Marah Ellis Ryan

“ Many arrows were made––also spears and shields. Men went hunting and women dried the meat, pounding it into shreds for the war trail if need be. From earliest dawn were heard the grinding songs as the corn of yellow and blue and red and white was ground by the maidens keeping time to the ancient carols––and ever above the head of the worker was hung the sacred and unhusked ear, which, when resting, she contemplated, kneeling, and the thought in her heart must be the sacredness of the life-giving grain, and the prayer of thanks that it was given by the gods to the people. ”

“ The wise men of Te-gat-ha knew that the tornado followed her trail, and the Navahu men who searched for her, had found death and defeat. Prayers must be made against the evil of her if her feet should cross the land of the Te-hua people.
And all through the long beautiful twilight the tombé sounded from the terraces, and the mourners for the dead on the high mesas knew that prayers were being made against new evil––and that the medicine men would in an early day demand penance and sacrifice of many if the cloud of dread was not lifted from their hearts. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ He knew evil spirits did lurk along his trail––no mortal could escape their shadows. Even the god who had lived in the sun had been hurled to earth by them when the earth was new, and the first trees––the pines, had begun to grow at the edges of the ice. Since that time the Sun God only lived in the sky one half the time. In the night he went to the Underworld, and the strands of his dark hair covered his face. He must not let himself think that the adverse spirits were less than men in strength––for man needed all the medicine of the gods to war against evil! ”

“ But a man of the Tain-tsain clan arose.
“This woman has been gone many moons on a strange trail,” he said. “The son she brings back to her clan speaks not as a youth speaks. It is as if he has been very old and grows young again. It may be magic––and again it may be that he is half lost in his mind and dreams the dreams of a man. It is a new thing that men listen to a child in council.” ”

“ 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! ”

“ Strange white gods are coming to the earth in these days, and in the south they have grown strong to master the people. I will be with the Lost Others when you are a man, but my words here you will not forget;––the magic of the sacred flute has been for ages the music of the growing things in the Desert. The God of the Flute is a god old as the planting of fields, and a strong god of the desert places. ”

“ 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! ”

“ When with the Navahu savages she had been taunted at times because the altars of her people knew well the blood of human sacrifice which they offered with elaborate ceremony to propitiate the gods of the stars in the sky.
“Tahn-té?” she whispered to the mother, but the mother shook her head. Apart from all woman-kind must a priest live when times of stress come. Tahn-té was fasting and making prayers. A girl hidden in the caves must not go hungry, but the thought of her must not mingle with thoughts of penance for the tribe. ”

“ When Yahn Tysn-deh heard that, she went down from the terrace into her own dwelling, and made prayers to her own gods of her Apache people. With a blade of obsidian she made scars until the blood dripped from her braceletted arms. To the divinely created Woman Without Parents, she chanted a song of prayer, and to the Twin Gods who slew enemies, she let her blood drop by drop fall on the sacred meal of the medicine bowl:––all this that one man be given power––and all this that a Te-hua clan be not ashamed in the sight of gods! ”

“ The valley of Povi-whah was beautiful in itself as a garden is good to look on when the spirits of the Growing Things have worked well with the man who covers the seed, but Te-gat-ha brought thoughts of a different beauty––even as did the memory of Wálpi in Tusayan.
Wálpi breathed the spirit of a tragic life, the last fortress of a mysterious people. Te-gat-ha sat enthroned facing the setting sun. Ancient, beautiful and insolent––with the insolence which refused to grow old though she had been mistress of many centuries. ”

“ For medicine dreams they shut out all of a man but that which is Spirit, and the body becomes as a dead body knowing not anything but dreams––feeling neither heat nor cold.
Of all medicine left on earth by the gods who once walked here, not any medicine is so strong to lift the soul to the Giver of Life even while the feet walk here over trails of thorns, or the whipping thongs cut bare to the bone the dancing flesh of penitents. ”

“ In the great cañon of Tzé-ye––the abiding place of the Navahu Divine Ones, he had heard with awe of the warrior boy gods who were born of the Sun and of the Goddess Estsan-atlehi and set out to slay the terrific giants of evil in the world. But the medicine-men of Ah-ko were quite sure that the Ancient Ones of their own race had proof that the Supreme Power is a master mind in a woman’s form. It is the thing which thinks and creates, and her twin sister is the other mind which only remembers. ”

“ To mortal all the joys cannot be given at one time––else all would be as gods!
He stared at the shadows into which she had blended herself, and he stared at the pool from which 133 she had arisen. It was again a mirror reflecting only the coming day. Yet his heart leaped as he saw a sign left there for him!
Drifting idly there in a circle was a bit of blue too vivid for the echo of the sky of dawn––it was the wing of a bluebird, and even as he looked, it was caught in an eddy more swift, and moved on the surface of the water straight to the edge of the bank nearest his place of rest. ”

“ The sobs hurt him, yet he must not lift her. She begged for a charm––for a spell––for black magic to strike dead the wearer of the red bears and the blue beads, for all wild things a wild passion could suggest.
“If you could see into the other years you would be content to have it as it is,” he said gently––“the years ahead may––”
“I care nothing for the years ahead! I want the now!––I want––”
“Listen!” he said, and she fell silent with covered face. “That which you feel for Ka-yemo is not the love of marriage. A man takes a wife for love of a wife and a home and children in the home. ”

“ 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! ”

“ On the shrine there, Tahn-té placed a fragment of the sun symbol taken from the pouch at his girdle. Before a white statue of the weeping god he placed it, and the Keeper of the Sacred Fire there, breathed on his hand, and threw fragrant dried herbs of magic on the live coals, that all evil and all discord be driven out by the fumes, and when the smoke drifted upwards and out by the way of the sky, the talk was made. ”

“ José said no more, but it was easy to see that the veneer of foreign ritual had made little impression on the Indian mind. He feared all the devils of the Christian hell, and most of the gods of the pagan pantheon. A policy of propitiation towards all the unseen powers is the wise and instinctive attitude of the primitive mind. He slipped his prayer beads through his fingers as taught for prayer, but to be quite certain that evil be bribed to keep its distance, he stealthily scattered prayer meal as he walked behind the others, and Yahn who was coming behind them, saw him, and laughed. ”

“ Because of that they had been strong to conquer their world. He, Tahn-té, meant to work for the red gods as the priests of the dark robe worked for the white gods. He would work alone unless other men worked with him. It was not magic in which a woman could help. But alone he fastened four feathers of a bluebird to the Prayer Flute of the far desert, and in the dusks under Venus and the young moon he breathed through it softly to bring back the vision of the Maid of Dreams. ”

“ The strong fingers of Yahn broke the bird’s claw, and she tossed it from the terrace edge, and selected another.
“But the new young wife Koh-pé may make the son of his father brave for all that,” and Säh-pah who was not young and not winsome, watched Yahn, and felt content when she saw the Apache eyes grow narrow and the teeth set. “A wife with many robes and many strings of shells and blue stones, makes a man strong to fight for them. Ka-yemo will be a strong man now.”
“He is of my clan––Ka-yemo!” said Yahn panting with pent up fury, “he can fight,––all of our blood can fight! ”

“ It is true, my daughter of the Te-hua, that the Snake priest of the Hópitû told in council that high medicine was yours. Yet all he could not tell me. You have lived much, oh woman! Yet your heart is not hard, and your thoughts run clear as the snow water of the high hills. It is well that you have come with us, and that you have talked with us. When the hidden water mocks with laughter so far beneath the desert sand that no man lives to reach it:––then it is that men die beside the place their 22 bleeding hands dig deep. ”

“ The dance was a great dance and plainly had the favor of Sinde-hési since Tahn-té had come out of it alive;––the Summer People would hold a long feast to mark the time, and the boys who were taught by the old men, would be told in the kivas of the ways in which a man might grow strong in body and strong in spirit to face the god who lives on high in the hills. ”

“ The spirit men were Navahu. Holy Father, he can bring all the men who ever died to tramp us into the sand! Holy Father, my heart is very sick!”
The others were silent. All were awed, and Padre Vicente was thinking what was most wise to say. There were enough in the group for strong witness that Tahn-té had shown them a thing which did not exist;––only a sorcerer could call up men out of the earth and send them away on the wind! ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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 ”

“ Tahn-té was invoking the spirits of battle––Tahn-té it was who had seen the vision of warriors and started scouts to the hills;––on every side was he reminded that Tahn-té the priest––was looked upon as Tahn-té the warrior heart!
The Castilians would go back to their own land with that word to their people, and to their king;––and he, Ka-yemo,––would have no mention unless it should be of the weeds pulled in the corn!
His heart was so sick and so angry that he could almost hear the laughter if he returned without honors:––but one man should not laugh! ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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 ”