw you coming out of the mesquite +they would have been perfectly sure there was no man there. But anyway, +they might have taken a shot at you." + +"And the twang of the bowstring and the thrashing about of the kill in +the thicket would have told Tse-tse exactly where _they_ were," said the +Navajo. "The Dine when they hunt man do not turn aside for a puma." + +"The hardest part of it all," said Moke-icha, "was to keep from showing +I winded him. I heard the Dine move off, fox-calling to one another, and +at last I smelled Tse-tse working down the gully. He paid no attention +to me whatever; his eyes were fixed on the Dine who stood by the spring +with his back to him looking down on the turkey girl who was huddled +against the rocks with her hands tied behind her. The Dine looked down +with his arms folded, evil-smiling. She looked up and I saw her spit at +him. The man took her by the shoulder, laughing still, and spun her up +standing. Half a bowshot away I heard Tse-tse-yote. 'Down! Down!' he +shouted. The girl dropped like a quail. The Dine, whirling on his heel, +met the arrow with his throat, and pitched choking. I came as fast as I +could between the boulders--I am not built for running--Tse-tse had +unbound the girl's hands and she leaned against him. + +"Breathing myself before drinking, I caught a new scent up the Gap where +the wind came from, but before I had placed it there came a little +scrape on the rocks under the roof of Lasting Water, small, like the +rasp of a snake coiling. I had forgot there were three Dine at Ty-uonyi; +the third had been under the rock drinking. He came crawling now with +his knife in his teeth toward Tse-tse. Me he had not seen until he came +round the singing rock, face to face with me... + +"When it was over," said Moke-icha, "I climbed up the black roof of +Lasting Water to lick a knife cut in my shoulder. Tse-tse talked to the +girl, of all things, about the love-gift she had put in the cave for me. +'Moke-icha had eaten it before I found her,' he insisted, which was +unnecessary. I lay looking at the Dine I had killed and licking my wound +till I heard, around the bend of the Gap, the travel song of the Queres. + +"It was the Salt Pack coming back, every man with his load on his +shoulders. They put their hands in their mouths when they saw Tse-tse. +There was talk; Willow-in-the-Wind told them something. Tse-tse turned +the man he had shot face upward. There was black-and-white paint on his +body; the stripes of the Koshare do not come off easily. I saw Tse-tse +look from the man to Kokomo and the face of the Koshare turned grayish. +I had lived with man, and man-thoughts came to me. I had tasted blood of +my master's enemies; also Kokomo was afraid, and that is an offense to +me. I dropped from where I lay ... I had come to my full weight ... I +think his back was broken. + +"It is the Way Things Are," said Moke-icha. "Kokomo had let in the Dine +to kill Pitahaya to make himself chief, and he would have killed Tse-tse +for finding out about it. That I saw and smelled in him. But I did not +wait this time to be beaten with my master's bow-case. I went back to +Shut Canyon, for now that I had killed one of them, it was not good for +me to live with the Queres. Nevertheless, in the rocks above Ty-uonyi +you can still see the image they made of me." + + + + +VIII + +YOUNG-MAN-WHO-NEVER-TURNS-BACK: A TELLING OF THE TALLEGEWI, BY ONE OF +THEM + + +It could only have been for a few moments at the end of Moke-icha's +story, before the cliff picture split like a thin film before the +dancing circles of the watchmen's lanterns, and curled into the shadows +between the cases. A thousand echoes broke out in the empty halls and +muffled the voices as the rings of light withdrew down the long gallery +in glimmering reflections. When they passed to the floor below a very +remarkable change had come over the landscape. + +The Buffalo Chief and Moke-icha had disappeared. A little way ahead the +trail plunged down the leafy tunnel of an ancient wood, along which the +children saw the great elk trotting leisurely with his cows behind him, +flattening his antlers over his back out of the way of the low-branching +maples. The switching of the brush against the elk's dun sides startled +the little black bear, who was still riffling his bee tree. The children +watched him rise inquiringly to his haunches before he scrambled down +the trail out of sight. + +"Lots of those fellows about in my day," said the Mound-Builder. "We +used to go for them in the fall when they grew fat on the dropping nuts +and acorns. Elk, too. I remember a ten-pronged buck that I shot one +winter on the Elk's-Eye River..." + +"The Muskingum!" exclaimed an Iroquois, who had listened in silence to +the puma's story. "Did you call it that too? Elk's-Eye! Clear brown and +smooth-flowing. That's the Scioto Trail, isn't it?" he asked of the +Mound-Builder. + +"You could call it that. There was a cut-off at Beaver Dam to Flint +Ridge and the crossing of the Muskingum, and another that led to the +mouth of the Kanawha where it meets the River of White-Flashing." + +"He means the Ohio," explained the Iroquois to the children. "At flood +the whole surface of the river would run to white riffles like the flash +of a water-bird's wings. But the French called it La Belle Riviere. I'm +an Onondaga myself," he added, "and in my time the Five Nations held all +the territory, after we had driven out the Talle-gewi, between the Lakes +and the O-hey-yo." He stretched the word out, giving it a little +different turn. "Indians' names talk little," he laughed, "but they +say much." + +"Like the trails," agreed the Mound-Builder, who was one of the +Tallegewi himself, "every word is the expression of a need. We had a +trade route over this one for copper which we fetched from the Land of +the Sky-Blue Water and exchanged for sea-shells out of the south. At the +mouth of the Scioto it connected with the Kaskaskia Trace to the +Missi-Sippu, where we went once a year to shoot buffaloes on +the plains." + +"When the Five Nations possessed the country, the buffaloes came to us," +said the Onondaga. + +"Then the Long Knives came on the sea in the East and there was neither +buffaloes nor Mengwe," answered the Mound-Builder, who did not like +these interruptions. He went on describing the Kaskaskia Trail. "It led +along the highlands around the upper waters of the Miami and the drowned +lands of the Wabash. It was a wonderful trip in the month of the Moon +Halting, when there was a sound of dropping nuts and the woods were all +one red and yellow rain. But in summer...I should know," said the +Mound-Builder; "I carried a pipe as far as Little Miami once..." + +He broke off as though the recollection was not altogether a happy one +and began to walk away from the wood, along the trail, which broadened +quickly to a graded way, and led up the slope of a high green mound. + +The children followed him without a word. They understood that they had +come to the place in the Story of the Trails, which is known in the +schoolbooks as "History." From the top of the mound they could see +strange shapes of earthworks stretching between them and the shore of +Erie. Lakeward the sand and the standing grass was the pale color of the +moon that floated above it in the midday sky. Between them the blue of +the lake melted into the blue horizon; the turf over the mounds was +thick and wilted. + +"I suppose I must remember it like this," said the Tallega, "because +this is the way I saw it when I came back, an old man, after the fall of +Cahokia. But when this mound was built there were towns here, busy and +crowded. The forest came close up on one side, and along the lake front, +field touched field for a day's journey. My town was the middle one of +three of the Eagle Clan. Our Town House stood here, on the top of this +mound, and on that other, the tallest, stood the god-house, with the +Sacred Fire, and the four old men watchers to keep it burning." + +"I thought," said Oliver, trying to remember what he had read about it, +"that the mounds were for burials. People dig into them, you know." + +"They might think that," agreed the Tallega, "if all they know comes +from what they find by digging. They were for every purpose that +buildings are used for, but we always thought it a good omen if we could +start a Town Mound with the bones of some one we had loved and +respected. First, we laid a circle of stones and an altar with a burnt +offering, then the bones of the chief, or some of our heroes who were +killed in battle. Then the women brought earth in baskets. And if a +chief had served us well, we sometimes buried him on top and raised the +mound higher over him, and the mound would be known by his name until +another chief arose who surpassed him. + +"Then there were earthworks for forts and signal stations. You'll find +those on the high places overlooking the principal trails; there were +always heaps of wood piled up for smoke signals. The circles were for +meeting-places and for games." + +"What sort of games?" demanded Oliver. + +"Ball-play and races; all that sort of thing. There was a game we played +with racquets between goals. Village played against village. The people +would sit on the earthworks and clap and shout when the game pleased +them, and gambled everything they had on their home-town players. + +"I suppose," he added, looking around on the green tumuli, "I remember +it like this, because when I lived here I was so full of what was going +on that I had no time for noticing how it looked to me." + +"What did go on?" both the children wished immediately to know. + +"Something different every time the moon changed. Ice-fishing, +corn-husking. We did everything together; that was what made it so +interesting. The men let us go to the fur traps to carry home the pelts, +and we hung up the birch-bark buckets for our mothers at the +sugar-boiling. Maple sugar, you know. Then we would persuade them to +ladle out a little of the boiling sap into plates that we patted out of +the snow, which could always be found lingering in the hollows, at +sugar-makings. When it was still waxy and warm, we rolled up the cooled +syrup and ate it out of hand. + +"In summer whole families would go to the bottom lands paw-paw +gathering. Winter nights there was story-telling in the huts. We had a +kind of corn, very small, that burst out white like a flower when it was +parched..." + +"Pop-corn!" cried both the children at once. It seemed strange that +anything they liked so much should have belonged to the Mound-Builders. + +"Why, that was what _we_ called it!" he agreed, smiling. "Our mothers +used to stir it in the pot with pounded hickory nuts and bears' grease. +Good eating! And the trading trips! Some of our men used to go as far as +Little River for chert which they liked better for arrow-points than our +own flints, being less brittle and more easily worked. That was a canoe +trip, down the Scioto, down the O-hey-yo, up the Little Tenasa as far as +Little River. There was adventure enough to please everybody. + +"That bird-shaped mound," he pointed, "was built the time we won the +Eagle-Dancing against all the other villages." + +The Mound-Builder drew out from under his feather robe a gorget of pearl +shell, beautifully engraved with the figure of a young man dancing in an +eagle-beaked mask, with eagles' wings fastened to his shoulders. + +"Most of the effigy mounds," he said, taking the gorget from his neck to +let the children examine it, "were built that way to celebrate a treaty +or a victory. Sometimes," he added, after a pause, looking off across +the wide flat mounds between the two taller ones, "they were built like +these, to celebrate a defeat. It was there we buried the Tallegewi who +fell in our first battle with the Lenni-Lenape." + +"Were they Mound-Builders, too?" the children asked respectfully, for +though the man's voice was sad, it was not as though he spoke of +an enemy. + +"People of the North," he said, "hunting-people, good foes and good +fighters. But afterward, they joined with the Mengwe and drove us from +the country. _That_ was a Mingo,"--he pointed to the Iroquois who had +called himself an Onondaga, disappearing down the forest tunnel. They +saw him a moment, with arrow laid to bow, the sunlight making tawny +splotches on his dark body, as on the trunk of a pine tree, and then +they lost him. + +"We were planters and builders," said the Tallega, "and they were +fighters, so they took our lands from us. But look, now, how time +changes all. Of the Lenni-Lenape and the Mengwe there is only a name, +and the mounds are still standing." + +"You said," Oliver hinted, "that you carried a pipe once. Was +that--anything particular?" + +"It might be peace or war," said the Mound-Builder. "In my case it was +an order for Council, from which war came, bloody and terrible. A +Pipe-Bearer's life was always safe where he was recognized, though when +there is war one is very likely to let fly an arrow at anything moving +in the trails. That reminds me..." The Tallega put back his feathered +robe carefully as he leaned upon his elbow, and the children snuggled +into a little depression at the top of the mound where the fire-hole had +been, to listen. + +"There was a boy in our town," he began, "who was the captain of all our +plays from the time we first stole melons and roasting-ears from the +town gardens. He got us into no end of trouble, but no matter what came +of it, we always stood up for him before the elders. There was nothing +_they_ could say which seemed half so important to us as praise or blame +from Ongyatasse. I don't know why, unless it was because he could +out-run and out-wrestle the best of us; and yet he was never pleased +with himself unless the rest of us were satisfied to have it that way. + +"Ongyatasse was what his mother called him. It means something very +pretty about the colored light of evening, but the name that he earned +for himself, when he was old enough to be Name-Seeking, was +Young-Man-Who-Never-Turns-Back. + +"He was the arrow laid to the bow, and he could no more take himself +back from the adventure he had begun than the shaft can come back to the +bowstring. + +"Before we were old enough to go up to the god-house and hear the sacred +Tellings, he had half the boys in our village bound to him in an +unbreakable vow never to turn back from anything we had started. It got +us into a great many difficulties, some of which were ridiculous, but it +had its advantages. The time we chased a young elk we had raised, across +the squash and bean vines of Three Towns, we escaped punishment on the +ground of our vow. Any Tallega parent would think a long time before he +expected his son to break a promise." + +Oliver kept to the main point of interest. "Did you get the elk?" + +"_Of course_. You see we were never allowed to carry a man's hunting +outfit until we had run down some big game, and brought it in alive to +prove ourselves proper sportsmen. So partly for that and partly because +Ongyatasse always knew the right words to say to everybody, we were +forgiven the damage to the gardens. + +"That was the year the Lenni-Lenape came to the Grand Council, which was +held here at Sandusky, asking permission to cross our territory toward +the Sea on the East. They came out of Shinaki, the Fir-Land, as far as +Namae-Sippu, and stood crowded between the lakes north of the river. For +the last year or two, hunting-parties of theirs had been warned back +from trespass, but this was the first time we youngsters had seen +anything of them. + +"They were fine-looking fellows, fierce, and tall appearing, with their +hair cropped up about their ears, and a long hanging scalp-lock tied +with eagle feathers. At the same time they seemed savage to us, for they +wore no clothing but twisty skins about their middles, ankle-cut +moccasins, and the Peace Mark on their foreheads. + +"Because of the Mark they bore no weapons but the short hunting-bow and +wolfskin quivers, with the tails hanging down, and painted breastbands. +They were chiefs, by their way of walking, and one of them had brought +his son with him. He was about Ongyatasse's age, as handsome as a young +fir. Probably he had a name in his own tongue, but we called him White +Quiver. Few of us had won ours yet, and his was man's size, of white +deerskin and colored quill-work. + +"Our mothers, to keep us out of the way of the Big Eating which they +made ready for the visiting chiefs, had given us some strips of venison. +We were toasting them at a fire we had made close to a creek, to stay +our appetites. My father, who was Keeper of the Smoke for that +occasion,--I was immensely proud of him,--saw the Lenape boy watching us +out of the tail of his eye, and motioned to me with his hand that I +should make him welcome. My father spoke with his hand so that White +Quiver should understand--" The Mound-Builder made with his own thumb +and forefinger the round sign of the Sun Father, and then the upturned +palm to signify that all things should be as between brothers. "I was +perfectly willing to do as my father said, for, except Ongyatasse, I had +never seen any one who pleased me so much as the young stranger. But +either because he thought the invitation should have come from himself +as the leader of the band, or because he was a little jealous of our +interest in White Quiver, Ongyatasse tossed me a word over his shoulder, +'We play with no crop-heads.' + +"That was not a true word, for the Lenni-Lenape do not crop the head +until they go on the war-path, and White Quiver's hair lay along his +shoulders, well oiled, with bright bits of shell tied in it, glittering +as he walked. Also it is the rule of the Tellings that one must feed the +stranger. But me, I was never a Name-Seeker. I was happy to stand fourth +from Ongyatasse in the order of our running. For the rest, my brothers +used to say that I was the tail and Ongyatasse wagged me. + +"Whether he had heard the words or not, the young Lenape saw me stutter +in my invitation. There might have been a quiver in his face,--at my +father's gesture he had turned toward me,--but there was none in his +walking. He came straight on toward our fire and _through_ it. Three +strides beyond it he drank at the creek as though that had been his only +object, and back through the fire to his father. I could see red marks +on his ankles where the fire had bitten him, but he never so much as +looked at them, nor at us any more than if we had been trail-grass. He +stood at his father's side and the drums were beginning. Around the +great mound came the Grand Council with their feather robes and the tall +headdresses, up the graded way to the Town House, as though all the gay +weeds in Big Meadow were walking. It was the great spectacle of the +year, but it was spoiled for all our young band by the sight of a slim +youth shaking off our fire, as if it had been dew, from his +reddened ankles. + +"You see," said the Mound-Builder, "it was much worse for us because we +admired him immensely, and Ongyatasse, who liked nothing better than +being kind to people, couldn't help seeing that he could have made a +much better point for himself by doing the honors of the village to this +chief's son, instead of their both going around with their chins in the +air pretending not to see one another. + +"The Lenni-Lenape won the permission they had come to ask for, to pass +through the territory of the Tallegewi, under conditions that were made +by Well-Praised, our war-chief; a fat man, a wonderful orator, who never +took a straight course where he could find a cunning one. What those +conditions were you shall hear presently. At the time, we boys were +scarcely interested. That very summer we began to meet small parties of +strangers drifting through the woods, as silent and as much at home in +them as foxes. But the year had come around to the Moon of Sap Beginning +before we met White Quiver again. + +"A warm spell had rotted the ice on the rivers, followed by two or three +days of sharp cold and a tracking snow. We had been out with Ongyatasse +to look at our traps, and then the skin-smooth surface of the river +beguiled us. + +"We came racing home close under the high west bank where the ice was +thickest, but as we neared Bent Bar, Young-Man-Who-Never-Turns-Back +turned toward the trail that cut down to the ford between the points of +Hanging Wood. The ice must have rotted more than we guessed, for halfway +across, Ongyatasse dropped through it like a pebble into a pot-hole. +Next to him was Tiakens, grandson of Well-Praised, and between me and +Tiakens a new boy from Painted Turtle. I heard the splash and shout of +Tiakens following Ongyatasse,--of course, he said afterward that he +would have gone to the bottom with him rather than turn back, but I +doubt if he could have stopped himself,--and the next thing I knew the +Painted Turtle boy was hitting me in the nose for stopping him, and +Kills Quickly, who had not seen what was happening, had crashed into us +from behind. We lay all sprawled in a heap while the others hugged the +banks, afraid to add their weight to the creaking ice, and Ongyatasse +was beating about in the rotten sludge, trying to find a place firm +enough to climb out on. + +"We had seen both boys disappear for an instant as the ice gave under +them, but even when we saw them come to the surface, with Ongyatasse +holding Tiakens by the hair, we hardly grasped what had happened. The +edge of the ice-cake had taken Tiakens under the chin and he was +unconscious. If Ongyatasse had let go of him he would have been carried +under the ice by the current, and that would have been the last any one +would have seen of him until the spring thaw. But as fast as Ongyatasse +tried to drag their double weight onto the ice, it broke, and before the +rest of us had thought of anything to do the cold would have cramped +him. I saw Ongyatasse stuffing Tiakens's hair into his mouth so as to +leave both his hands free, and then there was a running gasp of +astonishment from the rest of the band, as a slim figure shot out of +Dark Woods, skimming and circling like a swallow. We had heard of the +snowshoes of the Lenni-Lenape, but this was the first time we had seen +them. For a moment we were so taken up with the wonder of his darting +pace, that it was not until we saw him reaching his long shoeing-pole to +Ongyatasse across the ice, that we realized what he was doing. He had +circled about until he had found ice that held, and kicking off his +snowshoes, he stretched himself flat on it. I knew enough to catch him +by the ankles--even then I couldn't help wondering if the scar was still +there, for we knew instantly who he was--and somebody caught my feet, +spreading our weight as much as possible. Over the bridge we made, +Ongyatasse and Tiakens, who had come to himself by this time, crawled +out on firm ice. In a very few minutes we had stripped them of their wet +clothing and were rubbing the cramp out of their legs. + +"Ongyatasse, dripping as he was, pushed us aside and went over to White +Quiver, who was stooping over, fastening his snowshoes. It seemed to +give him a great deal of trouble, but at last he raised his head. + +"'This day I take my life at your hands,' said Ongyatasse. + +"'Does Young-Man-Who-Never-Turns-Back take so much from a Crop-Head?' +said the Lenni-Lenape in good Tallegewi, which shows how much they knew +of us already and how they began to hate us. + +"But when he was touched, Ongyatasse had no equal for highness. + +"'Along with my life I would take friendship too, if it were offered,' +he said, and smiled, shivering as he was, in a way we knew so well who +had never resisted it. We could see the smile working on White Quiver +like a spell. Ongyatasse put an arm over the Lenape's shoulders. + +"'Where the life is, the heart is also,' he said, 'and if the feet of +Ongyatasse do not turn back from the trail they have taken, neither does +his heart.' From his neck he slipped off his amulet of white deer's horn +which brought him his luck in hunting, and threw it around the +other's neck. + +"'Ongyatasse, you have given away your luck!' cried Tiakens, whose head +was a little light with the blow the ice-cake had given him. + +"'Both the luck and the life of Young-Man-Who-Never-Turns-Back are safe +in the hands of a Lenni-Lenape,' said White Quiver, as high as one of +his own fir trees, but he loosed a little smile at the corner of his +mouth as he turned to Tiakens, chattering like a squirrel. 'Unless you +find a fire soon, Young-Man-Who-Never-Turns-Back will have need of +another friend,' he said; and picking up his shoeing-pole, he was off in +the wood again like a weasel darting to cover. We heard the swish of the +boughs, heavy with new snow, and then silence. + +"But if we had not been able to forget him after the first meeting, you +can guess how often we talked of him in the little time that was left +us. It was not long. Tiakens nearly died of the chill he got, and the +elders were stirred up at last to break up our band before it led to +more serious folly. Ongyatasse was hurried off with a hunting-party to +Maumee, and I was sent to my mother's brother at Flint Ridge to learn +stone-working. + +"Not that I objected," said the Tallega. "I have the arrow-maker's +hand." He showed the children his thumb set close to the wrist, the long +fingers and the deep-cupped palm with the callus running down the +middle. "All my family were clever craftsmen," said the Tallega. "You +could tell my uncle's points anywhere you found them by the fine, even +flaking, and my mother was the best feather-worker in Three Towns,"--he +ran his hands under the folds of his mantle and held it out for the +children to admire the pattern. "Uncle gave me this banner stone as the +wage of my summer's work with him, and I thought myself overpaid at +the time." + +"But what did you do?" asked both children at once. + +"Everything, from knocking out the crude flakes with a stone hammer to +shaping points with a fire-hardened tip of deer's horn. The ridge was +miles long and free to any one who chose to work it, but most people +preferred to buy the finished points and blades. There was a good trade, +too, in turtle-backs." The Tallega poked about in the loose earth at the +top of the mound and brought up a round, flattish flint about the size +of a man's hand, that showed disk-shaped flakings arranged like the +marking of a turtle-shell. "They were kept workable by being buried in +the earth, and made into knives or razors or whatever was needed," he +explained. + +"That summer we had a tremendous trade in broad arrow-points, such as +are used for war or big game. We sold to all the towns along the north +from Maumee to the headwaters of the Susquehanna, and we sold to the +Lenni-Lenape. They would appear suddenly on the trails with bundles of +furs or copper, of which they had a great quantity, and when they were +satisfied with what was offered for it, they would melt into the woods +again like quail. My uncle used to ask me a great many questions about +them which I remembered afterward. But at the time--you see there was a +girl, the daughter of my uncle's partner. She was all dusky red like the +tall lilies at Big Meadow, and when she ran in the village races with +her long hair streaming, they called her Flying Star. + +"She used to bring our food to us when we opened up a new working, a +wolf's cry from the old,--sizzling hot deer meat and piles of boiled +corn on bark platters, and meal cakes dipped in maple syrup. I stayed on +till the time of tall weeds as my father had ordered, and then for a +while longer for the new working, which interested me tremendously. +First we brought hickory wood and built a fire on the exposed surface of +the ridge. Then we splintered the hot stone by throwing water on it, and +dug out the splinters. In two or three days we had worked clean through +the ledge of flint to the limestone underneath. This we also burnt with +fire, after we had protected the fresh flint by plastering it with clay. +When we had cleared a good piece of the ledge, we could hammer it off +with the stone sledges and break it up small for working. It was as good +sport to me as moose-hunting or battle. + +"We had worked a man's length under the ledge, and one day I looked up +with the sun in my eyes, as it reddened toward the west, and saw +Ongyatasse standing under a hickory tree. He was dressed for running, +and around his mouth and on both his cheeks was the white Peace Mark. I +made the proper sign to him as to one carrying orders. + +"'You are to come with me,' he said. 'We carry a pipe to Miami.'" + +[Illustration] + + + + +IX + +HOW THE LENNI-LENAPE CAME FROM SHINAKI AND THE TALLEGEWI FOUGHT THEM: +THE SECOND PART OF THE MOUND-BUILDER'S STORY + + +"Two things I thought as I looked at Never-Turns-Back, black against the +sun. First, that it could be no very great errand that he ran upon, or +they would never have trusted it to a youth without honors; and next, +that affairs at Three Towns must be serious, indeed, if they could spare +no older man for pipe-carrying. A third came to me in the night as I +considered how little agreement there was between these two, which was +that there must be more behind this sending than a plain call +to Council. + +"Ongyatasse told me all he knew as we lay up the next night at Pigeon +Roost. There had not been time earlier, for he had hurried off to carry +his pipe to the village of Flint Ridge as soon as he had called me, and +we had padded out on the Scioto Cut-off at daybreak. + +"What he said went back to the conditions that were made by Well-Praised +for the passing of the Lenni-Lenape through our territory. They were to +go in small parties, not more than twenty fighting men to any one of +them. They were to change none of our landmarks, enter none of our towns +without permission from the Town Council, and to keep between the lake +and the great bend of the river, which the Lenni-Lenape called +Allegheny, but was known to us as the River of the Tallegewi. + +"Thus they had begun to come, few at first, like the trickle of melting +ice in the moon of the Sun Returning, and at the last, like grasshoppers +in the standing corn. They fished out our rivers and swept up the game +like fire in the forest. Three Towns sent scouts toward Fish River who +reported that the Lenape swarmed in the Dark Wood, that they came on +from Shinaki thick as their own firs. Then the Three Towns took council +and sent a pipe to the Eagle villages, to the Wolverines and the Painted +Turtles. These three kept the country of the Tallegewi on the north from +Maumee to the headwaters of the Allegheny, and Well-Praised was their +war leader. + +"Still," said the Mound-Builder, "except that he was the swiftest +runner, I couldn't understand why they had chosen an untried youth for +pipe-carrying." + +He felt in a pouch of kit fox with the tail attached, which hung from +the front of his girdle like the sporran of a Scotch Highlander. Out of +it he drew a roll of birch bark painted with juice of poke-berries. The +Tallega spread it on the grass, weighting one end with the turtle-back, +as he read, with the children looking over his shoulder. + +[Illustration: Well-Praised, war-chief of the Eagle Clan to the Painted +Turtles;--Greeting.] + +[Illustration: Come to the Council House at Three Towns.] + +[Illustration: On the fifth day of the Moon Halting.] + +[Illustration: We meet as Brothers.] + +"An easy scroll to read," said the Tallega, as the released edges of the +birch-bark roll clipped together. "But there was more to it than that. +There was an arrow play; also a question that had to be answered in a +certain way. Ongyatasse did not tell me what they were, but I learned at +the first village where we stopped. + +"This is the custom of pipe-carrying. When we approached a settlement we +would show ourselves to the women working in the fields or to children +playing, anybody who would go and carry word to the Head Man that the +Pipe was coming. It was in order to be easily recognized that Ongyatasse +wore the Peace Mark." + +The Mound-Builder felt in his pouch for a lump of chalky white clay with +which he drew a wide mark around his mouth, and two cheek-marks like a +parenthesis. It would have been plain as far as one could see him. + +"That was so the villages would know that one came with Peace words in +his mouth, and make up their minds quickly whether they wanted to speak +with him. Sometimes when there was quarreling between the clans they +would not receive a messenger. But even in war-times a man's life was +safe as long as he wore the White Mark." + +"Ours is a white flag," said Oliver. + +The Mound-Builder nodded. + +"All civilized peoples have much the same customs," he agreed, "but the +Lenni-Lenape were savages. + +"We lay that night at Pigeon Roost in the Scioto Bottoms with wild +pigeons above us thick as blackberries on the vines. They woke us going +out at dawn like thunder, and at mid-morning they still darkened the +sun. We cut into the Kaskaskia Trail by a hunting-trace my uncle had +told us of, and by the middle of the second day we had made the first +Eagle village. When we were sure we had been seen, we sat down and +waited until the women came bringing food. Then the Head Man came in +full dress and smoked with us." + +Out of his pouch the Tallega drew the eagle-shaped ceremonial pipe of +red pipestone, and when he had fitted it to the feathered stem, blew a +salutatory whiff of smoke to the Great Spirit. + +"Thus we did, and later in the Council House there were ceremonies and +exchange of messages. It was there, when all seemed finished, that I saw +the arrow play and heard the question. + +"Ongyatasse drew an arrow from his quiver and scraped it. There was +dried blood on the point, which makes an arrow untrue to its aim, but it +was no business for a youth to be cleaning his arrows before the elders +of the Town House; therefore, I took notice that this was the meat of +his message. Ongyatasse scraped and the Head Man watched him. + +"'There are many horned heads in the forest this season,' he said at +last. + +"'Very many,' said Ongyatasse; 'they come into the fields and eat up the +harvest.' + +"'In that case,' said the Head Man, 'what should a man do?' + +"'What can he do but let fly at them with a broad arrow?' said +Ongyatasse, putting up his own arrow, as a man puts up his work when it +is finished. + +"But as the arrow was not clean, and as the Lenni-Lenape had shot all +the deer, if I had not known that Well-Praised had devised both question +and answer, it would have seemed all foolishness. There had been no +General Council since the one at which the treaty of passage was made +with the Lenni-Lenape; therefore I knew that the War-Chief had planned +this sending of dark messages in advance, messages which no +Young-Man-Who-Never-Turns-Back had any right to understand. + +"'But why the Painted Scroll?' I said to Ongyatasse; for if, as I +supposed, the real message was in the question and answer, I could not +see why there should still be a Council called. + +"'The scroll,' said my friend, 'is for those who are meant to be fooled +by it.' + +"'But who should be fooled?' + +"'Whoever should stop us on the trail.' + +"'My thoughts do not move so fast as my feet, O my friend,' said I. 'Who +would stop a pipe-carrier of the Tallegewi?" "'What if it should be the +Horned Heads?' said Ongyatasse. + +"That was a name we had given the Lenni-Lenape on account of the +feathers they tied to the top of their hair, straight up like horns +sprouting. Of course, they could have had no possible excuse for +stopping us, being at peace, but I began to put this together with +things Ongyatasse had told me, particularly the reason why no older man +than he could be spared from Three Towns. He said the men were +rebuilding the stockade and getting in the harvest. + +"The middle one of Three Towns was walled, a circling wall of earth half +man high, and on top of that, a stockade of planted posts and wattles. +It was the custom in war-times to bring the women and the corn into the +walled towns from the open villages. But there had been peace so long in +Tallega that our stockade was in great need of rebuilding, and so were +the corn bins. Well-Praised was expecting trouble with the Lenni-Lenape, +I concluded; but I did not take it very seriously. The Moon of Stopped +Waters was still young in the sky, and the fifth day of the Moon Halting +seemed very far away to me. + +"We were eleven days in all carrying the Pipe to the Miami villages, and +though they fed us well at the towns where we stopped, we were as thin +as snipe at the end of it. It was our first important running, you see, +and we wished to make a record. We followed the main trails which +followed the watersheds. Between these, we plunged down close-leaved, +sweating tunnels of underbrush, through tormenting clouds of flies. In +the bottoms the slither of our moccasins in the black mud would wake +clumps of water snakes, big as a man's head, that knotted themselves +together in the sun. There is a certain herb which snakes do not love +which we rubbed on our ankles, but we could hear them rustle and hiss as +we ran, and the hot air was all a-click and a-glitter with insects' +wings; ... also there were trumpet flowers, dusky-throated, that made me +think of my girl at Flint Ridge... Then we would come out on long ridges +where oak and hickory shouldered one another like the round-backed +billows of the lake after the storm. We made our record. And for all +that we were not so pressed nor so overcome with the dignity of our +errand that we could not spare one afternoon to climb up to the +Wabashiki Beacon. It lies on the watershed between the headwaters of the +Maumee and the Wabash, a cone-shaped mound and a circling wall within +which there was always wood piled for the beacon light, the Great Gleam, +the Wabashiki, which could be seen the country round for a two days' +journey. The Light-Keeper was very pleased with our company and told us +old tales half the night long, about how the Beacon had been built and +how it was taken by turns by the Round Heads and the Painted Turtles. He +asked us also if we had seen anything of a party of Lenni-Lenape which +he had noted the day before, crossing the bottoms about an hour after he +had sighted us. He thought they must have gone around by Crow Creek, +avoiding the village, and that we should probably come up with them the +next morning, which proved to be the case. + +"They rose upon us suddenly as we dropped down to the east fork of the +Maumee, and asked us rudely where we were going. They had no right, of +course, but they were our elders, to whom it is necessary to be +respectful, and they were rather terrifying, with their great bows, tall +as they were, stark naked except for a strip of deerskin, and their +feathers on end like the quills of an angry porcupine. We had no weapons +ourselves, except short hunting-bows,--one does not travel with peace on +his mouth and a war weapon at his back,--so we answered truly, and +Ongyatasse read the scroll to them, which I thought unnecessary. + +"'Now, I think,' said my friend, when the Lenape had left us with some +question about a hunting-party, which they had evidently invented to +excuse their rudeness, 'that it was for such as these that the scroll +was written.' But we could not understand why Well-Praised should have +gone to all that trouble to let the Lenni-Lenape know that he had called +a Council. + +"When we had smoked our last pipe, we were still two or three days from +Three Towns, and we decided to try for a cut-off by a hunting-trail +which Ongyatasse had been over once, years ago, with his father. These +hunting-traces go everywhere through the Tallegewi Country. You can tell +them by the way they fork from the main trails and, after a day or two, +thin into nothing. We traveled well into the night from the place that +Ongyatasse remembered, so as to steer by the stars, and awoke to the +pleasant pricking of adventure. But we had gone half the morning before +we began to be sure that we were followed. + +"Jays that squawked and fell silent as we passed, called the alarm again +a few minutes later. A porcupine which we saw, asleep upon a log, woke +up and came running from behind us. We thought of the Lenni-Lenape. +Where a bare surface of rock across our path made it possible to turn +out without leaving a track, we stole back a few paces and waited. +Presently we made out, through the thick leaves, a youth, about our age +we supposed, for his head was not cropped and he was about the height of +Ongyatasse. When we had satisfied ourselves that he was alone, we took +pleasure in puzzling him. As soon as he missed our tracks in the trail, +he knew that he was discovered and played quarry to our fox very +craftily. For an hour or two we stalked one another between the buckeye +boles, and then I stepped on a rotten log which crumbled and threw me +noisily. The Lenape let fly an arrow in our direction. We were nearing a +crest of a ridge where the underbrush thinned out, and as soon as we had +a glimpse of his naked legs slipping from tree to tree, Ongyatasse made +a dash for him. We raced like deer through the still woods, Ongyatasse +gaining on the flying figure, and I about four laps behind him. A low +branch swished blindingly across my eyes for a moment, and when I could +look again, the woods were suddenly still and empty. + +"I dropped instantly, for I did not know what this might mean, and +creeping cautiously to the spot where I had last seen them, I saw the +earth opening in a sharp, deep ravine, at the bottom of which lay +Ongyatasse with one leg crumpled under him. I guessed that the Lenape +must have led him to the edge and then slipped aside just in time to let +the force of Ongyatasse's running carry him over. Without waiting to +plan, I began to climb down the steep side of the ravine. About halfway +down I was startled by a rustling below, and, creeping along the bottom +of the bluff, I saw the Lenni-Lenape with his knife between his teeth, +within an arm's length of my friend. I cried out, and in a foolish +effort to save him, I must have let go of the ledge to which I clung. +The next thing I knew I was lying half-stunned, with a great many pains +in different parts of me, at the bottom of the ravine, almost within +touch of Ongyatasse and a young Lenape with an amulet of white deer's +horn about his neck and, across his back, what had once been a white +quiver. He was pouring water from a birch-bark cup upon my friend, and +as soon as he saw that my eyes were opened he came and offered me a +drink. There did not seem to be anything to say, so we said nothing, but +presently, when I could sit up, he washed the cut on the back of my +head, and then he showed me that Ongyatasse's knee was out of place, and +said that we ought to pull it back before he came to himself. + +"I crawled over--I had saved myself by falling squarely on top of White +Quiver so that nothing worse happened to me than sore ribs and a finger +broken--and took my friend around the body while our enemy pulled the +knee, and Ongyatasse groaned aloud and came back. Then White Quiver tied +up my finger in a splint of bark, and we endured our pains and +said nothing. + +"We were both prisoners of the Lenape. So we considered ourselves; we +waited to see what he would do about it. Toward evening he went off for +an hour and returned with a deer which he dressed very skillfully and +gave us to eat. Then, of the wet hide, he made a bandage for +Ongyatasse's knee, which shrunk as it dried and kept down the swelling. + +"'Now I shall owe you my name as well as my life,' said Ongyatasse, for +if his knee had not been properly attended, that would have been the end +of his running. + +"'Then your new name would be Well-Friended,' said the Lenape, and he +made a very good story of how I had come tumbling down on both of them. +We laughed, but Ongyatasse had another question. + +"'There was peace on my mouth and peace between Lenni-Lenape and +Tallegewi. Why should you chase us?' + +"'The Tallegewi send a Pipe to the Three Clans. Will you swear that the +message that went with it had nothing to do with the Lenni-Lenape?' + +"'What should two boys know of a call to Council?' said Ongyatasse, and +showed him the birch-bark scroll, to which White Quiver paid no +attention. + +"'There is peace between us, and a treaty, the terms of which were made +by the Tallegewi, all of which we have kept. We have entered no town +without invitation. When one of our young men stole a maiden of yours we +returned her to her village.' He went on telling many things, new to us, +of the highness of the Lenni-Lenape. 'All this was agreed at the Three +Towns by Cool Waters,' said he. 'Now comes a new order. We may not enter +the towns at all. The treaty was for camping privileges in any one place +for the space of one moon. Now, if we are three days in one place, we +are told that we must move on. The Lenni-Lenape are not Two-Talkers. If +we wear peace on our mouths we wear it in our hearts also.' + +"'There is peace between your people and mine, and among the Tallegewi, +peace.' + +"'So,' said White Quiver. 'Then why do they rebuild their stockades and +fetch arrow-stone from far quarries? And why do they call a Council in +the Moon of the Harvest?' + +"I remembered the good trade my uncle, the arrow-maker, had had that +summer, and was amazed at his knowledge of it, so I answered as I had +been taught. 'If I were a Lenape,' said I, 'and thought that the +Councils of the Tallegewi threatened my people, I would know what those +Councils were if I made myself a worm in the roof-tree to overhear it.' + +"'Aye,' he said, 'but you are only a Tallega.' + +"He was like that with us, proud and humble by turns. Though he was a +naked savage, traveling through our land on sufferance, he could make us +crawl in our hearts for the Tallegewi. He suspected us of much evil, +most of which was true as it turned out; yet all the time we lay at the +bottom of the ravine, for the most part helpless, he killed every day +for us, and gathered dry grass to make a bed for Ongyatasse. + +"We talked no more of the Council or of our errand, but as youths will, +we talked of highness, and of big game in Shinaki, and of the ways of +the Tallegewi, of which for the most part he was scornful. + +"Corn he allowed us as a great advantage, but of our towns he doubted +whether they did not make us fat and Two-Talkers. + +"'Town is a trade-maker,' he said; 'men who trade much for things, will +also trade for honor.' + +"'The Lenni-Lenape carry their honor in their hands,' said Ongyatasse, +'but the Tallegewi carry theirs in their forehead.' + +"He meant," said the Mound-Builder, turning to the children, "that the +Lenni-Lenape fought for what they held most dear, and the Tallegewi +schemed and plotted for it. That was as we were taught. With us, the +hand is not lifted until the head has spoken. But as it turned out, +between Tallegewi and Lenape, the fighters had the best of it." + +He sighed, making the salutation to the dead as he looked off, across +the burial-grounds, to the crumbling heap of the god-house. + +"But I don't understand," said Dorcas; "were Ongyatasse and White Quiver +friends or enemies?" + +"They were two foes who loved one another, and though their tribes fell +into long and bloody war, between these two there was highness and, at +the end, most wonderful kindness. The first time that we got Ongyatasse +to his feet and he found that his knee, though feeble, was as good as +ever, he said to White Quiver, leaning on his shoulder,-- + +"'Concerning the call to Council, there was more to it than was written +on the scroll, the meaning of which was hidden from me who carried it.' + +"'Which is no news to me,' said the Lenni-Lenape; 'also,' he said, 'the +message was arranged beforehand, for it required no answer.' + +"I asked him how he knew that, and he mocked at me. + +"'Any time these five days you could have gone forward with the answer +had it been important for you to get back to Cool Waters!' + +"That was true. I could have left Ongyatasse and gone on alone, but +nothing that had happened so far had made us think that we must get back +quickly. White Quiver asked us one day what reason Well-Praised had +given for requiring that the Lenni-Lenape should pass through the +country with not more than twenty fighting men in the party. To save the +game, we told him, which seemed to us reasonable; though I think from +that hour we began to feel that the Tallegewi, with all their walled +towns and monuments, had been put somehow in the wrong by the wild +tribes of Shinaki. + +"We stayed on in the ravine, waiting on Ongyatasse's knee, until we saw +the new rim of the Halting Moon curled up like a feather. The leaves of +the buckeye turned clear yellow and the first flock of wild geese went +over. We waited one more day for White Quiver to show us a short cut to +the Maumee Trail, and just when we had given him up, we were aware of a +strange Lenape in warpaint moving among the shadows. He stood off from +us with his arms folded and his face was as bleak as a winter-bitten wood. + +"'Wash the lie from your mouth,' he said, 'and follow.' + +"Without a word he turned and began to move from us through the smoky +light with which the wood was filling. His head was cropped for +war--that was why we did not know him--and along the shoulder he turned +toward us was the long scrape of a spear-point. That was why we +followed, saying nothing. Toward daylight the lame knee began to give +trouble. White Quiver came back and put his shoulder under Ongyatasse's, +so we moved forward, wordlessly. Birds awoke in the woods, and hoarfrost +lay white on the crisped grasses. + +"On a headland from which the lake glinted white as a blade of flint on +the horizon, we waited the sunrise. Smoke arose, from Wabashiki, from +the direction of the Maumee settlements, from the lake shore towns; tall +plumes of smoke shook and threatened. Curtly, while we ate, White Quiver +told us what had happened; how the Tallegewi, in violation of the +treaty, had fallen suddenly on scattered bands of the Lenni-Lenape and +all but exterminated them. The Tallegewi said that it was because they +had discovered that the Lenni-Lenape had plotted to fall upon our towns, +as soon as the corn was harvested, and take them. But White Quiver +thought that the whole thing was a plan of Well-Praised from the +beginning. He had been afraid to refuse passage to the Lenape, on +account of their great numbers, and had arranged to have them broken up +in small parties so that they could be dealt with separately." + +"And which was it?" Oliver wished to know. + +"It was a thousand years ago," said the Mound-Builder. "Who remembers? +But we were ashamed, my friend and I, for we understood now that the +secret meaning of our message about the Horned Heads had been that the +Tallegewi should fall upon the Lenape wherever they found them. You +remember that it was part of the question and answer that they 'came +into the fields and ate up the harvest.' + +"There might have been a plot, but, on the other hand, we knew that the +painted scroll had been a blind to make the Lenni-Lenape think that the +Tallegewi would do nothing until they had taken counsel. But we had +carried a war message with peace upon our mouths and we were ashamed +before White Quiver. We had talked much highness with him, and besides, +we loved him. As it turned out we were not wrong in thinking he loved +us. As we stood making out the points of direction for the trail, +Ongyatasse's knee gave under him, and as White Quiver put out his arm +without thinking, a tremor passed over them. They stood so leaning each +on each for a moment. 'Your trail lies thus ... and thus ...' said the +Lenape, 'but I do not know what you will find at the end of it.' Then he +loosed his arm from my friend's shoulder, took a step back, and the +forest closed about him. + +"We were two days more on the trail, though we did not go directly to +Cool Waters. Some men of the Painted Turtles that we met, told us the +fight had passed from the neighborhood of the towns and gathered at Bent +Bar Crossing. Our fathers were both there, which we made an excuse for +joining them. At several places we saw evidences of fighting. All the +bands of Lenni-Lenape that were not too far in our territory had come +hurrying back toward Fish River, and other bands, as the rumor of +fighting spread, came down out of Shinaki like buzzards to a carcass. +From Cool Waters to Namae-sippu, the Dark Wood was full of war-cries and +groaning. At Fish River the Tallegewi fell in hundreds ... there is a +mound there ... at Bent Bar the Lenni-Lenape held the ford, keeping a +passage open for flying bands that were pressed up from the south by the +Painted Turtles. Ongyatasse went about getting together his old band +from the Three Towns, fretting because we were not allowed to take the +front of the battle. + +"Three days the fight raged about the crossing. The Lenni-Lenape were +the better bowmen; their long arrows carried heavier points. Some that I +found in the breasts of my friends, I had made, and it made my own heart +hot within me. The third day, men from the farther lake towns came up +the river in their canoes, and the Lenape, afraid of being cut off from +their friends in the Dark Wood, broke across the river. As soon as they +began to go, our young men, who feared the fight would be over without +them, could not be held back. Ongyatasse at our head, we plunged into +the river after them. + +"Even in flight the Lenni-Lenape were most glorious fighters. They dived +among the canoes to hack holes in the bottoms, and rising from under the +sides they pulled the paddlers bodily into the river. We were mad with +our first fight, we youngsters, for we let them lead us up over the bank +and straight into ambush. We were the Young-Men-Who-Never-Turned-Back. + +"That was a true name for many of us," said the Mound-Builder. "I +remember Ongyatasse's shrill eagle cry above the '_G'we! G'we_!' of the +Lenni-Lenape, and the next thing I knew I was struggling in the river, +bleeding freely from a knife wound, and somebody was pulling me into a +canoe and safety." + +"And Ongyatasse--?" The children looked at the low mound between the +Council Place and the God-House. + +The Mound-Builder nodded. + +"We put our spears together to make a tent over him before the earth was +piled," he said, "and it was good to be able to do even so much as that +for him. For we thought at first we should never find him. He was not on +the river, nor in our side of the Dark Wood, and the elders would not +permit us to go across in search of him. But at daylight the gatherers +of the dead saw something moving from under the mist that hid the +opposite bank of the river. We waited, arrow on bowstring, not knowing +if it were one of our own coming back to us or a Lenape asking for +parley. But as it drew near we saw it was a cropped head, and he towed a +dead Tallega by the hair. Ripples that spread out from his quiet wake +took the sun, and the measured dip of the swimmer's arm was no louder +than the whig of the cooter that paddled in the shallows. + +"It had been a true word that Ongyatasse had given his life and his luck +to White Quiver; the Lenape had done his best to give them back again. +As he came ashore with the stiffened form, we saw him take the white +deer amulet from his own neck and fasten it around the neck of +Ongyatasse. Then, disdaining even to make the Peace sign for his own +safe returning, he plunged into the river again, swimming steadily +without haste until the fog hid him." + +The Mound-Builder stood up, wrapping his feather mantle about him and +began to move down the slope of the Town Mound, the children following. +There were ever so many things they wished to hear about, which they +hoped he might be going to tell them, but halfway down he turned and +pointed. Over south and east a thin blue film of smoke rose up straight +from the dark forest. + +"That's for you, I think. Your friend, the Onondaga, is signaling you; +he knows the end of the story." + +Taking hands, the children ran straight in the direction of the smoke +signal, along the trail which opened before them. + +[Illustration] + + + + +X + +THE MAKING OF A SHAMAN: A TELLING OF THE IROQUOIS TRAIL, BY THE ONONDAGA + + +Down the Mound-Builder's graded way the children ran looking for the +Onondaga. Like all the trail in the Museum Country it covered a vast +tract of country in a very little while, so that it was no time at all +before they came out among high, pine-covered swells, that broke along +the watercourses into knuckly granite headlands. From one of these, +steady puffs of smoke arose, and a moment later they could make out the +figure of an Indian turning his head from side to side as he searched +the surrounding country with the look of eagles. They knew him at once, +by the Medicine bundle at his belt and the slanting Iroquois feather, +for their friend the Onondaga. + +"I was looking for you by the lake shore trail," he explained as Oliver +and Dorcas Jane climbed up to him. "You must have come by the +Musking-ham-Mahoning; it drops into the Trade Trail of the Iroquois +yonder,"--he pointed south and east,--"the Great Trail, from the +Mohican-ittuck to the House of Thunder." He meant the Hudson River and +the Falls of Niagara. "Even at our village, which was at the head of the +lake here, we could hear the Young Thunders, shouting from behind the +falls," he told them. + +A crooked lake lay below them like a splinter of broken glass between +the headlands. From the far end of it the children could see smoke +rising. "We used to signal our village from here when we went on the +war-trail," said the Onondaga; "we would cut our mark on a tree as we +went out, and as we came back we added the war count. I was looking for +an old score of mine to-day." + +"Had it anything to do with the Mound-Builders?" Dorcas wished to know. +"He said you knew the end of that story." + +The Onondaga shook his head. + +"That was a hundred years before my time, and is a Telling of the +Lenni-Lenape. In the Red Score it is written, the Red Score of the +Lenni-Lenape. When my home was in the village there, the Five Nations +held all the country between the lakes and the Mohican-ittuck. But there +were many small friendly tribes along the borders, Algonquian mostly." + +He squatted on his heels beside the fire and felt in his belt for the +pipe and tobacco pouch without which no Telling proceeds properly. + +"In my youth," said the Onondaga, "I was very unhappy because I had no +Vision. When my time came I walked in the forest and ate nothing, but +the Mystery would not speak to me. Nine days I walked fasting, and then +my father came to find me under a pine tree, with my eyes sunk in my +head and my ribs like a basket. But because I was ashamed I told him my +Mystery was something that could not be talked about, and so I told +the Shaman. + +"My father was pleased because he thought it meant that I was to be a +very great Shaman myself, and the other boys envied me. But in my heart +I was uneasy. I did not know what to make of my life because the Holder +of the Heavens had not revealed himself to me. To one of my friends he +had appeared as an eagle, which meant that he was to be a warrior, keen +and victorious; and to another as a fox, so that he studied cunning; but +without any vision I did not know what to make of myself. My heart was +slack as a wetted bowstring. My father reproached me. + +"'The old women had smoke in their eyes,' he said; 'they told me I had a +son, now I see it is a woman child.' + +"My mother was kinder. 'Tell me,' she said, 'what evil dream unknots the +cords of your heart?' + +"So at last I told her. + +"My mother was a wise woman. 'To a dog or a child,' she said, 'one +speaks the first word on the lips, but before a great Shaman one +considers carefully. What is a year of your life to the Holder of the +Heavens? Go into the forest and wait until his message is ripe for you.' +She was a wise woman. + +"So I put aside my bow and quiver, and with them all desire of meat and +all thought of killing. With my tomahawk I cut a mark in that chestnut +yonder and buried my weapon at the foot of it. I had my knife, my pipe, +and my fire-stick. Also I felt happy and important because my mother had +made me believe that the Holder of the Heavens thought well of me. I was +giving him a year in which to tell me what to do with my life. + +"I turned east, for, I said, from the east light comes. It was an old +trail even in those days. It follows the watershed from the lake to +Oneida, and clears the Mohawk Valley northward. It was the Moon of +Tender Leaves when I set out, and by the time nuts began to ripen I had +come to the lowest hills of the Adirondacks. + +"Sometimes I met hunting-parties or women gathering berries, and bought +corn and beans from them, but for the most part I lived on seeds and +roots and wild apples. + +"By the time I had been a month or two without killing, the smell of +meat left me. Rabbits ran into my hands, and the mink, stealing along +the edge of the marsh to look for frogs, did not start from me. Deer +came at night to feed on the lily buds on the lake borders. They would +come stealing among the alders and swim far out to soak their coats. +When they had made themselves mosquito-proof, they would come back to +the lily beds and I would swim among them stilly, steering by the red +reflection of my camp-fire in their eyes. When my thought that was not +the thought of killing touched them, they would snort a little and +return to the munching of lilies, and the trout would rise in bubbly +rings under my arms as I floated. But though I was a brother to all the +Earth, the Holder of the Heavens would not speak to me. + +"Sometimes, when I had floated half the night between the hollow sky of +stars and its hollow reflection, the Vision seemed to gather on the +surface of the water. It would take shape and turn to the flash of a +loon's wet wing in the dawning, Or I would sit still in the woods until +my thought was as a tree, and the squirrels would take me for a tree and +run over me. Then there would come a strange stir, and the creeping of +my flesh along my spine until the Forest seemed about to speak ... and +suddenly a twig would snap or a jay squawk, and I would be I again, and +the tree a tree.... + +"It was the first quarter of the Moon of Falling Leaves," said the +Onondaga filling his pipe again and taking a fresh start on his story. +"There was a feel in the air that comes before the snow, but I was very +happy in my camp by a singing creek far up on the Adirondacks, and kept +putting off moving the camp from day to day. And one evening when I came +in from gathering acorns, I discovered that I had had a visitor. Mush of +acorn meal which I had left in my pot had been eaten. That is right, of +course, if the visitor is hungry; but this one had wiped out his tracks +with a leafy bough, which looked like trickery. + +"It came into my mind that it might have been one of the Gahonga, the +spirits that dwell in rocks and rivers and make the season fruitful." + +"Oh!" cried Dorcas, "Indian fairies! Did you have those?" + +"There are spirits in all things," said the Onondaga gravely. "There are +Odowas, who live in the underworld and keep back the evil airs that +bring sickness. You can see the bare places under the pines where they +have their dancing-places. And there are the Gandaiyah who loose wild +things from the traps and bring dew on the strawberry blossoms. But all +these are friendly to man. So I cooked another pot of food and lay down +in my blanket. I sleep as light as a wild thing myself. In the middle of +the night I was wakened by the sound of eating. Presently I heard +something scrape the bottom of the pot, and though I was afraid, I could +not bear to have man or spirit go from my camp hungry. So I spoke to +the sound. + +"'There is food hanging in the tree,' I said. I had hung it up to keep +the ants from it. But as soon as I finished speaking I heard the Thing +creeping away. In the morning I found it had left the track of one small +torn moccasin and a strange misshapen lump. It came up from and +disappeared into the creek, so I was sure it must have been a Gahonga. +But that evening as I sat by my fire I was aware of it behind me. No, I +heard nothing; I felt the thought of that creature touching my thought. +Without looking round I said, 'What is mine is yours, brother.' Then I +laid dry wood on the fire, and getting up I walked away without looking +back. But when I was out of the circle of light I looked and I saw the +Thing come out of the brush and warm its hands. + +"Then I knew that it was human, so I dropped my blanket over it from +behind and it lay without moving. I thought I had killed it, but when I +lifted the blanket I saw that it was a girl, and she was all but dead +with fright. She lay looking at me like a deer that I had shot, waiting +for me to plunge in the knife. It is a shame to any man to have a girl +look at him as that one looked at me. I made the sign of friendship and +set food before her, and water in a cup of bark. Then I saw what had +made the clumsy track; it was her foot which she had cut on the rocks +and bound up with strips of bark. Also she was sick with fright and +starvation. + +"For two days she lay on my bed and ate what I gave her and looked at me +as a trapped thing looks at the owner of the trap. I tried her with all +the dialects I knew, and even with a few words I had picked up from a +summer camp of Wabaniki. I had met them a week or two before at +Owenunga, at the foot of the mountains. + +"She put her hand over her mouth and looked sideways to find a way out +of the trap. + +"I was sorry for her, but she was a great nuisance. I was so busy +getting food for her that I had no time to listen for the Holder of the +Heavens, and besides, there was a thickening of the air, what we call +the Breath of the Great Moose, which comes before a storm. If we did not +wish to be snowed in, we had to get down out of the mountain, and on +account of her injured foot we had to go slowly. + +"I had it in mind to take her to the camp of the Wabaniki at Owenunga, +but when she found out where we were going she tried to run away. After +that I carried her, for the cut in her foot opened and bled. + +"She lay in my arms like a hurt fawn, but what could I do? There was a +tent of cloud all across the Adirondack, and besides, it is not proper +for a young girl to be alone in the woods with a strange man," said the +Onondaga, but he smiled to himself as he said it. + +"It was supper-time when we came to Crooked Water. There was a smell of +cooking, and the people gathering between the huts. + +"There was peace between the Five Nations and the Wabaniki, so I walked +boldly into the circle of summer huts and put the girl down, while I +made the stranger's sign for food and lodging. But while my hand was +still in the air, there was a shout and a murmur and the women began +snatching their children back. I could see them huddling together like +buffalo cows when their calves are tender, and the men pushing to the +front with caught-up weapons in their hands. + +"I held up my own to show that they were weaponless. + +"'I want nothing but food and shelter for this poor girl,' I said. I had +let her go in order to make the sign language, for I had but a few words +of their tongue. She crouched at my feet covering her face with her long +hair. The people stood off without answering, and somebody raised a cry +for Waba-mooin. It was tossed about from mouth to mouth until it reached +the principal hut, and presently a man came swaggering out in the dress +of a Medicine Man. He was older than I, but he was also fat, and for all +his Shaman's dress I was not frightened. I knew by the way the girl +stopped crying that she both knew and feared him. + +"The moment Waba-mooin saw her he turned black as a thunderhead. He +scattered words as a man scatters seeds with his hand. I was too far to +hear him, but the people broke out with a shower of sticks and stones. +At that the girl sprang up and spread her arms between me and the +people, crying something in her own tongue, but a stone struck her on +the point of the shoulder. She would have dropped, but I caught her, I +held her in my arms and looked across at the angry villagers and +Waba-mooin. Suddenly power came upon me.... + +"It is something all Indian," said the Onon-daga,--"something White Men +do not understand. It is Magic Medicine, the power of the Shaman, the +power of my thought meeting the evil thought of the Wabaniki and turning +it back as a buffalo shield turns arrows. I gathered up the girl and +walked away from that place slowly as becomes a Shaman. No more stones +struck me; the arrow of Waba-mooin went past me and stuck in an oak. My +power was upon me. + +"I must have walked half the night, hearing the drums at Crooked Water +scaring away evil influences. I would feel the girl warm and soft in my +arms as a fawn, and then after a time she would seem to be a part of me. +The trail found itself under my feet; I was not in the least wearied. +The girl was asleep when I laid her down, but toward morning she woke, +and the moment I looked in her eyes, I knew that whatever they had +stoned her for at Owenunga, her eyes were friendly. + +"'_M'toulin_,' she said, which is the word in her language for Shaman, +'what will you do with me?' + +"There was nothing I could do but take her to my mother as quickly as +possible. There was a wilderness of hills to cross before we struck the +trail through Mohawk Valley. That afternoon the snow began to fall in +great dry flakes, thickening steadily. The girl walked when she could, +but most of the time I carried her. I had the power of a Shaman, though +the Holder of the Heavens had not yet spoken to me. + +"We pushed to the top of the range before resting, and all night we +could hear the click and crash of deer and moose going down before the +snow. All the next day there was one old bull moose kept just ahead of +us. We knew he was old because of his size and his being alone. Two or +three times we passed other bulls with two or three cows and their +calves of that season yarding among the young spruce, but the old bull +kept on steadily down the mountain. His years had made him weather-wise. +The third day the wind shifted the snow, and we saw him on the round +crown of a hill below us, tracking." + +The Onondaga let his pipe go out while he explained the winter habits of +moose. + +"When the snow is too deep for yarding," he said, "they look for the +lower hills that have been burnt over, so that the growth is young and +tender. When the snow is soft, after a thaw, they will track steadily +back and forth until the hill is laced with paths. They will work as +long as the thaw lasts, pushing the soft snow with their shoulders to +release the young pine and the birches. Then, when the snow crusts, they +can browse all along the paths for weeks, tunneling far under. + +"We saw our bull the last afternoon as we came down from the cloud cap, +and then the white blast cut us off and we had only his trail to follow. +When we came to the hill we could still hear him thrashing about in his +trails, so I drew down the boughs of a hemlock and made us a shelter and +a fire. For two days more the storm held, with cold wind and driven +snow. About the middle of the second day I heard a heavy breathing above +our hut, and presently the head of the moose came through the hemlock +thatch, and his eyes were the eyes of a brother. So I knew my thought +was still good, and I made room for him in the warmth of the hut. He +moved out once or twice to feed, and I crept after him to gather grass +seeds and whatever could be found that the girl could eat. We had had +nothing much since leaving the camp at Crooked Water. + +"And by and by with the hunger and anxiety about Nukewis, which was the +name she said she should be called by, my thought was not good any more. +I would look at the throat of the moose as he crowded under the hemlock +and think how easily I could slit it with my knife and how good moose +meat toasted on the coals would taste. I was glad when the storm cleared +and left the world all white and trackless. I went out and prayed to the +Holder of the Heavens that he would strengthen me in the keeping of my +vow and also that he would not let the girl die. + +"While I prayed a rabbit that had been huddling under the brush and the +snow, came hopping into my trail; it hopped twice and died with the +cold. I took it for a sign; but when I had cooked it and was feeding it +to the girl she said:-- + +"'Why do you not eat, M'toulin,' for we had taught one another a few +words of our own speech. + +"'I am not hungry,' I told her. + +"'While I eat I can see that your throat is working with hunger,' she +insisted. And it was true I could have snatched the meat from her like a +wolf, but because of my vow I would not. + +"'M'toulin, there is a knife at your belt; why have you not killed the +moose to make meat for us?' + +"'Eight moons I have done no killing, seeking the Vision and the Voice,' +I told her. 'It is more than my life to me.' + +"When I had finished, she reached over with the last piece of rabbit and +laid it on the fire. It was a sacrifice. As we watched the flame lick it +up, all thought of killing went out of my head like the smoke of +sacrifice, and my thought was good again. + +"When the meat she had eaten had made her strong, Nukewis sat up and +crossed her hands on her bosom. + +"'M'toulin,' she said, 'the evil that has come on you belongs to me. I +will go away with it. I am a witch and bring evil on those who are +kind to me.' + +"'Who says you are a witch?' + +"'All my village, and especially Waba-mooin. I brought sickness on the +village, and on you hunger and the breaking of your vow.' + +"'I have seen Waba-mooin,' I said. 'I do not think too much of his +opinions.' + +"'He is the Shaman of my village,' said Nukewis. 'My father was Shaman +before him, a much greater Shaman than Waba-mooin will ever be. He +wanted my father's Medicine bundle which hung over the door to protect +me; my father left it to me when he died. But afterward there was a +sickness in the village, and Waba-mooin said it was because the powerful +Medicine bundle was left in the hands of an ignorant girl. He said for +the good of the village it ought to be taken away from me. But _I_ +thought it was because so many people came to my house with their sick, +because of my Medicine bundle, and Waba-mooin missed their gifts. He +said that if I was not willing to part with my father's bundle, that he +would marry me, but when I would not, then he said that I was a witch!' + +"'Where is the bundle now?' I asked her. + +"'I hid it near our winter camp before we came into the mountains. But +there was sickness in the mountains and Waba-mooin said that it also was +my fault. So they drove me out with sticks and stones. That is why they +would not take me back.' + +"'Then,' I said, 'when Waba-mooin goes back to the winter camp, he will +find the Medicine bundle.' + +"'He will never find it,' she said, 'but he will be the only Shaman in +the village and will have all the gifts. But listen, M'toulin, by now +the people are back in their winter home. It is more than two days from +here. If you go without me, they will give you food and shelter, but +with me you will have only hard words and stones. Therefore, I leave +you, M'toulin.' She stood up, made a sign of farewell. + +"'You must show me the way to your village first,' I insisted. + +"I saw that she meant what she said, and because I was too weak to run +after her, I pretended. I thought that would hold her. + +"We should have set out that moment, but a strange lightness came in my +head. I do not know just what happened. I think the storm must have +begun again early in the afternoon. There was a great roaring as of wind +and the girl bending over me, wavering and growing thin like smoke. +Twice I saw the great head of the moose thrust among the hemlock boughs, +and heard Nukewis urging and calling me. She lifted my hands and clasped +them round the antlers of the moose; I could feel his warm breath.... He +threw up his head, drawing me from my bed, wonderfully light upon my +feet. We seemed to move through the storm. I could feel the hairy +shoulder of the moose and across his antlers Nukewis calling me. I felt +myself carried along like a thin bubble of life in the storm that poured +down from the Adirondack like Niagara. At last I slipped into darkness. + +"I do not know how long this lasted, but presently I was aware of a +light that began to grow and spread around me. It came from the face of +the moose, and when I looked up out of my darkness it changed to the +face of a great kind man. He had on the headdress of a chief priest, the +tall headdress of eagle plumes and antlers. I had hold of one of them, +and his arm was around and under me. But I knew very well who held me. + +"'You have appeared to me at last,' I said to him. + +"'I have appeared, my son.' His voice was kind as the sound of summer +waters. + +"'I looked for you long, O Taryenya-wagon!' + +"'You looked for me among your little brothers of the wild,' he said, +'and for you the Vision was among men, my son.' + +"'How, among men?' + +"'What you did for that poor girl when you put your good thought between +her and harm. That you must do for men.' + +"'I am to be a Shaman, then?' I thought of my father. + +"'According to a man's power,' said the Holder of the Heavens,--'as my +power comes upon him....'" + +The Onondaga puffed silently for a while on his pipe. + +Dorcas Jane fidgeted. "But I don't understand," she said at last; "just +what was it that happened?" + +"It was my Mystery," said the Onondaga; "my Vision that came to me out +of the fasting and the sacrifice. You see, there had been very little +food since leaving Crooked Water, and Nukewis--" + +"You gave it all to her." Dorcas nodded. "But still I don't understand?" + +"The moose had begun to travel down the mountain and like a good brother +he came back for me. Nukewis lifted me up and bound me to his antlers, +holding me from the other side, but I was too weak to notice. + +"We must have traveled that way for hours through the storm until we +reached the tall woods below the limit of the snow. When I came to +myself, I was lying on a bed of fern in a bright morning and Nukewis was +cooking quail which she had snared with a slip noose made of her hair. I +ate--I could eat now that I had had my Vision--and grew strong. All the +upper mountain was white like a tent of deerskin, but where we were +there was only thin ice on the edges of the streams. + +"We stayed there for one moon. I wished to get my strength back, and +besides, we wished to get married, Nukewis and I." + +"But how could you, without any party?" Dorcas wished to know. She had +never seen anybody get married, but she knew it was always spoken of as +a Wedding Party. + +"We had the party four months later when we got back to my own village," +explained the Onondaga. "For that time I built a hut, and when I had led +her across the door, as our custom was, I scattered seeds upon +her--seeds of the pine tree. Then we sat in our places on either side +the fire, and she made me cake of acorn meal, and we made a vow as we +ate it that we would love one another always. + +"We were very happy. I hunted and fished, and the old moose fed in our +meadow. Nukewis used to gather armfuls of grass for him. When we went +back to my wife's village he trotted along in the trail behind us like a +dog. Nukewis wished to go back after her father's Medicine bag, and +being a woman she did not wish to go to my mother without her dower. +There were many handsome skins and baskets in her father's hut which had +been given to him when he was Medicine Man. She felt sure Waba-mooin +would not have touched them. And as for me, I was young enough to want +Waba-mooin to see that I was also a Shaman. + +"We stole into Nukewis's hut in the dark, and when it was morning a +light snow was over the ground to cover our tracks, and there was our +smoke going up and the great moose standing at our door chewing his cud +and over the door the Medicine bag of Nukewis's father. How the +neighbors were astonished! They ran for Waba-mooin, and when I saw him +coming in all his Shaman's finery, I put on the old Medicine Man's shirt +and his pipe and went out to smoke with him as one Shaman with another." + +The Onondaga laughed to himself, remembering. "It was funny to see him +try to go through with it, but there was nothing else for him to do. I +ought to have punished him a little for what he did to Nukewis, but my +heart was too full of happiness and my Mystery. And perhaps it was +punishment enough to have me staying there in the village with all the +folk bringing me presents and neglecting Waba-mooin. I think he was glad +when we set out for my own village in the Moon of the Sap Running. + +"I knew my mother would be waiting for me, and besides, I wished my son +to be born an Onondaga." + +"And what became of the old moose?" + +"Somewhere on the trail home we lost him. Perhaps he heard his own tribe +calling...and perhaps... He was the Holder of the Heavens to me, and +from that time neither I nor my wife ate any moose meat. That is how it +is when the Holder of the Heavens shows Himself to his children. But +when I came by the tree where I had cut the first score of my search for +Him, I cut a picture of the great moose, with my wife and I on either +side of him." + +The Onondaga pointed with his feathered pipe to a wide-boled chestnut a +rod or two down the slope. "It was that I was looking for to-day," he +said. "If you look you will find it." + +And continuing to point with the long feathered stem of his pipe, the +children rose quietly hand in hand and went to look. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XI + +THE PEARLS OF COFACHIQUE: HOW LUCAS DE AYLLON CAME TO LOOK FOR THEM AND +WHAT THE CACICA FAR-LOOKING DID TO HIM; TOLD BY THE PELICAN + + +One morning toward the end of February the children were sitting on the +last bench at the far end of the Bird Gallery, which is the nicest sort +of place to sit on a raw, slushy day. You can look out from it on one +side over the flamingo colony of the Bahamas, and on the other straight +into the heart of the Cuthbert Rookery in Florida. Just opposite is the +green and silver coral islet of Cay Verde, with the Man-of-War Birds +nesting among the flat leaves of the sea-grape. + +If you sit there long enough and nobody comes by to interrupt, you can +taste the salt of the spindrift over the banks of Cay Verde, and watch +the palmetto leaves begin to wave like swords in the sea wind. That is +what happened to Oliver and Dorcas Jane. The water stirred and shimmered +and the long flock of flamingoes settled down, each to its own mud +hummock on the crowded summer beaches. All at once Oliver thought of +something. + +"I wonder," he said, "if there are trails on the water and through the +air?" + +"Why, of course," said the Man-of-War Bird; "how else would we find our +islet among so many? North along the banks till we sight the heads of +Nassau, then east of Stirrup Cay, keeping the scent of the land flowers +to windward, to the Great Bahama, and west by north to where blue water +runs between the Biscayne Keys to the mouth of the Miami. That is how we +reach the mainland in season, and back again to Cay Verde." + +"It sounds like a long way," said Oliver. + +"That's nothing," said the tallest Flamingo. "We go often as far east as +the Windward Islands, and west to the Isthmus. But the ships go farther. +We have never been to the place where the ships come from." + +It was plain that the Flamingo was thinking of a ship as another and +more mysterious bird. The Man-of-War Bird seemed to know better. The +children could see, when he stretched out his seven-foot spread of wing, +that he was a great traveler. + +"What _I_ should like to know," he said, "is how the ships find their +way. With us we simply rise higher and higher, above the fogs, until we +see the islands scattered like green nests and the banks and shoals +which from that height make always the same pattern in the water, brown +streaks of weed, gray shallows, and deep water blue. But the ships, +though they never seem to leave the surface of the water, can make a +shorter course than we in any kind of weather." + +Oliver was considering how he could explain a ship's compass to the +birds, but only the tail end of his thinking slipped out. "They call +some of them men-of-war, too," he chuckled. + +"You must have thought it funny the first time you saw one," said Dorcas +Jane. + +"Not me, but my ancestors," said the Man-of-War Bird; "_they_ saw the +Great Admiral when he first sailed in these waters. They saw the three +tall galleons looming out of a purple mist on the eve of discovery, +their topsails rosy with the sunset fire. The Admiral kept pacing, +pacing; watching, on the one hand, lest his men surprise him with a +mutiny, and on the other, glancing overside for a green bough or a +floating log, anything that would be a sign of land. We saw him come in +pride and wonder, and we saw him go in chains." + +Like all the Museum people, the Man-of-War Bird said "we" when he spoke +of his ancestors. + +"There were others," said the Flamingo. "I remember an old man looking +for a fountain." + +"Ponce de Leon," supplied Dorcas Jane, proud that she could pronounce +it. + +"There is no harm in a fountain," said a Brown Pelican that had come +sailing into Cuthbert Rookery with her wings sloped downward like a +parachute. "It was the gold-seekers who filled the islands with the +thunder of their guns and the smoke of burning huts." + +The children turned toward the Pelican among the mangrove trees, crowded +with nests of egret and heron and rosy hornbill. + +The shallow water of the lagoon ran into gold-tipped ripples. In every +one the low sun laid a tiny flake of azure. Over the far shore there was +a continual flick and flash of wings, like a whirlwind playing with a +heap of waste paper. Crooked flights of flamingoes made a moving +reflection on the water like a scarlet snake, but among the queer +mangrove stems, that did not seem to know whether they were roots or +branches, there was a lovely morning stillness. It was just the place +and hour for a story, and while the Brown Pelican opened her well-filled +maw to her two hungry nestlings, the Snowy Egret went on with +the subject. + +"They were a gallant and cruel and heroic and stupid lot, the Spanish +gold-seekers," she said. "They thought nothing of danger and hunger, but +they could not find their way without a guide any further than their +eyes could see, and they behaved very badly toward the poor Indians." + +"We saw them all," said the Flamingo,--"Cortez and Balboa and Pizarro. +We saw Panfilo Narvaez put in at Tampa Bay, full of zeal and gold +hunger, and a year later we saw him at Appalache, beating his stirrup +irons into nails to make boats to carry him back to Havana. We alone +know why he never reached there." + +The Pelican by this time had got rid of her load of fish and settled +herself for conversation. "Whatever happened to them," she said, "they +came back,--Spanish, Portuguese, and English,--back they came. I +remember how Lucas de Ayllon came to look for the pearls of +Cofachique--" + +"Pearls!" said the children both at once. + +"Very good ones," said the Pelican, nodding her pouched beak; "as large +as hazel nuts and with a luster like a wet beach at evening. The best +were along the Savannah River where some of my people had had a rookery +since any of them could remember. Ayllon discovered the pearls when he +came up from Hispaniola looking for slaves, but it was an evil day for +him when he came again to fill his pockets with them, for by that time +the lady of Cofachique was looking for Ayllon." + +"For Soto, you mean," said the Snowy Egret,-- + +"Hernando de Soto, the Adelantado of Florida, and that is _my_ story." + +"It is all one story," insisted the Pelican. "Ayllon began it. His ship +put in at the Savannah at the time of the pearling, when the best of our +young men were there, and among them Young Pine, son of Far-Looking, the +Chief Woman. + +"The Indians had heard of ships by this time, but they still believed +the Spaniards were Children of the Sun, and trusted them. They had not +yet learned what a Spaniard will do for gold. They did not even know +what gold was, for there was none of it at Cofachique. The Cacique came +down to the sea to greet the ships, with fifty of his best fighting men +behind him, and when the Spaniard invited them aboard for a feast, he +let Young Pine go with them. He was as straight as a pine, the young +Cacique, keen and strong-breasted, and about his neck he wore a twist of +pearls of three strands, white as sea foam. Ayllon's eyes glistened as +he looked at them, and he gave word that the boy was not to be +mishandled. For as soon as he had made the visiting Indians drunk with +wine, which they had never tasted before and drank only for politeness, +the Spaniard hoisted sail for Hispaniola. + +"Young Pine stood on the deck and heard his father calling to him from +the shore, and saw his friends shot as they jumped overboard, or were +dragged below in chains, and did not know what to do at such treachery. +The wine foamed in his head and he hung sick against the rail until +Ayllon came sidling and fidgeting to find out where the pearls came +from. He fingered the strand on Young Pine's neck, making signs of +friendship. + +"The ship was making way fast, and the shore of Cofachique was dark +against the sun. Ayllon had sent his men to the other side of the ship +while he talked with Young Pine, for he did not care to have them learn +about the pearls. + +"Young Pine lifted the strand from his neck, for by Ayllon's orders he +was not yet in chains. While the Spaniard looked it over greedily, the +boy saw his opportunity. He gave a shout to the sea-birds that wheeled +and darted about the galleon, the shout the fishers give when they throw +offal to the gulls, and as the wings gathered and thickened to hide him +from the guns, he dived straight away over the ship's side into the +darkling water. + +"All night he swam, steering by the death-fires which the pearlers had +built along the beaches, and just as the dawn came up behind him to turn +the white-topped breakers into green fire, the land swell caught him. +Four days later a search party looking for those who had jumped +overboard, found his body tumbled among the weeds along the outer shoals +and carried it to his mother, the Cacica, at Talimeco. + +[Illustration: "She could see the thoughts of a man while they were +still in his heart"] + +"She was a wonderful woman, the Chief Woman of Cofachique, and +terrible," said the Pelican. "It was not for nothing she was called +Far-Looking. She could see the thoughts of a man while they were still +in his heart, and the doings of men who were far distant. When she +wished to know what nobody could tell her, she would go into the +Silence; she would sit as still as a brooding pelican; her limbs would +stiffen and her eyes would stare-- + +"That is what she did the moment she saw that the twist of pearls was +gone from her son's neck. She went silent with her hand on his dead +breast and looked across the seas into the cruel heart of the Spaniard +and saw what would happen. 'He will come back,' she said; 'he will come +back to get what I shall give him for _this_.' + +"She meant the body of Young Pine, who was her only son," said the +Pelican, tucking her own gawky young under her breast, "and that is +something a mother never forgets. She spent the rest of her time +planning what she would do to Lucas de Ayllon when he came back. + +"There was a lookout built in the palmetto scrub below the pearling +place, and every day canoes scouted far to seaward, with runners ready +in case ships were sighted. Talimeco was inland about a hundred miles up +the river and the Cacica herself seldom left it. + +"And after four or five years Ayllon, with the three-plied rope of +pearls under his doublet, came back. + +"The Cacica was ready for him. She was really the Chief Woman of +Cofachique,--the Cacique was only her husband,--and she was obeyed as no +ordinary woman," said the Brown Pelican. + +"She was not an ordinary woman," said the Snowy Egret, fluffing her +white spray of plumes. "If she so much as looked at you and her glance +caught your eye, then you had to do what she said, whether you liked it +or not. But most of her people liked obeying her, for she was as wise as +she was terrible. That was why she did not kill Lucas de Ayllon at the +pearling place as the Cacique wished her to do. 'If we kill him,' said +the Chief Woman, 'others will come to avenge him. We must send him home +with such a report that no others of his kind will visit this coast +again.' She had everything arranged for that." + +The Egret settled to her nest again and the Pelican went on with the +story. + +"In the spring of the year Ayllon came loafing up the Florida coast with +two brigantines and a crew of rascally adventurers, looking for slaves +and gold. At least Ayllon said he was looking for slaves, though most of +those he had carried away the first time had either jumped overboard or +refused their food and died. But he had not been willing to tell anybody +about the pearls, and he had to have some sort of excuse for returning +to a place where he couldn't be expected to be welcomed. + +"And that was the first surprise he had when he put to shore on the +bluff where the city of Savannah now stands, with four small boats, +every man armed with a gun or a crossbow. + +"The Indians, who were fishing between the shoals, received the +Spaniards kindly; sold them fish and fresh fruit for glass beads, and +showed themselves quite willing to guide them in their search for slaves +and gold. Only there was no gold: nothing but a little copper and +stinging swarms of flies, gray clouds of midges and black ooze that +sucked the Spaniards to their thighs, and the clatter of scrub palmetto +leaves on their iron shirts like the sound of wooden swords, as the +Indians wound them in and out of trails that began in swamps and arrived +nowhere. Never once did they come any nearer to the towns than a few +poor fisher huts, and never a pearl showed in any Indian's necklace or +earring. The Chief Woman had arranged for that! + +"All this time she sat at Talimeco in her house on the temple mound--" + +"Mounds!" interrupted the children both at once. "Were they +Mound-Builders?" + +"They built mounds," said the Pelican, "for the Cacique's house and the +God-House, and for burial, with graded ways and embankments. The one at +Talimeco was as tall as three men on horseback, as the Spaniards +discovered later--Soto's men, not Ayllon's. _They_ never came within +sound of the towns nor in sight of the league-long fields of corn nor +the groves of mulberry trees. They lay with their goods spread out along +the beach without any particular order and without any fear of the few +poor Indians they saw. + +"That was the way the Chief Woman had arranged it. All the men who came +down to the ships were poorly dressed and the women wrinkled, though she +was the richest Cacica in the country, and had four bearers with feather +fans to accompany her. All this time she sat in the Silences and sent +her thoughts among the Spaniards so that they bickered among themselves, +for they were so greedy for gold that no half-dozen of them would trust +another half-dozen out of their sight. They would lie loafing about the +beaches and all of a sudden anger would run among them like thin fire in +the savannahs, which runs up the sap wood of the pines, winding, and +taking flight from the top like a bird. Then they would stab one another +in their rages, or roast an Indian because he would not tell them where +gold was. For they could not get it out of their heads that there was +gold. They were looking for another Peru. + +"Toward the last, Ayllon had to sleep in his ship at night so jealous +his captains were of him. He had a touch of the swamp fever which takes +the heart out of a man, and finally he was obliged to show them the +three-plied rope of pearls to hold them. To just a few of his captains +he showed it, but the Indian boy he had taken to be his servant saw them +fingering it in the ship's cabin and sent word to the Chief Woman." + +The sun rose high on the lagoon as the Pelican paused in her story, and +beyond the rookery the children could see blue water and a line of surf, +with the high-pooped Spanish ships rising and falling. Beyond that were +the low shore and the dark wood of pines and the shining leaves of the +palmettoes like a lake spattered with the light--split by their needle +points. They could see the dark bodies of the Indian runners working +their way through it to Talimeco. The Pelican went on with the story. + +"'Now it is time,' said the Cacica, and the Cacique's Own--that was a +band of picked fighting men--took down their great shields of woven cane +from the god-house and left Talimeco by night. And from every seacoast +town of Cofachique went bowmen and spearsmen. They would be sitting by +their hearth-fires at evening, and in the morning they would be gone. At +the same time there went a delegation from Talimeco to Lucas de Ayllon +to say that the time of one of the Indian feasts was near, and to invite +him and his men to take part in it. The Spaniards were delighted, for +now they thought they should see some women, and maybe learn about gold. +But though scores of Indians went down, with venison and maize cakes in +baskets, no women went at all, and if the Spaniards had not been three +fourths drunk, that would have warned them. + +"When Indians mean fighting they leave the women behind," explained the +Pelican, and the children nodded. + +"The Spaniards sat about the fires where the venison was roasting, and +talked openly of pearls. They had a cask of wine out from the ship, and +some of their men made great laughter trying to dance with the young men +of Cofachique. But one of the tame Indians that Ayllon had brought from +Hispaniola with him, went privately to his master. 'I know this dance,' +he said; 'it is a dance of death.' But Ayllon dared do nothing except +have a small cannon on the ship shot off, as he said, for the +celebration, but really to scare the Indians." + +"And they were scared?" + +"When they have danced the dance of death and vengeance there is nothing +can scare Indians," said the Brown Pelican, and the whole rookery +agreed with her. + +"At a signal," she went on, "when the Spaniards were lolling after +dinner with their iron shirts half off, and the guns stacked on the +sand, the Indians fell upon them with terrible slaughter. Ayllon got +away to his ships with a few of his men, but there were not boats enough +for all of them, and they could not swim in their armor. Some of them +tried it, but the Indians swam after them, stabbing and pulling them +under. That night Ayllon saw from his ships the great fires the Indians +made to celebrate their victory, and the moment the day popped suddenly +out of the sea, as it does at that latitude, he set sail and put the +ships about for Hispaniola, without stopping to look for survivors. + +"But even there, I think, the Cacica's thought followed him. A storm +came up out of the Gulf, black with thunder and flashing green fire. The +ships were undermanned, for the sailors, too, had been ashore feasting. +One of the brigantines--but not the one which carried Ayllon--staggered +awhile in the huge seas and went under." + +"And the pearls, the young chief's necklace, what became of that?" asked +Dorcas. + +"It went back to Talimeco with the old chief's body and was buried with +him. You see, that had been the signal. Ayllon had the necklace with him +in the slack of his doublet. He thought it would be a good time after +the feast to show it to the Cacique and inquire where pearls could be +found. He had no idea that it had belonged to the Cacique's son; all +Indians looked very much alike to him. But when the Cacique saw Young +Pine's necklace in the Spaniard's hand, he raised the enemy shout that +was the signal for his men, who lay in the scrub, to begin the battle. +Ayllon struck down the Cacique with his own sword as the nearest at +hand. But the Cacique had the pearls, and after the fighting began there +was no time for the Spaniard to think of getting them back again. So the +pearls went back to Talimeco, with axes and Spanish arms, to be laid up +in the god-house for a trophy. It was there, ten years later, that +Hernando de Soto found them. As for Ayllon, his pride and his heart were +broken. He died of that and the fever he had brought back from +Cofachique, but you may be sure he never told exactly what happened to +him on that unlucky voyage. Nobody had any ear in those days for voyages +that failed; they were all for gold and the high adventure." + +"What I want to know," said Dorcas, "is what became of the Cacica, and +whether she saw Mr. de Soto coming and why, if she could look people in +the eye and make them do what she wanted, she didn't just see Mr. de +Ayllon herself and tell him to go home again." + +"It was only to her own people she could do that," said the Pelican. +"She could send her dream to them too, if it pleased her, but she never +dared to put her powers to the test with the strangers. If she had tried +and failed, then the Indians would have been certain of the one thing +they were never quite sure of, that the Spaniards were the Children of +the Sun. As for the horses, they never did get it out of their minds +that they might be eaten by them. I think the Cacica felt in her heart +that the strangers were only men, but it was too important to her to be +feared by her own people to take any chances of showing herself afraid +of the Spaniards. That was why she never saw Ayllon, and when it was at +last necessary that Soto should be met, she left that part of the +business to the young Princess." + +"That," said the Snowy Egret, "should be my story! The egrets were +sacred at Cofachique," she explained to the children; "only the chief +family wore our plumes. Our rookery was in the middle swamp a day inland +from Talimeco, safe and secret. But we used to go past the town every +day fishing in the river. That is how we knew the whole story of what +happened there and at Tuscaloosa." + +Dorcas remembered her geography. "Tuscaloosa is in Alabama," she said; +"that's a long way from Savannah." + +"Not too long for the Far-Looking. She and the Black Warrior--that's +what Tuscaloosa means--were of one spirit. In the ten or twelve years +after the Cacique, her husband, was killed, she put the fear of +Cofachique on all the surrounding tribes, as far as Tuscaloosa River. + +"There was an open trail between the two chief cities of Cofachique and +Mobila, which was called the Tribute Road because of the tribes that +traveled it, bringing tribute to one or another of the two Great Ones. +But not any more after the Princess who was called the Pearl of +Cofachique walked in it." + +"Oh, Princesses!" sighed Dorcas Jane, "if we could just see one!" + +The Snowy Egret considered. "If the Pelicans would dance for you--" + +"Have the Pelicans a _dance_?" + +"Of all the dances that the Indians have," said the Egret, "the first +and the best they learned from the Wing People. Some they learned from +the Cranes by the water-courses, and some from the bucks prancing before +the does on the high ridges; old, old dances of the great elk and the +wapiti. In the new of the year everything dances in some fashion, and by +dancing everything is made one, sky and sea, and bird and dancing leaf. +Old time is present, and all old feelings are as the times and feelings +that will be. These are the things men learned in the days of the +Unforgotten, dancing to make the world work well together by times and +seasons. But the Pelicans can always dance a little; anywhere in their +rookeries you might see them bowing and balancing. Watch, now, in the +clear foreshore." + +True enough, on the bare, ripple-packed sand that glimmered like the +inside of a shell, several of the great birds were making absurd dips +and courtesies toward one another; they spread their wings like flowing +draperies and began to sway with movements of strange dignity. The high +sun filmed with silver fog, and along the heated air there crept an +eerie feel of noon. + +"When half a dozen of them begin to circle together," said the Snowy +Egret, "turn round and look toward the wood." + +At the right moment the children turned, and between the gray and somber +shadows of the cypress they saw her come. All in white she was--white +cloth of the middle bark of mulberries, soft as linen, with a cloak of +oriole feathers black and yellow, edged with sables. On her head was the +royal circlet of egret plumes nodding above the yellow circlet of the +Sun. When she walked, it made them think of the young wind stirring in +the corn. Around her neck she wore, in the fashion of Cofachique, three +strands of pearls reaching to the waist, in which she rested her +left arm. + +"That was how the Spaniards saw her for the first time, and found her so +lovely that they forgot to ask her name; they called her 'The Lady of +Cofachique,' and swore there was not a lovelier lady in Europe nor one +more a princess. + +"Which might easily be true," said the Egret, "for she was brought up to +be Cacica in Far-Looking's place, after the death of her son +Young Pine." + +The Princess smiled on the children as she came down the cypress trail. +One of her women, who moved unobtrusively beside her, arranged cushions +of woven cane, and another held a fan of painted skin and feather work +between her and the sun. A tame egret ruffled her white plumes at the +Princess's shoulder. + +"I was telling them about the pearls of Cofachique," said the Egret who +had first spoken to the children, "and of how Hernando de Soto came to +look for them." + +"Came and looked," said the Princess. One of her women brought a casket +carved from a solid lump of cypress, on her knee. Around the sides of +the casket and on the two ends ran a decoration of woodpeckers' heads +and the mingled sign of the sun and the four quarters which the Corn +Woman had drawn for Dorcas on the dust of the dancing-floor. + +The Princess lifted the lid and ran her fine dark fingers through a heap +of gleaming pearls. "There were many mule loads such as these in the +god-house at Talimeco," she said; "we filled the caskets of our dead +Caciques with them. What is gold that he should have left all these for +the mere rumor of it?" + +She was sad for a moment and then stern. "Nevertheless, I think my aunt, +the Cacica, should have met him. She would have seen that he was a man +and would have used men's reasons with him. She made Medicine against +him as though he were a god, and in the end his medicine was stronger +than ours." + +"If you could tell us about it--" invited Dorcas Jane. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XII + +HOW THE IRON SHIRTS CAME TO TUSCALOOSA: A TELLING OF THE TRIBUTE ROAD BY +THE LADY OF COFACHIQUE + + +"There was a bloom on the sea like the bloom on a wild grape when the +Adelantado left his winter quarters at Anaica Apalache," said the +Princess. "He sent Maldonado, his captain, to cruise along the Gulf +coast with the ships, and struck north toward Cofachique. That was in +March, 1540, and already his men and horses were fewer because of +sickness and skirmishes with the Indians. They had for guide Juan Ortiz, +one of Narvaez's men who had been held captive by the Indians these +eight years, and a lad Perico who remembered a trading trip to +Cofachique. And what he could not remember he invented. He made Soto +believe there was gold there. Perhaps he was thinking of copper, and +perhaps, since the Spaniards had made him their servant, he found it +pleasanter to be in an important position. + +"They set out by the old sea trail toward Alta-paha, when the buds at +the ends of the magnolia boughs were turning creamy, and the sandhill +crane could be heard whooping from the lagoons miles inland. First went +the captains with the Indian guides in chains, for they had a way of +disappearing in the scrub if not watched carefully, and then the foot +soldiers, each with his sixty days' ration on his back. Last of all came +a great drove of pigs and dogs of Spain, fierce mastiffs who made +nothing of tearing an Indian in pieces, and had to be kept in leash by +Pedro Moron, who was as keen as a dog himself. He could smell Indians in +hiding and wood smoke three leagues away. Many a time when the +expedition was all but lost, he would smell his way to a village. + +"They went north by east looking for gold, and equal to any adventure. +At Achese the Indians, who had never heard of white men, were so +frightened that they ran away into the woods and would not come out +again. Think what it meant to them to see strange bearded men, clad in +iron shirts, astride of fierce, unknown animals,--for the Indians could +not help but think that the horses would eat them. They had never heard +of iron either. Nevertheless, the Spaniards got some corn there, from +the high cribs of cane set up on platforms beside the huts. + +"Everywhere Soto told the Caciques that he and his men were the Children +of the Sun, seeking the highest chief and the richest province, and +asked for guides and carriers, which usually he got. You may be sure the +Indians were glad to be rid of them so cheaply. + +"The expedition moved toward Ocute, with the bloom of the wild vines +perfuming all the air, and clouds of white butterflies beginning to +twinkle in the savannahs." + +"But," said Dorcas, who had listened very attentively, "I thought +Savannah was a place." + +"Ever so many places," said the Princess; "flat miles on miles of slim +pines melting into grayness, sunlight sifting through their plumy tops, +with gray birds wheeling in flocks, or troops of red-headed +woodpeckers, and underfoot nothing but needles and gray sand. Far ahead +on every side the pines draw together, but where one walks they are wide +apart, so that one seems always about to approach a forest and never +finds it. These are the savannahs. + +"Between them along the water-courses are swamps; slow, black water and +wide-rooted, gull-gray cypress, flat-topped and all adrip with moss. And +everywhere a feeling of snakes--wicked water-snakes with yellow rims +around their eyes. + +"They crossed great rivers, Ockmulgee, Oconee, Ogechee, making a bridge +of men and paddling their way across with the help of saddle cruppers +and horses' tails. If the waters were too deep for that, they made +piraguas--dug-out canoes, you know--and rafts of cane. By the time they +had reached Ocute the Spaniards were so hungry they were glad to eat +dogs which the Indians gave them, for there was such a scarcity of meat +on all that journey that the sick men would sometimes say, 'If only I +had a piece of meat I think I would not die!'" + +"But where was all the game?" Oliver insisted on knowing. + +"Six hundred men with three hundred horses and a lot of Indian carriers, +coming through the woods, make a great deal of noise," said the +Princess. "The Spaniards never dared to hunt far from the trail for fear +of getting lost. There were always lurking Indians ready to drive an +arrow through a piece of Milan armor as if it were pasteboard, and into +the body of a horse over the feather of the shaft, so that the Spaniards +wondered, seeing the little hole it made, how the horse had died. + +"Day after day the expedition would wind in and out of the trail, +bunching up like quail in the open places, and dropping back in single +file in the canebrake, with the tail of the company so far from the head +that when there was a skirmish with the Indians at either end, it would +often be over before the other end could catch up. In this fashion they +came to Cofaque, which is the last province before Cofachique." + +"Oh," said Dorcas, "and did the Chief Woman see them coming? The one who +was Far-Looking!" + +"She saw too much," said the Egret, tucking her eggs more warmly under +her breast. "She saw other comings and all the evil that the White Men +would bring and do." + +"Whatever she saw she did her best to prevent," said the Princess. +"Three things she tried. Two of them failed. There are two trails into +the heart of Cofachique, one from the west from Tuscaloosa, and the +other from Cofaque, a very secret trail through swamp and palmetto +scrub, full of false clues and blind leads. + +"Far-Looking sat in the god-house at Talimeco, and sent her thought +along the trail to turn the strangers back; but what is the thought of +one woman against six hundred men! It reached nobody but the lad Perico, +and shook him with a midnight terror, so that he screamed and threw +himself about. The Spaniards came running with book and bell, for the +priest thought the boy was plagued by a devil. But the soldiers thought +it was all a pretense to save himself from being punished for not +knowing the trail to Cofachique. + +"Nobody really knew it, because the Cofachiquans, who were at war with +Cofaque, had hidden it as a fox covers the trail to her lair. But after +beating about among the sloughs and swamps like a rabbit in a net, and +being reduced to a ration of eighteen grains of corn, the Spaniards came +to the river about a day's journey above the place where Lucas de +Ayllon's men had died. They caught a few stray Indians, who allowed +themselves to be burnt rather than show the way to their towns,--for so +the Cacica had ordered them,--and at last the expedition came to a +village where there was corn." + +"But I shouldn't think the Indians would give it to them," said Dorcas. + +"Indians never refuse food, if they have it, even to their enemies," +said the Princess. + +The children could see that this part of the story was not pleasant +remembering for the Lady of Cofachique. She pushed the pearls away as +though they wearied her, and her women came crowding at her shoulder +with soft, commiserating noises like doves. They were beautiful and +young like her, and wore the white dress of Cofachique, a skirt of +mulberry fiber and an upper garment that went over the left shoulder and +left the right arm bare except for the looped bracelets of shell and +pearl. Their long hair lay sleek across their bosoms and, to show that +they were privileged to wait upon the Chief Woman, they had each a +single egret's plume in the painted bandeau about her forehead. + +"Far-Looking was both aunt and chief to me," said the Princess; "it was +not for me to question what she did. Our country had been long at war +with Cofaque, at cost of men and corn. And Soto, as he came through that +country, picked up their War Leader Patofa, and the best of their +fighting men, for they had persuaded him that only by force would he get +anything from the Cacica of Cofachique. The truth was that it was only +by trusting to the magic of the white men that Patofa could get to us. +The Adelantado allowed him to pillage such towns as they found before he +thought better of it and sent Patofa and his men back to Cofaque, but by +that time the thing had happened which made the Cacica's second plan +impossible. Our fighting men had seen what the Spaniards could do, and I +had seen what they could be." + +Proudly as she said it, the children could see, by the way the Princess +frowned to herself and drummed with her fingers on the cypress wood, +that the old puzzle of the strangers who were neither gods nor men +worked still in her mind. + +"The Cacica's first plan," she went on, "which had been to lose them in +the swamps and savannahs, had failed. Her second was to receive them +kindly and then serve them as she had served Ayllon. + +"They made their camp at last across the river from Talimeco, and I with +my women went out to meet them as a great Cacique should be met, in a +canoe with an awning, with fan-bearers and flutes and drums. I saw that +I pleased him," said the Princess. "I gave him the pearls from my neck, +and had from him a ring from his finger set with a red stone. He was a +handsome and a gallant gentleman, knowing what was proper toward +Princesses." + +"And all this time you were planning to kill him?" said Dorcas, shocked. + +The Princess shook her head. + +"Not I, but the Cacica. She told me nothing. Talimeco was a White Town; +how should I know that she planned killing in it. She sat in the Place +of the Silences working her mischief and trusted me to keep the +Spaniards charmed and unsuspicious. How should I know what she meant? I +am chief woman of Cofachique, but I am not far-looking. + +"I showed the Adelantado the god-house with its dead Caciques all +stuffed with pearls, and the warrior-house where the arms of Ayllon were +laid up for a trophy. It would have been well for him to be contented +with these things. I have heard him say they would have been a fortune +in his own country, but he was bitten with the love of gold and mad with +it as if a water moccasin had set its fangs in him. I had no gold, and I +could not help him to get Far-Looking into his power. + +"That was his plan always, to make the chief person of every city his +hostage for the safety of his men. I would have helped him if I could," +the Princess admitted, "for I thought him glorious, but the truth was, I +did not know. + +"There was a lad, Islay, brought up with me in the house of my aunt, the +Cacica, who went back and forth to her with messages to the Place of the +Silences, and him I drove by my anger to lead the Spaniards that way. +But as he went he feared her anger coming to meet him more than he +feared mine that waited him at home. One day while the Spanish soldiers +who were with him admired the arrows which he showed them in his quiver, +so beautifully made, he plunged the sharpest of them into his throat. He +was a poor thing," said the Princess proudly, "since he loved neither me +nor my aunt enough to serve one of us against the other. We succeeded +only in serving Soto, for now there was no one to carry word for the +Cacica to the men who were to fall upon the Spaniards and destroy them +as they had destroyed Ayllon. + +"Perhaps," said the Princess, "if she had told me her plan and her +reason for it, things would have turned out differently. At any rate, +she need not have become, as she did finally, my worst enemy, and died +fighting me. At that time she was as mother and chief to me, and I could +never have wished her so much bitterness as she must have felt sitting +unvisited in the Place of the Silences, while I took the Adelantado +pearling, and the fighting men, who should have fallen upon him at her +word, danced for his entertainment. + +"She had to come out at last to find what had happened to Islay, for +whose death she blamed me, and back she went without a word to me, like +a hot spider to spin a stronger web. This time she appealed to +Tuscaloosa. They were of one mind in many things, and between them they +kept all the small tribes in tribute. + +"It was about the time of the year when they should be coming with it +along the Tribute Road, and the Cacica sent them word that if they could +make the Spaniards believe that there was gold in their hills, she would +remit the tribute for one year. There was not much for them to do, for +there were hatchets and knives in the tribute, made of copper, in which +Soto thought he discovered gold. It may be so: once he had suspected it, +I could not keep him any longer at Talimeco. The day that he set out +there went another expedition secretly from the Cacica to Tuscaloosa. +'These men,' said the message, 'must be fought by men.' And Tuscaloosa +smiled as he heard it, for it was the first time that the Cacica had +admitted there was anything that could not be done by a woman. But at +that she had done her cleverest thing, because, though they were +friends, the Black Warrior wanted nothing so much as an opportunity to +prove that he was the better warrior. + +"It was lovely summer weather," said the Princess, "as the Spaniards +passed through the length of Cofachique; the mulberry trees were +dripping with ripe fruit, the young corn was growing tall, and the +Indians were friendly. They passed over the Blue Ridge where it breaks +south into woody hills. Glossy leaves of the live-oak made the forest +spaces vague with shadows; bright birds like flame hopped in and out and +hid in the hanging moss, whistling clearly; groves of pecans and walnuts +along the river hung ropy with long streamers of the purple muscadines. + +"You have heard," said the Lady of Cofachique, hesitating for the first +time in her story, and yet looking so much the Princess that the +children would never have dared think anything displeasing to her, "that +I went a part of the way with the Adelantado on the Tribute Road?" Her +lovely face cleared a little as they shook their heads. + +"It is not true," she said, "that I went for any reason but my own wish +to learn as much as possible of the wisdom of the white men and to keep +my own people safe in the towns they passed through. I had my own women +about me, and my own warriors ran in the woods on either side, and +showed themselves to me in the places where the expedition halted, +unsuspected by Soto. It was as much as any Spaniard could do to tell one +half-naked Indian from another. + +"The pearls, too,"--she touched the casket with her foot,--"the finest +that Soto had selected from the god-house, I kept by me. I never meant +to let them go, though there were some of them I gave to a soldier ... +there were slaves, too, of Soto's who found the free life of Cofachique +more to their liking than the fruitless search for gold...." + +"She means," said the Snowy Egret, seeing that the Princess did not +intend to say any more on that point, "that she gave them for bribes to +one of Soto's men, a great bag full, though there came a day when he +needed the bag more than the pearls and he left them scattered on the +floor of the forest. It was about the slaves who went with her when she +gave Soto the slip in the deep woods, that she quarreled afterward with +the old Cacica." + +"At the western border of Cofachique, which is the beginning of +Tuscaloosa's land," went on the Princess, "I came away with my women and +my pearls; we walked in the thick woods and we were gone. Where can a +white man look that an Indian cannot hide from him? It is true that I +knew by this time that the Cacica had sent to Tuscaloosa, but what was +that to me? The Adelantado had left of his own free will, and I was not +then Chief Woman of Cofachique. At the first of the Tuscaloosa towns the +Black Warrior awaited them. He sat on the piazza of his house on the +principal mound. He sat as still as the Cacica in the Place of Silences, +a great turban stiff with pearls upon his head, and over him the +standard of Tuscaloosa like a great round fan on a slender stem, of fine +feather-work laid on deerskin. While the Spaniards wheeled and raced +their horses in front of him, trying to make an impression, Soto could +not get so much as the flick of an eyelash out of the Black Warrior. +Gentleman of Spain as he was and the King's own representative, he had +to dismount at last and conduct himself humbly. + +"The Adelantado asked for obedience to his King, which Tuscaloosa said +he was more used to getting than giving. When Soto wished for food and +carriers, Tuscaloosa gave him part, and, dissembling, said the rest were +at his capital of Mobila. Against the advice of his men Soto consented +to go there with him. + +"It was a strong city set with a stockade of tree-trunks driven into the +ground, where they rooted and sent up great trees in which wild pigeons +roosted. It was they that had seen the runners of Cofachique come in +with the message from Far-Looking. All the wood knew, and the Indians +knew, but not the Spaniards. Some of them suspected. They saw that the +brush had been cut from the ground outside the stockade, as if +for battle. + +"One of them took a turn through the town and met not an old man nor any +children. There were dancing women, but no others. This is the custom of +the Indians when they are about to fight,--they hide their families. + +"Soto was weary of the ground," said the Princess. "This we were told by +the carriers who escaped and came back to Cofachique. He wished to sit +on a cushion and sleep in a bed again. He came riding into the town with +the Cacique on a horse as a token of honor, though Tuscaloosa was so +tall that they had trouble finding a horse that could keep his feet from +the ground, and it must have been as pleasant for him as riding a lion +or a tiger. But he was a great chief, and if the Spaniards were not +afraid to ride neither would he seem to be. So they came to the +principal house, which was on a mound. All the houses were of two +stories, of which the upper was open on the sides, and used for +sleeping. Soto sat with Tuscaloosa in the piazza and feasted; dancing +girls came out in the town square with flute-players, and danced for +the guard. + +"But one of Soto's men, more wary than the rest, walked about, and saw +that the towers of the wall were full of fighting men. He saw Indians +hiding arrows behind palm branches. + +"Back he went to the house where Soto was, to warn him, but already the +trouble had begun. Tuscaloosa, making an excuse, had withdrawn into the +house, and when Soto wished to speak to him sent back a haughty answer. +Soto would have soothed him, but one of Soto's men, made angry with the +insolence of the Indian who had brought the Cacique's answer, seized the +man by his cloak, and when the Indian stepped quickly out of it, +answered as quickly with his sword. Suddenly, out of the dark houses, +came a shower of arrows." + +"It was the plan of the Cacica of Cofachique," explained the Egret. "The +men of Mobila had meant to fall on the Spaniards while they were eating, +but because of the Spanish gentleman's bad temper, the battle began +too soon." + +"It was the only plan of hers that did not utterly fail," said the +Princess, "for with all her far-looking she could not see into the +Adelantado's heart. Soto and his guard ran out of the town, every one +with, an arrow sticking in him, to join themselves to the rest of the +expedition which had just come up. Like wasps out of a nest the Indians +poured after them. They caught the Indian carriers, who were just easing +their loads under the walls. With every pack and basket that the +Spaniards had, they carried them back into the town, and the gates of +the stockade were swung to after them." + +"All night," said the Egret, "the birds were scared from their roost by +the noise of the battle. Several of the horses were caught inside the +stockade; these the Indians killed quickly. The sound of their dying +neighs was heard at all the rookeries along the river." + +"The wild tribes heard of it, and brought us word," said the Princess. +"Soto attacked and pretended to withdraw. Out came the Indians after +him. The Spaniards wheeled again and did terrible slaughter. They came +at the stockade with axes; they fired the towers. The houses were all of +dry cane and fine mats of cane for walls; they flashed up in smoke and +flame. Many of the Indians threw themselves into the flames rather than +be taken. At the last there were left three men and the dancing women. +The women came into the open by the light of the burning town, with +their hands crossed before them. They stood close and hid the men with +their skirts, until the Spaniards came up, and then parted. So the last +men of Mobila took their last shots and died fighting." + +"Is that the end?" said Oliver, seeing the Princess gather up her pearls +and the Egret preparing to tuck her bill under her wing. He did not feel +very cheerful over it. + +"It was the end of Mobila and the true end of the expedition," said the +Princess. Rising she beckoned to her women. She had lost all interest in +a story which had no more to do with Cofachique. + +"Both sides lost," said the Egret, "and that was the sad part of it. All +the Indians were killed; even the young son of Tuscaloosa was found with +a spear sticking in him. Of the Spaniards but eighteen died, though few +escaped unwounded. But they lost everything they had, food, medicines, +tools, everything but the sword in hand and the clothes they stood in. +And while they lay on the bare ground recovering from their wounds came +Juan Ortiz, who had been sent seaward for that purpose, with word that +Maldonado lay with the ships off the bay of Mobila,--that's Mobile, you +know,--not six days distant, to carry them back to Havana. + +"And how could Soto go back defeated? No gold, no pearls, no conquests, +not so much as a map, even,--only rags and wounds and a sore heart. In +spite of everything he was both brave and gallant, and he knew his duty +to the King of Spain. He could not go back with so poor a report of the +country to which he had been sent to establish the fame and might of His +Majesty. Forbidding Juan Ortiz to tell the men about the ships, with +only two days' food and no baggage, he turned away from the coast, from +his home and his wife and safe living, toward the Mississippi. He had no +hope in his heart, I think, but plenty of courage. And if you like," +said the Egret, "another day we will tell you how he died there." + +"Oh, no, please," said Dorcas, "it is so very sad; and, besides," she +added, remembering the picture of Soto's body being lowered at night +into the dark water, "it is in the School History." + +"In any case," said the Egret, "he was a brave and gallant gentleman, +kind to his men and no more cruel to the Indians than they were to one +another. There was only one of the gentlemen of Spain who never had +_any_ unkindness to his discredit. That was Cabeza de Vaca; he was one +of Narvaez's men, and the one from whom Soto first heard of +Florida,--but that is also a sad story." + +Neither of the children said anything. The Princess and her women lost +themselves in the shadowy wood. The gleam here and there of their white +dresses was like the wing of tall white birds. The sun sailing toward +noon had burnt the color out of the sky into the deep water which could +be seen cradling fresh and blue beyond the islets. One by one the +pelicans swung seaward, beating their broad wings all in time like the +stroke of rowers, going to fish in the clean tides outside of +the lagoons. + +The nests of the flamingoes lay open to the sun except where here and +there dozed a brooding mother. + +"Don't you know any not-sad stories?" asked Dorcas, as the Egret showed +signs again of tucking her head under her wing. + +"Not about the Iron Shirts," said the Egret. "Spanish or Portuguese or +English; it was always an unhappy ending for the Indians." + +"Oh," said Dorcas, disappointed; and then she reflected, "If they hadn't +come, though, I don't suppose we would be here either." + +"I'll tell you," said the Man-of-War Bird, who was a great traveler, +"they didn't all land on this coast. Some of them landed in Mexico and +marched north into your country. I've heard things from gulls at Panuco. +You don't know what the land birds might be able to tell you." + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIII + +HOW THE IRON SHIRTS CAME LOOKING FOR THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA; TOLD BY +THE ROAD-RUNNER + + +From Cay Verde in the Bahamas to the desert of New Mexico, by the Museum +trail, is around a corner and past two windows that look out upon the +west. As the children stood waiting for the Road-Runner to notice them, +they found the view not very different from the one they had just left. +Unending, level sands ran into waves, and strange shapes of rocks loomed +through the desert blueness like steep-shored islands. It was vast and +terrifying like the sea, and yet a very pleasant furred and feathered +life appeared to be going on there between the round-headed cactus, with +its cruel fishhook thorns, and the warning, blood-red blossoms that +dripped from the ocatilla. Little frisk-tailed things ran up and down +the spiney shrubs, and a woodpecker, who had made his nest in its pithy +stalk, peered at them from a tall _sahuaro_. + +The Road-Runner tilted his long rudder-like tail, flattened his crested +head until it reminded them of a wicked snake, and suddenly made up his +mind to be friendly. + +"Come inside and get your head in the shade," he invited. "There's no +harm in the desert sun so long as you keep something between it and your +head. I've known Indians to get along for days with only the shade of +their arrows." + +The children snuggled under the feathery shadow of the mesquite beside +him. + +"We're looking for the trail of the Iron Shirts," said Oliver. "Alvar +Nunez Cabeza de Vaca," added Dorcas Jane, who always remembered names. +The Road-Runner ducked once or twice by way of refreshing his memory. + +"There was a black man with him, and they went about as Medicine Men to +the Indians who believed in them, and at the same time treated them very +badly. But that was nearly four hundred years ago, and they never came +into this part of the country, only into Texas. And they hadn't any iron +shirts either, scarcely anything to put either on their backs or into +their stomachs." + +"Nevertheless," quavered a voice almost under Oliver's elbow, "they +brought the iron shirts, and the long-tailed elk whose hooves are always +stumbling among our burrows." + +The children had to look close to make out the speckled fluff of +feathers hunched at the door of its _hogan_. + +"Meet my friend Thla-po-po-ke-a," said the Road-Runner, who had picked +up his manners from miners and cowboys as well as from Spanish +explorers. + +The Burrowing Owl bobbed in her own hurried fashion. "Often and often," +she insisted with a whispering _whoo-oo_ running through all the +sentences, "I've heard the soldiers say that it was Cabeza de Vaca put +it into the head of the King of Spain to send Francisco Coronado to look +for the Seven Cities. In my position one hears the best of everything," +went on Po-po-ke-a. "That is because all the important things happen +next to the ground. Men are born and die on the ground, they spread +their maps, they dream dreams." + +The children could see how this would be in a country where there was +never a house or a tree and scarcely anything that grew more than +knee-high to a man. The long sand-swells, and the shimmer of heat-waves +in the air looked even more like the sea now that they were level with +it. Off to the right what seemed a vast sheet of water spread out like +quicksilver on the plain; it moved with a crawling motion, and a coyote +that trotted across their line of vision seemed to swim in it, his head +just showing above the slight billows. + +"It's only mirage," said the Road-Runner; "even Indians are fooled by it +if they are strange to the country. But it is quite true about the +ground being the place to hear things. All day the Iron Shirts would +ride in a kind of doze of sun and weariness. But when they sat at meals, +loosening their armor buckles, then there would be news. We used to run +with it from one camp to another--I can run faster than a horse can +walk--until the whole mesa would hear of it." + +"But the night is the time for true talking," insisted Po-po-ke-a. "It +was then we heard that when Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain he made one +report of his wanderings to the public, and a secret report to the King. +Also that the Captain-General asked to be sent on that expedition +because he had married a young wife who needed much gold." + +"At that time we had not heard of gold," said the Road-Runner; "the +Spaniards talked so much of it we thought it must be something good to +eat, but it turned out to be only yellow stones. But it was not all +Cabeza de Vaca's doing. There was another story by an Indian, Tejo, who +told the Governor of Mexico that he remembered going with his father to +trade in the Seven Cities, which were as large as the City of Mexico, +with whole streets of silver workers, and blue turquoises over +the doors." + +"If there is a story about it--" began Oliver, looking from one to the +other invitingly, and catching them looking at each other in the +same fashion. + +"Brother, there is a tail to you," said the Burrowing Owl quickly, which +seemed to the children an unnecessary remark, since the Road-Runner's +long, trim tail was the most conspicuous thing about him. It tipped and +tilted and waggled almost like a dog's, and answered every purpose of +conversation. + +Now he ducked forward on both legs in an absurd way he had. "To you, my +sister--" which is the polite method of story asking in that part of +the country. + +"My word bag is as empty as my stomach," said Po-po-ke-a, who had eaten +nothing since the night before and would not eat until night again. +"_Sons eso_--to your story." + +"_Sons eso, tse-na_," said the Road-Runner, and began. + +"First," he said, "to Hawikuh, a city of the Zunis, came Estevan, the +black man who had been with Cabeza de Vaca, with a rattle in his hand +and very black behavior. Him the Indians killed, and the priest who was +with him they frightened away. Then came Coronado, with an army from +Mexico, riding up the west coast and turning east from the River of the +Brand, the one that is now called Colorado, which is no name at all, for +all the rivers hereabout run red after rain. They were a good company of +men and captains, and many of those long-tailed elk,--which are called +horses, sister," said the Road-Runner aside to Po-po-ke-a,--"and the +Indians were not pleased to see them." + +"That was because there had been a long-tailed star seen over +To-ya-lanne, the sacred mountain, some years before, one of the kind +that is called Trouble-Bringer. They thought of it when they looked at +the long tails of the new-fashioned elk," said Po-po-ke-a, who had not +liked being set right about the horses. + +"In any case," went on the Road-Runner, "there was trouble. Hawikuh was +one of these little crowded pueblos, looking as if it had been crumpled +together and thrown away, and though there were turquoises over the +doors, they were poor ones, and there was no gold. And as Hawikuh, so +they found all the cities of Cibola, and the cities of the Queres, east +to the River of White Rocks." + +Dorcas Jane nudged Oliver to remind him of the Corn Woman and +Tse-tse-yote. All the stories of that country, like the trails, seemed +to run into one another. + +"Terrible things happened around Tiguex and at Cicuye, which is now +Pecos," said the Road-Runner, "for the Spaniards were furious at finding +no gold, and the poor Indians could never make up their minds whether +these were gods to be worshiped, or a strange people coming to conquer +them, who must be fought. They were not sure whether the iron shirts +were to be dreaded as magic, or coveted as something they could use +themselves. As for the horses, they both feared and hated them. But +there was one man who made up his mind very quickly. + +"He was neither Queres nor Zuni, but a plainsman, a captive of their +wars. He was taller than our men, leaner and sharp-looking. His god was +the Morning Star. He made sacrifices to it. The Spaniards called him the +Turk, saying he looked like one. We did not know what that meant, for we +had only heard of turkeys which the Queres raised for their feathers, +and he was not in the least like one of these. But he knew that the +Spaniards were men, and was almost a match for them. He had the +Inknowing Thought." + +The Road-Runner cocked his head on one side and observed the children, +to see if they knew what this meant. + +"Is it anything like far-looking?" asked Dorcas. + +"It is something none of my people ever had," said the Road-Runner. "The +Indian who was called the Turk could look in a bowl of water in the sun, +or in the water of the Stone Pond, and he could see things that happened +at a distance, or in times past. He proved to the Spaniards that he +could do this, but their priests said it was the Devil and would have +nothing to do with it, which was a great pity. He could have saved them +a great deal." + +"_Hoo, hoo_!" said the Burrowing Owl; "he could not even save himself; +and none of the things he told to the Spaniards were true." + +"He was not thinking for himself," said the Road-Runner, "but for his +people. The longer he was away from them the more he thought, and his +thoughts were good, even though he did not tell the truth to the Iron +Shirts. They, at least, did not deserve it. For when the people of Zuni +and Cicuye and Tiguex would not tell them where the sacred gold was hid, +there were terrible things done. That winter when the days were cold, +the food was low and the soldiers fretful. Many an Indian kept the +secret with his life." + +"Did the Indians really know where the gold was?" The children knew +that, according to the geographies, there are both gold and silver in +New Mexico. + +"Some of them did, but gold was sacred to them. They called it the stone +of the Sun, which they worshiped, and the places where it was found were +holy and secret. They let themselves be burned rather than tell. +Besides, they thought that if the Spaniards were convinced there was no +gold, they would go away the sooner. One thing they were sure of: gods +or men, it would be better for the people of the pueblos if they went +away. Day and night the _tombes_ would be sounding in the kivas, and +prayer plumes planted in all the sacred places. Then it was that the +Turk went to the Caciques sitting in council. + +"'If the strangers should hear that there is gold in my country, there +is nothing would keep them from going there.' + +"'That is so,' said the Caciques. + +"'And if they went to my country,' said the Turk, 'who but I could guide +them?' + +"'And how long,' said the Caciques, 'do you think a guide would live +after they discovered that he had lied?' For they knew very well there +was no gold in the Turk's country. + +"'I should at least have seen my own land,' said the Turk, 'and here I +am a slave to you.' + +"The Caciques considered. Said they, 'It is nothing to us where and how +you die.' + +"So the Turk caused himself to be taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and +talked among them, until it was finally brought to the Captain-General's +ears that in the Turk's country of Quivira, the people ate off plates of +gold, and the Chief of that country took his afternoon nap under a tree +hung with golden bells that rung him to sleep. Also that there was a +river there, two leagues wide, and that the boats carried twenty rowers +to a side with the Chief under the awning." "That at least was true," +said the Burrowing Owl; "there were towns on the Missi-sippu where the +Chiefs sat in balconies on high mounds and the women fanned them with +great fans." + +"Not in Quivira, which the Turk claimed for his own country. But it all +worked together, for when the Spaniards learned that the one thing was +true, they were the more ready to believe the other. It was always easy +to get them to believe any tale which had gold in it. They were so eager +to set out for Quivira that they could scarcely be persuaded to take +food enough, saying they would have all the more room on their horses +for the gold. + +"They forded the Rio Grande near Tiguex, traveled east to Cicuye on the +Pecos River, and turned south looking for the Turk's country, which is +not in that direction." + +"But why--" began Oliver. + +"Look!" said the Road-Runner. + +The children saw the plains of Texas stretching under the heat haze, +stark sand in wind-blown dunes, tall stakes of _sahuaro_ marching wide +apart, hot, trackless sand in which a horse's foot sinks to the fetlock, +and here and there raw gashes in the earth for rivers that did not run, +except now and then in fierce and ungovernable floods. Northward the +plains passed out of sight in trackless, grass-covered prairies, day's +journey upon day's journey. + +"It was the Caciques' idea that the Turk was to lose the strangers +there, or to weaken them beyond resistance by thirst and hunger and +hostile tribes. But the buffalo had come south that winter for the early +grass. They were so thick they looked like trees walking, to the +Spaniards as they lay on the ground and saw the sky between their huge +bodies and the flat plain. And the wandering bands of Querechos that the +Expedition met proved friendly. They were the same who had known Cabeza +de Vaca, and they had a high opinion of white men. They gave the +Spaniards food and proved to them that it was much farther to the cities +of the Missisippu than the Turk had said. + +"By that time Coronado had himself begun to suspect that he should never +find the golden bells of Quivira, but with the King and Dona Beatris +behind him, there was nothing for him to do but go forward. He sent the +army back to Tiguex, and, with thirty men and all the best horses, +turned north in as straight a track as the land permitted, to the Turk's +country. And all that journey he kept the Turk in chains. + +"Even though he had not succeeded in getting rid of the Iron Shirts, the +Turk was not so disappointed as he might have been. The Caciques did not +know it, but killing the strangers or losing them had been only a part +of his plan. + +"All that winter at Tiguex the Turk had seen the horses die, or grow +sick and well again; some of them had had colts, and he had come to the +conclusion that they were simply animals like elk or deer, only +more useful. + +"The Turk was a Pawnee, one of those roving bands that build grass +houses and follow the buffalo for food. They ran the herds into a +_piskune_ below a bluff, over which they rushed and were killed. +Sometimes the hunters themselves were caught in the rush and trampled. +It came into the Turk's mind, as he watched the Spaniards going to hunt +on horseback, that the Morning Star, to whom he made sacrifices for his +return from captivity, had sent him into Zuni to learn about horses, and +take them back to his people. Whatever happened to the Iron Shirts on +that journey, he had not meant to lose the horses. Even though suspected +and in chains he might still do a great service to his people. + +"When the Querechos were driving buffalo, some of the horses were caught +up in the 'surround,' carried away with the rush of the stampeding herd, +and never recovered. Others that broke away in a terrible hailstorm +succeeded in getting out of the ravine where the army had taken shelter, +and no one noticed that it was always at the point where the Turk was +helping to herd them, that the horses escaped. Even after he was put in +chains and kept under the General's eye on the way to Quivira, now and +then there would be a horse, usually a mare with a colt, who slipped her +stake-rope. Little gray coyotes came in the night and gnawed them. But +coyotes will not gnaw a rope unless it has been well rubbed with buffalo +fat," said the Road-Runner. + +"I should have thought the Spaniards would have caught him at it," said +Oliver. + +"White men, when they are thinking of gold," said the Road-Runner, "are +particularly stupid about other things. There was a man of the Wichitas, +a painted Indian called Ysopete, who told them from the beginning that +the Turk lied about the gold. But the Spaniards preferred to believe +that the Indians were trying to keep the gold for themselves. They did +not see that the Turk was losing their horses one by one; no more did +they see, as they neared Quivira, that every day he called his people. + +"There are many things an Indian can do and a white man not catch him at +it. The Turk would sit and feed the fire at evening, now a bundle of dry +brush and then a handful of wet grass, smoke and smudge, such as hunters +use to signal the movements of the quarry. He would stand listening to +the captains scold him, and push small stones together with his foot for +a sign. He could slip in the trail and break twigs so that Pawnees could +read. When strange Indians were brought into camp, though he could only +speak to them in the language of signs, he asked for a Pawnee called +Running Elk, who had been his friend before he was carried captive into +Zuni Land. They had mingled their blood after the custom of friendship +and were more than brothers to one another. And though the Iron Shirts +looked at him with more suspicion every day, he was almost happy. He +smelled sweet-grass and the dust of his own country, and spoke face to +face with the Morning Star. + +"I do not understand about stars," said the Road-Runner. "It seems that +some of them travel about and do not look the same from different +places. In Zuni Land where there are mountains, the Turk was not always +sure of his god, but in the Pawnee country it is easily seen that he is +the Captain of the Sky. You can lie on the ground there and lose sight +of the earth altogether. Mornings the Turk would look up from his chains +to see his Star, white against the rosy stain, and was comforted. It was +the Star, I suppose, that brought him his friend. + +"For four or five days after Running Elk discovered that the Turk was +captive to the Iron Shirts, he would lurk in the tall grass and the +river growth, making smoke signals. Like a coyote he would call at +night, and though the Turk heard him, he dared not answer. Finally he +hit upon the idea of making songs. He would sing and nobody could +understand him but Running Elk, who lay in the grass, and finally had +courage to come into the camp in broad day, selling buffalo meat and +wild plums. + +"There was a bay mare with twin colts that the Turk wished him to loose +from her rope and drive away, but Running Elk was afraid. Cold mornings +the Indian could see the smoke of the horses' nostrils and thought that +they breathed fire. But the Turk made his friend believe at last that +the horse is a great gift to man, by the same means that he had made the +Spaniards think him evil, by the In-knowing Thought. + +"'It is as true,' said the Turk, 'that the horse is only another sort of +elk, as that my wife is married again and my son died fighting the +Ho-he.' All of which was exactly as it had happened, for his wife had +never expected that he would come back from captivity. 'It is also +true,' the Turk told him, 'that very soon I shall join my son.' + +"For he was sure by this time that when the Spaniards had to give up the +hope of gold, they would kill him. He told Running Elk all the care of +horses as he had learned it, and where he thought those that had been +lost from Coronado's band might be found. Of the Iron Shirts, he said +that they were great Medicine, and the Pawnees were by all means to get +one or two of them. + +"By this time the Expedition had reached the country of the Wichitas, +which is Quivira, and there was no gold, no metal of any sort but a +copper gorget around the Chief's neck, and a few armbands. The night +that Coronada bought the Chief's gorget to send to his king, as proof +that he had found no gold, Running Elk heard the Turk singing. It was no +song of secret meaning; it was his own song, such as a man makes to sing +when he sees his death facing him. + +"All that night the Turk waited in his chains for the rising of his +Star. There was something about which he must talk to it. He had made a +gift of the horse to his people, but there was no sacrifice to wash away +all that was evil in the giving and make it wholly blessed. All night +the creatures of the earth heard the Turk whisper at his praying, asking +for a sacrifice. + +"And when the Star flared white before the morning, a voice was in the +air saying that he himself was to be the sacrifice. It was the voice of +the Morning Star walking between the hills, and the Turk was happy. The +doves by the water-courses heard him with the first flush of the dawn +waking the Expedition with his death song. Loudly the Spaniards swore at +him, but he sang on steadily till they came to take him before the +General, whose custom it was to settle all complaints the first thing in +the morning. The soldiers thought that since it was evident the Turk had +purposely misled them about the gold and other things, he ought to die +for it. The General was in a bad humor. One of his best mares with her +colts had frayed her stake-rope on a stone that night and escaped. +Nevertheless, being a just man, he asked the Turk if he had anything to +say. Upon which the Turk told them all that the Caciques had said, and +what he himself had done, all except about the horses, and especially +about the bay mare and Running Elk. About that he was silent. He kept +his eyes upon the Star, where it burned white on the horizon. It was at +its last wink, paling before the sun, when they killed him." + +The children drew a long breath that could hardly be distinguished from +the soft whispering _whoo-hoo_ of the Burrowing Owl. + +"So in spite of his in-knowing he could not save himself," Dorcas Jane +insisted, "and his Star could not save him. If he had looked in the +earth instead of the heavens he would have found gold and the Spaniards +would have given him all the horses he wanted." + +"You forget," said the Road-Runner, "that he knew no more than the Iron +Shirts did, where the gold was to be found. There were not more than two +or three in any one of the Seven Cities that ever knew. Ho-tai of +Matsaki was the last of those, and his own wife let him be killed rather +than betray the secret of the Holy Places." + +"Oh, if you please--" began the children. + +"It is a town story," said the Road-Runner, "but the Condor that has his +nest on El Morro, he might tell you. He was captive once in a cage at +Zuni." The Road-Runner balanced on his slender legs and cocked his head +trailwise. Any kind of inactivity bored him dreadfully. The burrowing +owls were all out at the doors of their _hogans_, their heads turning +with lightning swiftness from side to side; the shadows were long in the +low sun. "It is directly in the trail from the Rio Grande to Acoma, the +old trail to Zuni," said the Road-Runner, and without waiting to see +whether or not the children followed him, he set off. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIV + +HOW THE MAN OF TWO HEARTS KEPT THE SECRET OF THE HOLY PLACES; TOLD BY +THE CONDOR + +"In the days of our Ancients," said the Road-Runner between short +skimming runs, "this was the only trail from the river to the Middle Ant +Hill of the World. The eastern end of it changed like the tip of a wild +gourd vine as the towns moved up and down the river or the Queres +crossed from Katzimo to the rock of Acoma; but always Zuni was the root, +and the end of the first day's journey was the Rock." + +Each time he took his runs afresh, like a kicking stick in a race, and +waited for the children to catch up. The sands as they went changed from +gray to gleaming pearl; on either side great islands of stone thinned +and swelled like sails and took on rosy lights and lilac shadows. + +They crossed a high plateau with somber cones of extinct volcanoes, +crowding between rivers of block rock along its rim. Northward a +wilderness of pines guarded the mesa; dark junipers, each one with a +secret look, browsed wide apart. They thickened in the canyons from which +arose the white bastions of the Rock. + +Closer up, El Morro showed as the wedge-shaped end of a high mesa, +soaring into cliffs and pinnacles, on the very tip of which they could +just make out the hunched figure of the great Condor. + +"El Morro, 'the Castle,' the Spaniards called it," said the Road-Runner, +casting himself along the laps of the trail like a feathered dart. "But +to our Ancients it was always 'The Rock.' On winter journeys they camped +on the south side to get the sun, and in summers they took the shade on +the north. They carved names and messages for those that were to come +after, with flint knives, with swords and Spanish daggers. Men are all +very much alike," said the Road-Runner. + +On the smooth sandstone cliffs the children could make out strange, +weathered picture-writings, and twisty inscriptions in much abbreviated +Spanish which they could not read. + +The white sand at the foot of the Rock was strewn with flakes of +charcoal from the fires of ancient camps. A little to the south of the +cliff, that towered two hundred feet and more above them, shallow +footholds were cut into the sandstone. + +"There were pueblos at the top in the old days," said the Road-Runner, +"facing across a deep divide, but nobody goes there now except owls that +have their nests in the ruins, and the last of the Condors, who since +old time have made their home in the pinnacles of the Rock. He'll have +seen us coming." The children looked up as a sailing shadow began to +circle about them on the evening-colored sands. "You can see by the +frayed edges of his wing feathers that he has a long time for +remembering," said the Road-Runner. + +The great bird came slowly to earth, close by the lone pine that +tasseled out against the south side of El Morro and the Road-Runner +ducked several times politely. + +"My children, how is it with you these days?" asked the Condor with +great dignity. + +"Happy, happy, Grandfather. And you?" + +The Condor assured them that he was very happy, and seeing that no one +made any other remark, he added, after an interval, looking pointedly at +the children, "It is not thinking of nothing that strangers come to the +house of a stranger." + +"True, Grandfather," said the Road-Runner; "we are thinking of the gold, +the seed of the Sun, that the Spaniards did not find. Is there left to +you any of the remembrance of these things?" + +"_Hai, hai_!" The Condor stretched his broad wings and settled himself +comfortably on a nubbin of sandstone. "Of which of these who passed will +you hear?" He indicated the inscriptions on the rock, and then by way of +explanation he said to the children, "I am town-hatched myself. Lads of +Zuni took my egg and hatched it under a turkey hen, at the Ant Hill. +They kept my wings clipped, but once they forgot, so I came away to the +ancient home of my people. But in the days of my captivity I learned +many tales and the best manner of telling them. Also the Tellings of my +own people who kept the Rock. They fit into one another like the arrow +point to the shaft. Look!"--he pointed to an inscription protected by a +little brow of sandstone, near the lone pine. "Juan de Onate did that +when he passed to the discovery of the Sea of the South. He it was who +built the towns, even the chief town of Santa Fe. + +"There signed with his sword, Vargas, who reconquered the pueblos after +the rebellion--yes, they rebelled again and again. On the other side of +the Rock you can read how Governor Nieto carried the faith to them. They +came and went, the Iron Shirts, through two hundred years. You can see +the marks of their iron hats on some of the rafters of Zuni town to this +day, but small was the mark they left on the hearts of the Zunis." + +"Is that so!" said the Road-Runner, which is a polite way of saying that +you think the story worth going on with; and then cocking his eye at the +inscription, he hinted, "I have heard that the Long Gowns, the Padres +who came with them, were master-workers in hearts." + +"It is so," said the Condor. "I remember the first of them who managed +to build a church here, Padre Francisco Letrado. Here!" He drew their +attention to an inscription almost weathered away, and looking more like +the native picture-writings than the signature of a Spanish gentleman. +He read:-- + +"They passed on the 23d of March of 1832 years to the avenging of the +death of Father Letrado." It was signed simply "Lujan." + +"There is a Telling of that passing and of that soldier which has to do +with the gold that was never found." + +_"Sons eso,"_ said the Road-Runner, and they settled themselves to +listen. + +"About the third of a man's life would have passed between the time when +Onate came to the founding of Santa Fe, and the building of the first +church by Father Letrado. There were Padres before that, and many +baptizings. The Zunis were always glad to learn new ways of persuading +the gods to be on their side, and they thought the prayers and +ceremonies of the Padres very good Medicine indeed. They thought the +Iron Shirts were gods themselves, and when they came received them with +sprinklings of sacred meal. But it was not until Father Letrado's time +that it began to be understood that the new religion was to take the +place of their own, for to the Indians there is but one spirit in +things, as there is one life in man. They thought their own prayers as +good as any that were taught them. + +"But Father Letrado was zealous and he was old. He made a rule that all +should come to the service of his church and that they should obey him +and reverence him when they met, with bowings and kissings of his robe. +It is not easy to teach reverence to a free people, and the men of the +Ant Hill had been always free. But the worst of Father Letrado's rulings +was that there were to be no more prayers in the kivas, no dancings to +the gods nor scatterings of sacred pollen and planting of plumes. +Also--this is not known, I think--that the sacred places where the Sun +had planted the seed of itself should be told to the Padres." + +"He means the places where the gold is found mixed with the earth and +the sand," explained the Road-Runner to Dorcas Jane and Oliver. + +"In the days of the Ancients," said the Condor, "when such a place was +found, it was told to the Priests of the Bow, and kept in reverence by +the whole people. But since the Zunis had discovered what things white +men will do for gold, there had been fewer and fewer who held the +secret. The Spaniards had burnt too many of those who were suspected of +knowing, for one thing, and they had a drink which, when they gave to +the Indians, let the truth out of their mouths as it would not have gone +when they were sober. + +"At the time Father Letrado built his first chapel there was but one man +in Hawikuh who knew. + +"He was a man of two natures. His mother had been a woman of the +Matsaki, and his father one of the Onate's men, so that he was half of +the Sun and half of the Moon, as we say,--for the Zunis called the first +half-white children, Moon-children,--and his heart was pulled two ways, +as I have heard the World Encompassing Water is pulled two ways by the +Sun and the Moon. Therefore, he was called Ho-tai the Two-Hearted. + +"What finally pulled his heart out of his bosom was the love he had for +his wife. Flower-of-the-Maguey, she was called, and she was beautiful +beyond all naming. She was daughter to the Chief Priest of the Bow, and +young men from all the seven towns courted her. But though she was +lovely and quiet she was not as she seemed to be. She was a Passing +Being." The Condor thoughtfully stretched his wings as he considered how +to explain this to the children. + +"Such there are," he said. "They are shaped from within outward by their +own wills. They have the power to take the human form and leave it. But +it was not until she had been with her mother to To-yalanne, the sacred +Thunder Mountain, as is the custom when maidens reach the marriageable +age, that her power came to her. She was weary with gathering the sacred +flower pollen; she lay under a maguey in the warm sun and felt the light +airs play over her. Her breath came evenly and the wind lifted her long +hair as it lay along her sides. + +"Strangely she felt the pull of the wind on her hair, all along her +body. She looked and saw it turn short and tawny in the sun, and the +shape of her limbs fitted to the sandy hollows. Thus she understood that +she was become another being, Moke-iche, the puma. She bounded about in +the sun and chased the blue and yellow butterflies. After a time she +heard the voice of her mother calling, and it pulled at her heart. She +let her heart have way and became a maid again. But often she would +steal out after that, when the wind brought her the smell of the maguey, +or at night when the moon walked low over To-yalanne, and play as puma. +Her parents saw that she had power more than is common to maidens, but +she was wise and modest, and they loved her and said nothing. + +"'Let her have a husband and children,' they said, 'and her strangeness +will pass.' But they were very much disappointed at what happened to all +the young men who came a-courting. + +"This is the fashion of a Zuni courting: The young man says to his Old +Ones, 'I have seen the daughter of the Priest of the Bow at the Middle +Ant Hill, what think ye?' And if they said, 'Be it well!' he gathered +his presents into a bundle and went to knock at the sky-hole of her +father's house. + +"'_She_!' he said, and '_Hai_!' they answered from within. 'Help me +down,' he would say, which was to tell them that he had a bundle with +him and it was a large one. Then the mother of the girl would know what +was afoot. She would rise and pull the bundle down through the +sky-hole--all pueblo houses are entered from the top, did you not know?" +asked the Condor. + +The children nodded, not to interrupt; they had seen as they came along +the trail the high terraced houses with the ladders sticking out of the +door-holes. + +"Then there was much politeness on both sides, politeness of food +offered and eaten and questions asked, until the girl's parents were +satisfied that the match would be a good one. Finally, the Old Ones +would stretch themselves out in their corners and begin to scrape their +nostrils with their breath--thus," said the Condor, making a gentle +sound of snoring; "for it was thought proper for the young people to +have a word or two together. The girl would set the young man a task, so +as not to seem too easily won, and to prove if he were the sort of man +she wished for a husband. + +"'Only possibly you love me,' said the daughter of the Chief Priest of +the Bow. 'Go out with the light to-morrow to hunt and return with it, +bringing your kill, that I may see how much you can do for my sake.' + +"But long before light the girl would go out herself as a puma and scare +the game away. Thus it happened every time that the young man would +return at evening empty-handed, or he would be so mortified that he did +not return at all, and the girl's parents would send the bundle back to +him. The Chief Priest and his wife began to be uneasy lest their +daughter should never marry at all. + +"Finally Ho-tai of the pueblo of Matsaki heard of her, and said to his +mother, 'That is the wife for me.' + +"'_Shoom_!' said his mother; 'what have you to offer her?' for they were +very poor. + +"'_Shoom_ yourself!' said Ho-tai. 'He that is poor in spirit as well as +in appearance, is poor indeed. It is plain she is not looking for a +bundle, but for a man.' So he took what presents he had to the house of +the Chief Priest of the Bow, and everything went as usual; except that +when Ho-tai asked them to help him in, the Chief Priest said, 'Be +yourself within,' for he was growing tired of courtings that came to +nothing. But when Ho-tai came cheerfully down the ladder with his gift, +the girl's heart was touched, for he was a fine gold color like a full +moon, and his high heart gave him a proud way of walking. So when she +had said, 'Only possibly you love me, but that I may know what manner of +husband I am getting, I pray you hunt for me one day,' and when they had +bidden each other 'wait happily until the morning,' she went out as a +puma and searched the hills for game that she might drive toward the +young man, instead of away from him. But because she could not take her +eyes off of him, she was not so careful as she should be not to let him +see her. Then she went home and put on all her best clothes, the white +buckskins, the turquoises and silver bracelets, and waited. At evening, +Ho-tai, the Two-Hearted, came with a fine buck on his shoulders, and a +stiff face. Without a word he gave the buck to the Priest's wife and +turned away, '_Hai_',' said the mother, 'when a young man wins a girl he +is permitted to say a few words to her!'--for she was pleased to think +that her daughter had got a husband at last. + +"'I did not kill the buck by myself,' said Ho-tai; and he went off to +find the Chief Priest and tell him that he could not marry his daughter. +Flower-of-the-Maguey, who was in her room all this time peeking through +the curtain, took a water jar and went down to the spring where Ho-tai +could not help but pass her on his way back to his own village. + +"'I did not bring back your bundle,' she said when she saw him; 'what is +a bundle to a woman when she has found a man?' + +"Then his two hearts were sore in him, for she was lovely past all +naming. 'I do not take what I cannot win by my own labor,' said he; +'there was a puma drove up the game for me.' + +"'Who knows,' said she, 'but Those Above sent it to try if you were +honest or a braggart?' After which he began to feel differently. And in +due course they were married, and Ho-tai came to live in the house of +the Chief Priest at Hawikuh, for her parents could not think of +parting with her, + +"They were very happy," said the Condor, "for she was wisely slow as +well as beautiful, and she eased him of the struggle of his two hearts, +one against the other, and rested in her life as a woman." + +"Does that mean she wasn't a puma any more?" asked Dorcas Jane. + +The Condor nodded, turning over the Zuni words in his mind for just the +right phrase. "Understanding of all her former states came to her with +the years. There was nothing she dreaded so much as being forced out of +this life into the dust and whirl of Becoming. That is one reason why +she feared and distrusted the Spanish missionaries when they came, as +they did about that time. + +"One of her husband's two hearts pulled very strongly toward the +religion of the Spanish Padres. He was of the first that were baptized +by Father Letrado, and served the altar. He was also the first of those +upon whose mind the Padre began to work to persuade him that in taking +the new religion he must wholly give up the old. + +"At the end of that trail, a day's journey," said the Condor, indicating +the narrow foot-tread in the sand, which showed from tree to tree of the +dark junipers, and seemed to turn and disappear at every one, "lies the +valley of Shiwina, which is Zuni. + +"It is a narrow valley, watered by a muddy river. Red walls of mesas +shut it in above the dark wood. To the north lies Thunder Mountain, +wall-sided and menacing. Dust devils rise up from the plains and veil +the crags. In the winter there are snows. In the summer great clouds +gather over Shiwina and grow dark with rain. White corn tassels are +waving, blue butterfly maidens flit among the blossoming beans. + +"Day and night at midsummer, hardly the priests have their rattles out +of their hands. You hear them calling from the house-tops, and the beat +of bare feet on the dancing places. But the summer after Father Letrado +built his chapel of the Immaculate Virgin at Halona and the chapel and +parish house of the Immaculate Conception at Hawikuh, he set his face +against the Rain Dance, and especially against the Priests of the Rain. +Witchcraft and sorcery he called it, and in Zuni to be accused of +witchcraft is death. + +"The people did not know what to do. They prayed secretly where they +could. The Priests of the Rain went on with their preparations, and the +soldiers of Father Letrado--for he had a small detachment with +him--broke up the dance and profaned the sacred places. Those were hard +days for Ho-tai the Two-Hearted. The gods of the strangers were strong +gods, he said, let the people wait and see what they could do. The white +men had strong Medicine in their guns and their iron shirts and their +long-tailed, smoke-breathing beasts. They did not work as other gods. +Even if there was no rain, the white gods might have another way to save +the people. + +"These were the things Father Letrado taught him to say, and the +daughter of the Chief Priest of the Bow feared that his heart would be +quite pulled away from the people of Zuni. Then she went to her father +the Chief Priest, who was also the keeper of the secret of the Holy +Places of the Sun, and neared the dividing of the ways of life. + +"'Let Ho-tai be chosen Keeper in your place,' she said, 'so all shall be +bound together, the Medicine of the white man and the brown.' + +"'Be it well,' said the Priest of the Bow, for he was old, and had +respect for his daughter's wisdom. Feeling his feet go from him toward +the Spirit Road, he called together the Priests of the Bow, and +announced to them that Ho-tai would be Keeper in his stead. + +"Though Two-Hearted was young for the honor, they did not question it, +for, like his wife, they were jealous of the part of him that was +white--which, for her, there was no becoming--and they thought of this +as a binding together. They were not altogether sure yet that the +Spaniards were not gods, or at the least Surpassing Beings. + +"But as the rain did not come and the winter set in cold with a shortage +of corn, more and more they neglected the bowings and the reverences and +the service of the mass. Nights Father Letrado would hear the muffled +beat of the drums in the kivas where the old religion was being +observed, and because it was the only heart open to him, he twisted the +heart of Ho-tai to see if there was not some secret evil, some seed of +witchcraft at the bottom of it which he could pluck out." + +"That was great foolishness," said the Road-Runner; "no white man yet +ever got to the bottom of the heart of an Indian." + +"True," said the Condor, "but Ho-tai was half white, and the white part +of him answered to the Padre's hand. He was very miserable, and in fact, +nobody was very happy in those days in Hawikuh. Father Martin who passed +there in the moon of the Sun Returning, on his way to establish a +mission among the People of the Coarse Hanging Hair, reported to his +superior that Father Letrado was ripe for martyrdom. + +"It came the following Sunday, when only Ho-tai and a few old women came +to mass. Sick at the sound of his own voice echoing in the empty chapel, +the Padre went out to the plaza of the town to scold the people into +services. He was met by the Priests of the Rain with their bows. Being +neither a coward nor a fool, he saw what was before him. Kneeling, he +clasped his arms, still holding the crucifix across his bosom, and they +transfixed him with their arrows. + +"They went into the church after that and broke up the altar, and burned +the chapel. A party of bowmen followed the trail of Father Martin, +coming up with him after five days. That night with the help of some of +his own converts, they fell upon and killed him. There was a half-breed +among them, both whose hearts were black. He cut off the good Padre's +hand and scalped him." + +"Oh," said Oliver, "I think he ought not to have done that!" + +The Condor was thoughtful. + +"The hand, no. It had been stretched forth only in kindness. But I think +white men do not understand about scalping. I have heard them talk +sometimes, and I know they do not understand. The scalp was taken in +order that they might have the scalp dance. The dance is to pacify the +spirit of the slain. It adopts and initiates him into the tribe of the +dead, and makes him one with them, so that he will not return as a +spirit and work harm on his slayers. Also it is a notice to the gods of +the enemy that theirs is the stronger god, and to beware. The scalp +dance is a protection to the tribe of the slayer; to omit one of its +observances is to put the tribe in peril of the dead. Thus I have heard; +thus the Old Ones have said. Even Two-Hearted, though he was sad for the +killing, danced for the scalp of Father Martin. + +"Immediately it was all over, the Hawikuhkwe began to be afraid. They +gathered up their goods and fled to K'iakime, the Place of the Eagles, +on Thunder Mountain, where they had a stronghold. There were Iron Shirts +at Santa Fe and whole cities of them in the direction of the Salt +Containing Waters. Who knew what vengeance they might take for the +killing of the Padres? The Hawikuhkwe intrenched themselves, and for +nearly two years they waited and practiced their own religion in +their own way. + +"Only two of them were unhappy. These were Ho-tai of the two hearts, and +his wife, who had been called Flower-of-the-Maguey. But her unhappiness +was not because the Padres had been killed. She had had her hand in that +business, though only among the women, dropping a word here and there +quietly, as one drops a stone into a deep well. She was unhappy because +she saw that the dead hand of Father Letrado was still heavy on her +husband's heart. + +"Not that Ho-tai feared what the soldiers from Santa Fe might do to the +slayer, but what the god of the Padre might do to the whole people. For +Padre Letrado had taught him to read in the Sacred Books, and he knew +that whole cities were burned with fire for their sins. He saw doom +hanging over K'iakime, and his wife could not comfort him. After awhile +it came into his mind that it was his own sin for which the people would +be punished, for the one thing he had kept from the Padre was the secret +of the gold. + +"It is true," said the Condor, "that after the Indians had forgotten +them, white men rediscovered many of their sacred places, and many +others that were not known even to the Zunis. But there is one place on +Thunder Mountain still where gold lies in the ground in lumps like pine +nuts. If Father Letrado could have found it, he would have hammered it +into cups for his altar, and immediately the land would have been +overrun with the Spaniards. And the more Ho-tai thought of it, the more +convinced he was that he should have told him. + +"Toward the end of two years when it began to be rumored that soldiers +and new Padres were coming to K'iakime to deal with the killing of +Father Letrado, Ho-tai began to sleep more quietly at night. Then his +wife knew that he had made up his mind to tell, if it seemed necessary +to reconcile the Spaniards to his people, and it was a knife in +her heart. + +"It was her husband's honor, and the honor of her father, Chief Priest +of the Bow; and besides, she knew very well that if Ho-tai told, the +Priests of the Bow would kill him. She said to herself that her husband +was sick with the enchantments of the Padres, and she must do what she +could for him. She gave him seeds of forgetfulness." + +"Was that a secret too?" asked Dorcas, for the Condor seemed not to +remember that the children were new to that country. + +"It was _peyote_. Many know of it now, but in the days of Our Ancients +it was known only to a few Medicine men and women. It is a seed that +when eaten wipes out the past from a man's mind and gives him visions. +In time its influence will wear away, and it must be eaten anew, but if +eaten too often it steals a man's courage and his strength as well as +his memory. + +"When she had given her husband a little in his food, +Flower-of-the-Maguey found that he was like a child in her hands. + +"'Sleep,' she would say, 'and dream thus, and so,' and that is the way +it would be with him. She wished him to forget both the secret of the +gold in the ground and the fear of the Padres. + +"From the time that she heard that the Spaniards were on their way to +K'iakime, she fed him a little _peyote_ every day. To the others it +seemed that his mind walked with Those Above, and they were respectful +of him. That is how Zunis think of any kind of madness. They were not +sure that the madness had not been sent for just this occasion when they +had need of the gods, and so, as it seemed to them, it proved. + +"The Spaniards asked for parley, and the Caciques permitted the Padres +to come up into the council chambers, for they knew that the long gowns +covered no weapons. The Spaniards had learned wisdom, perhaps, and +perhaps they thought Father Letrado somewhat to blame. They asked +nothing but permission to reestablish their missions, and to have the +man who had scalped Father Martin handed over to them for +Spanish justice. + +"They sat around the wall of the kiva, with Ho-tai in his place, hearing +and seeing very little. But the parley was long, and, little by little, +the vision of his own gods which the _peyote_ had given him began to +wear away. One of the Padres rose in his place and began a long speech +about the sin of killing, and especially of killing priests. He quoted +his Sacred Books and talked of the sin in their hearts, and, little by +little, the talk laid hold on the wandering mind of Ho-tai. 'Thus, in +this killing, has the secret evil of your hearts come forth,' said the +Padre, and 'True, He speaks true,' said Ho-tai, upon which the Priests +of the Hawikuhkwe were astonished. They thought their gods spoke through +his madness. + +"Then the Padre began to exhort them to give up this evil man in their +midst and rid themselves of the consequences of sin, which he assured +them were most certain and as terrible as they were sure. Then the white +heart of Ho-tai remembered his own anguish, and spoke thickly, as a man +drunk with _peyote_ speaks. + +"'He must be given up,' he said. It seemed to them that his voice came +from the under world. + +"But there was a great difficulty. The half-breed who had done the +scalping had, at the first rumor of the soldiers coming, taken himself +away. If the Hawikuhkwe said this to the Spaniards, they knew very well +they would not be believed. But the mind of Ho-tai had begun to come +back to him, feebly as from a far journey. + +"He remembered that he had done something displeasing to the Padre, +though he did not remember what, and on account of it there was doom +over the valley of the Shiwina. He rose staggering in his place. + +"'Evil has been done, and the evil man must be cast out,' he said, and +for the first time the Padres noticed that he was half white. Not one of +them had ever seen the man who scalped Father Letrado, but it was known +that his father had been a soldier. This man was altogether such a one +as they expected. His cheeks were drawn, his hair hung matted over his +reddened eyes, as a man's might, tormented of the spirit. 'I am that +man,' said Ho-tai of the Two Hearts, and the Caciques put their hands +over their mouths with astonishment." + +"But they never," cried Oliver,--"they never let him be taken?" + +"A life for a life," said the Condor, "that is the law. It was necessary +that the Spaniards be pacified, and the slayer could not be found. +Besides, the people of Hawikuh thought Ho-tai's offer to go in his place +was from the gods. It agrees with all religions that a man may lay down +his life for his people." + +"Couldn't his wife do anything?" + +"What could she? He went of his own will and by consent of the Caciques. +But she tried what she could. She could give him _peyote_ enough so that +he should remember nothing and feel nothing of what the Spaniards should +do to him. But to do that she had to make friends with one of the +soldiers. She chose one Lujan, who had written his name on the Rock on +the way to K'iakime. By him she sent a cake to Ho-tai, and promised to +meet Lujan when she could slip away from the village unnoticed. + +"Between here and Acoma," said the Condor, "is a short cut which may be +traveled on foot, but not on horseback. Returning with Ho-tai, manacled +and fast between two soldiers, the Spaniards meant to take that trail, +and it was there the wife of Ho-tai promised to meet Lujan at the end of +the second day's travel. + +"She came in the twilight, hurrying as a puma, for her woman's heart was +too sore to endure her woman's body. Lujan had walked apart from the +camp to wait for her; smiling, he waited. She was still very beautiful, +and he thought she was in love with him. Therefore, when he saw the +long, hurrying stride of a puma in the trail, he thought it a pity so +beautiful a woman should be frightened. The arrow that he sped from his +cross-bow struck in the yellow flanks. 'Well shot,' said Lujan +cheerfully, but his voice was drowned by a scream that was strangely +like a woman's. He remembered it afterward in telling of the +extraordinary thing that had happened to him, for when he went to look, +where the great beast had leaped in air and fallen, there was nothing to +be found there. Nothing. + +"If she had been in her form as a woman when he shot her," said the +Condor, "that is what he would have found. But she was a Passing Being, +not taking form from without as we do, of the outward touchings of +things, and her shape of a puma was as mist which vanishes in death as +mist does in the sun. Thus shortens my story." + +"Come," said the Road-Runner, understanding that there would be no more +to the Telling. "The Seven Persons are out, and the trail is darkling." + +The children looked up and saw the constellation which they knew as the +Dipper, shining in a deep blue heaven. The glow was gone from the high +cliffs of El Morro, and the junipers seemed to draw secretly together. +Without a word they took hands and began to run along the trail after +the Road-Runner. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XV + +HOW THE MEDICINE OF THE ARROWS WAS BROKEN AT REPUBLICAN RIVER; TOLD BY +THE CHIEF OFFICER OF THE DOG SOLDIERS + +This is the story the Dog Soldier told Oliver one evening in April, just +after school let out, while the sun was still warm and bright on the +young grass, and yet one somehow did not care about playing. Oliver had +slipped into the Indian room by the west entrance to look at the Dog +Dancers, for the teacher had just told them that our country was to join +the big war which had been going on so long on the other side of the +Atlantic, and the boy was feeling rather excited about it, and +yet solemn. + +The teacher had told them about the brave Frenchmen, who had stood up in +the way of the enemy saying, "They shall not pass," and they hadn't. It +made Oliver think of what he had read on the Dog Dancer's card--how in a +desperate fight the officer would stick an arrow or a lance through his +long scarf, where it trailed upon the ground, pinning himself to the +earth until he was dead or his side had won the victory. + +Oliver thought that that was exactly the sort of thing that he would do +himself if he were a soldier, and when he read the card over again, he +sat on a bench with his back to the light looking at the Dog Dancers, +and feeling very friendly toward them. It had just occurred to him that +they, too, were Americans, and he liked to think of them as brave and +first-class fighters. + +From where he sat he could see quite to the end of the east corridor +which was all of a quarter of a mile away. Nobody moved in it but a +solitary guard, looking small and flat like a toy man at that distance, +and the low sun made black and yellow bars across the floor. In a moment +more, while Oliver was wondering where that woodsy, smoky smell came +from, they were all around him, all the Dog Warriors, of the four +degrees, with their skin-covered lances curved like the beak of the +Thunder Bird, and the rattles of dew-claws that clashed pleasantly +together. Some of them were painted red all over, and some wore tall +headdresses of eagle feathers, and every officer had his trailing scarf +of buckskin worked in patterns of the Sacred Four. Around every neck was +the whistle made of the wing-bone of a turkey, and every man's forehead +glistened with the sweat of his dancing. The smell that Oliver had +noticed was the smoke of their fire and the spring scent of the young +sage. It grew knee-high, pale green along the level tops, stretching +away west to the Backbone-of-the-World, whose snowy tops seemed to float +upon the evening air. Off to the right there was a river dark with +cottonwoods and willows. + +"But where are we?" Oliver wished to know, seeing them all pause in +their dancing to notice him in a friendly fashion. + +"Cheyenne Country," said one of the oldest Indians. "Over there"--he +pointed to a white thread that dipped and sidled along the easy roll of +the hills--"is the Taos Trail. It joins the Santa Fe at the Rio Grande +and goes north to the Big Muddy. It crosses all the east-flowing rivers +near their source and skirts the Pawnee Country." + +"And who are you--Cheyennes or Arapahoes?" Oliver could not be sure, +though their faces and their costumes were familiar. + +"Cheyennes _and_ Arapahoes," said the oldest Dog Dancer, easing himself +down to the buffalo robe which one of the rank and file of the warriors +had spread for him. "Camp-mates and allies, though we do not call +ourselves Cheyennes, you know. That is a Sioux name for us,--Red Words, +it means;--what you call foreign-speaking, for the Sioux cannot speak +any language but their own. We call ourselves Tsis-tsis-tas, Our Folk." +He reached back for his pipe which a young man brought him and loosened +his tobacco pouch from his belt, smiling across at Oliver, "Have you +earned your smoke, my son?" + +"I'm not allowed," said Oliver, eyeing the great pipe which he was +certain he had seen a few moments before in the Museum case. + +"Good, good," said the old Cheyenne; "a youth should not smoke until he +has gathered the bark of the oak." + +Oliver looked puzzled and the Dog Warrior smiled broadly, for gathering +oak bark is a poetic Indian way of speaking of a young warrior's +first scalping. + +"He means you must not smoke until you have done something to prove you +are a man," explained one of the Arapahoes, who was painted bright red +all over and wore a fringe of scalps under his ceremonial belt. Pipes +came out all around the circle and some one threw a handful of +sweet-grass on the fire. + +"What I should like to know," said Oliver, "is why you are called Dog +Dancer?" + +The painted man shook his head. + +"All I know is that we are picked men, ripe with battles, and the Dog is +our totem. So it has been since the Fathers' Fathers." He blew two puffs +from his pipe straight up, murmuring, "O God, remember us on earth," +after the fashion of ceremonial smoking. + +"God and us," said the Cheyenne, pointing up with his pipe-stem; and +then to Oliver, "The Tsis-tsis-tas were saved by a dog once in the +country of the Ho-He. That is Assiniboine," he explained, following it +with a strong grunt of disgust which ran all around the circle as the +Dog Chief struck out with his foot and started a little spurt of dust +with his toe, throwing dirt on the name of his enemy. "They are called +Assiniboine, stone cookers, because they cook in holes in the ground +with hot stones, but to us they were the Ho-He. The first time we met we +fought them. That was in the old time, before we had guns or bows +either, but clubs and pointed sticks. That was by the Lake of the Woods +where we first met them." + +"Lake of the Woods," said Oliver; "that's farther north than the +headwater of the Mississippi." + +"We came from farther and from older time," said the Dog Soldier. "We +thought the guns were magic at first and fell upon our faces. +Nevertheless, we fought the Ho-He and took their guns away from them." + +"So," said the officer of the Yellow Rope, as the long buckskin badge of +rank was called. "We fought with Blackfoot and Sioux. We fought with +Comanches and Crows, and expelled them from the Land. With Kiowas we +fought; we crossed the Big Muddy and long and bitter wars we had with +Shoshones and Pawnees. Later we fought the Utes. We are the Fighting +Cheyennes. + +"That is how it is when a peaceful people are turned fighters. For we +are peaceful. We came from the East, for one of our wise men had +foretold that one day we should meet White Men and be conquered by them. +Therefore, we came away, seeking peace, and we did not know what to do +when the Ho-He fell upon us. At last we said, 'Evidently it is the +fashion of this country to fight. Now, let us fight everybody we meet, +so we shall become great.' That is what has happened. Is it not so?" + +"It is so!" said the Dog Dancers. "Hi-hi-yi," breaking out all at once +in the long-drawn wolf howl which is the war-cry of the Cheyennes. +Oliver would have been frightened by it, but quite as suddenly they +returned to their pipes, and he saw the old Dog Chief looking at him +with a kindly twinkle. + +"You were going to tell me why you are called Dog Soldiers," Oliver +reminded him. + +"Dog is a good name among us," said the old Cheyenne, "but it is +forbidden to speak of the Mysteries. Perhaps when you have been admitted +to the Kit Foxes and have seen fighting--" + +"We've got a war of our own, now," said Oliver hopefully. + +The Indians were all greatly interested. The painted Arapahoe blew him a +puff from his pipe. "Send you good enemies," he said, trailing the smoke +about in whatever direction enemies might come from. "And a good fight!" +said the Yellow Rope Officer; "for men grow soft where there is no +fighting." + +"And in all cases," said the Dog Chief, "respect the Mysteries. +Otherwise, though you come safely through yourself, you may bring evil +on the Tribe. ... I remember a Telling ... No," he said, following the +little pause that always precedes a story; "since you are truly at war I +will tell a true tale. A tale of my own youth and the failure that came +on Our Folks because certain of our young men forgot that they were +fighting for the Tribe and thought only of themselves and their +own glory." + +He stuffed his pipe again with fine tobacco and bark of red willow and +began. + +"Of one mystery of the Cheyennes every man may speak a little--of the +Mystery of the Sacred Medicine Arrows. Four arrows there are with stone +heads painted in the four colors, four feathered with eagle plumes. They +give power to men and victory in battle. It is a man mystery; no woman +may so much as look at it. When we go out as a Tribe to war, the Arrows +go with us tied to the lance of the Arrow-Keeper. + +"The Medicine of the Arrows depended on the Mysteries which are made in +the camp before the Arrows go out. But if any one goes out from the camp +toward the enemy before the Mysteries are completed, the protection of +the Arrows is destroyed. Thus it happened when the Potawatami helped the +Kitkahhahki, and the Cheyennes were defeated. This was my doing, mine +and Red Morning and a boy of the Suh-tai who had nobody belonging +to him. + +"We three were like brothers, but I was the elder and leader. I waited +on War Bonnet when he went to the hunt, and learned war-craft from him. +That was how it was with us as we grew up,--we attached ourselves to +some warrior we admired; we brought back his arrows and rounded up his +ponies for him, or washed off the Medicine paint after battle, or +carried his pipe. + +"War Bonnet I loved for the risks he would take. Red Morning followed +Mad Wolf, who was the best of the scouts; and where we two went the +Suh-tai was not missing. This was long after we had learned all the +tricks of the Ho-He by fighting them, after the Iron Shirts brought the +horse to us, and we had crossed the Big Muddy into this country. + +"We were at war with the Pawnees that year. Not," said the Dog Chief +with a grin, "that we were ever at peace with them, but the year before +they had killed our man Alights-on-the-Cloud and taken our iron shirt." + +"Had the Cheyennes iron shirts?" Oliver was astonished. + +"Alights-on-the-Cloud had one. When he rode up and down in front of the +enemy with it under his blanket, they thought it great Medicine. There +were others I have heard of; they came into the country with the men who +had the first horses, but this was ours. It was all fine rings of iron +that came down to the knees and covered the arms and the head so that +his long hair was inside. + +"It was the summer before we broke the Medicine of the Arrows that the +Tsis-tsis-tas had gone out against the Pawnees. Arapahoes, Sioux, +Kiowas, and Apaches, they went out with us. + +"Twice in the year the Pawnees hunted the buffaloes, once in the winter +when the robes were good and the buffaloes fat, and once in the summer +for food. All the day before we had seen a great dust rising and all +night the ground shook with the buffaloes running. There was a mist on +the prairie, and when it rose our scouts found themselves almost in the +midst of the Pawnees who were riding about killing buffaloes. + +"It was a running fight; from noon till level sun they fought, and in +the middle of it, Alights-on-the-Cloud came riding on a roan horse along +the enemy line, flashing a saber. As he rode the Pawnees gave back, for +the iron shirt came up over his head and their arrows did him no harm. +So he rode down our own line, and returning charged the Pawnees, but +this time there was one man who did not give back. + +"Carrying-the-Shield-in-Front said to those around him: 'Let him come on, +and do you move away from me so he can come close. If he possesses great +Medicine, I shall not be able to kill him; but if he does not possess +it, perhaps I shall kill him.' + +"So the others fell back, and when Alights-on-the-Cloud rode near enough +so that Carrying-the-Shield-in-Front could hear the clinking of the iron +rings, he loosed his arrow and struck Alights-on-the-Cloud in the eye. + +"Our men charged the Pawnees, trying to get the body back, but in the +end they succeeded in cutting the iron shirt into little pieces, and +carrying it away. This was a shame to us, for Alights-on-the-Cloud was +well liked, and for a year there was very little talked of but how he +might be avenged. + +"Early the next spring a pipe was carried. Little Robe carried it along +the Old North Trail to Crows and the Burnt Thigh Sioux and the Northern +Cheyennes. South also it went to Apaches and Arapahoes. And when the +grape was in leaf we came together at Republican River and swore that we +would drive out the Pawnees. + +"As it turned out both Mad Wolf and War Bonnet were among the first +scouts chosen to go and locate the enemy, and though we had no business +there, we three, and two other young men of the Kiowas, slipped out of +the camp and followed. They should have turned us back as soon as we +were discovered, but Mad Wolf was good-natured, and they were pleased to +see us so keen for war. + +"There was a young moon, and the buffalo bulls were running and fighting +in the brush. I remember one old bull with long streamers of grapevines +dragging from his horns who charged and scattered us. We killed a young +cow for meat, and along the next morning we saw wolves running away from +a freshly killed carcass. So we knew the Pawnees were out. + +"Yellow Bear, an Arapahoe Dog Soldier, who was one of the scouts, began +to ride about in circles and sing his war-song, saying that we ought not +to go back without taking some scalps, or counting coup, and we +youngsters agreed with him. We were disappointed when the others decided +to go back at once and report. I remember how Mad Wolf, who was the +scout leader, sent the others all in to notify the camp, and how, as +they rode, from time to time they howled like wolves, then stopped and +turned their heads from side to side. + +"There was a great ceremonial march when we came in, the Dog Soldiers, +the Crooked Lances, the Fox Soldiers, and all the societies. First there +were two men--the most brave in the society leading, and then all the +others in single file and two to close. The women, too--all the bright +blankets and the tall war bonnets--the war-cries and the songs and the +drums going like a man's heart in battle. + +"Three days," said the Dog Chief, "the preparation lasted. Wolf Face and +Tall Bull were sent off to keep in touch with the enemy, and the women +and children dropped behind while the men unwrapped their Medicine +bundles and began the Mysteries of the _Issiwun_, the Buffalo Hat, and +_Mahuts_, the Arrows. It was a long ceremony, and we three, Red Morning, +the Suh-tai boy, and I, were on fire with the love of fighting. You may +believe that we made the other boys treat us handsomely because we had +been with the scouts, but after a while even that grew tame and we +wandered off toward the river. Who cared what three half-grown boys did, +while the elders were busy with their Mysteries. + +"By and by, though we knew very well that no one should move toward the +enemy while the Arrows were uncovered, it came into our heads what a +fine thing it would be if we could go out after Wolf Face and Tall Bull, +and perhaps count coup on the Pawnees before our men came up with them. +I do not think we thought of any harm, and perhaps we thought the +Medicine of the Arrows was only for the members of the societies. But we +saw afterward that it was for the Tribe, and for our wrong the +Tribe suffered. + +"For a while we followed the trail of Tall Bull, toward the camp of +Pawnees. But we took to playing that the buffaloes were Pawnees and wore +out our horses charging them. Then we lost the trail, and when at last +we found a village the enemy had moved on following the hunt, leaving +only bones and ashes. I do not know what we should have done," said the +Dog Chief, "if we had come up with them: three boys armed with +hunting-knives and bows, and a lance which War Bonnet had thrown away +because it was too light for him. Red Morning had a club he had made, +with a flint set into the side. He kept throwing it up and catching it +as he rode, making a song about it. + +"After leaving the deserted camp of the Pawnees, we rode about looking +for a trail, thinking we might come upon some small party. We had left +our own camp before finding out what Wolf Face and Tall Bull had come +back to tell them, that the enemy, instead of being the whole Nation of +Pawnees as we supposed, was really only the tribe of the Kitkahhahki, +helped out by a band of the Potawatami. The day before our men attacked +the Kitkahhahki, the Potawatami had separated from them and started up +one of the creeks, while the Pawnees kept on up the river. We boys +stumbled on the trail of the Potawatami and followed it. + +"Now these Potawatami," said the Dog Chief, "had had guns a long time, +and better guns than ours. But being boys we did not know enough to turn +back. About midday we came to level country around the headwaters of the +creek, and there were four Potawatami skinning buffaloes. They had +bunched up their horses and tied them to a tree while they cut up the +kill. Red Morning said for us to run off the horses, and that would be +almost as good as a scalp-taking. We left our ponies in the ravine and +wriggled through the long grass. We had cut the horses loose and were +running them, before the Potawatami discovered it. One of them called +his own horse and it broke out of the bunch and ran toward him. In a +moment he was on his back, so we three each jumped on a horse and began +to whip them to a gallop. The Potawatami made for the Suh-tai, and rode +even with him. I think he saw it was only a boy, and neither of them had +a gun. But suddenly as their horses came neck and neck Suh-tai gave a +leap and landed on the Potawatami's horse behind the rider. It was a +trick of his with which he used to scare us. He would leap on and off +before you had time to think. As he clapped his legs to the horse's back +he stuck his knife into the Potawatami. The man threw up his arms and +Suh-tai tumbled him off the horse in an instant. + +"This I saw because Red Morning's horse had been shot under him, and I +had stopped to take him up. By this time another man had caught a horse +and I had got my lance again which I had left leaning against a tree. I +faced him with it as he came on at a dead run, and for a moment I +thought it had gone clean through him, but really it had passed between +his arm and his body and he had twisted it out of my hand. + +"Our horses were going too fast to stop, but Red Morning, from behind +me, struck at the head of the man's horse as it passed with his +knife-edged club, and we heard the man shout as he went down. I managed +to get my horse about in time to see Suh-tai, who had caught up with us, +trying to snatch the Potawatami's scalp, but his knife turned on one of +the silver plates through which his scalp-lock was pulled, and all the +Suh-tai got was a lock of the hair. In his excitement he thought it was +the scalp and went shaking it and shouting like a wild man. + +"The Potawatami pulled himself free of his fallen horse as I came up, +and it did me good to see the blood flowing from under his arm where my +lance had scraped him. I rode straight at him, meaning to ride him down, +but the horse swerved a little and got a long wiping stroke from the +Potawatami's knife, from which, in a minute more, he began to stagger. +By this time the other men had got their guns and begun shooting. +Suh-tai's bow had been shot in two, and Red Morning had a graze that +laid his cheek open. So we got on our own ponies and rode away. + +"We saw other men riding into the open, but they had all been chasing +buffaloes, and our ponies were fresh. It was not long before we left the +shooting behind. Once we thought we heard it break out again in a +different direction, but we were full of our own affairs, and anxious to +get back to the camp and brag about them. As we crossed the creek +Suh-tai made a line and said the words that made it Medicine. We felt +perfectly safe. + +"It was our first fight, and each of us had counted coup. Suh-tai was +not sure but he had killed his man. Not for worlds would he have wiped +the blood from his knife until he had shown it to the camp. Two of us +had wounds, for my man had struck at me as he passed, though I had been +too excited to notice it at the time ... '_Eyah!_' said the Dog +Chief,--'a man's first scar ...!' We were very happy, and Red Morning +taught us his song as we rode home beside the Republican River. + +"As we neared our own camp we were checked in our rejoicing; we heard +the wails of the women, and then we saw the warriors sitting around with +their heads in their blankets--as many as were left of them. My father +was gone, he was one of the first who was killed by the Potawatami." + +The Dog Chief was silent a long time, puffing gently on his pipe, and +the Officer of the Yellow Rope began to sing to himself a strange, +stirring song. + +Looking at him attentively Oliver saw an old faint scar running across +his face from nose to ear. + +"Is your name Red Morning?" Oliver wished to know. + +The man nodded, but he did not smile; they were all of them smoking +silently with their eyes upon the ground. Oliver understood that there +was more and turned back to the Dog Chief. + +"Weren't they pleased with what you had done?" he asked. + +"They were pleased when they had time to notice us," he said, "but they +didn't know--they didn't know that we had broken the Medicine of the +Arrows. It didn't occur to us to say anything about the time we had left +the camp, and nobody asked us. A young warrior, Big Head he was called, +had also gone out toward the enemy before the Mystery was over. They +laid it all to him. + +"And at that time we didn't know ourselves, not till long afterward. You +see, we thought we had got away from the Potawatami because our ponies +were fresh and theirs had been running buffaloes. Rut the truth was they +had followed us until they heard the noise of the shooting where Our +Folks attacked the Kitkahhahki. It was the first they knew of the attack +and they went to the help of their friends. Until they came Our Folks +had all the advantage. But the Potawatami shoot to kill. They carry +sticks on which to rest the guns, and their horses are trained to stand +still. Our men charged them as they came, but the Potawatami came +forward by tens to shoot, and loaded while other tens took their places +... and the Medicine of the Arrows had been broken. The men of the +Potawatami took the hearts of our slain to make strong Medicine for +their bullets and when the Cheyennes saw what they were doing they +ran away. + +"But if we three had not broken the Medicine, the Potawatami would never +have been in that battle. + +"Thus it is," said the Dog Soldier, putting his pipe in his belt and +gathering his robes about him, "that wars are lost and won, not only in +battle, but in the minds and the hearts of the people, and by the +keeping of those things that are sacred to the people, rather than by +seeking those things that are pleasing to one's self. Do you understand +this, my son?" + +"I think so," said Oliver, remembering what he had heard at school. He +felt the hand of the Dog Chief on his shoulder, but when he looked up it +was only the Museum attendant come to tell him it was closing time. + + + + +THE END + + + + +APPENDIX + +GLOSSARY OF INDIAN AND SPANISH NAMES + +THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL + +The appendix is that part of a book in which you find the really +important things, put there to keep them from interfering with the +story. Without an appendix you might not discover that all of the +important things in this book really _are_ true. + +All the main traveled roads in the United States began as animal or +Indian trails. There is no map that shows these roads as they originally +were, but the changes are not so many as you might think. Railways have +tunneled under passes where the buffalo went over, hills have been cut +away and swamps filled in, but the general direction and in many places +the actual grades covered by the great continental highways remain +the same. + + + +THE BUFFALO COUNTRY + +_Licks_ are places where deer and buffaloes went to lick the salt they +needed out of the ground. They were once salt springs or lakes +long dried up. + +_Wallows_ were mudholes where the buffaloes covered themselves with mud +as a protection from mosquitoes and flies. They would lie down and work +themselves into the muddy water up to their eyes. Crossing the Great +Plains, you can still see round green places that were wallows in the +days of the buffalo. + +The Pawnees are a roving tribe, in the region of the Platte and Kansas +Rivers. If they were just setting out on their journey when the children +heard them they would sing:-- + +"Dark against the sky, yonder distant line + Runs before us. +Trees we see, long the line of trees + Bending, swaying in the wind. + +"Bright with flashing light, yonder distant line + Runs before us. +Swiftly runs, swift the river runs, + Winding, flowing through the land." + +But if they happened to be crossing the river at the time they would be +singing to _Kawas_, their eagle god, to help them. They had a song for +coming up on the other side, and one for the mesas, with long, +flat-sounding lines, and a climbing song for the mountains. + +You will find all these songs and some others in a book by Miss Fletcher +in the public library. + + +TRAIL TALK + +You will find the story of the Coyote and the Burning Mountain in my +book _The Basket Woman_. + +The Tenasas were the Tennessee Mountains. Little River is on the map. + +Flint Ridge is a great outcrop of flint stone in Ohio, near the town of +Zanesville. Sky-Blue-Water is Lake Superior. + +Cahokia is the great mound near St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the +river. + +When the Lenni-Lenape speaks of a Telling of his Fathers about the +mastodon or the mammoth, he was probably thinking of the story that is +pictured on the Lenape stone, which seems to me to be the one told by +Arrumpa. Several Indian tribes had stories of a large extinct animal +which they called the Big Moose, or the Big Elk, because moose and elk +were the largest animals they knew. + + +ARRUMPA'S STORY + +I am not quite certain of the places mentioned in this story, because +the country has so greatly changed, but it must have been in Florida or +Georgia, probably about where the Savannah River is now. It is in that +part of the country we have the proof that man was here in America at +the same time as the mammoth. + +Shell mounds occur all along the coast. No doubt the first permanent +trails led to them from the hunting-grounds. Every year the tribe went +down to gather sea-food, and left great piles of shells many feet deep, +sometimes covering several acres. It is from these mounds that we +discover the most that we know about early man in the United States. + +There are three different opinions as to where the first men in America +came from. First, that they came from some place in the North that is +now covered with Arctic ice; second, that they came from Europe and +Africa by way of some islands that are now sunk beneath the Atlantic +Ocean; third, that they came from Asia across Behring Strait and the +Aleutian Islands. + +The third theory seems the most reasonable. But also it is very likely +that some people did come from the lost islands in the Atlantic, and +left traces in South America and the West Indies. It may be that Dorcas +Jane and Oliver will yet meet somebody in the Museum country who can +tell them about it. + +The Great Cold that Arrumpa speaks about must have been the Ice Age, +that geologists tell us once covered the continent of North America, +almost down to the Ohio River. It came and went slowly, and probably so +changed the climate that the elephants, tigers, camels, and other +animals that used to be found in the United States could no longer +live in it. + + +THE COYOTE'S STORY + +_Tamal-Pyweack_--Wall-of-Shining-Rocks--is an Indian name for the Rocky +Mountains. _Backbone-of-the-World_ is another. + +The Country of the Dry Washes is between the Rockies and the Sierra +Nevadas, toward the south. A dry wash is the bed of a river that runs +only in the rainy season. As such rivers usually run very swiftly, they +make great ragged gashes across a country. + +There are several places in the Rockies called _Wind Trap_. The Crooked +Horn might have been Pike's Peak, as you can see by the pictures. The +white men had to rediscover this trail for themselves, for the Indians +seemed to have forgotten it, but the railroad that passes through the +Rockies, near Pike's Peak, follows the old trail of the Bighorn. + +It is very likely that the Indian in America had the dog for his friend +as soon as he had fire, if not before it. Most of the Indian stories of +the origin of fire make the coyote the first discoverer and bringer of +fire to man. The words that Howkawanda said before he killed the Bighorn +were probably the same that every Indian hunter uses when he goes +hunting big game: "O brother, we are about to kill you, we hope that you +will understand and forgive us." Unless they say something like that the +spirit of the animal killed might do them some mischief. + + +THE CORN WOMAN'S STORY + +Indian corn, _mahiz_, or maize, is supposed to have come originally from +Central America. But the strange thing about it is that no specimen of +the wild plant from which it might have developed has ever been found. +This would indicate that the development must have taken place a very +long time ago, and the parent corn may have belonged to the age of the +mastodon and other extinct creatures. + +Different tribes probably brought it into the United States at different +times. Some of it came up the Atlantic Coast, across the West Indies. +The fragments of legend from which I made the story of the Corn Woman +were found among the Indians that were living in Virginia, Kentucky, and +Tennessee at the time the white men came. + +Chihuahua is a province and city in Old Mexico, the trail that leads to +it one of the oldest lines of tribal migration on the continent. + +To be given to the Sun meant to have your heart cut out on a sacrificial +stone, usually on the top of a hill, or other high place. The Aztecs +were an ancient Mexican people who practiced this kind of sacrifice as a +part of their religion. If it was from them the Corn Woman obtained the +seed, it must have been before they moved south to Mexico City, where +the Spaniards found them in the sixteenth century. + +A _teocali_ was an Aztec temple. + + +MOKE-ICHA'S STORY + +A _tipi_ is the sort of tent used by the Plains Indians, made of tanned +skins. It is sometimes called a _lodge_, and the poles on which the +skins are hung are usually cut from the tree which for this reason is +called the lodge-pole pine. It is important to remember things like +this. By knowing the type of house used, you can tell more about the +kind of life lived by that tribe than by any other one thing. When the +poles were banked up with earth the house was called an _earth lodge_. +If thatched with brush and grass, a _wickiup_. In the eastern United +States, where huts were covered with bark, they were generally called +_wigwams_. In the desert, if the house was built of sticks and earth or +brush, it was called a _hogan_, and if of earth made into rude bricks, +a _pueblo_. + +The Queres Indians live all along the Rio Grande in pueblos, since there +is no need of their living now in the cliffs. You can read about them at +Ty-uonyi in "The Delight-Makers." + +A _kiva_ is the underground chamber of the house, or if not underground, +at least without doors, entered from the top by means of a ladder. + +_Shipapu_, the place from which the Queres and other pueblo Indians +came, means, in the Queres language, "Black Lake of Tears," and +according to the Zuni, "Place of Encompassing Mist," neither of which +sounds like a pleasant place to live. Nevertheless, all the Queres +expect to go there when they die. It is the Underworld from which the +Twin Brothers led them when the mud of the earliest world was scarcely +dried, and they seem to have gone wandering about until they found +Ty-uonyi, where they settled. + +The stone puma, which Moke-icha thought was carved in her honor, can +still be seen on the mesa back from the river, south of Tyuonyi. But the +Navajo need not have made fun of the Cliff-Dwellers for praying to a +puma, since the Navajos of to-day still say their prayers to the bear. +The Navajos are a wandering tribe, and pretend to despise all people who +live in fixed dwellings. + +The "ghosts of prayer plumes," which Moke-icha saw in the sky, is the +Milky Way. The Queres pray by the use of small feathered sticks planted +in the ground or in crevices of the rocks in high and lonely places. As +the best feathers for this purpose are white, and as everything is +thought of by Indians as having a spirit, it was easy for them to think +of that wonderful drift of stars across the sky as the spirits of +prayers, traveling to Those Above. If ever you should think of making a +prayer plume for yourself, do not on any account use the feathers of owl +or crow, as these are black prayers and might get you accused of +witchcraft. + +The _Uakanyi_, to which Tse-tse wished to belong, were the Shamans of +War; they had all the secrets of strategy and spells to protect a man +from his enemies. There were also Shamans of hunting, of medicine and +priestcraft. + +It was while the Queres were on their way from Shipapu that the +Delight-Makers were sent to keep the people cheerful. The white mud with +which they daubed themselves is a symbol of light, and the corn leaves +tied in their hair signify fruitfulness, for the corn needs cheering up +also. There must be something in it, for you notice that clowns, whose +business it is to make people laugh, always daub themselves with white. + + +THE MOUND-BUILDER'S STORY + +The Mound-Builders lived in the Mississippi Valley about a thousand +years ago. They built chiefly north of the Ohio River, until they were +driven out by the Lenni-Lenape about five hundred years before the +English and French began to settle that country. They went south and are +probably the same people we know as Creeks and Cherokees. + +_Tallegewi_ is the only name for the Mound-Builders that has come down +to us, though some people insist that it ought to be _Allegewi_, and the +singular instead of being _Tallega_ should be _Allega_. + +The _Lenni-Lenape_ are the tribes we know as Delawares. The name means +"Real People." + +The _Mingwe_ or _Mingoes_ are the tribes that the French called +Iroquois, and the English, Five Nations. They called themselves "People +of the Long House." _Mingwe_ was the name by which they were known to +other tribes, and means "stealthy," "treacherous." All Indian tribes +have several names. + +The _Onondaga_ were one of the five nations of the Iroquois. They lived +in western New York. + +_Shinaki_ was somewhere in the great forest of Canada. _Namaesippu_ +means "Fish River," and must have been that part of the St. Lawrence +between Lakes Erie and Huron. + +The _Peace Mark_ was only one of the significant ways in which Indians +painted their faces. The marks always meant as much to other Indians as +the device on a knight's shield meant in the Middle Ages. + +_Scioto_ means "long legs," in reference to the river's many branches. + +_Wabashiki_ means "gleaming white," on account of the white limestone +along its upper course. _Maumee_ and _Miami_ are forms of the same word, +the name of the tribe that once lived along those waters. + +_Kaskaskia_ is also the name of a tribe and means, "They scrape them +off," or something of that kind, referring to the manner in which they +get rid of their enemies, the Peorias. + +The Indian word from which we take _Sandusky_ means "cold springs," or +"good water, here," or "water pools," according to the person who +uses it. + +You will find all these places on the map. + +"_G'we_!" or "_Gowe_!" as it is sometimes written, was the war cry of +the Lenape and the Mingwe on their joint wars. At least that was the way +it sounded to the people who heard it. Along the eastern front of these +nations it was softened to "_Zowie_!" and in that form you can hear the +people of eastern New York and Vermont still using it as slang. + + +THE ONONDAGA'S STORY + +The _Red Score_ of the Lenni-Lenape was a picture writing made in red +chalk on birch bark, telling how the tribe came down out of Shinaki and +drove out the Tallegewi in a hundred years' war. Several imperfect +copies of it are still in existence and one nearly perfect +interpretation made for the English colonists. It was in the nature of +short-hand memoranda of the most interesting items of their tribal +history, but unless Oliver and Dorcas Jane meet somebody in the Museum +country who knew the Tellings that went with the Red Score, it is +unlikely we shall ever know just what did happen. + +Any early map of the Ohio Valley, or any good automobile map of the +country south and east of the Great Lakes, will give the +_Muskingham-Mahoning Trail_, which was much used by the first white +settlers in that country. The same is true of the old Iroquois Trade +Trail, as it is still a well-traveled country road through the heart of +New York State. _Muskingham_ means "Elk's Eye," and referred to the +clear brown color of the water. _Mahoning_ means "Salt Lick," or, more +literally, "There a Lick." + +_Mohican-ittuck_, the old name for the Hudson River, means the river of +the Mohicans, whose hunting-grounds were along its upper reaches. + +_Niagara_ probably means something in connection with the river at that +point, the narrows, or the neck. According to the old spelling it should +have been pronounced Nee-ae-gaer'-ae, but it isn't. + +_Adirondack_ means "Bark-Eaters," a local name for the tribe that once +lived there and in seasons of scarcity ate the inner bark of the +birch tree. + +_Algonquian_ is a name for one of the great tribal groups, several +members of which occupied the New England country at the beginning of +our history. The name probably means "Place of the Fish-Spearing," in +reference to the prow of the canoe, which was occupied by the man with +the fish spear. The Eastern Algonquians were all canoers. + +_Wabaniki_ means "Eastlanders," people living toward the East. + +The American Indians, like all other people in the world, believed in +supernatural beings of many sorts, spirits of woods and rocks, +Underwater People and an Underworld. They had stories of ghosts and +flying heads and giants. Most of the tribes believed in animals that, +when they were alone, laid off their animal skins and thought and +behaved as men. Some of them thought of the moon and stars as other +worlds like ours, inhabited by people like us who occasionally came to +earth and took away with them mortals whom they loved. In the various +tribal legends can be found the elements of almost every sort of +European fairy tale. + +_Shaman_ is not an Indian word at all, but has been generally adopted as +a term of respect to indicate men or women who became wise in the things +of the spirit. Sometimes a knowledge of healing herbs was included in +the Shaman's education, and often he gave advice on personal matters. +But the chief business of the Shaman was to keep man reconciled with the +spirit world, to persuade it to be on his side, or to prevent the +spirits from doing him harm. A Shaman was not a priest, nor was he +elected to office, and in some tribes he did not even go to war, but +stayed at home to protect the women and children. Any one could be a +Shaman who thought himself equal to it and could persuade people to +believe in him. + +_Taryenya-wagon_ was the Great Spirit of the Five Nations, who was also +called "Holder of the Heavens." + +Indian children always belong to the mother's side of the house. The +only way in which the Shaman's son could be born an Onondaga was for the +mother to be adopted into the tribe before the son was born. Adoptions +were very common, orphans, prisoners of war, and even white people being +made members of the tribe in this way. + + +THE SNOWY EGRET'S STORY + +The Great Admiral was, of course, Christopher Columbus. You will find +all about him and the other Spanish gentlemen in the school history. + +Something special deserves to be said about Panfilo de Narvaez, since it +was he who set the Spanish exploration of the territory of the United +States in motion. He landed on the west coast of Florida in 1548, and +after penetrating only a little way into the interior was driven out by +the Indians. But he left Juan Ortiz, one of his men, a prisoner among +them, who was afterward discovered by Soto and became his interpreter +and guide. + +There is no good English equivalent for Soto's title of _Adelantado_. It +means the officer in charge of a newly discovered country. _Cay_ is an +old Spanish word for islet. "Key" is an English version of the same +word. _Cay Verde_ is "Green Islet." + +The pearls of _Cofachique_ were fresh-water pearls, very good ones, too, +such as are still found in many American rivers and creeks. + +The Indians that Soto found were very likely descended from the earlier +Mound-Builders of the Ohio Valley. They showed a more advanced +civilization, which was natural, since it was four or five hundred years +after the Lenni-Lenape drove them south. Later they were called "Creeks" +by the English, on account of the great number of streams in +their country. + +_Cacique_ and _Cacica_ were titles brought up by the Spaniards from +Mexico and applied to any sort of tribal rulers. They are used in all +the old manuscripts and have been adopted generally by modern writers, +since no one knows just what were the native words. + +The reason the Egret gives for the bird dances--that it makes the world +work together better--she must have learned from an Indian, since there +is always some such reason back of every primitive dance. It makes the +corn grow or the rain fall or the heart of the enemy to weaken. The +Cofachiquans were not the only people who learned their dances from the +water birds, as the ancient Greeks had a very beautiful one which they +took from the cranes and another from goats leaping on the hills. + + +THE PRINCESS'S STORY + +Hernando de Soto landed first at Tampa Bay in Florida, and after a short +excursion into the country, wintered at Ana-ica Apalache, an Indian town +on Apalachee Bay, the same at which Panfilo de Narvaez had beaten his +spurs into nails to make the boats in which he and most of his men +perished. It was between Tampa and Anaica Apalache that Soto met and +rescued Juan Ortiz, who had been all that time a prisoner and slave to +the Indians. + +When the Princess says that Talimeco was a White Town, she means that it +was a Town of Refuge, a Peace Town, in which no killing could be done. +Several Indian tribes had these sanctuaries. + +In an account of Soto's expedition, which was written sometime afterward +from the stories of survivors, it is said by one that the Princess went +with him of her own accord, and by another that she was a prisoner. The +truth probably is that if she had not gone willingly, she would have +been compelled. There is also mention of the man to whom she gave the +pearls for assisting at her escape, six pounds of them, as large as +hazel nuts, though the man himself would never tell where he got them. + +The story of Soto's death, together with many other interesting things, +can be read in the translation of the original account made by Frederick +Webb Hodge. + + +THE ROAD-RUNNER'S STORY + +Cabeza de Vaca was one of Narvaez's men who was cast ashore in one of +the two boats ever heard from, on the coast of Texas. He wandered for +six years in that country before reaching the Spanish settlements in Old +Mexico, and it was his account of what he saw there and in Florida that +led to the later expeditions of both Soto and Coronado. + +Francisco de Coronado brought his expedition up from Old Mexico in 1540, +and reached Wichita in the summer of 1541. His party was the first to +see and describe the buffalo. There is an account of the expedition +written by Castenada, one of his men, translated by Frederick Webb +Hodge, which is easy and interesting reading. + +The Seven Cities were the pueblos of Old Zuni, some of which are still +inhabited. Ruins of the others may be seen in the Valley of Zuni in New +Mexico. The name is a Spanish corruption of _Ashiwi_, their own name for +themselves. We do not know why the early explorers called the +country "Cibola." + +The Colorado River was first called _Rio del Tizon_, "River of the +Brand," by the Spaniards, on account of the local custom of carrying +fire in rolls of cedar bark. Coronado's men were the first to discover +the Grand Canyon. + +_Pueblo_, the Spanish word for "town," is applied to all Indians living +in the terraced houses of the southwest. The Zunis, Hopis, and Queres +are the principal pueblo tribes. + +You will find _Tiguex_ on the map, somewhere between the Ty-uonyi and +the place where the Corn Woman crossed the Rio Grande. _Cicuye_ is on +the map as Pecos, in Texas. + +The Pawnees at this time occupied the country around the Platte River. +Their name is derived from a word meaning "horn," and refers to their +method of dressing the scalplock with grease and paint so that it stood +up stiffly, ready to the enemy's hand. Their name for themselves is +Chahiksichi-hiks, "Men of men." + + +THE CONDOR'S STORY + +The _Old Zuni Trail_ may still be followed from the Rio Grande to the +Valley of Zuni. _El Morro_, or "Inscription Rock," as it is called, is +between Acoma and the city of Old Zuni which still goes by the name of +"Middle Ant Hill of the World." + +In a book by Charles Lummis, entitled _Strange Corners of Our Country_, +there is an excellent description of the Rock and copies of the most +interesting inscriptions, with translations. + +The Padres of Southwestern United States were Franciscan Friars who came +as missionaries to the Indians. They were not all of them so unwise as +Father Letrado. + +_Peyote_, the dried fruit of a small cactus, the use of which was only +known in the old days to a few of the Medicine Men. The effect was like +that of opium, and gave the user visions. + + +THE DOG SOLDIER'S STORY + +The Cheyenne Country, at the time of this story, was south of the +Pawnees, along the Taos Trail. All Plains Indians move about a great +deal, so that you will not always hear of them in the same neighborhood. + +You can read how the Cheyennes were saved from the Hoh by a dog, in a +book by George Bird Grinnell, called the _Fighting Cheyennes_. There is +also an account in that book of how their Medicine Bundle was taken from +them by the Pawnees, and how, partly by force and partly by trickery, +three of the arrows were recovered. + +The Medicine Bundle of the tribe is as sacred to them as our flag is to +us. It stands for something that cannot be expressed in any other way. +They feel sure of victory when it goes out with them, and think that if +anything is done by a member of the tribe that is contrary to the +Medicine of the Tribe, the whole tribe will suffer for it. This very +likely is the case with all national emblems; at any rate, it would +probably be safer while our tribe is at war not to do anything contrary +to what our flag stands for. All that is left of the Cheyenne Bundle is +now with the remnant of the tribe in Oklahoma. The fourth arrow is still +attached to the Morning Star Bundle of the Pawnees, where it may be seen +each year in the spring when the Medicine of the Bundle is renewed. + +This is the song the Suh-tai boy--the Suh-tai are a sub-tribe of the +Cheyenne--made for his war club:-- + +"Hickory bough that the wind makes strong,-- + I made it-- +Bones of the earth, the granite stone,-- + I made it-- +Hide of the bull to bind them both,-- + I made it-- +Death to the foe who destroys our land,-- + We make it!" + +The line that the Suh-tai boy drew between himself and the pursuing +Potawatomi was probably a line of sacred meal, or tobacco dust, drawn +across the trail while saying, "Give me protection from my enemies; let +none of them pass this line. Shield my heart from them. Let not my life +be threatened." Unless the enemy possesses a stronger Medicine, this makes +one safe. + + + + +GLOSSARY OF INDIAN AND SPANISH NAMES + + +[Transcribers Note: ASCII just doesn't contain all the characters +required for the Glossary. This is an _attempt_ at rendering the Glossary.] + + +ae sounds like a in father + +a " " a " bay + +a " " a " fat + +a " " a " sofa + +_e_ " " a " ace + +e " " e " met + +e " " e " me + +e " " e " her + +_i_ " " e " eve + +i " " i " pin + +i " " i " pine + +o " " o " note + +o " " o " not + +u " " oo " food + +u " " u " nut + + +Ae'-co-mae + +A-ch_e_'-s_e_ + +Ae-d_e_-laen-tae-do + +Ael-tae-pae'-hae + +Ael'-vaer Nunez (noon'-yath) Cae-b_e_'-zae (thae) d_e_ Vae'-cae + +Aen-ae-_i_'-cae + +Ae-pach'-e + +Ae-pae-lae'-ch_e_ + +Ae-pun-ke'-wis + +Aer-aep'-ae-hoes + +Aer-rum'-pae + + +Bael-bo'-ae + +B_i_'s-cay'-n_e_ + +Cabeza de Vaca (cae-b_e_'-thae d_e_ Vae'-cae) + +C-c_i_'-cae + +Cae-c_i_que' + +Cae-ho'-ki-a + +Cay Verd'-e + +Cen-t_e_-o'-tl_i_ + +Chae-hik-s_i_-ch_i_'-hiks + +Cheyenne (shi-en') + +Ch_i_-ae' + +Chihuahua (ch_i_-wae'-wa) + +C_i_'-bo-lae + +C_i_'-cu-y_e_ + +C_i_'-no-aeve + +Co-ch_i_'-t_i_ + +Co-fae-vh_i_'qu_e_ + +Co-faeque' + +Co-man'ch_e_ + +Cor-t_e_z' + +D_i_-n_e_' + +_E_l Mor'-ro + +_E_s'-t_e_-vaen + +Fraen-c_i_s'-co d_e_ Co-ro-nae'-do + +Fraen-c_e_s'-co L_e_-trae'-do + +Gae-hon'-gae + +Gaen-dae'-yaeh + +Hae-lo'-nae + +Hae'-w_i_-kuh + +Her-naen'-do d_e_ So'-to + +H_i_s-pae-n_i_-o'-lae + +Ho'-gan + +Ho-h_e_' + +Ho'-p_i_ + +Ho-tai' (ti) + +How-ka-waen'-dae + +_I_'-ro-quois + +_I_s'-lay + +_I_s-s_i_-wuen' + +Juan de Onate (hwaen d_e_ on-yae'-t_e_) + +Juan Ortiz (hwaen or'-t_i_z) + +Kae-b_e_y'-d_e_ + +Kae-nae'-w_a_h + +Kas-kas'-kl-_a_ + +Kaet'-zi-mo + +K'ia-k_i_'-mae + +Ki'-o-was + +Kit-kaeh-haeh'-k_i_ + +K_i_'-vae + +Ko-ko'-mo + +Koos-koos'-ki + +Ko-shae'-r_e_ + +Len'-n_i_-Len-ape' + +Lue'-caes de Ayllon (Il'-yon) + +Lujan (lue-haen') + +Mahiz (m_ae-iz'_) + +Mae'-huets + +Mael-do-nae'-do + +Maet'-sae-k_i_ + +Men'-gwe + +Mesquite (m_es_-keet') + +Min'-go + +Mo-h_i'_-can-it'-tueck + +Mo-k_e_-ich'-ae + +M'toue'-lin + +Mues-king'-ham + +Nae-mae-s_i_p'-pu + +Narvaez (naer-vae'-_e_th) + +Navajo (nae'-vae-ho) + +N_i-e'_-to + +No'-pael + +Nue-ke'-wis + +Occatilla (oc-cae-t_i_l'-ya) + +Ock-muel'-gee + +O'-co-n_ee_ + +O-cuet'-_e_ + +O + +O-dow'-as + +O-g_e'_-ch_ee_ + +Olla (ol'-yae) + +Ong-yae-tas'-s_e_ + +On-on-da'-gae + +O-pae'-tae + +O-wen-ueng'-ae + +Paen-f_i_'-lo de Naer-vae'-_e_z (_e_th) + +Paen-ue'-co + +Paw-nee' + +P_e_'-cos + +P_e_'-dro Mo'-ron + +P_e_-r_i_'-co + +P_e_-yo'-t_e_ + +P_i_-rae'-guaes + +Pitahaya (pit-ae-hi'-ae) + +P_i_-zaer'-ro + +Ponce (pon'-th_e_) d_e_ L_e_-on' + +Pot-ae-waet'-ae-m_i_ + +Pueblo (pweb'-to) + +Qu_e_-r_e'_-chos + +Qu_e'_-r_e_s + +Qu_e_-r_e_-saen' + +Qu_i_-v_i'_-rae + +R_i'_-to de los Frijoles (fr_i_-ho'-l_e_s) + +Sahuaro (sae-wae'-ro) + +Scioto (si-o'-to) + +Shae'-m_a_n + +Sh_i_-nak'-_i_ + +Sh_i_'p-ae-pue' + +Sh_i_-w_i_'-nae + +Sho-sho'-n_e_s + +Shueng-ae-k_e'_-lae + +Sons _e'_-so, ts_e'_-nae + +Sueh-tai' (ti) + +Tae'-kue-Wae'-kin + +Tael-_i_-m_e'_-co + +Tael-l_e'_-gae + +Tael-l_e_-g_e'_-w_i_ + +Tae'-mael-Py-we-ack' + +Tae'-os + +Taer-yen-y_a_-wag'-on + +Tejo (ta'-ho) + +Ten'-ae-saes + +T_e_-o-cael'-_e_s + +Thlae-po-po-k_e_'-ae + +T_i_-ae'-kens + +Tiguex (t_i_'-gash) + +T_i_'-p_i_ + +Tom'-b_e_s + +To-yae-laen'-n_e_ + +Ts_e_-ts_e_-yo'-t_e_ + +Ts_i_s-ts_i_s'-taes + +Tus-cae-loos'-ae + +Ty-ue-on'-y_i_ + +U-ae-kaen-y_i_' + +Vaer'-gaes + +Wae-bae-moo'-in + +Wae-bae-n_i_'-k_i_ + +Wae-bae-sh_i_'-k_i_ + +Wap'-i-ti + +W_i_ch'-_i_-taes + +Zuni (zun'-yee) + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trail Book, by Mary Austin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAIL BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 9913.txt or 9913.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/1/9913/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Debra Storr, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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