In truth he did not even release him so quickly as might be after the

tremor had passed, but no man had time or humor to note the care with

which he held the secretary, or that it was the lad himself who drew,

flushing red, from the embrace of very strong arms.

"I--I feared you might not know--I came to tell you--" was the lame

explanation to which Don Ruy listened, and smiled while he listened.

"I wonder what 'Doña Bradamante' would have done in all her bravery of

white armor if such an earth wave had shaken her tilting court?" he

asked, but the secretary did not know, and with face still flushed,

and eyes on the ground, went to seek Yahn Tsyn-deh to hear if this was

a usual thing that walls lifted in wavy lines--and that chimneys

toppled from Te-hua dwellings.

The old people said it was long since the earth had shaken itself, and

they watched closely the Mesa of the Hearts, and the mesa of the

god-maid face, and a mountain over towards Te-gat-ha. If the anger of

the earth was great against earth people, then smoke would come from

certain earth breathing places,--and the sentinels kept watch--and the

old men watched also.

And around the village went a murmur of dire import--for it was plain

that the Great Mystery was sending many signs to the Te-hua

people;--the altars had been too long empty!

A strange foreboding filled the air, and the Castilians gathered in

little groups and talked. To send the Navahu captive to his death at

the hands of the tribe was not to their fancy, but if a member of a

Te-hua clan must be offered up, who could tell what vengeance that

clan might not take on the strangers?

Padre Vicente looked over all, and listened to much, and then talked

to the governor:--was it not the time to take strong brothers that

they share both the evil and the good together?

"The gods are certainly not well pleased with us, we make offerings

and we make prayers--and the only good they let come to us has been

our brothers of the iron and thunder and the fire sticks," said

Phen-tzah. "Yes, I think it is the time to take brothers of a strong

god."

This was the word of the governor and it was the strongest word yet

given for union. But the governor made it plain that he did not belong

to the order holding secret of the sun symbol. The Po-Athun were the

people who must decide these spirit things. He thought the hearts of

the old men of that order were kind and soft for the strangers,

but--the head of that order was Tahn-té, the Po-Athun-ho!

This gave pause for thought, every man who chose to go contrary to the

will of Tahn-té, found himself well nigh helpless in the Indian land,

his infernal gods were so strong that the Castilians were none too

eager to flout them, only Yahn Tsyn-deh seeing the crisis of things,

crept to Juan Gonzalvo and whispered,

"You hate the Po-Athun-ho--and you say love words to me. You think you

want me?"

Juan Gonzalvo was a blunt soldier who had never before been kept at

the distance of Tantalus by an Indian girl who took his gifts. On her

brown neck a silver necklace of his shone richly, and in her

braided hair corals of the sea gleamed red. While others had fled to

the altars for prayers,--and sprinkled sacred pollen to the

Go-hé-yahs--the mediators between earth and spirit world--Yahn had

bathed in the river and made herself beautiful with Castilian gifts

and barbaric trinketry.

To the man who measured her with eager eyes, she looked beautiful as

the Te-hua goddess of whom she had told him--Ta-ah-quea who brings the

Spring.

He told her so while he devoured her with his glances.

"Good!" she said. "You give me love, and you hate the Po-Athun-ho. You

can have us both if your heart is brave this night."

His arms would have clasped her for that promise, but she eluded him

and laughed.

"Your Don Ruy tells you the Po-Athun-ho must have no harm," she

whispered, "but is there not among your men, one, maybe even three

soldiers who are master of the bow,--and can destroy in silence?"

Gonzalvo was himself a master bowman--and had some pride in knowing

it, also he could if need be, pick men of his company who had skill,

and could be trusted.

"Could you send these men as if to hunt or to fish,--could you have

them find the way past the Te-hua sentinels to the place where they

camped in the pines?" and she made a gesture towards Pu-yé. "Could you

secretly find your way there in the dark before the Mother Moon looks

full on the face of the earth?"

"I can do this--and I can do more than this."

"Can you win for your people the good heart of the council that they

show you the sun symbol?" she asked. "Only Tahn-té closes the door to

you, and they fear Tahn-té. Tell me why your hate of him is strong."

"His father was the Devil. Through the devil soul he learns magic

things."

"Good! You hear the wise men tell of a maid of evil who brought the

tornado and the battle--and now brings this shake of the world?"

"The witch maid," and Gonzalvo crossed himself--"Yes--the men speak of

her in whispers--and the Indians say a sacrifice must be made."

"It must be made," said Yahn Tsyn-deh, and her white teeth shut tight

in decision. "Maybe it happens that you can make it, and win the

council--how then?"

"I--make the sacrifice--I?"

"Not where the altar is," soothed Yahn as he recoiled from the

thought. "But listen you!--maybe I dream--but listen!--maybe the witch

maid is a human thing with the heart of magic like Tahn-té,--maybe I

can find them together for you in the sacred place of the stars in

Pu-yé. Maybe the spirit of Tahn-té has been traded into her keeping,

and with the double strength of evil she will destroy the earth in

this place. The stars say so;--a great evil is coming! The medicine

men see it in the sacred vessels of water and in the clear stone of

the ancient prophets--they say so! You are a brave heart--you can save

these people and win the gold secret from the council. If you want

Yahn Tsyn-deh for love you will do this thing!"

[Illustration: SHE LED HIM UP THE ANCIENT STAIRWAY _Page 295_]

Gonzalvo stared at her incredulous, she was crediting him with a power

that would place him high in the Castilian camp--if he could win! And

more--she was to give him her own intense, glowing, restless self!

"I also hate Tahn-té,--that is why!" she said frankly, "and I love

only men who are brave above all other men. Your fire sticks of

thunder must not be heard on the heights of Pu-yé, but when Tahn-té

and the witch meet there in the night, your arrows must send them

together to the Afterworld--not one alone--but _together_! When the

men of Te-hua find the dead witch (for the men of Te-gat-ha and the

Navahu can witness that it is the one!) and when they find the lion

robe of Tahn-té on her body,--and other gifts of Tahn-té--and find

them dead the one beside the other, then the man who has made this

happen will be a great man! Even the men of Te-gat-ha will come with

gifts, and the men of Te-hua will give you honor, and will open the

trail for you to the sun symbol. There will be no Tahn-té to put evil

magic on them for doing so! When he is found dead with the witch maid

they will see clearly that his magic was evil magic, and they will

have breath that is deep and free again. Also I--Yahn Tsyn-deh--will

walk beside you where you choose."

Low and rapid was her speech there in the shadow of the adobe

wall--and so fair was the dream she made clear for him, that he felt

himself grow dazed with the glory of it--yet he was a strong man!

If it was true that Tahn-té and the witch nested together in the ruins

of Pu-yé, he knew well that the day of the young Ruler was ended in

Povi-whah, or in any Te-hua council where it was known. But the

strange mental or spiritual power of Tahn-té made it a thing of danger

to let him live after accusal had been made. The way of Yahn seemed

the best of all ways. If he was found dead beside the maid accursed,

the evidence would be clear against him--and the True Faith would have

the credit for such extermination!

He knew this was not a thing to speak of to Don Ruy--and though the

padre was enemy to every thought of Tahn-té--he feared even the

padre--that strange man who knew so much that was hidden in Indian

life, would so clearly see that Yahn Tsyn-deh was as much the motive

as gain of the gold, or glory for Mother Church.

No,--it was a thing to think out alone.

Yahn pressed his hand furtively and smiled on him as he left her, and

then entered her own dwelling and sprinkled prayer meal to the spirits

who carry messages to the gods.

Then she sent a child for Ka-yemo and gave the child some dried

peaches that he be content to stay with his fellows in the sunshine

and eat them.

Ka-yemo entered her dwelling for the first time in many moons and

clasped her close, and then seated himself in the farthest corner from

the Apache god pictures while Yahn Tsyn-deh talked.

Her voice was low, and often she went to the opening to see that no

one listened, and Ka-yemo was wonder-struck at the greatness of the

thing she whispered.

"You have won scalps in this battle--you have led the men in the scalp

dance, and the people know you are strong. If Tahn-té went out of the

world now, at this time, you would be strongest. This is the time he

must go!"

"But if the vengeance of the Castilians came heavy?"

"It will not come heavy. Don Ruy has forbidden Gonzalvo even to speak

words against Tahn-té to the padre. So it is that he would be angry if

Gonzalvo sent arrows into the Po-Ahtun-ho. _You_ must not do it, for

his magic power might come heavy on your head. If you fear to destroy

the Castilian capitan you are foolish in your thought--for it need

never be known. Look!--here are arrows of the Navahu, from the place

of battle I gathered many, these are the arrows for the work. Let

Gonzalvo risk the magic of Tahn-té, and the magic of the witch maid,

and destroy them, then you must alone, trail the Castilian, that he

comes not back alive to tell how it was done! The Navahu arrows will

take the blame from your head--it will be plain that some Navahu men

stayed to take pay for their dead! So it will be, and you, Ka-yemo,

will stand high, and your clan will be proud that no man stands more

high. And I--Yahn--will be with you each step of the life trail--and

each step we dare look down on all others and be proud. The songs you

sing can be proud songs!"

The blood of Ka-yemo jumped in his veins at that picture of victory as

drawn by Yahn Tsyn-deh. Now, since she had asked him to destroy Juan

Gonzalvo was he at last content in the thought that her love had not

wandered from him, Ka-yemo! Even in the days of silence and anger had

he held her spirit;--and to do that with a woman is proof that a man

is strong! It made him feel there in the dwelling of Yahn the Apache,

that he could do battle in the open for her with the Castilian capitan

if need be and have no fear;--how much more then would he dare do the

work to be done in secret on the heights!

Thus did Yahn Tsyn-deh spin her web that Tahn-té and the maid of the

forest be caught in its meshes, and it seemed good to her that the men

of iron be killed when chance offered;--especially must the Castilian

capitan not be let live to tell the clan of Tahn-té aught of how the

plan was made;--and above all had she spoken truth to the Woman of the

Twilight by the path to the well:--her life was as the life of

Ka-yemo;--if the Castilian escaped and dared claim the price she

offered--!

At that thought Yahn felt for the knife in her girdle, and had joy

that the edge of it was keen as the steel of the Castilians, and her

smile was a threat as she almost felt her hand thrust and twist it in

the flesh of the man of iron who had dared think himself the equal of

Ka-yemo!

Some savage creatures of the wilderness there are who choose their

mates, and stand, to live or to die, against all foes who would break

the bond. The tigress will watch her mate do battle for her and then

follow his conqueror,--but Yahn Tsyn-deh had not even so much as that

meekness of the tiger in her;--her own share of the battle would she

fight that the mate she chose should remain unconquered. Proud she was

of his beauty and of his grace in the scalp dance,--but more proud

would she be when no serene young Po-Athun-ho looked at her lover as

if from a high place of thought. It was, strangely enough, the

_unspoken_ in Tahn-té against which she rebelled in bitterness. No

word that was not gentle had he ever spoken to her--and to Ka-yemo no

word that lacked dignity. It was as if the man in his thoughts was

enthroned on the clouds:--and at last she had found the way for that

cloud to be dragged low in the dust!

CHAPTER XX

THE CHOICE OF YAHN TSYN-DEH

And while Yahn Tsyn-deh laid the trap, and the medicine drums sounded,

and the women gathered the children close because of the trembling

earth, one girl robed in the skin of a mountain lion waited alone at

the portal of the star, and knelt in the shadow, and looked with eyes

of fear at the great pieces of severed cliff, or ancient wall sent

crashing downwards by the force of the earth shock.

Past her portal they had crashed until it seemed the roof must fall

also, and she gathered the robe of Tahn-té about her, and came as far

as might be into the open--and watched with longing eyes the trail

across the mesa to the great river!--for that trail was as the path of

the sun to her,--or the rainbow in the sky!

The feet of Tahn-té had touched that trail, and when the night came,

and the moon rose in the great circle over the eastern hills--over

that trail would he come, and though the mountains themselves crashed

downwards to the mesa, he would hold her close, and the very spirits

of darkness could send no more fear!

She kept very still there waiting at the portal, for strange noises

were heard on the mesa, a dislodged stone rumbling down the long

slope--or a bit of loose clay falling from the ancient walls. At times

the smaller sounds suggested passing feet--and above all things must

she remain hidden from people until he came for her--he--the god-like

one who had brought her to this dwelling so akin to the dwellings of

the Divine Ones of the Navahu land in the place called Tsé-ye. The

difference was that the Tsé-ye dwellings were deep in the heart of the

world--while these dwellings were lifted high above the world.

But she knew without words that he indeed belonged to the Divine Ones

ere he brought her to the ancient dwellings. That her name had been in

his heart, and on his lips before she herself had told him, was but a

part of the strange sweet magic of the new life into which he had led

her.

Through the storms--and the dark nights--and the long days of

loneliness had she lived since he had hidden her first from the scouts

of Te-gat-ha--but they had passed over her as dreams of sweetness

pass.--That the groves of pine, or the mesa of the river, hid him from

her sight, did not mean to her that he had quite gone away, the

wonderful magic wrought by him made it possible for her to feel his

arms about her even when she lay alone in the darkness of the dwelling

of the star. To be hidden like that, and to watch for his coming, was

to be granted much joy by the gods. That the gods exact payment for

all joys more than mortal, was one secret Tahn-té did not whisper to

her, though the thought had clouded his own eyes more than once as he

clasped her close to him.

What the gods would exact he did not know, but daily and nightly he

made prayers to the mediators of the spirit land, and hoped in his

heart that the god of his people prove not akin to the jealous god of

the men of iron;--for a jealous god would, without doubt, take her

from him! Against men he could protect her--but if the gods awoke--and

were jealous--

And he remembered the fastings, and the penance, and the prayers by

which he had, unknown to all others, dedicated his life to the gods

alone!

But of this he said no word--only held her more close in his

thoughts--but ever a gray shadow moved beside him--the shadow of an

unknown fear--and it was the same shadow by which he had been led to

count over the seeds of the sacred growth--that he be sure it was in

his power to make the death sleep beautiful to her, if the death sleep

should shorten their trail together in the Earth Life.

She knew nothing of his fear, and watched each lengthening shadow with

delight--since the growing shadows were heralds of his coming! Even

the trembling of the earth was forgotten in that joy--and she scarcely

noted that the air had grown strangely sultry--almost a thing of

weight it seemed;--a brooding, waiting spirit, silencing even the

whisper of the pines--and the whisper of the pine was sacred music to

the Te-hua people;--through all the ages it had whispered, until in a

good hour it had given voice to their earth-born god!

She knew not anything of the gods of her own people, and the ominous

silence of the pines meant not to her what they would mean to a girl

of the river villages. But the magic of the place did make itself felt

to her when her robe, as she touched it, sent out little snappings as

of fireflies' wings, and far across the land tiny flashes flamed from

earth to sky as the dusk grew. When she shook loose her hair that she

might arrange it more pleasing for his sight, she was startled by the

tiny crackling, like finest of twigs in a blaze--and to smooth it

into braids silenced none of the strange magic;--each time her hand

touched it, the little sparks flashed--under the heavy brooding

atmosphere, electric forces were at work in strange ways--and on the

heights of Pu-yé they have for ages been proof of the magic in those

mountains.

Therefore is it a place for prayer.

Startled by the strange earth breathings, the girl crept within the

portal for her waiting--and the dusk was too deep for sight across the

rolling land of ancient field, and piñon wood far below.

Had she kept the watch she might have seen more than one figure

approach the heights from different ways--only a glimpse could be had,

but through the dusk of piñon groves certainly two figures moved

together, a man and a woman, and even before them one man stole alone

from the south, and halted often as if to plan the better way of

approach.

The man and woman skirted the foot of the mesa, and crept upward on

the side to the north.

"It is the hard way to climb you have come," said the man, and the

strange heavy air caused them to stop for breath, and as she reached

to cling to the hand of the man, he drew back with a gasp of terror.

As their hands touched, a little electric shock ran through each,--it

was plain they had reached the domain where the witch of evil powers

held sway.

"It is not I whom you need fear," said Yahn Tsyn-deh,--"it is the

witch maid of Tahn-té, and we have come to see the killing."

"And if--if Gonzalvo grows weak on the trail--or if his men take fear

from this evil magic of the mesa of Pu-yé?"

"No other men come with him--we talked--we two! Alone he will do

it:--for me!" she said proudly. "He knows the strong bow, with it he

will send the arrow first to the man,--that will be when they stand

clear in the moonlight. Then to the witch:--that all people may see

they were near to each other. The arrows are good and the bow is good.

I saw that it was so;--also I saw that no man of our people can use it

better than can Gonzalvo. By the river I watched him. He needs no fire

sticks to find the heart of an enemy--alone he can do it with an

arrow."

Ka-yemo looked at her sullenly,--she was giving much of praise to the

man she would have him destroy!

"How are you sure that he does not bring the thunder and lightning

stick also?" he demanded,--"and how are you sure that it is not used

for me?"

"Oh--fool you!--who make fears out of shadows--yet are so big to

fight!" she breathed softly. "Why is it that the Navahu or the other

wild people do not make you fear--yet the Castilians--"

"They are truly men of iron. As a boy I saw the things they could do,"

he answered.--"Not as men do I fear them, but it is their strong god

who tames their beasts."

"Your arrows are good," said Yahn Tsyn-deh with conviction,--"when you

see him dead as other men die, you will know that our own gods are

also strong."

The dark had fallen heavily, and only the Ancient Star gleamed

threatening as it waited for the moon. The smaller stars were not seen

and the shadows were very dense.

Because of this a strange thing came to them as they reached the

summit. Strong as was the heart of Yahn the Apache, she was struck by

terror, and Ka-yemo knew that the great god of the men of iron had

sent a threat for his eyes to see.

For, still and erect against a dark wall of the Lost Others, stood a

man outlined in fire. In Castilian war dress he stood, and little

flickering lines of fire ran along helmet and breastplate and lance.

No face could they see of the horror, which added to, rather than

lessened the terror of Ka-yemo. A living face he could meet and

fight--but this burning ghost of a man not yet dead--!

He turned and stumbled downward blindly, and Yahn Tsyn-deh clung to

him and gripped his hand cruelly for silence, and when they sank at

last beside a great boulder, her arms were around him, as though that

clasp kept the solid world from crumbling beneath her feet.

"No--no--no!" muttered Ka-yemo as though she had actually uttered

words of persuasion,--"it is what their padre said long ago. Their

strong god has an army of saints, and of angels,--they stand

guard;--all who go against them are swept into the flames of their

Underworld! It is what the Padre Luis said--and now it has been seen

by my eyes! Their altars are the stronger altars,--we will go

there--we will both go;--the fire of their hell will not reach us at

their altar--the medicine prayers of their padre are strong

prayers--we will go to him--"

The old fear of his boyhood had enveloped him as the unchained

electric force had enveloped the heights. Yahn Tsyn-deh put up her

hand to her throat;--she felt herself strangle for breath as she

listened.

"It was some trick!" she insisted--though she also had trembled with

awe--"Listen to me!--they have many tricks--these white men! Because

of a trick will you go to their altars, and be shamed in your clan?

Their priest is the head of all things--will you follow the steps of

another when you can wear the feathers of a leader? Will you be

laughed at by the tribe? Hear--oh hear!--and let your heart listen!

Never again will the gods send you this chance to be great--this is

your day and your night!"

"Their devils keep guard--the flames of their hell no man can fight!"

"Ka-yemo!--I am holding you close--I give myself to you!--one arrow

only must you send when the witch maid is killed, and Tahn-té is

killed,--one arrow, and forever you are the highest, and I am your

slave to give you love! Ka-yemo!"

The light of the moon was sending a glow above Na-im-be mountains. The

moon itself was not yet seen, but enough light was on the mesa for the

pleading girl to see the face of the man she adored.

The face was averted and turned from her. In terror he bent the arrow

shafts across his knee, and flung the bow far down into the shadows.

"_Ka-yemo!_"--she moaned as the last vestige of her idol was destroyed

by his own hand;--"do you give me then to the Castilian? Must _I_ pay

the debt?"

"Against the gods of their hell I will not send arrows," he

muttered--"He may not claim you--the sign sent to me here is a strong

sign--a god of fire is a strong god--and I am only a man! It may be

that if we go to their padre--and if we confess--"

She could see that he was blindly groping in his mind for some

chance--some little chance, to be forgiven--to be forgiven by the

Castilians whose feet would be on his neck--and on hers!

It was his day and his night, and he had thrown it away! Never again

could the day dawn in joy for those two.

She drew him to her as the light grew, and looked in the face she had

loved from babyhood. It was a long look, and a strange one. She was

thinking of the archer above them who waited to send death to a man

and a maid!

"What is it?" he asked as her fingers slipped from his shoulder along

his arm and clasped his hand with the closeness, the firmness of

settled resolve.

"It is that you have chosen," she said quietly. "It is the right of

the man to choose;--and it will be well. It is the right of the woman

to follow: and before the moon comes again from the blanket of the

east we will know--and the gods will know, that the choice is a good

choice!"

She held his hand and led him upwards;--steadily, yet without haste.

The edge of the moon showed red, and the moon was to be clear of the

mountains when Tahn-té came to the portal of the star--thus had his

mother told the girl while Yahn listened like a coiled snake close to

the well.

To Ka-yemo, Yahn seemed again the adoring creature of love. She held

him close, and whispered endearing things. Never had Yahn, the Apache

tigress, let him see how completely her love could make her gentle

and make him master. The sweetness of it, and the absolute relief

when the arrows were destroyed--gave him a sense of security;--It

would be easy to confess to the padre;--the Castilians would be glad

of converts--and Juan Gonzalvo--someway they could make words to

Juan Gonzalvo--and padre would help--and--

Holding closely his hand she led him up the ancient stairway, and the

little doorways of the cliff dwellings showed black, for the moon had

slipped above the far hills and shone, a dulled ball of fire through

the sultry haze. Enough light it threw on the white cliffs to show any

moving creature, and Ka-yemo glanced fearfully towards the portal of

the star, for surely a movement was there!

But Yahn Tsyn-deh at the head of the stairway looked straight ahead

where a man with a strong bow held himself close in the shadow of a

great rock. When the twang of the bow string sounded, she loosened not

her hand from that of Ka-yemo as he fell, but with her other hand she

pulled aside the robe from her breast--also the necklace of the white

metal, that not anything turn aside the point of the arrow which was

to follow.

And when it came she fell to her knees, and then over the huddled body

of the man she had loved and led to death.

She loosened not her hand, and only once she spoke.

"It is a good choice," she whispered, but he had led the way into the

Twilight Land--and she followed as she had said was the right of a

woman.

And the clan of Ka-yemo could chant songs of bravery all their days

and not know that Yahn the Apache had saved the pride of her father's

people, and had hidden the weakness of Ka-yemo on the heights of

Pu-yé!

CHAPTER XXI

THE CALL OF THE ANCIENT STAR

When the moon had scarce reached the center of the sky, a gray faced

man slipped through the corn fields of the river lands, and spoke to

the Spanish sentry who paced before the dwellings where the camp was

made outside the wall.

The sentry wondered who the woman was who had held him belated, for

many were now coming from Shufinne, and some of them were pretty.

But Capitan Gonzalvo laid himself down to dream of no woman. He crept

to the pallet of Padre Vicente. There were no words lest others be

aroused, but a pressure of a hand was enough to bring the padre to his

feet, the sleep of the man was ever light as that of one who does

sentry duty day time and night time.

Out into the open of the summer night they both passed, and in the

shadow of a wall where the Te-hua sentinel could not see, a man of

iron broke down and half sobbed a confession of horror.

The padre paced to and fro in the dusk of the night, and gave not over

much care to the shaken heart of the penitent.

"A hundred Aves, and half as many rosaries,--and candles for the altar

of San Juan when we return to Mexico." He tabulated the penance on his

fingers, with his mind clearly not on those details.

"Take you courage now, and hark to me," he said brusquely. "You say

you saw the maid and the man dead one on the other;--and that you fled

across the mesa at sight of their faces. That pretty Apache devil told

you that the witch lived at that place, and that the Po-Ahtun-ho was

her lover. How know you that it was not indeed witchcraft you looked

upon? How know you that the infernal magic was not used to change the

faces of the two that you be sent home not knowing which are dead and

which are living? This may yet be turned to our advantage."

Juan Gonzalvo was past thinking. Not though gold was found as

plentiful as the white stones of Pu-yé would he again go to the witch

accursed spot! His own armor had been touched by the fire of hell in

that place until he had lain it aside while he waited for the coming

of the sorcerer, and the sorcerer had in some way kept hidden--magic

spells had been worked to blind the eyes of Gonzalvo to the faces of

the others--even though light was given for the arrows to speed true!

He would fight living Indians in the open:--but no more would he trail

witches in the dark!

So he mumbled and made prayers and calmed himself somewhat at sight of

the calm, ever cool padre.

"Go you to your rest," said his reverence at last,--"and forget all

the work of this night."

"Forget?--but they will be found--they--"

"I will see that they are found, but let it not trouble you," stated

Padre Vicente. "We must meet trickery by trickery here. Go to your

bed, and sleep too sound for early waking."

"But--how--"--between the shock and fear of the night, Gonzalvo fairly

clung to the quiet strength of the padre.

"Take your sleep:--and keep a still tongue forever! I have had a dream

or a vision this night," and the padre smiled grimly. "I can as well

afford a vision as can the elect of the Po-Ahtun!--and my vision will

send people of Ka-yemo's clan to search for dead friends on the

heights of Pu-yé!"

"And if they find there also--?"

"Ah!" and the padre nodded and smiled that the thought had penetrated

the shocked mind of Capitan Gonzalvo;--"If they find there also the

evidence that their high priest is the lover of a witch--and that he

runs from council prayers to meet her in the night:--is that not the

best of all things the saints could send us? You have done good work

for the cause this night, Juan Gonzalvo. Go now to your sleep--and

when you hear of that which is found on Pu-yé, you hear it for the

first time!"

The council of that night had been a late council because of the

quaking of the earth. Every one knew it was time that a sacrifice be

made to the visitor in the sky. All of evil was coming to the land

because this had not been done. One Yutah slave belonged to the Quan

clan, and a robe and shell beads must be given by the vote of the

council to that clan. It would be a better thing to use the new Navahu

who was made captive by the men of iron, but their new brothers would

not listen to this wisdom.

When the sun looked over the edge of the mountain in the new day the

sun must see the heart lifted high;--and the body must go to the

murmuring river--then only could hope come that the evil magic be

lifted from the land of the Te-hua people.

Thus the vote had been, and thus had Tahn-té been held in council long

after the time the Moon Mother came over Ni-am-be mountains.

Don Ruy was at that council, and asked to speak against the offering

of blood to the god whose eye was as the star. But Tahn-té listened

and then spoke,

"Your own god of the book asks for sacrifice--your god of the book

accepted his own son as a sacrifice--and that people prospered! Your

priests teach the blood atonement, and the death they gave the

earth-born god was a hard death--if he had really died there! Being a

god he could not die in that way;--all medicine men who know strong

magic know that. But the blood was spilled and the spirit went away

from that place--the earth gods always go away like that while they

are young;--never do they die. There are days--and there are nights,

when they come back! They speak in many ways to earth people. You men

of iron do not to-day make blood sacrifice to your gods;--so you say!

Yet your people go out to battle and kill many people for your

god--also many of your own people are killed in such god wars--your

tribes of different names call these wars 'holy'. Our people do not

think like that. Even the wild tribes hold the Great Mystery sacred in

their hearts. They will fight for hunting ground, or to steal women or

corn--but to fight about the gods would bring evil magic on the

land--the old men could not be taught that it is a good thing! Also

your Holy Office has the torch, and the rack, and the long death of

torture for the man who cannot believe. The priests of your jealous

god do that work, and their magic is strong over men. You talk against

our altars, but on our altars there is not torture,--there is one

quick pain--and the door of the Twilight Land is open and the spirit

is loose! This world where we live is a very ancient world, but it is

not yet finished. All the old men can tell you that. It may be in the

unborn days that earth creatures may see the world when it

finished,--and when the gods come back, and speak in the sunlight to

men. In that time the sacrifice may be a different sacrifice. But in

this time we follow the ancient way for the gods have not shown us a

different way."

"You have studied much in books--you have learned much from men," said

Don Ruy--"You could change the minds of these people in this matter."

Tahn-té looked kindly on him, but shook his head.

"Not in the ages of ten men can you change the mind of the men you

called Indian," he said, "in my one life I could not make them see

this as you see it--yet am I called strong among them. Also I could

not tell them that the way of the white priest when he breaks the

bones in torture until the breath goes, is a better way than to take

the heart quickly for the god! That would be a lie if I said it, and

true magic does not come to the man who knows that he is himself a

teller of lies!"

The men of the council went their separate ways to sleep in the kivas,

well content that the angry god was to be appeased at the rising of

the sun,--and Don Ruy rolled himself in his blanket and lay near the

door where Ysobel and her husband lived apart from the camp, with only

the secretary inside their walls. But Don Ruy slept little--and cursed

the heathenish logic of Tahn-té, and wished him to the devil.

And stealthily as a serpent in the grasses,--or a panther in the

hills, Tahn-té sped from the council of sacrifice, to the hills where

he knew a girl had waited long for his coming.

Little thought gave he to trailers. The night before had been the

night of the scalp dance--and now the trembling earth, and the

council, had left the men weary for the rest of sleep. He ran swiftly

and steadily in the open as any courier to Shufinne might run.

But those of the Tain-tsain clan who followed, noted that he did not

go to Shufinne,--he climbed instead the steeps where they were to

climb, and for that reason their coming was stealthy, and the

cleverest men were sent ahead, and all said prayers and cast prayer

meal to the gods,--for this was a strange thing the white priest had

seen in a vision--it was to be proven if he was of the prophets!

The two couriers of the clan knew it was proven when they saw the two

dead people near the head of the stone stairway. And when they heard

the sobs of a woman within the dwelling of the Reader of the Stars in

the ancient days--also the soothing tones of a man,--they crept back

into the shadows and told the leaders. And a circle of men was made

about the place, and in silence they waited.

Ere their hearts had ceased to beat quickly from the run, that which

they waited for stepped forth;--a man to whom a creature clung--her

face was hidden against his breast, and he led her with care lest she

see the dead people on the stairway--for the Navahu shrinks more than

another from sight or touch of the dead!

"There are other places--and safe places," he said to her and held her

close. "Does not the bluebird find nesting place in the forest? And

does not her mate find her there in the summer nights?"

And then--with his arms around her, and his robe covering her, his

path was closed by a warrior who stood before him! His eyes turned

quickly on every side, but on every side was a circle of men,--and

the men were all of the clan of Ka-yemo to whom Tahn-té had never been

precious since the days of boyhood--and the camp of Coronado.

And the younger men were for claiming the maid when they saw her face,

and the older men read triumph against Tahn-té for the work of this

night.

"That which is meant for the gods is not to be given to men," they

said in chiding to the young men, and Tahn-té knew what they meant

when they said it.

"It is the Navahu witch maid of Te-gat-ha," cried

another--"look--brothers! This is a Navahu arrow through the eye of

Ka-yemo, and through the heart of Yahn Tsyn-deh. Alone here she has

destroyed them!--and alone here would Tahn-té the Po-Ahtun-ho have

cherished her! The priest of the men of iron is a man of strong magic.

His vision has sent us to find the one who has made angry the gods of

our land!"

"Go you and gather pine for the altar," said the head of the clan, and

two youths ran joyously down the slope;--for they were to aid in

driving evil magic from the valley!

"This maid did not touch those dead people," said Tahn-té,--"for that

she must not suffer."

"You Summer people are easily held by witches' craft," retorted one of

the men insolently,--a day before he would only have addressed Tahn-té

with reverence.

"Was she not marked for sacrifice at Te-gat-ha?"--"Has she not caused

the killing of the corn?" "Did not the Navahu men come to destroy us

because of her?" "Is the earth not angry that she has hidden in the

sacred places?"

These questions came thick and fast for Tahn-té to answer, and

Tahn-té held her hand and knew there was no answer to be made. And

Phent-zha, who was the oldest man there, looked at him keenly.

"Are you also not more weak in magic for her coming," he asked,--"is

your heart not grown sick? The magic of the white priest is against

you;--and it is strong! When we have taken the heart from this witch,

and you have again fasted in the hills, the sick land and the sick

people will be made better."

The maid looked from face to face in the glare of freshly lit torches,

and caught little of meaning from the rapid speech. But no one touched

her, and she looked with confidence into the eyes of Tahn-té. He had

not moved from his tracks, and he held himself proudly as he faced the

man who had long wished his humiliation.

"When the time comes to fast in the hills, I will know it," he

said,--"and no hand touches the heart of this maid, but--my own!"

"It is at sunrise," said the governor, stilled by the look of the

Po-Ahtun-ho--"a runner has been sent--the council will be waiting for

the enchantress, and the women to prepare her will be waiting."

"I will lead her," said Tahn-té and took her hand, and from the

medicine pouch he took one bead of the by-otle, and in Navahu he bade

her eat of it in secret, which she did wonderingly, and the men of the

Tain-tsain clan walked before and after them and held torches, and

they went down the steep of Pu-yé before the moon had touched the

pines of the western hills. And a runner was sent to Shufinne that the

people there might come and put Yahn Tsyn-deh and her lover under the

earth together.

CHAPTER XXII

"AT THE TRAIL'S END!"

The morning stars were shining through the gray threatening sky, when

a slender blanket draped figure stepped from Ysobel's doorway into the

dusk, and came near putting foot on Don Ruy Sandoval who lay there as

if on guard.

There was a little gasp, and the blanket was clutched more closely.

"Your Excellency!" breathed Chico wonderingly--"awake so

early--and--here?"

"Awake so late," amended his excellency,--"and is this not a good

place to be?"

"In truth I am having doubts of my own," confessed the secretary with

attempted lightness. "What with barbaric battles, and earth

quakings,--and a night when the breath of volcanoes seemed abroad in

the land and strange lightenings came up from the earth--it suggests

no dreams of paradise! Don Diego thinks it is because the expedition

has not been more eager for souls."

"Has he not converted Säh-pah and won a ladylove?" asked Don Ruy--"he

is at least that much in advance of the rest of us. I've had no luck,

and you are as much of a bachelor as ever you were."

Chico contemplated the morning star in silence, and Don Ruy smiled.

"If the enchanted ring of Señor Ariosta should fall at your feet from

yon star;--or the lamp of Alladin would come out of the earth in one

of these quakings, what would you ask it to do with us all, since this

camp is not to your liking?" he asked.

"I would wish you safe in Mexico with no sorcerer to doctor your

wounds if you were bent on acquiring such pleasures."

"No learned professor could have brought healing more quickly,"

contended Don Ruy,--"and the sorcerer, if so he be, has given me food

for thought at least. Which reminds me that you are not to go to the

river mesa this morning in case you see the barbarians trooping that

way for ceremonies."

A runner came panting past them from towards the hills, and the gate

was opened for him and closed again, and a herald from the terrace

shouted aloud sentences arousing all who yet slept;--not only arousing

them, but causing unexpected shrieks and cries of consternation from

many dwellings. There were the lamentations of the old women of the

Tain-tsain clan, and their wails sent the thrill of a mysterious dread

through the night that was dying, for the day had not yet come.

"What is it--what?" asked the secretary in a whisper of dread. "You

know what the thing is;--tell me!"

"Not so nice a thing that you should trade a convent garden for it,"

confessed Don Ruy--"if the wishing ring were mine you would be wafted

there before that star goes pale."

"Oh!"--and the secretary strove to assume a lightness not to be

honestly felt in that chorus of wails. "You would make me a messenger

to your lady of the tryst--and I would tell her that since luck with

the pagan maids has not been to your fancy, you may please to walk

past her balcony and again cast an eye in that direction!"

"And at the same time you might whisper to her that I would not now

need to glance at her the second time to know her," he added. "Even

the armor of a Bradamante could not mask her eyes, or dull for me the

music of her voice."

"Excellency!"

"It is a most strange place to make words for the wooing of a lady, is

it not?"--asked Don Ruy looking up at the slender form wrapped in the

blanket.--"But new worlds are in making when earth quakes come,--and

our to-morrows may be strange ones, and--sweetheart comrade, I have

lain at your door each night since your head rested on my shoulder

there in the arroyo."

Someway Don Ruy made his arm long enough to reach the blanket and draw

the hesitating figure to him, and rested his cheek against the russet

sandals, and then a very limp Master Chico was on the ground beside

him, and was hearing all the messages any lady of any balcony would

like Love to send her.

"I cannot forgive you letting me carry all that water for a fainting

fit--and there was no fainting fit!" she protested at last,--"all

these days I've lived in terror;--not quite certain!"

"Think you nothing of the uncertain weeks you have given me?"--he

retorted.--"I had my puzzled moments I do assure you! And now that I

think of it--I'm in love with a lady whose actual name I have not been

told!"

"Are we not equal in that?" she whispered, and he laughed and held her

close as a bandaged throat would allow.

"Ruy Sandoval is a good enough name to go to the priest with," he

said, "and if 'Doña Bradamante' has no other I'll give her one if

she'll take it."

"Despite the Indian grandmother, and the madness of longing for life

in the open--and--."

"And the Viceroy and court of Spain to boot!" he declared recklessly.

"Sweetheart, I must have the right to guard you in a new way if need

be, for these are strange days."

Even while they spoke the stars were shot over by the green light of a

promised dawn, and against the faint sky line of the mesa a strange

procession came. Men carrying long fringes of the cedar such as grow

in the moist places in the cañons,--also festoons of the ground pine,

and flowers of the sun with the brilliant petals like warm rays.

The bearers of these ran swiftly, but the others moved more steadily,

and Don Ruy called to José to learn for him the meanings of things,

and why Tahn-té, the Ruler, walked like that as if in prayer, and

clasped hands with a girl who smiled up in his face as a child on a

holiday, though all the older men looked as though walking to battle.

"It is the witch maid who has brought evil magic on the land," said

José, who had heard the herald--"also she has enchanted the

Po-Ahtun-ho with devil's arts, and has killed Yahn Tsyn-deh and

Ka-ye-mo with Navahu arrows on Pu-yé. They say she laughs to show that

no knife can harm her, and she goes to the altar instead of the

Yutah;--for it is she the earth groaned for."

"Go--"--said Don Ruy to his lately claimed "Doña Bradamante"--"keep

within the house with Ysobel until we come again. There may be much

to do, Lady mine, but there are no records for you to keep this

day."

And without protest or reply he was obeyed. There was something so

awful in the sight of the smiling maid of the bluebird wing, and the

wails of the women who mourned those she had destroyed, that one would

willingly flee the sight of their meeting.

But the Te-hua guards closed around the enchantress and the fanatics

of vengeance were barred out. Those meant for the Mesa of the Hearts

were not to be given to people!

Publicly the governor made thanks to the priest of the men of

iron;--he it was who had smelled out the witch--and sent the men where

her dead was found! Plain it was that their white brothers helped in

magic and in battle. Let the old men think wisely and well before they

let such brothers go from the land. For the angry gods, and the

quaking earth, the priest of the beard had found the cause;--also the

cure had he found. Did not the sun symbol belong to this man for this

work? Let the old men think well of this thing!

Don Ruy held José at his side, and listened, and hearing all, he faced

the padre with the first anger they had seen in his reckless kindly

eyes.

"For your own ends of the gold search you have done this thing?" he

demanded. "To a death on the altar have you sent that child-woman?

Good priest of the church, you make a man wonder if the saints indeed

listen, and God is above!"

"Oh--impious!" groaned Don Diego, and crossed himself in horror. "Oh

Excellency--your words are apostate--unsay them and tempt not Almighty

Power!"

The padre turned pale with anger and shut his teeth close under the

dark beard. But he was not a coward, and the habit of domination

through special privileges was a habit of many years, and it served

him against the merely temporal power of even regal influences.

"Of the witch creature I gave them no word," he said--"it was their

thrice accursed sorcerer they were sent in search of. But the two

belong to each other, and the old men of the order know now that their

high priest is in league with devils. Never again will he be the

Ruler. His power is overthrown. He cannot save even his own witch-mate

from the vengeance of the clans. The thing we have crossed these

deserts for will be given to us since his voice against us is

silenced. Is that a thing to regret, Excellency? I thought it was for

this we made entrance to the land--and for this you joined hands for

the expedition!"

He had recovered his ease of manner, and even a mocking tone crept

into the final words. Don Ruy looked around the faces of the

Castilians and Mexicans and saw no more of special emotion in the

light of the gray dawn than they had shown at the dance of the scalps

in the glow of torches so few hours ago.

To them all it was only a witch being led to death, and they had seen

that same thing in Christian lands. It was not a thing for special

wonder,--except that this sorceress was young, and that she looked at

the young Indian Ruler, and smiled often, and little sounds like a

mere murmur of a song came sometimes from her lips.

[Illustration: ONLY A WITCH LED TO DEATH _Page 310_]

"_Just at daylight Doli calls

The bluebird has a voice

His voice melodious

That flows in gladness

Doli calls! Doli calls!_"

The guard shrank away from her as she began. The Navahu captive who

had been long a slave, said it was the song of the Dawn, and that it

was the last song of many songs which were part of the wonderful

"Night Chant" ceremony of his people,--it was a ceremony to heal all

things of the ills of life.

But despite his words the Te-hua men shrank away, and the Te-hua women

had trembling hands as they stripped her, and crowned her with the

sacred pine, and fastened around her a girdle of the feathery young

cedar, and in the green of the crown they thrust the golden disks of

the flowers of the sun. She lifted the lion skin from the ground and

held it close as a garment, and stood alone against the terrace wall.

The people shrank and half feared to look at her lest the Dawn song be

a witch charm to enchant them.

Po-tzah had brought to Tahn-té the white robe of the priest who makes

sacrifice, and a long knife of white flint for which the sheath was

softest of deerskin, and the symbols painted on it were those of the

Father Sun and Mother Moon.

And while the maid held close the garment he had given her, and

chanted her Dawn song dreamily, Tahn-té lifted from the ground the

wing of the bluebird tossed aside by the medicine women who made her

ready for the sacrifice, and he placed it in the white band about his

own head so that he wore two instead of one, and then he lifted his

voice and spoke, and no other sound was heard but his voice, and the

low song of the witch maid.

"Men of Te-hua," he said. "If I speak not you will not know the

truth;--and it may be that you will live many days ere you believe

this truth! The maid who has come down from the hills is not a

stranger to Povi-whah--and has done no evil. The daughter of

K[=a]-ye-fah is this maid. She is K[=a]-ye-povi, the child who was

lost. All you people know of the years of the grieving of her father

who was strong for that which was good. His child has come back to

find her own people. On the trail she was lost, and evil magic of the

men of iron have made hard your hearts when she came to you. I have

waited until all the people were here to listen. Now I speak. To speak

at Pu-yé to the clan of Tain-tsain would not have been wise. They were

sent by the vision of the white priest to find a witch woman. It is

the child of K[=a]-ye-fah they find, and instead of glad hearts, and

glad speech, she is given by the Te-hua people only the crown of the

sacred pine. Let her own clan of the Towa Toan speak!"

A thrill of wonder ran through the crowd, but no kind faces were

there, and Tahn-té took from his medicine pouch the last seed of the

sacred medicine given to man by the gods. There had been many seeds

when they left Pu-yé. He knew he was daring the gods, and that the

penalty would be heavy. But her fearless face, and the music of her

Dawn song was payment for much.

And to the gods he would answer!

The gray dawn was gone, and the green dawn was merging into the yellow

where the stars are lost.

The head of the Towa Toan clan spoke from a terrace.

"We have heard the words of Tahn-té. The witch maid is not known by

our people, and our clan does not claim her! By evil magic has the

song of this maid blinded the eyes of Tahn-té,--and by evil magic

will she make desolate the land if she is let live. The white priest

has strong medicine--and good medicine of the gods. The men of

Te-gat-ha and the men of Navahu knew her as a witch, and sought her.

They did not find her because the men of iron were not their brothers.

To us they are brothers. I give thanks, and we think they should have

that which they seek with us. Their priest works also for our god, and

the symbol of the god is not to be hidden from him. Also the altar

waits;--and the stars are going away!"

Tahn-té touched the hand of the maid.

"Come!" he said gently, and as he touched her hand, he gave to her the

last seed from the fruit of the sacred plant,--"eat for the trail you

must walk over, and sing for me alone the song holy of the Navahu Sun

God; I take you to meet him on the Mesa of the Hearts."

Don Ruy tried to press through the guard, but the orders of the heads

of the clans had been strong orders. The Castilian brothers might

follow; but the stars were going away, and there was no time for words

after the crown was made. The flowers must not wither above a living

face.

And the maid entered the canoe with the Po-Ahtun-ho and the Te-hua

boatmen plied the paddles so that the crossing was quick, and all the

others followed, and some men swam, and the Castilian horses and

riders went also. And a second priest of the Po-Ahtun went with a

white robe, and a good knife in his girdle. Tahn-té was called

"sorcerer" by the wise men of iron, and it was best to trust not

entirely to the heart of a sorcerer. He was plainly bewitched, and his

heart might grow weak when he looked on the altar, and looked on the

maid!

Tahn-té pointed to the upturned face of the God-Maid on the bosom of

the south mesa.

"That was my altar to you all the days of my boyhood," he said softly,

"there I met the god thoughts; there were the serpents tamed. It is

the God-Maid of this valley and her face is ever to the sun. To her

was my love given while I waited for your face! Listen!--and know this

is so--and sing now the song of the Sun God and the earth's end."

With her eyes on his she chanted the words, and the Te-hua oarsmen

dared not look on her face for very terror. The words they did not

know--but no victim had ever yet gone singing to that altar.

"_In my thoughts I approach--I approach!

The Sun God approaches,

Earth's end he approaches.

Estsan-atlehi approaches

In old age walking

The beautiful trail.

In my thoughts I approach--I approach!

The Moon God approaches

Earth's end he approaches--_"

The canoe touched the shore, and the maid clasped the hand of Tahn-té

and went over the sand lightly as a child who wanders through flower

fields to a festival. He looked in her eyes and knew that the magic of

the sacred seed was strong, and that the hand of no man could hurt

her.

"Your trail is to the hills," he said.--"To the heart of the forest

you go. Where the bluebird builds her nest--there you build the nest

where we meet again. You see your wings in my hair? I wear both of

them that they lead me again to your trail when the time comes. When

the bluebird calls to her mate, I will hear your voice in that call.

When the anger of the gods has passed, I will find you again in the

Light beyond the light at the trail's end."

"At the trail's end," she said as a child repeats a lesson--"I build

the nest for you, and sing the bluebird song for you at the trail's

end."

"Thanks to the gods that it will be so," he said, and sprinkled prayer

meal to the four ways.--"The Spirit People stand witness! The gods

will be good in that Afterworld;--I will find you again."

They had reached the edge of the mesa--and the pale yellow of the sky

had been covered with a weird murky red. For all the many followers, a

strange hush was on the height, and far in the south low thunder was

heard. The same still, heavy air of the night was brooding over the

world, and long rays of copper and dull red were flung like banners to

the zenith. Each man's eyes looked strange questions into the eyes of

his neighbor, and the Te-hua men came not close to the witch maid, and

the man at the altar.

"_The Sun God approaches--approaches!

Earth's end he approaches!_"

They could hear the low chant of her witch song, and they could see

Tahn-té offer prayer meal to the Spirit People of the four ways, and

to the upper and the nether world. At his word she laid herself on the

rock, and no other priest was asked to help, or to hold her, and that

was a sacrifice such as had never been seen in that place.

"No hand but mine shall touch you:--O Bird of my Wilderness!" he

said.

"In the Light beyond the light I wait for you at the trail's end,"

she said, and laughed that his hand rested on her breast.

And the sun, blood red, came over the edge of the world, and Don Ruy

cried aloud at the lifted hand of Tahn-té, and the gleam of the white

flint knife.

But the guard closed in, and one of his own men caught him, and asked

for pardon afterwards, and when he could again see the altar, the

knife was red, and a heart was held outward to the sun that looked

like the flame of burning worlds.

And a long, shivering, high keyed chant of the Te-hua people went

upwards to the sky, that the gods might know they were witness. But in

the midst of it the rumbling as of thunder was under their feet and

the earth rocked. Sulphurous fumes came upwards from the long closed

crevices of the solitary mesa; and to the south there was the crash as

of falling worlds, and the great mesa of The Face lifted before their

eyes, and settled again as a wave of the river lifts and breaks on the

shore.

The chant of the sacrifice was silenced on their lips, and they fled

downward at that sight, for the face of the God-Maid of the mesa no

longer looked upwards to the sun! The outline of the brow, and the

cheek, and the dainty woman's chin they could still see;--but the face

was turned from them--turned toward the south--where the gods have

ever gone in an evil season!

And only Don Ruy Sandoval saw the heart put back in the breast of the

witch maid, and saw her wrapped in the white robe of the Po-Ahtun-ho,

and saw the crevice where the Powers of the Underworld had opened a

grave for her there on the Mesa of the Hearts.

And even he watched afar off; for there was that in the face of the

Indian priest not to be understood by the white man who felt both pity

and horror.

But he waited at the foot of the mesa, and held the canoe while the

Po-Ahtun-ho, who had the logic of a white man, but the heart of an

Indian, came down and entered it in silence, and as they crossed the

river, stared as though scarcely seeing it, at The Face now turned

southwards on the mesa.

"You--loved her?" said Don Ruy at last and something of the tone of a

lover in the voice made Tahn-té close his eyes for a moment, and then

look at the Castilian. He did not need to speak.

"Yet--you could do--_that_?"

"When the gods are angered against earth people, it is always the most

precious they demand in sacrifice," he said. "When we make vows, the

gods watch that we keep the vows--else we pay, Señor,--we pay--we

pay!"

CHAPTER XXIII

THE PROPHECY OF TAHN-TÉ

Vague tremblings were still felt underfoot; the river was red with the

clay of fallen banks. Smoke came from an ancient crater to the south,

and also the east, and above the Mesa of the Hearts hung a cloud of

volcanic dust, or a puff of smoke escaped from the red ash-covered

fissures of the Underworld.

The women were gathered in terror in the court, but fled at the sight

of Tahn-té. The anger of the earth was a thing of fear; but he was

made see that there were worse things, and they covered the faces of

their children that his eyes might not rest on them.

At the door of the council house he paused and Don Ruy beside him.

There was much talk. All the leading men were there, also Padre

Vicente and Don Diego. They entered and there was silence.

No one offered to Tahn-té the pipe, and no one spoke to him.

The priest of the New God had told them things--he knew men's

hearts--he had confessed so many!--He told them it was love for the

witch maid by which the hand of the sorcerer kept every other man from

touching her.--Even to take the heart from her breast, was an easier

thing than to give her to the men of Te-gat-ha or of Povi-whah, who

had looked on her face and asked for her, also he had wrapped about

her his priestly robe of office before he laid her in the earth where

Satan had broken the rock to reach for her!

Their sorcerer had traded his robe of office for the evil love of an

enchantress:--never again must a god be offended by sound of his

prayers!

And no one offered him the pipe, and no one spoke to him. He sat alone

and looked with unseeing eyes at the weeping god on the altar.

Padre Vicente was seated in a place of honor. He looked at Tahn-té

across the circle, and it was plain that the ways had changed since

that other day of council when they had looked into each other's eyes,

and the pagan had been the Ruler!

The right hand man of the governor arose. He was the oldest man, and

he spoke.

"While the earth has trembled we have talked--and the trembling has

grown little while we talked," he said. "It is plain that the gods

have sent these signs that we may know our white brothers are indeed

of the sun, and the symbol of the sun should be given to their

keeping."

Another man arose.

"Also these new brothers will guard our fields from the Navahu and the

Apache," he said. "We will have the tamed animals to ride, and our

enemies will run before the fire sticks our brothers will give us."

The governor arose.

"Their god we are asked to take, and the god will do much for us if

the sun symbol is given to their keeping. To us that seems good. The

keepers of the sun symbol are two, and must be only two. Let it be for

the ancients of the Po-Ahtun to say which man of their order gives up

the secret, and makes medicine to forget it was ever in his keeping."

A man of the Po-Ahtun stood up and looked at Tahn-té.

"A man and a woman hold that secret of the symbol of the god," he

said. "In our own kiva must that be spoken of, and not in another

place. But the hearts of our people are gentle towards our new

brothers who smell out witches, and do not mate with them! Our order

will surely make medicine that the priest of the great king be given

that secret to keep for us, and the Sun God will smile again on our

land."

"It is well--it is very well," said all the council. And then there

was a long silence, and they looked at Tahn-té until he arose.

"Not except I die for you, will you believe;--and even then you will

not believe," he said in sadness. "You, my people, will accept the god

of the gold hunters, and you will not see that it is only riches they

want at your hands! In other years you will see. When the men of

Te-hua work in chains for the men of Spain--and for the masters of the

men of Spain!--Then in that day will the men of Te-hua tell to their

sons these words--the words of the prophecy of Tahn-té!"

"We are much troubled, and our hearts are sad," said Po-tzah. "The

magic of the white god is strong--and their priest has let our people

see that it is strong. We do not want that magic against our

children."

"Against your children will the magic come in the unborn years!" said

Tahn-té with decision. "You will take the god of the white man because

one more god, or one more baptism hurts no man. You will be trapped by

fair words until I see the time when you can circle in the half of a

day all the fields you dare plant for your own! The Flute of the Gods

will be silenced in the land. Your Te-hua daughters will be slaves for

the men of the iron! The sacred places will be feeding lands for their

animals. The Te-hua priests will wait the word of the white man ere

they dare go to the groves of the sacred trees for the prayer wreaths

to the gods!"

"The sacred pine must be sacred to all--always!" said Po-tzah.

"Not anything is sacred to the white men--I have looked in their

books;--I, of all Te-hua men!"

Padre Vicente saw that the old magic of the talking leaves was

potent;--and he arose without waiting for formal interpretation.

"He has looked in the books with the eyes of a sorcerer!" he declared,

thus openly accusing Tahn-té before the council.--"He has read crooked

things--and his words are the words of the man who mated with the

witch in the hills!"

The council stared at this new sign that strong magic was with the

priest of the robe--he was suddenly given knowledge of the tongue of

Te-hua! Don Diego stared in wonder and crossed himself many times.

"It is a language infernal even to the people born to it," he

gasped--"but that it should be given to one of us on the day when we

are openly claimed as brothers is a special sign of grace. Thanks to

the saints who sent it your way instead of mine!"

"This man has brought evil on you until the earth groans and turns,"

continued the Padre. "His mother of the caves is called 'holy' and he

is called strong in the light of the sky:--But the sky is angry, and

the Great God and his saints are angry that this sorcerer has cheated

you so long with enchantments of the devil! Be strong for the saving

of your own souls, and leave him to his witch mates and to his hell!"

Even Don Ruy was astounded that the padre addressed the council in

their own words--truly of all priests ever frocked he had found the

one most subtle for the work in hand, for having gained the

council--as it was easy to see he had gained them--Padre Vicente spoke

in Castilian to Tahn-té.

"Yet does my office exact absolution for you, if you but crave it with

a contrite heart," he said for the benefit of Don Ruy and Don Diego

who listened. "You have worked for your devils, and they have deserted

you, and stripped you of power. Acknowledge the true God and the

saints will intercede for your favor."

Tahn-té looked at him, and his smile was strange.

"There was a man named Judas in your holy book," he said, "only silver

did he crave for his work. You are greater than Judas; you work for

the metal more precious. Is it thirty pieces you want ere you crucify

me utterly?"

The figure of a woman darkened the entrance--a slender fragile figure

who moved to him swiftly, and noted no others in the dusk of the

council house. In Shufinne the word had reached her of the horror of

Pu-yé--and she had come quickly as might be, and the sound of his

living voice drew her breathless, but thankful to his side, and his

arm circled her in support and in tenderness as he looked over her

head to the Te-hua men of the council.

"I see your thoughts, and I read them," he said. "The men who seek the

gold have put a wall between you and me. That which you have you can

give them;--but remember in your hearts that there are things which

belong to the unborn, and such things you have no power to give them.

Only so long as you keep your own religion, and your own gods, so long

will your tribe stand as a tribe;--no longer! Step by step your

children will have to fight the strangers for that which is now your

own. Only your god-thoughts will bind you as brothers;--the god of the

gold hunters will poison your blood, and will divide your clans, and

will divide your children, until your names are forgotten in the

land!"

"The sorcerer who tells you this is the brother to the serpents in

the Desert!" said Padre Vicente springing to his feet in angry

impatience;--"enough of words have been said of this--."

A sound between a scream and a moan silenced the words on his lips,

and Don Ruy felt his blood run chill, as the drooping figure of the

Woman of the Twilight stood suddenly upright with lifted hand.

"Teo!"--she murmured in utter gladness,--and moved through the half

light of the room towards the Castilians. "Teo!"

"Holy God!" whispered Don Ruy, while the padre turned white. Don Diego

stared in horror--only one named Teo came in his mind--the Greek who

should belong to the Holy Office in Seville;--the man whose word even

now was wanted as to the older days of Christian slave trade in

Europe!

"Don Teo!" she was quite close to him now, and she spoke as a

trembling child who craves welcome,--"I--Mo-wa-thé--speak! O

Spirit;--you have come back from the Star--you have come--."

The Te-hua men, and Tahn-té also, waited in wonder. Never before had

the Twilight Woman gone like that to a man--and she was so close that

the man shrank from her against the wall of the room.

"Back!"--he muttered, and he spoke Te-hua now, and his voice was rough

with rage and fear,--"This woman is evil, and brings evil power!"

"She is the Woman of the Twilight--the holy woman of the caves," said

a man of the Po-Ahtun, for Tahn-té could find no words for the wonder

she wakened.

"She is an enchantress who fights against the true god and his

angels;--a witch of evil magic!"--and the padre was white, and

breathing hard lest she touch him.

"A witch!"--she echoed in horror.--"I?--Teo--."

She crept to him in abject supplication and reached out her hand,

touching the sleeve of his robe.

"Back!"--he shouted in horror--and held the crucifix between

them--"Thing of the Evil One! May your tongue be palsied--may your

magic fail--may--."

Tahn-té hurled him aside, and caught his mother as she fell; and the

padre leaned half fainting against the wall, with great beads of sweat

standing on his face, and the crucifix still lifted as a barrier or as

a threat.

But the threat was useless to the slender creature of the caves.

"Teo--Teo!" she whispered, and then "Tahn-té," and then the breath

went, and her son laid her gently on the floor, while the padre

regarded _him_ with a new horror! Don Ruy watching them both, choked

back an oath at the revelation in the white face.

[Illustration: "BACK! THING OF THE EVIL ONE!" _Page 324_]

The Te-hua men also drew away;--even Po-tzah averted his face when

Tahn-té looked from one to the other!

Again had their eyes seen the strength of the white medicine god. The

holy Woman of the Twilight had been destroyed before their eyes. It

was the greatest magic they had yet seen!

Tahn-té saw it, and knew it; and felt as he had felt when a boy, and

he had stood alone and apart--the only child of the sky. He had come

again into his own! He was akin to none of earth's children.

Then the man of the Po-Ahtun spoke.

"Two there were who held the secret of the sun symbol;--Now there is

only one,--she has taken it through the Twilight Land to the Light

beyond the light."

"Two?"--said Don Ruy--"and this woman was one? And the other?"

No one spoke, but Tahn-té looked at him; and again there was no need

for words.

"Medicine can be made to make a man forget," said Tahn-té to the men

of Te-hua--"but no medicine can be made to make a man remember! One

keeper of the secret is dead by the magic of the white priest. Your

children's children will give thanks in the days to come that it was

not given to the men of iron."

"It is a secret of the tribe!" protested the man of the Po-Ahtun.

"It is now the secret of the god who hid it in the earth," said

Tahn-té. "By all earth people who knew it--it has been forgotten!"

"But--without it we will lose our brothers of the new god!"

"Without it you will surely lose your brothers of the new god!" he

assented. "Each time you look on the God-Maid of the mesa who has

turned away her face, you will remember the prophecies of Tahn-té!

Each time the God of Young Winter paints leaves yellow for the sleep

to come, your children will see a sign on the mountain to tell them

that Tahn-té was indeed Brother to the Serpent as that man said in his

mocking!--also that the prayers of Tahn-té do not end. Free I came

from the Desert to you, and I carried the Flute of the Gods, and fruit

for your children:--free I go out from your dwellings and carry my

'witch mother' to rest!"

He gathered her in his arms, and looked once into the pallid face of

her accuser and destroyer. At that look from the pagan priest the

white priest shrank and covered his face with the cowl.

"You--go?" said Po-tzah.

"In the place of Povi-whah another will hear your prayers to the gods,

and I--Tahn-té the outcast--I go!"

No more words were spoken among the men of the council. In silence

they watched him as he walked with his burden up the trail of the mesa

where he had run so gladly to make his boy vow at the shrine.

No happy sign shone for him this time in the sky. It was as he said to

Don Ruy;--those who make vows to the gods,--and forget them for earth

people, pay--and pay prices that are heavy! But above him a bird swept

into the golden sky. He put up his hand to the wings in his hair--and

heard plainly the words of the mate who would wait his call at the

trail's end.

And Don Ruy Sandoval watched the man called "sorcerer" out of sight,

and then went to the dwelling of José and gathered to his breast the

secretary who had adopted blanket draperies.

[Illustration: TAHN-TÉ; THE OUTCAST _Page 326_]

"Sweetheart comrade," he said without proper prelude or

preparation--"There is not anything in this weary world worth living

for but Love, and Love alone. Shall we take the homeward journey and

go where we can guard it?"

"There are tears in your eyes," said his "Doña Bradamante,"--"and you

look as if you make love to me, yet think of some other thing!"

"I have seen a man live through hell this day," he answered. "Never

ask me, Sweetheart--what the hell was. It is beyond belief that a man

could live it, and continue to live after it."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BLUEBIRD'S CALL

Even in the long after years in stately Christian Spain, Don Ruy was a

silent man when his serene lady in stiff brocades and jewelled shoes

would mock at court pageantry and sigh for the reckless days when she

had worn the trappings of a page and followed his steps into the north

land of barbaric mysteries.

Mystery much of it had remained for her! The life of the final days in

the terraced village by the great river had been masked and cloaked

for her. Ysobel and José had been silent guards, and Don Ruy could not

be cajoled into speech!

But there had been a morning he suddenly became a very compelling

commander for all of them; and his will was that the cavalcade head

for the south and Mexico as quickly as might be, and that Padre

Vicente de Bernaldez separate from them all and seek converts where he

would. A horse and food was allowed to him, but no other thing.

Don Diego exclaimed with amazement at such arrangement, and warned Don

Ruy that the saints above, and Mother Church in Spain, would demand

account for such act on the part of even Don Ruy Sandoval!

"Is it indeed so?" asked Don Ruy, and smiled with a bitter meaning as

he looked on the padre:--"Will you, señor priest, tell this company it

is at your own will and request that you remain in this land of the

barbarians? Or is your mind changed, and do you fancy Seville as a

pleasant place for a journey?"

But Padre Vicente turned the color of a corpse, and said openly before

them all, that he asked freedom to journey to other Indian villages.

Thus, white and silent he was let go. He went without farewell. If he

found other villages none can tell, but the men of a great Order

framed before the building of the Egyptian pyramids, do know that the

traces of a like Order is to-day in one of the villages of that

province of New Spain, and that there is legend of a white priest who

lived in their terraces of the mesa, and taught them certain things of

the strange outside world so long as they let him live. But his name

is not remembered by men.

What Don Ruy Sandoval said to the Viceroy of Mexico on his return, was

in private conference, but a royal galleon carried him, and carried a

strangely found Mexic bride, across the wide seas to Spain, where the

wonderful "Relaciones" were made the subject of much converse, but

never printed, and during the lifetime of the adventurer called Ruy

Sandoval, the province of New Spain along the Rio Grande del Norte was

locked and barred against the seeker of gold or of souls--it was the

closed land of mystery:--the province of sorcerers, where Mother Earth

hid beneath her heart the symbol of the Sun Father.

But there are legends there in the valley of the Te-hua people to tell

of that time of trial three centuries ago. Also there are the records

written on mesa and mountain. In the time of that far away, the Spirit

People worked together on Na-im-be Mountain until of the evergreen

pine, a giant figure of a man grew there, and around him is growing

the white limbs and yellow leaves of the aspen groves. The hands of

that figure reach high overhead and are to the south, and they hold

the great Serpent whose body is as a strung bow in its arch, and whose

head is high on the hill where the enchanted lake, known by every one,

reflects the sky. Tahn-té, whose mother was the Woman of the Twilight,

said the God of Winter would send a sign that the people might know

the ancient worship of the creeping Brother was a true thing--and so

it was done--all men can see it when the Spirit People turn yellow the

leaves.

Other things spoken by him have come true until the Te-hua priests

know that one born of a god did once live among them as a boy and as a

man.

Like children bewildered did the clans of Povi-whah watch the silent

swift departure of their white brothers from whom they had hoped much.

They thought of many things and had trouble thoughts while they waited

until the mourning of Tahn-té in the hills would be over, and he would

come again to their councils. But when the waiting had been so long

that fear touched their hearts, then men of the highest medicine

sought for him in the hills, that his fasts be not too long, and he be

entreated to return:--that turned-away face of the God-Maid on the

mesa made their hearts weak, and they needed the strong prayers of

Tahn-té. His name meant the Sunlight, and their minds were in shadow

after his going away.

With prayer words and prayer music they sought for him, and sacred

pollen was wafted to the four ways, and all the ways of the Spirit,

that the help of the Lost Others might come also.

They told each other of the promise of Po-se-yemo and of Ki-pah, that

in each time of stress a leader who was god-sent would come to the

Te-hua people so long as they were faithful to the Things of the

Spirit.

This had truly been a season of stress, and an appeal of new, strange

gods!

Tahn-té, the leader, had been born and had come to them; the Flute of

the Ancient Gods he had carried as the Sign!--and as they whispered it

to each other, their eyes had a new terror, and they sought wildly for

reasons to justify themselves.

He had come. They had choice, and they chose the new white brothers,

and the new god promises!

He had come;--and they had closed their hearts against his words--they

had driven him away as in other days the Ancient Fathers had driven

Po-se-yemo to the south:--for the gods only live where the hearts of

men are true, and strong, and of faith!

These things they had been told by the Ancients, but they remembered

it now anew as they followed each other in silence to the hills, and

to the white walls of Pu-yé--and to the tomb there newly built that

the Woman of the Twilight might rest where her people had lived in the

lost centuries.

The portal of it was closed, and the sign of her order was cut in the

rock at the portal.

The priests made many prayers, but no trace of the lost Ruler could

they find. All was silence in that place of the dead, but for the song

of a bluebird flitting from one ancient dwelling to another.

Younger men went far to the west where the people of the Hopi mesas

had loved him;--somewhere in the world he must be found!

But the Hopi people mourned also, for they had heard the strange call

of a flute across the sands in the night time, and had feared to

answer to the call, and in the morning there was no sound of the

flute, and no priest of the flute to be found:--only a trail across

the desert sand--and the trail led the way of the sun trail, and the

Winds of the Four Ways blew, and swept it from sight--and they knew in

their hearts that Tahn-té had sent his good-bye call ere he went from

the land of men to the land of gods.

They knew also that he went alive--for the god-born do not die.

This word the couriers took back to the Te-hua people of the Rio

Grande, and fires were lit for him as they have been lighted for

centuries that the god Po-se-yemo might know that their faith in the

valley of the great river was yet strong for the ancient gods.

Three centuries of the religion of the white strangers have not made

dim the signal fires to those born of the sky!

The walls of Povi-whah have melted again into Mother Earth. Silent are

the groves where the Ancient Others carved their homes from the rock

walls of the heights. Wings of vivid blue flit in the sunlight from

the portal of the star to bough of the piñon tree--and a brooding

silence rests over those high levels;--only the wind whispers in the

pines, and the old Indians point to the bird of azure and tell of a

Demon-maid who came once from the land of the Navahu, and wore such

wings, and sang a song of the blue bird, and enchanted a god-born one

with her promise to build a nest and wait for him--at the trail's

end!

An ancient teller of Te-hua legends will add that the trail of Tahn-té

was covered by the sands of the Four Ways and no living people ever

again looked on his face,--and that the Te-hua priests say the strong

god of the men of iron swept him into the Nothing because he alone

stood against the new faith in that time of trial.

[Illustration: ONLY A TRAIL ACROSS THE DESERT SANDS _Page 332_]

The teller of tales does not know if this be true or not--all gods can

be made strong by people, and it is not good to battle against the god

of a strong people:--they can send strange sorceries and wild

temptings, and the Navahu maid had such charm she was never forgotten

by men who looked upon her face. It is also well known that the

bluebird is a sacred bird for medicine, and does call at every dawn on

those heights, and the wings worn in the banda of Tahn-té might,

through strong love, have become a true charm;--and might have led him

at last to the nest of the witch maid in some wilderness of the Far

Away;--who can tell?

But all men know that the prophecies of Tahn-té are true to-day in the

valley of the Rio Grande--and that his vision was the vision of that

which was to be.

_Aliksai!_

GLOSSARY

"_Alikasai!_" = Hopi ceremonial word for a story

telling, equivalent to "Once upon

a time," or "Thus it was."

Alvarado, Hernando de = A lieutenant of Coronado, 1540.

Atoki = The Crane.

Ah-ko = Acoma, N. M., a village of the Queres

people.

Apache = A warrior tribe of Athapascan stock

in Arizona.

Awh-we = "Mountain Place."

By-otle (_see Py-otle_).

Chinig-Chinik = A Pacific coast tribe of Nature worshippers.

Chilan Balam = Indian priest and prophet. 16th Century.

Ci-bo-la = Zuni, N. M. The only surviving village

of the "Seven Cities of Cibola"

of the early Spanish, chronicles.

Ci-cu-yé = Indian village and river. Pecos, N. M.

"Cabeza de Vaca"; = Alvar Nunez:--the first European

to cross the land and make record

of the natives of the Arizona region.

(1528-36).

Dok-os-lid = Navaho sacred mountain of the west.

San Francisco Mt., Arizona.

Doli = The blue bird. (Navaho).

Estsan-atlehi = Navaho Earth Goddess.

Go-hé-yahs = Spirit People, or mediators between

earth people and the Sun Father.

"_Han-na-di_ = Te-hua ceremonial beginning of a

_Set-en-dah-nh!_" legend or sacred myth story.

Hopi or Hópitû = The desert people of Tusayan, often

named Moki or Moqui by outsiders

or tribal enemies.

Ho-tiwa = Arrows (being) made.

Kat-yi-ti = Cochiti Pueblo, N. M.

Ka-yemo = Falling leaves.

Kah-po = Santa Clara Pueblo, N. M.

Ki-pah = A legendary civilizer and prophet of

Te-hua people.

Kat-yi-mo = The solitary "Mesa Enchanted,"

three miles north of Acoma.

K[=a]-ye-povi = Spirit Blossom.

K[=a]-ye-fah = Wings of the Spirits.

Koh-pé = Red shell beads.

Khen-yah = Shaking trail.

Lé-lang-ûh = The Spirit Leader of the Flute Ceremony

for rain in the desert. He

was the first to make prayers

through the reed to the Spirit People

of the Elements. The gods

granted the prayer, and the Sacred

Order of the Flute was instituted.

It exists to-day in Tusayan.

"Lost Others." = Those who have gone from earth life

to the spirit land.

Lo-lo-mi, = A Hopi word indicating that all is

good or beautiful.--A blessing.

Mo-wa-thé = Flash of Light.

"Mother of the Starry = Milky Way.

Skirt"

"Moon of the Yellow = September.

Leaves"

Navahu = Navaho, a nomadic tribe of Athapascan

stock in Arizona.

Na-im-be = Nambe Pueblo, N. M.

Nahual = Spirit Ministrant, or unexpressed

personal power.

Oj-ke = San Juan Pueblo, N. M.

O-ye-tza = White Ice.

Oh-we-tahnh = Indian writing. (Pictographs)

P[=o]-s[=o]n-gé = "The river that is great," Rio

Grande.

Po-Ahtun = An esoteric cult known from N. M.

to Central America. The Lords of

the Water and the Four Winds.

Po-Ahtun-ho = The high priest of the order. The

spiritual ruler.

Po-se-yemo = "Dew of Heaven." The earth-born Te-hua Christ.

Povi-whah = Moving Blossom.

Po-tzah = White Water.

Po-pe-kan-eh = "Where the water is born." Springs

at the foot of Tse-c[=o]me-[=u]-piñ.

Po-eh-hin-cha = Santa Clara creek, N. M.

Po-etse = Box Cañon, Santa Clara Creek.

Po-ho-gé = San Ildefonso Pueblo, N. M.

Phen-tza = Yellow Mountain.

Piñ-pe-yé = An instrument of grooved stone and

a reed, by which astronomical calculations

were made by the Milky Way and stars.

Pu-yé = A cliff dwelling on Santa Clara Reservation, N. M.

Py-otle = A powerful drug known by Indian

medicine men from the great lakes

to Yucatan.

Quetzal-coatl = A God of Light of Mexico.

Qui-ve ra = A mythic land of gold in the desert.

Queres = or Que-ran-na. An ancient house

building people of N. M. Their

principal pueblo is Acoma--"The

sky dwellings of White."

Säh-pah = The Frost.

S[=aa]-hanh-que-ah = The Woman of the Twilight.

Sea of Cortez = Gulf of California.

Se-po-chineh = The Place of Ancient Fire, a sacred

mountain, Mt. Taylor, N. M.

Sik-yat-ki = A ruin in the Tusayan desert, near

Walpi, Arizona.

Sten-ahtlihan = The supreme goddess of the Apache

pantheon.

Sinde-hési = The Ancient Father:--the Power

back of the Sun.

Shufinne = A pre-historic cliff dwelling near

Pu-yé, N. M.

So-ho-dah-tsa = Dark Cloud.

Ta-ah-quea = The Goddess of the Young Summer.

Tahn-té = Light of the Sun.

Tain-tsain Clan = Antelope Clan.

Te-hua = "Children of the Sun." A house

building people of the Tanoan

Group, Rio Grande valley, N. M.

Te-get-ha = Taos Pueblo, N. M. One of the best

examples of the terraced, five storied,

pre-Columbian architecture,

still inhabited.

Tiguex = A ruin near Bermalillo, N. M., called

by the natives Po-ri-kun-neh:--"the

Place of the Butterflies."

Te-tzo-ge = Tesuque Pueblo, N. M.

Tsa-mah = A Te-hua village at the junction of

the Tsa-mah and Rio Grande, now

Chamita, N. M., interesting as the

site of the first colony of Spanish

pioneers in N. M. 1591.

Tsa-fah = Chicken Hawk.

Tsé-ye = Cañon de Chelle, Arizona. The home

of the Navaho Divine Ones.

Tse-c[=o]me-[=u]-piñ = A sacred mountain west of Pu-yé, N. M.

Towa Toan Clan = High Mesa Clan.

Tusayan = Province of. A territory in Northern

Arizona, now the Hopi Indian

Reservation.

Tuyo = The "Black Mesa" of San Ildefonso, N. M.

Ui-la-ua = Picuris Pueblo, N. M.

Ua-lano = Jemez Pueblo, N. M.

Wálpi = The ancient stone village of

"First Mesa" in Tusayan.

Yahn Tsyn-deh = Willow Bird.

Yutah = Ute, a Colorado tribe of the

sone linguistic stock.