"He is my brother, and the cause of the whole trouble," Okoya explained to her. "I chide him for it, as it is my duty to do. Nevertheless, they had no right to kill him, still less to hurt the girl."
The woman had at last had time to scrutinize the looks of the young man.
She herself was not old, and when not under the influence of pa.s.sion was rather comely. Okoya"s handsome figure attracted her attention, and she stepped nearer, eyeing him closely.
"Where do you belong?" she inquired in a quieter tone.
"I am Tanyi."
"Who is your father?"
"Zashue Tihua."
The woman smiled; she moved still nearer to the young man and continued,--
"I know your father well. He is one of us, a Koshare." Her eyes remained fastened on his features; she was manifestly more and more pleased with his appearance. But at the same time she occasionally glanced toward her daughter Mitsha, and it struck her forcibly that Mitsha, too, was handsome.
"I know who you are," she said smilingly. "You are Okoya Tihua, your little brother is called Shyuote, and Say Koitza is your mother"s name.
She is a good woman, but"--and she shrugged her shoulders--"always sick.
Have you any cotton?" she suddenly asked, looking squarely into the eyes of the boy.
"No," he replied, and his features coloured visibly, "but I have some handsome skins."
Mitsha too seemed embarra.s.sed; she started to go into the room below, but her mother called her back.
"Sa uishe," she coaxed, "won"t you give the mot[=a]tza something to eat?"
The faces of both young people became fiery red. He stood like a statue, and yet his chest heaved. He cast his eyes to the ground. Mitsha had turned her face away; her whole body was trembling like a leaf. Her mother persisted.
"Take him down into the room and feed him," she repeated, and smiled.
"I have nothing," murmured Mitsha.
"If such is the case I shall go and see myself." With these words the woman descended the beam into the room below, leaving the two alone on the roof, standing motionless, neither daring to look at the other.
While the colloquy between Okoya and Mitsha"s mother was going on, Shyuote had recovered somewhat from his fright and grief and had sneaked off. Once on the ground he walked--still trembling and suspiciously scanning the cliff wherein the Corn people had their abodes--as straight as possible toward the big house. n.o.body interfered with him; not even his two defenders noticed that he had gone; they both remained standing silent, with hearts beating anxiously.
"Okoya," the woman called from below, "come and eat. Mitsha, come down and give sa uishe something to eat."
A thrill went through Okoya"s whole frame. She had called him _sa uishe_,--"my child." He ventured to cast a furtive glance at the maiden.
Mitsha had recovered her self-control; she returned his shy glance with an open, free, but sweet look, and said,--
"Come and partake of the food." There was no resisting an invitation from her. He smiled; she returned the smile in a timid way, as shy and embarra.s.sed as his own.
She descended first and Okoya followed. On the floor of the room, the same chamber where Tyope had taken rest the night before, stood the usual meal; and Okoya partook of it modestly, said his prayer of thanks, and uttered a plain, sincere hoya at the end. But instead of rising, as he would have done at home, he remained squatting, glancing at the two women.
While he ate, the mother watched him eagerly; her cunning eyes moved from his face toward that of her daughter like sparks; and gradually an expression of satisfaction mingled with that of a settled resolve appeared on her features. There was no doubt that the two would be a handsome pair. They seemed, as the vulgar saying goes, made for each other; and there was something besides that told that they were fond of each other also. Okoya had never before entered this dwelling; but the woman thought that they had met before, nay, that her desire had been antic.i.p.ated, inasmuch as the young people already stood to each other, if not in an intimate, in a more than merely friendly, relation.
"Why do you never come to see us?" asked the woman, after Okoya had finished his meal.
"I stay at the estufa during the night," was the modest reply.
"You need have no fear," she answered pleasantly, "Tyope and your father are good friends. You should become a Koshare!" she exclaimed.
Okoya"s face clouded; he did not like the suggestion, but nevertheless asked,--
"Is she," looking at Mitsha, "a Koshare also?"
"No. We had another child, a boy. He was to have become a Delight Maker, but he died some time ago." The woman had it on her lips to say, "Do you become one in his place as our child," but she checked herself in time; it would have been too bold a proposal.
Okoya glanced at the daughter and said timidly,--
"If you like, I shall come again to see you;" and Mitsha"s face displayed a happy smile at the words, while her mother eagerly nodded.
"Come as often as you can," she replied. "We"--emphasizing the word strongly--"like it. It is well."
"Then I will go now," said Okoya, rising. His face was radiant. "I must go home lest Shyuote get into more trouble. He is so mischievous and awkward. Good-bye." He grasped the woman"s hand and breathed on it; gave a smiling look to the girl, who nodded at him with a happy face; and returned to the roof again. Thence he climbed down to the ground. How happy he felt! The sun seemed to shine twice as brightly as before; the air felt purer; all around him breathed life, hope, and bliss. At the foot of the slope he turned back once more to gaze at the house where so much joy had come to him. A pair of l.u.s.trous eyes appeared in the little air-hole of the wall. They were those of the maiden, which were following him on his homeward way.
Tyope"s wife was right in supposing that her daughter and Okoya were not strangers to each other. And yet not a single word had pa.s.sed between them before beyond a casual greeting. As often as they had met he had said "guatzena," and she had responded with "raua." But at every meeting his voice was softer, and hers more timid and trembling. Each felt happy at the sight of the other, but neither thought of speaking, still less of making any advances. Okoya was aware of the fact--which he felt deeply and keenly--that a wide breach, a seemingly impa.s.sable chasm, existed between him and the girl. That gap was the relation in which he stood toward Tyope, the girl"s father. Or rather the relation in which he fancied himself to stand toward him. For Tyope had hardly ever spoken to him, still less done him any wrong. But Okoya"s mother had spoken of Tyope as a bad man, as a dangerous man, as one whom it was Okoya"s duty to avoid. And so her son feared Tyope, and dared not think of the bad man"s daughter as his future companion through life. Now everything was changed.
Mitsha"s mother had said that Tyope was a friend of his father, and that Tyope would not be angry if Okoya came to her house. Then he was not, after all, the fiend that Say Koitza had pictured him. On the contrary he appeared to Okoya, since the last interview, in the light of an important personage. Okoya"s faith in his mother was shaken before; now he began to think that Tyope after all, while he was certainly to him an important man, was not as bad as represented. The Koshare also appeared to him in a new and more favourable light. The adroit suggestion made by the woman that he should join the society bore its fruits. Okoya felt not only relieved but happy; he felt elated over his success. He was well trained in the religious discipline of the Indians; and now that he saw hope before him, his next thought was one of grat.i.tude toward that mother of all who, though dwelling at the bottom of the lagune of Shipapu at times, and then again in the silvery moon, was still watching over the destinies of her children on earth, and to whose loving guidance he felt his bright prospects due.
He had no prayer-plumes with him. These painted sticks--to which feathers or down of various birds, according to the nature of the prayer they are to signify, are attached--the aborigine deposits wherever and whenever he feels like addressing himself to the higher powers, be it for a request, in adoration only, or for thanksgiving. In a certain way the prayer-plume or plume-stick is a subst.i.tute for prayer, inasmuch as he who has not time may deposit it hurriedly as a votive offering. The paint which covers the piece of stick to which the feather is attached becomes appropriately significant through its colours, the feather itself is the symbol of human thought, flitting as one set adrift in the air toward heaven, where dwell Those Above. But as in the present instance, the Indian has not always a prayer-plume with him. So he has recourse to an expedient, simple and primitive.
Two little sticks or twigs, placed crosswise and held to their place by a rock or stone, serve the same purpose in case of emergency. Such acc.u.mulations of rocks, little stone-heaps, are plentiful around Indian villages; and they represent votive offerings, symbolizing as many prayers. There were a number of them at the Rito around the big house, along the fields, and on the trails leading up to the mesa. Okoya went to the nearest one and placed two twigs crosswise on it, poising them with a stone. Then he scattered sacred meal, which he always carried with him in a small leather wallet, and thanked the Sanashtyaya, our mother, with an earnest ho-a-a, ho-a-a.
Then he turned homeward. The very thought of that home, however, made his heart heavy and sad. For more and more he became convinced that his mother was false to him. The a.s.sertion made by Tyope"s wife that he was welcome in her house, and that Tyope would not object to his visiting there, worked another breach in the faith he was wont to place in his mother"s words. Not that the invitation to join the Koshare had exercised any influence upon his opinion regarding that society of men and women. He mistrusted, he hated, he feared them as much as ever, but toward Tyope personally he felt differently. His thoughts were carried back to the gloomy subject; one by one his doubts and misgivings returned with them, and a longing after some friend to whom he might communicate his fears and whom he might consult with absolute confidence. As he was thus pondering and walking on, slowly and more slowly, he saw at some distance two men climbing up toward where the cave-dwellings of the Water clan lay. One of them was his father; he recognized him at once. Who was his companion? He stopped and looked. It was his father"s brother, Hayoue; and with this it seemed as if a veil had suddenly dropped from his eyes. The tall, slender young man yonder, who was advancing up the declivity at such an easy gait, was the friend upon whom he could fully rely, the adviser who would not, at least purposely, lead him astray. Hayoue was but a few years older than Okoya.
The relations between the two were those of two brothers and chums, rather than those of uncle and nephew. Hayoue was not a member of his clan, consequently not exposed to any influence which his mother, through her father, Topanashka, might attempt to exert. Hayoue, he knew, disliked the Koshare as much as he disliked them himself, and Hayoue was thoroughly trustworthy and discreet, though very outspoken if necessary, and fearless. Yes, Hayoue was the friend in need he so anxiously desired to find, and now that he had found him he resolved to seize upon the first opportunity of consulting him on the subject that so seriously troubled his mind. He was so delighted at this sudden discovery, as it might be called, that he attributed it to an inspiration from above, and stood for a moment in doubt whether he should not return to the stone-heap and offer another prayer of thanks to the mother above, for what he considered to have been a gift of her goodness to him. But the house was too near, and he bethought himself of Shyuote and what the mischievous urchin might have done since he had left him. He entered the front room of his mother"s dwelling with a lighter and easier mind than the day before, and what he saw at once diverted his thoughts into another widely different channel.
Shyuote sat in a corner, and his eyes were red from crying. Beside him stood Say, agitated and angry. Without giving her elder son time to speak, she asked,--
"Who sent the boy to the fields?"
"I don"t know," replied Okoya, in astonishment. He knew nothing of Shyuote"s morning rambles. "He must know; how could I tell?"
"He says that they drove him from the corn because he threw mud at a girl," added the mother.
"That is quite likely," rejoined his elder brother. "That is why the lads of the Corn clan intended to beat him, I presume."
"Why did you not stay with your father?" cried Say.
"Because,"--he held his arm up to his eyes and commenced to sob,--"because my father drove me off."
"Why did he drive you away?"
"Because--" He stopped, then raised his head as if a sudden and wicked thought had flashed across his mind.
His eyes sparkled. "I dare not tell." He cast his eyes to the ground, and a bitter smile pa.s.sed over his lips.