On either side of the village, forming a vast semicircle, stood
innumerable lodges and hogans, temporary structures erected by the
inhabitants of the other villages, who had come to show homage to the
Princess and the White Chief, as the Captain was called.
While gazing in the direction of the village which was too far distant
for them to distinguish more than an indistinct outline of objects, they
beheld two dark columns of horsemen issue forth from the center of the
great semicircle of lodges and move slowly in their direction. Chiquita
guessed their meaning. As a child she had witnessed the ceremony when
her father, the Whirlwind, was proclaimed Chief of the nation.
Without pausing, they came trailing across the valley in two separate
columns, thousands of horsemen and women, the men on the right hand, the
women on the left; all riding bareback with simple _riatas_ twisted
around the horse's lower jaw. Save for their sandals and the skins of
the panther and ocelot and jaguar, the Mexican leopard, which they wore
clasped at the left shoulder by a golden, jeweled clasp, and which fell
diagonally down across the body to the right knee, leaving the arms and
shoulders and the greater part of the body bare and the left leg exposed
to the hip, the women were as naked as the men who wore sandals and
loin-skins only. Heavy clasps and bracelets and girdles of gold and
silver, set with pearls and opals, and turquoise and topaz, and emeralds
and sapphires, adorned their arms and waists.
Among the Tewana there was no distinction in authority between man and
woman. Like the Amazons of old, the women carried long steel-tipped
lances and shields and bows and quivers of arrows slung across their
backs as did the men. The head of each Cacique or Chieftain of a hundred
warriors or Amazons was adorned with a circlet of gold with a clasp of
precious stones on the left side of the head holding a single eagle's
feather that slanted downward across the left shoulder.
On they came, the half-wild horses prancing and plunging and snorting
and neighing, their manes and the long black hair and braids of the men
and women flying in the breeze; the lance tips and jewels and their
naked, bronze bodies flashing and glistening in the sun; a wonderful,
wild, picturesque, barbaric pageant, a voice from the past; magnificent
specimens of manhood and womanhood; free men, exemplifying the fullness
of life--the life that is worth living. The jewels and precious metals
which they wore represented incredible wealth, but were regarded by them
as objects of beauty only, for these were the Tewana, the people, who
for the sake of freedom, had trampled material wealth under foot; had
held Montezuma in check and resisted the encroachments of the Spaniard
ever since the days of Cortez, knowing themselves to be a superior
people and of more ancient origin.
A wild, weird chant that rolled and swelled in great undulatory waves of
melody down the long lines of warriors, was borne to them on the breeze.
The whole valley was filled with the song, the hills and mountains,
reverberating and resounding, echoed back the refrain.
"'Tis the ancient chant of the kings!" explained Chiquita. "Of course we
no longer go to war thus. Nevertheless, it is the ancient rite that must
be performed so long as the Tewana remain a nation."
Nearer and nearer drew the advancing host, the volume of sound swelling
and increasing, until splashing through the river and sweeping up the
slope to where they stood, the leaders drew rein before them, and
raising their lances on high, a mighty shout burst from the throats of
the warriors, interrupting the song. Again and again the valley and
mountains echoed and reverberated with the prolonged shouts and
acclamations until the chant was taken up once more.
An eagle with widespread wings soared above them in the blue of heaven
and seemed to accompany them as they swept along between the lines in
the direction of the village; each company of warriors and Amazons,
without interrupting the chant, raising their lances in salute as they
passed. There was no doubt in the minds of the Tewana regarding Captain
Forest's ability to rule as they gazed upon the man and the horse he
rode. He was as tall and deep chested as the Whirlwind, while his
piercing, hawklike gaze and face shone with the strength and
determination of one born to command. The Chestnut tossed his great
white mane in the air and neighed and plunged and curveted between the
lines.
Truly the White Cloud had read the future well--the White Chief had come
with the Princess.
On they rode, the song and acclamations of the warriors ringing in their
ears, their gaze now scanning the faces of these wonderful people, now
lifted heavenward to the eagle which floated overhead and continued to
accompany them. Their souls thrilled with the exquisite joy of living
which the scene and the surroundings inspired in them. A scene which men
have dreamed of during moments of spiritual uplift, and have longed to
behold and imitate and become a part of, and escape from the sordidness
and pettiness of mundane existence and live the life of men where life
is life and every breath is freedom; where the desire to live is
dominant and the future holds no terrors, and each new day and sun and
moon and procession of the stars are greeted with the joy that is born
of living and hailed as emblems of the creative force that marks and
animates the passing of the seasons.
At the end of the lines, on a slight eminence before the village, in
front of a great gathering of aged men and women and children, stood the
tall, erect figure of an ancient warrior and patriarch with long,
snow-white hair that fell over his shoulders. Like the Amazons, he was
clad in a jaguar's skin held in place by a golden girdle and clasps
studded with jewels, and wore sandals on his feet. A circlet of gold
wrought with runic symbols, to the left side of which was attached a
raven's wing, encircled his head, while in his right hand he held a
long willow staff or wand to which were attached seven eagle feathers
that fluttered in the breeze.
It was the great Sachem, the White Cloud. A hundred winters sat upon his
clear, broad arching brow, and yet the years seemed to rest lightly upon
him. His benign, beaming countenance shone with an almost supernatural
radiance that bespoke the gift of the seer. Without altering his
position, he quietly signed to Chiquita and the Captain to dismount and
approach. Meanwhile the warriors had gathered in a great semicircle in
front of them. For some time the White Cloud continued to gaze at them
in silent scrutiny, his large, dark, piercing eyes roving from
Chiquita's face to the Captain's, in the seeming effort to fathom their
thoughts and the very depths of their souls, as though to reassure
himself of the truth of his prophecy.
"It is done. You have come at last, my children--the prophecy is
fulfilled!" he began at length. Then, raising the staff which he held in
his right hand and pointing directly upward to where the eagle continued
to soar in great circles, he cried in a deep sonorous voice that all
might hear: "Behold the sacred bird, God's sign and symbol; the sacred
witness to the consecration of His chosen ones! For was it not written
in the ancient runes that, after the coming of the White Child with a
face like the sun, the ancient spirit of Hiawatha, the Red Man's
Messiah, would revisit the world of men once more upon the back of an
eagle to verify the truth of those words uttered by the White Child?
"Since the dawn of man's birth the centuries have waited for this day!
Henceforth," he continued, addressing the Captain, "you shall be known
unto all men as Soaring Eagle, the Winged Spirit! And you, Flaming Star,
as the Giver of Life!" Then, planting the wand upright in the ground
between them, he bade them take hold of it; Chiquita with the left hand
and the Captain with the right, his hand above hers.
"By the power and sacred symbolism represented by this staff," he
continued, "I invest you both with the supreme authority. And further, I
call all men to witness that, the hand of Soaring Eagle rests above that
of the Giver of Life, which signifies that his word shall outweigh all
others in the Councils of the People." He ceased speaking and turned to
the Captain as if awaiting his reply.
A prolonged silence ensued, during which the latter's gaze swept the
vast conclave of horsemen and forest of lances that glittered in the
sunlight and the wild mountains beyond which towered above the valley
and had looked down upon the Tewana in the ancient days when _his_ race
was in the cradle of its infancy. Beside him stood the beauteous woman
who seemed endowed with all the wit and graces the poets of the ages had
attributed to the ideal woman. An inspiring, uplifting spectacle, far
surpassing in its reality the vision of his dreams.
He had attained the goal. The responsibility had been laid upon him, and
without hesitation he accepted the charge, and spake; his words being
translated by Chiquita, were repeated in turn to the multitude by the
White Cloud.
"Tewana, we accept the charge which you have imposed in us," he began
quietly. "But understand, we come not to rule you; we come to guide you.
It is time that you should learn to rule yourselves.
"The days of rulers have passed. Woe unto them that seek to rule, and
woe unto the people that bows its neck to rulers! The message which we
have come to deliver unto you, we deliver likewise unto all men and it
shall go forth unto the uttermost confines of the earth." He paused,
then raising his voice on high once more, he continued:
"Tewana, do you accept the terms? We come to guide you, not to rule
you!"
A profound silence followed his speech. No sound was heard save the
sighing of the wind among the warriors' lance tips and shields and their
arrow-filled quivers, and the rustling of the seven eagle feathers
attached to the White Cloud's staff.
"Tewana," he asked again. "Do you accept the terms?"
Again all was silence. Then, all of a sudden, a vibrant, ringing note,
audible to all, the scream of the eagle, came floating downward, clear
and bell-like, from out the sky.
"'Tis the warning voice of the bird; the wisdom of the Ancient Ones!"
cried the White Cloud. "The spirit of the Great Mystery has spoken once
more!
"We accept--we accept!" And seizing the staff with his right hand, he
raised it and made the sign of the cross above their heads. Then turning
and facing the warriors, he raised the staff on high once more and cried
in a loud voice:
"Tewana, earth-born Children of the Sun, salute your Chieftains!" A
mighty shout went up from the entire multitude. Ten thousand bow-strings
twanged on the air, and ten thousand arrows flew upward toward the sun.
Again and again the shouts of acclamation broke from the assembled
multitude and swept over them in great waves of sound until valley and
hills and mountains resounded with the cry, and then the people again
took up the ancient chant of the kings whose refrain, filling the
valley, swelled ever outward and upward to the great sacred bird that
soared high aloft with widespread pinions in the pale azure of heaven.
"It is done--it is done!" echoed and reëchoed the refrain. Few there are
to whom the vision has been given, and fewer still that heed it.