Yahoya

“ In a little those gods will gather him to them, Nayangap and Tocha. You will see; his death has left the underworld to bring him thither. And harken well—" her voice rising a little—"you maidens who have heard must forget that you have heard! I have commanded, I, Yahoya!"
Even yet she did not believe. Though two men had told her, first Northrup, who claimed her one of his own blood, next Inaa, who told her of his own trickery, Yahoya would not believe. Too deeply had the training of a lifetime sunken into her mind to be wiped out in an instant. ”

“ Inaa frowned and plucked at his beard; Tiyo shifted his feet, looking uncertainly from his father to Yahoya; Strang stared at her much as Northrup was staring. And still, until she had done, Yahoya gave free vent to her tinkling laughter.
"You have heard Inaa," she cried at last, her voice clear and steady, confident and imperious. "Now hear Yahoya! Do I look to you like one afraid? Do I tremble as if with fear? Does my body shake as men's bodies do when they look on death? ”

“ If you come seeking a maiden then, Yellow Beard, here am I, Yahoya, maiden and goddess, who will follow you into the desert if you will, or down into the underworld."
She stood so close to him now that it was almost as if he had obeyed the wild impulse upon him and was holding her in his arms. For an instant he felt that one must be more than man or less than man not to yield to her.
But his arms, lifting a little, fell again to his sides. He had one code, had Sax Northrup, and many hard years of seeking to live up to it had made him the man he was. ”

“ Is it not nice to be married to Yahoya?"
She came into his arms like a bird to its nest, fluttering a little, eager to be there.
"You are my man!" she whispered. "And I am your mana! Oh, but I am proud of you, Saxnorthrup! There is no other man like you in the world! Did I not see you lift up Tiyo and cast him down so that his bones ached? Did I not see you strike Eddie mightily so that he reeled back afraid? I am glad you are no god, but a man, Saxnorthrup. Glad that I am no goddess, but a maid to love as other maids love—but harder!" ”

“ As if this were a signal and they grasped it instantly, the two not uncomely maidens plumped down upon their knees.
"Listen!" went on Yahoya swiftly. "He whom you see before you is one come up from the underworld to have speech with Yahoya. Guard your eyes that they go not blind with looking upon him. It is Sikangwunuptu!"
Instantly four brown hands flew up to hide four very bright and inquisitive eyes. Northrup fancied, while he was not certain, that the girl called Nayangap was peeking at him through her fingers.
"He has come running across the desert," continued Yahoya. ”

“ You come up like a god—a White God of the underworld! Your hair is like fine threads of gold; your eyes are like such turquoises as they do not find any more in the world, such turquoises as Haruing Wuhti wears upon her throat and arms when the Sun God comes to see how beautiful she is. Your skin where the sun has not blackened it is white like goat's milk, white and soft like Yahoya's own! ”

“ When he struck, a man must give back; when he thrust, a man must go down; when a thirsting blade drank of his own blood, his roar was like the cry of a wounded lion.
Now it seemed that the struggle had swept like great whirlpools about two centers. Tiyo and Muyingwa had been swept apart, both wounded, both standing grimly up to their bloody work. A surging knot of men contended near the edge of the cliffs. Close to Yahoya's kiva, Muyingwa was in the center of a ring of glittering blades seeking him.
Through this ring of men came Northrup, like a mad bull breaking through a flimsy fence. ”

“ But Northrup had not missed the look in Strang's eyes, in Inaa's, in Tiyo's, as they had passed the open door and gone on.
"Yahoya," he said gently, "I love you. Things have a way of happening which I had not expected. I didn't know just what love was, and now I know. I didn't believe in it overmuch, I suppose; and now I know that there is nothing else in the world this morning that counts. If a man looks at you I want to murder him. I am going to try to take you away with me, Yahoya, where you will see other men, better men to look upon than I am. ”

“ A young man was overlord of the Seven Cities, having been elected to hold office for life. He had turned his eyes upon Yahoya, but since he had already two wives, the priests, very powerful throughout the district, had forbidden him wedding her.
In order that white men might not come into a country which nature had so cunningly hidden from them, there were stationed out through the desert, upon any of the water-trails, sentinels who signaled by fire or smoke when a man came into sight. ”

“ Or are you eager to have the vengeance of Yahoya strike?"
"Fool!" snarled Inaa. "Must I, though an old man, be afraid of you, a soft-bodied girl? For the thing I have to tell you, Yahoya, is that you are a girl and no goddess; just a girl as Nayangap there and Tocha, but with the white body of the Bahana."
Northrup felt that he could have patted the old villain on the back for that. For, if anything were to be done for her, the sooner Yahoya got her ideas of her own divinity out of her head, the better. ”

“ But what maiden among you would not lie for her lover? Yahoya, who is no goddess but a white maid, will not wed with Tiyo. And she will not wed with Strang, who is a coward. She chooses her own lover, and if it be death—why then, she chooses death with him."
Like a flash she had fled along the cliff-edge, sweeping by Tiyo, avoiding Inaa's clutching fingers. She had sped to Northrup's side and her arms flashed upward and about his shoulders. ”

“ Like two great, gaunt greyhounds, Tiyo and Muyingwa were already slipping out into the desert, their bare feet seeming scarcely to touch the loose sand. Each had hit his stride, and Northrup saw that now Muyingwa was setting the pace, forging a step ahead, and that Tiyo seemed quite content to drop the step behind. He frowned as he asked of Yahoya—
"Which man has won the most races in his life?" ”

“ That day Northrup and Yahoya sat long alone together in her little room, waiting. Nor did time drag for them, there was so much in each heart which must be told to the other.
As the man looked into the clear gray eyes, fearless, and filled with the love she had given him so generously, he sought to close his thoughts to what might lie in the future for them both. One of the rare moments of a man's life had come to him when past and future are hazy and unimportant, when he lives richly and to the full in the glowing present. ”

“ Or would you like to obey the command of Inaa and wed Tiyo—and so remain to the people what Inaa made you, a goddess? You must decide swiftly, for the dawn is coming and does not wait, Yahoya, because a white maid bids it to!"
Nayangap and Tocha gasped, turning their bewildered eyes from their mistress to the old priest, back to where Yahoya sat motionless.
Slowly now Yahoya stirred, her gaze going to Nayangap, then to Tocha.
"You have heard Inaa speak," she said very quietly. "You have seen one high in the thoughts of the gods stricken with madness. ”

“ Already he heard Inaa's words, saw Yahoya forming them silently.
"The Spider Woman and the Great Earth Woman, the goddess who weaves the colors of sunrise and sunset, the goddess to whom belongs the world, the god who makes green things grow and the God of Rain, the great gods and the small gods bless you, Yahoya and Yellow Beard! You are a mana and his woman. The woman's house is open to the man, to none but him. ”

“ Northrup bowed and remembered to take off his hat. From the corner of his eye he looked at the goddess Yahoya in stupefaction. Was she poking fun at him or did she believe all of that stuff?
The question need not go begging for an answer. Her whole being breathed the certainty that she was what she had said she was. The attitude of Inaa the priest and his evil-eyed son Tiyo backed up her belief. They were all so certain of the thing that Northrup, a little dazed, asked himself:
"Well, why not? Everything happens here! Why not find oneself in the presence of deity?" ”

“ You dare—you dare make light of Yahoya's love?"
Northrup watched her, uncertain of the answer to make.
"If you are a god," she said in the same cold voice, "I, too, am a goddess; then the time will come when I shall learn how to make you twist your great body in suffering. If you are but a man——"
She stooped swiftly, snatching up the prayer-stick from the grass.
"If you are but a man," and she stretched it out over him, "I have but to touch you with this and you wither and die!" ”

“ If Strang had been here all this time and had had words in private with this unsophisticated little thing, if in all that time he had not taken the trouble to enlighten her upon her possible past history, what was the answer?
The man who would leave a partner to die alone out in the desert, robbing him of his last drop of water, was not the man to be overscrupulous in his dealings with a maid. Not with a maid like Yahoya. Northrup looked at her sharply, seeking the measure of her beauty. ”

“ Inaa is old, his years weigh him down. Yahoya this night, her heart opened to the future, has said that already is the Skeleton House made ready for the coming of Inaa. But he does not go and leave his people without a thought for their welfare. He leaves behind him one to step into his place, the biggest man among you, the mightiest with his hands, the swiftest runner across the desert, the most tireless, Tiyo, the head captain of your young men! ”

“ Muyingwa had gone back to his mana, and the two of them were standing like Northrup and Yahoya, hand in hand.
It was perhaps Muyingwa's offer to race with Tiyo as much as anything which settled the matter. There are no runners in the world like the runners of the southwestern desert; they are men who can run an unbelievable number of miles out across blazing sands in the morning to dig in their fields and run back the same evening. With them running is at once a necessary thing, a part of their religious training, and a way of settling just such debates as the one that had arisen now. ”

“ It would be well if you remembered that you are but a Bahana, Saxnorthrup, while I am Yahoya."
And he put out no hand now to stop her as she went swiftly toward the stone edifice under the overhanging cliffs.
"Here's a pretty game for a man to play out," he grunted when she was gone. "If she were just plain girl things would be bad enough. But being a goddess to boot——"
Here he broke off. Yahoya had left her panther-skin behind her. Northrup rolled up in it and went to sleep. ”

“ Northrup had not noted that Tiyo's defeat was so marked as that, but he said nothing. Yahoya smiled a little at her maid's loyal enthusiasm.
"Men who are wise and men who are good," ran on Nayangap, "will draw to Muyingwa's side, calling him their chief. Men whose hearts are black and who listen to the words of Inaa will stand with Tiyo. Then will Muyingwa lead his men out and strike down the men of Tiyo!" ”

“ Surely with old age madness has come upon you! You are great among your people, Inaa, but do you forget that you are only an old man, soon to die? The Skeleton Old Man has one hand upon your beard now! Be careful what you say, how you speak to Yahoya!"
Again Inaa's grunt, making Northrup vaguely uneasy. The old man was unmoved by Yahoya's words, and his attitude was plainly untinged by respect. ”

“ Nayangap and Tocha stood one at each side of their mistress, their black eyes wide and startled, their lips parted, a look of fear upon each face. Inaa's back was toward Northrup. The old man's form was tense, his voice vibrant with the emotion riding him.
"It is death to break silence during the Festival of Silence," Yahoya was saying now quite calmly, a little curl of contempt touching her mouth. "You will go down to the Skeleton House, Inaa, before the day is born and dies again!" ”

“ SOON they were in the center of a great ring, they with Inaa, Strang and Tiyo. Men were laughing openly everywhere. And their eyes, when they had finished with Yahoya and Northrup, had already measured Tiyo and were seeking to measure Muyingwa that they might lay their wagers upon the endurance run.
A man is not head priest of such a people as this for fifty years without learning something. ”

“ And Yahoya was apologizing for Tiyo's slowness! A clip of over forty miles a day, day in and day out, over such country as Northrup knew stretched between these people and Santa Fé! It was incredible—and yet it was the sober truth. For here are a people not like other men, a people with a strange, seemingly tireless power and swiftness, that is the result of desert training, inheritance, evolution, all aided by the religious ceremonies calling for an abnormally developed physique. ”

“ There he stopped hesitantly, trying to see just how to go about telling a goddess that she was just a girl in spite of her many years of belief to the contrary.
"A good many years ago," he began slowly, "some people, a man and a woman and a little girl, perhaps, sought to cross the desert. God knows what drove them or lured them. We may never know that, Yahoya, or it may be that we shall find out sometime. At any rate, just before they came this far, they died. Perhaps their water gave out. The man would try to save his water for the woman ”

“ Northrup, gathering Yahoya passionately into his arms, held her there a long moment. Then he pushed by Strang, and ran out to the edge of the cliffs.
{{dhr} BELOW, the men of the tribe had drawn into two compact masses, fronting each other ominously, their short stabbing spears lifted. Between them lay a man, writhing, slowly growing still. Northrup's first thought was that it might be Muyingwa or Tiyo. ”