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Yahn listened eagerly––and with sulky frown––Neither she or Ka-yemo had ever before heard this account of the Woman of the Twilight and her son. The magic of it made her feel sullenly helpless. This then was the reason why no face smiled in scorn when Tahn-té would come sometimes from mesa, or cañon, bearing his mother in his arms as one would bear a little child:––all the elders knew she had been seeking the trail to the Land of Twilight where long ago she had found a god, and lost herself.
“And this woman tells to wise men a fable like this––and is given their faith?” asked Padre Vicente, while Juan Gonzalvo muttered that the savages had stolen the truth of the Mother of God, and should be made pay dear in good time, for the sacrilege!
“The mouth of the woman was sealed,” stated the narrator. “But the wise men of the desert sent men to tell the Te-hua people of the magic of the woman. And the years and the work of her son made good the stories of the Hopi men.”
“We have here no mere juggling pretender,” remarked Padre Vicente––“a Cacique whose mother establishes family connection with the stars in the sky, could in truth have papal power among these heathen! With all their wise looks, and careful speech, these old men are not the influence we have to win for progress in this land:––this man who would place the false gods above the true God is the man to be won.”
“Or to be conquered!” said Juan Gonzalvo whose wonder was that the priest had patience with their maudlin tales of village officers, or brats born158of magic and the moon,––“If I might speak––Eminence?”
“Speak––my son.”
“These people have sent their women away, and have told your reverence only of their own things of pride. Of their real king they give us no sight. In the New Spain of the South these under-men would be given few presents of value, and not so much of your gracious time.”
He spoke rapidly with a wary eye on the interpreters,––only José could follow the swifter speech.
“Capitan Gonzalvo gives the word of a soldier, Padre,” remarked Don Ruy, “and it may be a true word. Why not give the gifts, and let us see somewhat of the feast from which we have won these dignitaries?”
Padre Vicente was agreed, and spoke a few words to José who departed with his wife for the camp. The priest gave tobacco, and while the old men smoked the new medicine, he talked to Ka-yemo of the one religion, and the one God, and that the great new god gave the command to his priests to go into the far lands and carry the light of the faith to his children who live in darkness.
Ka-yemo interpreted, and the old men nodded their heads as if to say that was all good––but it was not told for the first time, and Don Ruy could have sworn he saw the governor of Kah-po smile at another man––as one who would question whether they should be considered as children. Don Ruy did not know that one man of Kah-po had been among the two hundred human torches making the night bright at Tiguex by order of advocates of that same new and holy god.
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The summers and winters since that time had not made it all forgotten in the land of the great river. To the Indian mind in general, it was plain to be seen that the strong god of the men of iron required that many victims be made sacrifice at one time. The gods of the Te-hua people asked but one sacrifice at one time, and the knife of flint was very sharp, and found quickly the heart, and the spirit self was sent quickly and with prayers over the trail of the dusk to the Light beyond the light.
Ka-yemo alone seemed enchained by the words of the priest, as he heard again the words and phrases belonging to that time of which he still dreamed in the night, and awoke startled and alert.
Yahn watched him with a little frown. She did not know that the strongest power ever impressed on his boyish mind, had been the power of the white conquerors. He had through the years grown away from its influence, but at sight of the robe, and the cord, and the shiny black beads, it all came back. He felt the honor of the fact that the priest of that strong god was looking at, and talking only to him:––Ka-yemo!
His pride made his eyes kindle and he was very handsome. Don Ruy wondered why Yahn, his own official interpreter, looked at him sideways with disapproval.
José returned with his hands full of the gifts for which he had been sent. There was one for each of the men in the group, and the people of the village pressed close around the door to see them given away.
Then Padre Vicente stood up and offered to the governor of Povi-whah a rosary like his own, but of brown beads.
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“They tell me that to you requests are made as prayers are made, and that from you they are given again to the Cacique for decision. We present our request and our gift. Tell him the gift is one kings have been graciously pleased to wear, and that our request is that he meet us at an early hour, that we may speak in kindness of many things.”
“Tahn-té––you call Cacique––is not yet speaking with people out of his order,” said Phen-tza, the governor. “But this can go, and the message can go, and on another day Tahn-té may ask you to go in his door.”
Then there were clasping of hands, and friendly smiles and the visitors were free to go or wander about the village, and watch the greetings of José and the comrades of his boyhood. His wife Ysobel was caressed and admired by the ancient women of the tribe, and a garland of flowers placed on her head. At sun rise in the morning she was to present herself at the door of her new relatives for the baptism of adoption, and then she would be given also a Te-hua name.
Padre Vicente and the Castilians were offered an empty abode outside the wall. Despite the scowls of the Ka-yemo Yahn delighted to linger close as might be to Juan Gonzalvo while they all walked to inspect it. Then the Castilian camp with its wondrous animals was to be visited by the governor and other Te-hua men, and great good feeling prevailed. The wise ecclesiastical head of the cavalcade had asked nothing but gracious thoughts, and the gifts he brought had been good gifts.
Don Ruy with the secretary, let who might judge of the new camp, while he wandered in some surprise past the door ways decked with feast day garlands––and161above certain ones were pendent bits of turquoise as if for ceremonial marking of some order or some clan, and instead of the blanket or arras there were long reeds strung, and at the end of each string a beaten twist of copper twinkling like bells when stirred by any one entering or leaving the dwelling.
The dwelling of the dove cotes had a tiny inside verandah, and one of the curious robes woven of twisted rabbit skins was laid over a beam. Great meal jars stood along the wall, and beside them were four melons, four full grained heads of the bearded wheat, also four peaches and four pears. They were arranged on a great tray of woven reeds, and placed without the doorway to the right. The careful arrangement gave all significance of an offering of the first fruits on an alter. All the other homes had feasting and laughter and the sound of gaity and much life; at every other door many smiling faces of old women and children met them, and the rolls of feast bread were offered, or bowls of cooked corn. But here all was silence, only the doves fluttering above gave life to the place. The reeds at the entrance hung straight and still. This entrance faced the south, but there was another towards the east and the river. The mysterious island of stone called the Mesa of the Hearts, loomed dark across the water and a beaten path led from that east door to the water’s edge. Don Ruy could see from the bank that a canoe was there made from a log hollowed by careful burnings.
The silent corner where the doves fluttered, held his attention and he returned to it. Chico it was who stepped close to the rabbit skin robe, and saw beside the melons, the ears of wheat, and the yet green, unripe fruit of the pears and the peaches.
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The dried peaches in the jar shown them by the old Te-hua man had not given either of them a second thought, but the two fruits grown from trees, and the bearded wheat of the Mediterranean arranged in the basket with the care given a sacred offering, was a different matter. Don Ruy noted the staring eyes and parted lips of the boy, and silently stepped nearer at a gesture.
Then they stared in each others eyes as men who look on death unexpected, or witchcraft––or some of the experiences of this life for which there are no words, and Don Ruy laid his hand on the shoulder of the lad, and drew him in silence out of the shadow of the roofed entrance.
“It is good to be where the bright sun shows things as they are,” he decided. “The shadows and silence of that place tied the tongue. How feel you now, Lad, as to the story of Don Teo the Greek and the seeds that were given to the maid as sacred medicine?”
“But––the man died––so says the padre––and the woman––”
Then they fell silent and each was thinking back over the trails of the desert, and their company of thirty men––and the care needed to find the way alive with all the help of provisions and of beasts.
“The woman had a greater journey and a more troublous one,”––said Don Ruy. “These are clearly the fruits of Spanish gardens, but in some other way have they reached this land. It was made plain that the place of the palms where he left her was unknown leagues towards the western sea, and that the maid could only die in the desert.”
“He crossed this river in his travels before he saw the Indian maid of medicine charms,” reminded163the secretary. “Do you not recall the journeys with the war people? He may have bestowed upon others the seeds of other lands.”
Don Ruy drew a long breath, and then laughed.
“By our Lady!––You bring joy with that thought!” he said heartily.––“I made sure the Devil was alive and was working ahead on our trail when my eyes were startled by the offering of fruit and grain! You looked as if it might be your own hair was rising to stand alone! We are but children in the dark, Chico, and there come times when we have fear. But your thought is the right thought, lad. Of a certainty he crossed this country; that there is no record is not so strange a thing––he was only another brown savage among many!”
They spoke together of the strangeness of their findings in the village––and its exceeding good arrangement with ladders to draw above in case of attack, and only one house––that of the doves and the fruit––into which one could walk from the court. All the others were as in the other villages––terraces, and the first terrace had doors only in the roof so that a blank adobe wall faced the court and the curious. Each great house with rooms by the score, and its height from two to five stories, was the home of many, and a fort in case of need.
While they commented on these things, two men came running swiftly through the gate from the Castilian camp. One was José, and it was Po-tzah who ran beside him. They went straight to the house of the dove cote, and José waited without while, after a few eager hurried words, the other slipped behind the twinkling arras of river reeds and shells.
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“What now?” asked Don Ruy coming up, and José showed fear at first and then spoke.
“It is your own horse to which it has happened, Excellency,” he said. “The padre say it is not the fault of any one, for the bush is high there, and who could see through them? But it is the snake––the one you say has the castanets in the tail, and it has put the poison in the foot of your horse!”
Don Ruy swore an oath that was half a prayer, and the pert secretary did the first thing that was familiar since he was seen with the company––he laid his hand on Don Ruy’s shoulder and felt that the horse lost was as a brother lost, and Chico had a fancy of his own to caress it, and even burnish the silver of his bridle.
“And––why come you here to this house?”
“Here is the one man who knows the ways of the snake––if he is not in prayer they think he may come––but not any man can know what the Po-Ahtun-ho may do––and the horse beautiful may die on our first day in Povi-whah!”
But the reeds with their copper and shell tassels tinkled, and Don Ruy looked to see the old medicine man of spells and charms come forth.
He saw a man young as himself and more tall. Almost naked he was, with only the white banda in which was a blue bird’s feather––the girdle and moccasins. One glance he gave Don Ruy and his companion, bent his head ever so little in acknowledgement of their presence, and then ran beside his friend Po-tzah with the easy stride of the trained runner. Whatever his knowledge of the snake might be, he waited for no words, but moved quickly.
Many men were about the animal and Don165Diego had bound tightly a cord of rawhide about the knee, and water was being poured on the foot. But Te-hua and Castilian alike stood aside as the swift nude figure came among them––and without word or question went straight to the hurt animal.
The other natives had approached the four-footed creatures with a certain curiosity––if not awe, and there had been more than a little scattering of prayer meal when the mules were hobbled. The braying of one of them had caused terror in the hearts of the older men.
But this man took no heed of the groups of men or of animals. He led the injured steed out of the pool of water, and with a knife of the black flint cut the bandage––to the extreme distaste of Don Diego, who had been chief surgeon.
Then, still without words to the people, he did a strange thing, for he knelt there on the ground and leaned his shoulder against the leg of the horse, and slipped slowly, slowly down until his cheek touched the pastern, and his strong slender hands slid downward again and again over the leg of the animal while his lips moved as though in whispered speech to the ground itself.
No man spoke for a long time, but some of the elder men cast prayer meal that it fell on the kneeling savage and on the horse, and the animal reached down and rubbed its nose on his shoulder as if he had been its well known and long belovéd master.
Curious were all the Castilians, but Juan Gonzalvo, who had spent time in speech with Yahn Tsyn-deh, was more than curious. Like a tiger cat above its prey he stood frowning at the silent “medicine” of the naked worker in devilish arts.
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Then the kneeling man arose and spoke in Castilian.
“It is good,” he said. “It is done,” but he did not lift his eyes from the ground. The task of some prayer was yet unfinished––and he turned again towards his home and walked swiftly and the horse followed him until Juan Gonzalvo caught it and gave careful heed to the stricken foot, and could see no sign where the swelling should be.
“It is big medicine,” said the Te-hua men. “Now our brothers, the strangers have seen that our god is strong and our men to work are strong.”
“It is sorcery of the devil,” said Juan Gonzalvo. “Some medicine he had in his hands––some medicine we could not see. No physician in all Europe has skill to cure by such magic. Is it like that a naked savage should know more than the learned professors?”
“No:––it is not to be believed,” assented Don Ruy––“but thanks to the Saints it is true for all that!––and that silent youth is after all Tahn-té the Cacique!”
“No––” said Padre Vicente with decision––“the sooner that office is no longer his the sooner do we arrive at that which brought us here. That is Tahn-té the worker in accursed red magic––Tahn-té the sorcerer!”
167CHAPTER XIIIA PAGAN PRIEST IN COUNCIL
Little else was spoken of in the camp of the Castilians, but the witchcraft of the noble steed. The more pious picketed their own animals at a respectful distance from the one healed by sorcery.
Don Diego took the healing as a sign that the Evil One walked openly between the rows of the adobe dwellings, and that the field camp was a safer haven than a house whose every corner was, without doubt, a matter of unsanctified prayer in the building.
Others there were who had grown weary of drenchings of summer rains, and Yahn, hearing their arguments, warned them that old Khen-yah the rain priest was making medicine for more corn rains––they could easily hear his tombé if they but hearkened.
“That we can easily do without any strain to our ears,” agreed Don Ruy––“but what of that? Is a piece of hide tied around a hollow log to serve as thunder from which the rain must come, whether or no?”
The girl did not grasp his raillery and liked it little. When Don Ruy spoke to her––or spoke of her, she felt she was being laughed at. Only her determination to be in some way a power through these strange people, kept her from betraying her anger.
“The rain comes,” she stated coldly. “The drum of Khen-yah never rests in quiet until it does168come. One night and one day he has made medicine––soon it must come.”
“Then I cast my vote for the cover of a solid roof, gentlemen,” decided Don Ruy. “I’ve had one taste of their red magic––it was speedy and effectual. If the old magician should decide to send us a flood, the sorcery would not be so much to my liking.”
After some further discourse all agreed to accept the offered dwelling, though Don Diego warned Don Ruy it was unwise to speak in so light a manner of the power of the Evil One when it was rampant in the land. Already he had taken up the valiant battle for converts. His success was gratifying in that one woman had without understanding, yet with pleasurable smiles listened to the credo, and had accepted with equal gratification a string of blue beads of glass, and a rosary.––It was Säh-pah. She had found courage to slip alone into the camp while Yahn talked in the village. After the little matter of the beads she at once became as a shadow to Don Diego, who had great confidence of leading her away from her false gods. When he stated his pious hope to the official interpreter of Don Ruy, that damsel seemed little gifted with the devout apprehension or sisterly affection so much to be desired in females. She was angry because of the blue beads, and later, when the sulkiness had departed enough that her tongue found again its right usage, she stated that the pious Don Diego would find little trouble in leading Säh-pah to any place he chose––nor would any other man who wanted a convert!
Whereupon the eager and pious gentleman gave thanks––let the others discuss civil or ecclesiastical rule among the savage people––or even risk their souls in dealings with sorcerers, but he had made the169only convert on this first day, and thus it was recorded by the secretary on the first page of the “Relaciones” pertaining to the chapters of Povi-whah, in that part of the “Province of New Spain in the Indian Island which is refreshed by the majestical stream called in the savage language P[=o]-s[=o]n-gé, but the same called by the Castilians the Rio Bravo and the Rio Grande del Norte.”
Yahn Tsyn-deh took with all seriousness her office as an adjunct of the Castilian camp, and Ka-yemo who also gave help in the tradings for corn, and for wood, and the various needs of the camp, found her there always except when she slept, and he went back and forth like a tethered beast, and dared not command her. He had not thought about her except to laugh in anger ever since a dawn when he had walked out of her dwelling because of her witch’s temper and her tongue of a fiend:––and that day he had gone straight as the ravens fly, to the house of his oldest relative, and told him he wished to be married as early as might be to Koh-pé, the daughter of Tsa-fah. Then to the wilderness he had gone hunting, leaving all of trouble behind him while the two clans made the marriage.––When he came back again to his people all was decided––and he laughed loud in the face of Yahn––and passed her by, and carried fresh killed rabbits to the door of Koh-pé.
That was how it had ended between them. Not once afterwards had he spoken to her until he met her as she walked triumphant and very proud beside the Castilians at the gateway. Triumphant and very proud did she continue to walk, and insolent were her eyes when she let them rest on the husband of Koh-pé. In vain he talked to the governor that she might be170banished with the other women who were young. Ka-yemo found himself laughed at by the Te-hua men;––was he angry because the Castilian capitan of war could give the girl beads of red shell and bracelets of white metal––while he––Ka-yemo––had not given her even meat from the hunt all those summers and winters when she had been his love?
So the men laughed––and told him each new gift given to the one woman who knew Castilian words––and he laughed also as one does who cares little, but in his heart was growing rage such as he had never known could be in him. The man who was sentinel of Povi-whah while the stars shone was visited in the night by Ka-yemo the chief of war, and the governor Phen-tsa was well pleased when he heard it. To be married had, he thought, made a stronger man of Ka-yemo, for never before had he watched with the sentinel through the night, except the nights of the young moon when it was part of his work to watch, and to make reports of the things in the sky to the Po-Ahtun-ho.
And no one guessed that while his visit to the sentinel on the highest terrace had been brief––his walks past the dwelling of Yahn Tsyn-deh had been many, and first and last had he halted and lay flat on the roof and put his soul into his ears to know that she slept soundly, and––alone!
Then, angry in his heart with everybody––he went to the kiva of his clan where all the boys and the men slept––and the sun was high and even the youngest boy had gone out to eat before he wakened and looked on the world. When he did so he found that many visitors were abroad. From Po-ho-gé––and Oj-ke––and Na-im-be and even far Ui-la-ua were171men sent by council as if to a feast. The presence of all these men meant that they burned to know why the men of iron had come to the North.
They all spoke first with the governor, as was courtesy, and then on his good report of their good intent––they all approached the door of the Castilians, where smiles and greetings were exchanged, and those who breathed on the hand of the adventurers were asked also to kiss the silver figure on the cross of the padre, which they did with all courtesy since their hosts required it, and then with smoke to the pagan gods of the four ways, they all entered into converse of great intent, though the meanings at times were not so clearly understood each by the other, for all the help of José and of Yahn.
To tell an Indian that the Sacred Four Ways means not anything to the greatest of all gods, is a thing of confusion, more especially so when told that a sacred three is the real combination by which entrance to the paradise of an after life is made beyond all question a thing of certainty.
To the adventurer of the 16th century dire mishaps were to be expected if the Faith was not thus clearly borne, and set plainly before the heathen. Let him reject it if he choose, and die the absolute death of body and soul for such rejection,––let the search for gold or jewel be postponed as may be, but the first duty under authority civil or ecclesiastic must be the duty to the faith in the One God and Him crucified:––it opened the portal in a god-fearing, orthodox manner to any traffic deemed of advantage to the adventurers who bore the faith, and the cross;––on the hilts of swords!
The visitors listened with ceremonial courtesy to the words of the padre––and heard of the glories172of the great Castilian king, the chosen of God––the pure and undefiled, and, of the still greater monarch above the skies, served by this king and by all righteous people to all ends of the earth.
In reply to which godly disquisition, the spokesman of Na-im-be and Te-tzo-ge invited the followers of the True God to a feast where only strong men could come. The women of the dance in that feast were strong and were young. Four days would the dance and the feast last. The padre who spoke for the high god could choose which of his men could enter the dance for that time.
The padre heard without special wonder, he had known many primitive people; but Don Diego was lost in amaze as the details were spelled clearly for his understanding.
“It is worship of Pan driven out of Greek temples to find lodging in this wilderness!” and he crossed himself with persistence and energy, and marvelled at the quiet of Padre Vicente. Or, “it is the ancient devils of Babylon to which these heathen give worship––Saint Dominec hear them! They would instruct their very gods in creation!––Blasphemy most damnable!––Blasphemy against the Ghost!”
Whereupon he went in search of his secretary to make record of the abomination, and found that youth witnessing the pagan baptism by which Ysobel was made a daughter of her husband’s clan––each way he turned he found primitive rites bewildering and endless! All work done was done in prayer to their false gods. From the blessing of the seed corn laid away in the husk, until the time when it was put in the earth,––and the first ear ready for the roasting fire––at each and every stage he was told of special173ceremonies required,––and as with the corn, so with the human plant––at each distinctive stage in the growth of a man or woman child, open ceremonial thanks was given to their deities whose names were too depraved for any Christian man to remember.
Where the pious Señor Brancedori had expected a virgin field for a wondrous mission, he found an ancient province with ceremonies complicated as any of ancient Hebrew or Greek tradition. Each little toddler of the clan put forth a baby hand to touch the head of Ysobel in sign of welcome, and one woman came whose brow was marked with piñon gum––and he was told that the sign was that of maternity;––all who were to be mothers must wear a prayer symbol to the Maiden Mother of the god who was born of a dream in the shadow of the piñon tree!
“Do I myself dream while wide awake, or do I hear this thing?” he demanded of José, in sore distress to divide the false from the true, and impress the last on those well satisfied minds. “Is it miracles as well as sorcery their misled magicians make jugglery of? When did this thing happen of which the shameless wenches parade the symbol?”
Yahn asked of an aged Te-hua man the question, and the man squatted in the sun and began ceremoniously:
“Han-na-di Set-en-dah-nh!It was in the ancient day when the people yet abode in the cliff dwellings of the high land. It was the time of the year when the stars danced for the snow, and as the time of the Maid-Mother came close, the sun hid his face a little more each day, and the longest night of all the nights in the year was the time of that birth of the god Po-se-yemo. The sun went away on the south trail and would not look on the earth until the god-child174was born, for the Maid-Mother was much troubled, and the sun was sad because of her trouble. That is how it was, and each year the people remember that time, and make ready for the twilight trail if the god in the sun should not come again from the south,––but each time the sun god listens to the prayers and comes back and all are very glad.Han-na-di Set-en-dah-nh!”
Maestro Diego seated himself in a disconsolate mood at this artifice of Satan thus to engraft heathen rubbish on the childish minds of the natives:––for that they did lean on that faith the mark of the piñon symbol was a witness before his eyes! It was a thing to dishearten even a true believer, and he feared much that Padre Vicente passed over many signs of the devil worship each hour––not realizing that it must be dug out, root and branch, ere the planting of the cross would mean aught but the Ways of the Four Winds to these brown builders of stone and mortar, and weavers of many clothes!
Juan Gonzalvo found him there disconsolate.
“Not any wondrous thing of the Blessed Twelve can you recite to the animals and win even a surprise,” he lamented to this pious comrade in the cause.––“To tell them that the eye of their creator watches them from the skies is to bring only a retort that the great god has as many eyes as the stars––and sees through all of them at once! Their deceitful visions are such that even the miracles make naught of wonder in their darkened souls. They are not of doubting minds like to Thomas the tardy!––they accept all the records of the Faith as they would accept a good dinner––and then tell you that the fair victuals in the pot had been cooked by themselves time out of mind in a different, and more seasonable way! Everything175but Satan himself do they believe, him they deny previous acquaintance with until told by me of his reality!––but in secret there is not any doubt that they do give him worship since he of course inspires their devilish heresies. Padre Vicente has the work of a saint facing him in this place, since only a miracle can make them Christian men!”
Gonzalvo was of the opinion that the good padre was disturbed over temporal things requiring prayer and thought. Between their visitors of the morning, discourse had been made of the fruitless quest of Capitan Coronado for the smile of the sun which became yellow metal in the earth. It was secret speech, for neither of the interpreters had disclosed it. The quick ear of Padre Vicente had caught the meaning. Also the visitors from other villages were plainly here to see what action the Po-Ahtun-ho of Povi-whah was to take, and there were some who deemed him too youthful to be a leader––which the padre gave agreement to. Also it was clear to his reverence that the youthful magician was the guardian of the gold, and must in some way be bought or mastered.
While they talked, and weighed as might be the complications to be met, a messenger from the governor came to them, and touched them with a slender wand of office that they follow him. As they did so, José came to them, and said that at last it was plain the Cacique meant to see both red and white visitors in the kiva of the Po-Ahtun. No secret things could be spoken to him,––all must hear the talk with the strangers! José was to go, and Ka-yemo the war chief, every one who knew both Te-hua and Castilian words––every one was to go but the damsel Yahn Tsyn-deh.
The governor and the Ka-yemo appeared dressed176in their most gorgeous robes of fur, feathers, and painted skins. Also Ka-yemo wore much of the wealth of his wife in shell beads about his neck.
Taking a timely hint, Don Ruy appeared in unusual magnificence. He carried the standard of Spain and walked beside the padre who bore the cross. Behind them came Chico the secretary bearing the embroidered vest and cap of Don Diego with which they made him grand when they discovered him on the way.
Half the Castilians marched in order in the rear and formed for guard at a respectful distance under Capitan Gonzalvo. Seeing that all was well, he mounted the steps to the roof, and was the last to descend into the sanctuary.
One Te-hua sentinel stood on guard for his people at the place of council, and the serene life of the village went on as if no mail clad men were within its walls, only the children who were small, and the boys who were curious, loitered close and wondered of what the men of the beards wove their armor, for the water bottles woven of reeds and plastered with gum of the piñon had that same glazed surface. Strange things must grow where these men grew!
In the circle of the council home it was an impressive line of men who faced each other in silence. Chico half in earnest, announced in a whisper to Don Ruy that the ladder of the entrance would be his choice of a seat;––so as to be nearest the outside world in case of trouble.
Shadowy it was in the great room where only the way of the sky gave light, and the only seat was that built around the wall––and to Don Ruy was like to pictures of the old Roman ruins. The walls were white, and there were lines and strange symbols in177pale green, and in yellow:––the colors of the Summer People. An altar of stone was directly under the ladder, and the light from above fell on the terraced back of it––typifying the world of valley, and mesa, and highest level. A ceremonial bowl of red ware echoed this form on its four terraced sides. It held white and yellow pollen, and the sacred corn of four colors formed a cross with the bowl as a center;––all this was placed before the statue of a seated god carved from red stone. The arms were folded and the pose was serene––waiting! But as fragrant bark was tossed on the sacred fire below him,––and a flame awoke for a moment, the eyes reflected the light in a startling way––as though alive! Then the strangers saw that the eyes were of iridescent shell set in the carven stone,––and more strange than all was the fact that the god of the altar was a weeping god, and the tear under each eye was also of the strange shell mosaic. It was the Earth-Born God who had been driven out by the proud hearts of the Lost Others. Weeping, he waited the Sign in the Sky by which he was to return. His name meant Dew of Heaven––and the Dew and the Sun must work together for the best life of growing things, and of human things.
Among all the swart elderly faces it was an easy matter to pick the man who had given back to him the steed. The eyes of Don Ruy sought him eagerly, and more than ever wondered at the youth of him, and the countenance fairer than many a Castilian of their land. The other glimpses of him had been brief, and when kneeling by the horse, his face had been all but hidden.
He wore no ceremonial festive garb as did the others. The white robe of deerskin was folded about178him, and he gave no heed to the different visitors who entered. His eyes were on the floor as though in meditation, and in silence he accepted the sacred smoke, and then glanced towards the place where the governor sat always when in council. After that one little look there was no longer silence. The padre, watching the impassive young face, observed that one glance was all that was required of command. And the governor of Povi-whah arose and spoke.
He told to the brothers and neighbors of the coming, and the kindly coming, of the Castilians to bring back in safety one Te-hua man who had been carried far south as a slave. The man of the grey robe was the priest of the Castilian god, and that god had sent him to say that all men must be brothers, with the god in the sky for a father. These new brothers brought good gifts and tokens from their king. The king said his children would also help fight the wild Apache and Navahu and Yutah in the day when they came to kill and take captives.
Smiles went over many faces in the circle. Nods of approval gave good hope for the Castilian cause.
Then the governor of Kah-po arose.
This coming of the strange brothers was good, he agreed. It was much for nothing. How many fields for corn would the Castilian brothers ask for such help in battle?
The padre lifted the cross, and stood up, and the Castilians knelt on the stone floor with heads low bowed.
“Of fields of mortal man we ask no more than the corn we eat––” he said––“but the great god decreed that each soul for salvation must be written by the priest in the great record. Baptism must they accept,––and new prayers to the true god must they179learn. Out of the far land had the true god made the trail that the faith be carried to the Te-hua people. Under the cross he wished to give the sacrament of baptism.”
The kneeling Castilians impressed the pagan men more than might have been hoped. They were strong––yet they were as bidden children under that Symbol. It was big medicine! Ka-yemo found his own head bowed lower and lower––the spell of the older days was working!––when he lifted his eyes, it was to see the brief glance of Tahn-té rest on him. He sat erect again as though a spoken command was in that look. All this saw Don Ruy, and all this saw the padre, and his teeth locked close under his beard.
Many were the exchange of thought over faiths old and faiths new in the land, also of the ancient republics, the Pueblos, and the interest of the majestic ruler who was king of Spain and the Indies was made manifest by his subjects. Of many things did they speak until all the old men had spoken, and it was plain to be seen that the Castilians were not unwelcome. The winning courtesy of Don Ruy made many friends, and the wise brain of the padre made no mistakes. Yet of the one central cause of the quest not any one had spoken, and the silent Cacique had only designated by a glance or a motion of the hand who was to be the next spokesman. He was the youngest of all, and he waited to listen.
Then, when the smoke had been long, and silence had been long, Tahn-té the wearer of the white robe arose. For a space he stood with folded arms wrapped in the mantle of high office, and quietly let his gaze rest on one after another of those in the circle, halting last at Ka-yemo whose glance fell under his own––and whose head bent as under accusation.
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Tahn-té smiled, but it was not a glad smile––he had seen that the old magic of the gray robe was holding the war chief in thrall to the strangers.
Then Tahn-té stepped forward from the seat of council––and threw aside the white robe, and slender and nude as the Indian gods are nude but for the girdle, and the medicine pouch, he stood erect, looking for the first time direct and steadily into the eyes of Padre Vicente. The circle of the council room might have been an arena and only those two facing each other and measuring each other.
While one might count ten he stood thus silent, and Don Ruy could hear his own heart beat, and Chico clutched at the embroidered doublet of Don Diego, and wished for the sound of any man’s voice.
Then Tahn-té smiled as the eyes of Padre Vicente wavered, as Ka-yemo’s had wavered––the boy who had tamed serpents felt the strength of the hills with him. Always he felt strong when he stood alone!
From the medicine pouch he took the gift of the rosary, and held it aloft that all might see, and the silver Christ on it caught the light from the opening in the roof, and swung and circled like a thing alive.
“Señores”––he said in Spanish though slowly, as one little used to the speech––“one of those among you has done me the honor to send me a gift and a message. I was making prayers at that time,––I have not been free to return thanks until now in the council. I do so, and I speak in Spain’s words as this is not a Te-hua matter. It is a gift from a Christian to a Pagan, and the message told me a king would be proud to wear this strand of carven beads. Señores:––I am no king, kings give royal bounties to each giver of a gift. I stand naked that you see with your own eyes how little I can accept,––since181in return I can give not anything! Take back your kingly gift, Señor Priest:––I cannot exchange for it even––a soul!”
He stepped lightly as a panther of the hills across the open space and let fall the beads into the hands of Padre Vicente.
“That you may save it for the king, Señor!” he said gently, and bowing with more of grace than a courtier who does homage, he returned to his place.
Padre Vicente turned gray white under the tan. Don Diego crossed himself and muttered a prayer. Juan Gonzalvo uttered an expletive and half smothered it in a gasp as the face of Tahn-té caught the light for one instant.
“Blood of Christ!”––he whispered––“look at his eyes––his eyes!”
Don Ruy caught the arm of the man and pressed it for warning to silence. When he turned a more composed face to the circle, the secretary was looking at him and there was something like terror in the face of the lad. Each knew the thought of the other––each remembered the words of Juan Gonzalvo at Ah-ko,––also the basket of the sacred first fruit at the portal under the dove cote––also the blue eyes of the Greek––blue with lashes so long and so heavy that black might be their color. The pagan priest would need all the help of his gods if Juan Gonzalvo caught this thought of theirs!
Padre Vicente recovered himself, kissed the crucifix and slipped it within his robe.
“The words of this man are the words Satan is clever in coining when the false gods speak and reject the true,” he stated quietly. “My children, we must not hold this against the weak human brother. The devils of necromancy and sorcery are stubborn––but182ere this the stubbornness has been broken, and the saints have rejoiced! It is plain that devilish arts could not prosper where the Image remained––hence it has been given back! Make no mistake my children, where the word of God, and the Image rest,––there the pagan powers must ever grow weak. Thanks be that this is so! Remember it––all of you when you pray!”
Don Diego started his prayers at once, while Juan Gonzalvo leaned forward and stared at the pagan sorcerer like a hound held in leash.
The Te-hua men had heard only gentle tones from Tahn-té and thought little of the strange change in the faces of the Castilians.––Tahn-té many times said surprising things––that was all!
But Tahn-té, listening closely to the priestly admonition as Padre Vicente grasped all the meaning of it. He was being branded as a worker of evil magic––asorcerer––the most difficult accusation of all to fight down in an Indian mind!
He looked from face to face of the strangers––halted at the secretary, but seeing there either fear or sympathy––his eyes sought further, and rested on Don Ruy.
Then he drew from his medicine pouch a second rosary, a beautifully wrought thing of ebony and gold.
“Señor” he said,––“if I mistake not, it was your animal I helped but yesterday. Is it not so?”
“It was in truth––and much am I in your debt for that help!” said Ruy Sandoval with heartiness––“it is no fault of mine that I am late in rendering thanks. You deny that you are king––yet I have known majesty easier to approach!”
“And the animal is now well, and shows no marks of the Christian’s Satan?”
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“Sound:––every inch of him!”
“Thanks that you say so, and that you do not fear to say so,” said Tahn-té. “Since it is so, it makes clear that the printed word, or the graven image is no weight to True Magic, even when taught us by pagan gods! For ten years I have read, day time and night time, all there is to read in the books of your church left by Padre Luis––also all the other books left by the men of Señor Coronado’s company, and by Padre Juan Padilla who died at Ci-bo-la. Side by side I have studied the wisdom of these books, and the wisdom of our ancient people of the Te-hua, as told to me by the old men. One has never held me from seeing clear that which I read in the other, and the graven image has only the Meaning and the Power which each man gives to it! It was with me when I took away the sting of the Brother Snake. Padre Luis was a man who would have been a good man in any religion––that is why I kept this symbol of him––not for the crucified god on it! But for the sake of the god, is it sacred to you because your heart tells you to think that way. It is right to be what a man’s heart tells him to be. I give you the prayer beads. I give it to you because your horse helped me to show your people that the pagan gods are strong, if the heart of the man is strong!”
In the “Relaciones” Don Diego wrote that––“The horrification of that moment was a time men might live through but could not write of.––For myself I know well that only the invisible army of the angels kept the beams of the roof from crushing us, as well as the poor pagans, who sat themselves still in a circle with pleasant countenances!”
Ruy Sandoval knew courage of any kind when he184saw it, and he met Tahn-té midway of the council and accepted the rosary of beauty from his hand.
“My thanks to you, Señor Cacique,” he said––“the more so for the care given this relic. The Fray Luis de Escalona was known of my mother––also was known the lady from whom this went to his hand. A goldsmith of note fashioned it, and its history began in a palace;––strange that its end should be found here in the desert of the Indies.”
“The end has perhaps not yet been found, Señor,”––said the Indian,––“thanks that you accept it.”
Then he spoke in Te-hua to the people as if every personal incident with the Castilians was forever closed.
“You have listened to fair words from these men––and to sweet words of brother and brother. I have waited until all of you spoke that I might know your hearts. You are proud that they come over all the deserts and seek you for friends. Have you asked them why it is so?”
No one had asked why all the other tribes were left behind, and why the strangers had come to camp at the Rio Grande del Norte.
“We are good people,” stated one man, and the others thought that was so, and a fair enough reason.
Tahn-té listened, and then spoke to the Castilians.
“You have come far, Señores, and my people have not yet heard the true reason of the honor you pay them. The priest always goes––and the tale told is that it is for souls––(Father Luis truly did believe it was for souls!) But your books tell plainly one thing, and the Christian men I knew taught by their lives the same thing, and it was this:––For gold, for precious stones,––or for women––are the real185things which your kings send out companies of men in search of. Women you could find without crossing the desert. This Te-hua man who was first captive, and then slave, would have come in gladness to his people if let go free, yet for five summers and winters did the Castilian priest hold him servant and at last comes with him to his home. Is this because of love? His reverence, the padre, is wise in much with men,––but great love is not his; I cannot see him starving in a cave, and blessing his tormentors as did Fray Luis. So, Señores, the reason must be made more clear. Señor Coronado sought gold––and full freedom was given him to find gold––if he could! Why is your desire to fight for us against the Apache and the Yutah––and what is the thing you ask in exchange? Not yet have we had any plain word as from your king.”
Don Ruy smiled at his logic. Here was no untutored savage such as they had hoped to buy with glass beads––or perhaps a mule the worse for the journey! However it ended, he was getting more of adventure than if he had built a ship to sail the coasts!
“Games have been won by Truth ere now even though Truth be not popular,” he said to the padre.
“It is not fitting that his Reverence should make reply,”––put in Don Diego with much anger. “Holy Church is insulted in his person. If this were but Madrid––”
“To wish for Paradise takes no more of breath,”––suggested Don Ruy, “and if it is beneath the dignity of any else, perhaps I could speak––or Chico here.”
But the latter silently disclaimed gift of logic or oratory,––in fact the turn of things was not toward186gaity. Don Diego was shocked at everything said. Gonzalvo and the padre were plainly furious, yet bound to silence. Only Don Ruy could still smile. To him it was a game good as a bull fight––and much more novel.
“I shall speak, though it be a task I elsewhere evade,” he said, and looked at the Cacique––a solitary nude bronze body amidst all the gay trappings of the assembly. “Señor, it is not women we seek––though a few of us might make room for a pretty one! It is true that the men in armor would help guard your fields, for they have heard that you are the Children of the Sun as were certain people of the south. In the south the sun sent a sign to his children––it was gold set in the ledges of the rock, or the gravel of the stream. If these people of the Rio Grande del Norte can show these signs that they be given as proof to our king––then men in armor of steel will come many as bees on the blossom and guard your land that your corn and your women be ever safe from the wild Indians who make devastation.”
Tahn-té repeated this to the Te-hua men without comment of his own, and the dark faces were watched by the Castilians. They could see no eagerness––only a little wonder––and from some a shrug or smile,––but––not from any of them anger or fierce looks!
The padre drew a quiet breath of content and leaned back––the game was at least even. The Navahu had been bad for two years––very bad! The appeal of Don Ruy might prove the right thing, and the simple thing. It would take time, for the Indian mind was slow;––the quickness of the naked sorcerer proved nothing otherwise, for every god-fearing187man could see that he was more than mortal in satanic strength. Against this one man alone must the battle for the Trinity be fought!
Together did the Te-hua men of council speak much––and to Ka-yemo they turned more than once and asked of the Tiguex days of the other Christian men. But between the devil of the padre and his symbols and the deep sea of the eyes of Tahn-té, not much was to be remembered by a man, and he could only say that his stay in the south was not long––that he was only a boy, and without the understanding of things done and seen.
“I have spoken,”––said Tahn-té when the older men turned to him for council as to the wisdom of throwing away so powerful a friend as the men of iron. Some were concerned lest they should turn away and offer help to their enemies!
In the land of the Yutah the yellow stones were found in the stream––also in the heart of the Navahu desert. No people used these stones because they were sacred to the sun, and strong for prayer, but––it was well to think what would happen if the men of iron were brothers to the Navahu!
“Never more could we sleep under our own roof––or plant corn in our own fields,” said the man from Te-tzo-ge,––“our daughters would be wives to the Navahu and mothers of Navahu, and the grass would grow over the walls we have builded.”
They smoked in silence over this thought, for it was a dark thought––and it could come true!
“We could kill these few, and then sleep sound for a long time with no trouble thoughts,” suggested one, a patriarch from Ui-la-ua.
“That is true,” said Tahn-té––“but if we do that188way we would be no better than these men of iron. Their god talks two ways for killing, and their men live two ways. Our god when he taught our fathers, gave them but one law for killing, it was this:––‘Go not to battle. A time will come for you to fight, and the stars in the sky will mark that time. When the star of the ice land moves––then the battle time will be here! Until then live as brothers and make houses––use the spear only when the enemy comes to break your walls.’ That is the world of the Great Ruler. To kill these men only holds the matter for your sons to decide some other year.”
“What then is to do?” demanded a man of Naim-be––“they do not break the walls, but they are beside the gates.”
“When the Yutah and the Navahu traders come with skin robes, what is it you do?” asked Tahn-té.
“We trade them our corn and our melons and we get the robes.”
“And,”––added Tahn-té––“the governor of each village gives them room outside the walls when the night comes, and the chief of war sees that the gate is closed, and that a guard never goes down from the roof! If these men are precious to you, make of them brothers, and send prayer thoughts on their trail, but never forget that they are traders, and never forget that the watchers must be on the roof so long as they stay in your land! They come for that which they can carry away, and once they have it you will be in their hearts only as the grass of last year on the hills––a forgotten thing over which they ride to new harvests!”
“You talk as one who has eaten always from the189same bowl with the strangers,” spoke one man from Oj-ke––“yet you are young, and some of these men are not young.”
“Because––”––said Tahn-té catching the implied criticism of his youth and his prominence––“because in the talking paper which their god made, there is records of all their men since ancient days. They have never changed. Their gods tell them to go out and kill and take all that which the enemy will not give,––to take also the maids for slaves,––that is their book of laws from the Beginning. Since I was a boy I have studied all these laws. It was my work. By the god a man has in his heart we can know the man! Their god is a good god for traders, and a strong god for war. But the watchers of the night must never leave the gate unguarded when they camp under the walls.”
All this Padre Vicente heard, all this and much of it was comprehended by him. Plainly it was not well to seek converts when the pernicious tongue of the Cacique could speak in their ears.
“It may be that we abide many days beside you,” he said gently and with manner politic––“also it may be that we visit the wise men of the other villages, and take to them the good will of our king. The things said to-day we will think of kindly until that time. And in the end you will all learn of the true god, and will know that we have come to be your brothers if you are the children of the true god.”
Upon which he held up the cross, and bent his head as in prayer, and went first up the ladder into the light. He was pale and the sweat stood on his face. It had been a hard hour.
The others followed in due order, but Don Diego190eyed the wizard Cacique with a curiosity great as was his horror.
“Alone he has studied books without a tutor––sacred books––since his boyhood!” he said to Don Ruy––“think of that, and of the grief we had to persuade you to the reading of even the saintly lives! There is devilish art in this––the angels guard us from further sorcery––without a tutor! A savage magician to study strange tongues without a tutor! It is nothing short of infernal!”
But despite all opinion, Don Ruy waited and approached the man of the white robe and the cruel logic.
“You have been my friend,”––he said––“will you not eat with me and talk in quiet of these matters?”
“You do not fear then to be marked as the comrade of a sorcerer?” asked Tahn-té. “You must be a man of strength in your own land, Excellency, to dare offend your priest by such offer. Is the Holy Office no longer supreme in Spain?”
“How do you––an Indian––know of the office, of the duties of the workers there?”
“Two years of my life I lived in the camp of Coronado. To listen was part of my work. Strange and true tales were told in the long nights. They are still with me.”
“But––you will come?”
Tahn-té looked at him and smiled––but the smile held no gladness.
“My thanks to you, Señor. To you I give the prayer beads––it is good to give them to you. More than that is not for me to do. My work takes me from where the feast songs are sung.”