The Flute of the Gods Part 6

And after each one, the boy washed his hands in running water, and scattered prayer meal to the G.o.ds of the elements, and to the Sun Father G.o.d, and knew that in Provi-whah his mother was praying also that he be not harmed by the G.o.d of the gold hunters--and that he come back strong with the white man's magic.

The boy Ka-yemo of the Tain-tsain clan was also sent--but neither boy was told of the quest of the other. The old men decided it was better so. Without pay they went with the Spanish adventurers, one serving the men of arms and learning the ways of the strange animals, and the other serving the priests and learning the symbols of the strangers'

creed of the one G.o.ddess, and two G.o.ds, and many Go-h[=e]-yahs, called saints by the men of the iron clothes.

They both saw many strange things in Ci-cu-ye, and they saw the strange Indian slave, whom the old men of Ci-cu-ye instructed to lead the men of iron from their land with the romance of Quivera. And the slave did it, and told the strangers of the mythic land of gold and gems, and lost his life in the end by doing so, but the life of the romance was more enduring than any other thing, and the spirit of that treasure search still broods over the deserts and the mountains of that land.

But the stay of Ka-yemo was not even the length of the first winter with the strangers. For in Tiguex where the great captain (Coronado) wintered, and made his comfort by turning the natives out of their houses, there was a season of grievous strife ere the Spring came, and the two boys of Te-hua saw things unspeakable as two hundred Indians of the valley, captured under truce, were burned at the stake by the soldiers of the cross.

One of the reasons for the crusade to the north as written in the chronicles of Christian Mexico was to save the souls of the heathen for the one G.o.d,--and his advocates were sending the said souls for judgement as quickly as might be!

Tahn-te stood, pale and tense in the house where the chapel of Fray Juan Padilla had been established,--once it had been the house of the governor of the village who might even now be among the victims of the broken trust.

On the altar was a crucifix in gold on ebony, and the eyes of the boy were not kindly as he regarded it.

"They lie when they say you are a G.o.d of peace like our G.o.d Po-se-yemo," he said. "They lie when they say you are the G.o.d of the red man--you are the white G.o.d of the white people--and you will let the red men hold not anything that your white children want!"

He heard himself speak the words aloud there alone where the new altar was--he seemed to hear himself saying it over and over as if by the sound of his own voice he could kill the sound of the tortured red men in the court.

A blanketed figure ran in at the open door, halted at the sound of Tahn-te's voice--and then flung himself forward. It was Ka-yemo and his teeth were chattering at the thought of the inferno without.

"It may be they will not look for us here," he said as he saw who it was in the chapel--"Perhaps--if one keeps near--to their strong G.o.d: and you are close also--and--"

"I stay close because it is my work,"--said Tahn-te. "Some of the men tied to the stakes out there bent before their strong G.o.d and said prayers there.--Did it save them?"

"They will kill us--we will never see our people--they will kill us!"

muttered Ka-yemo shaken with fear.

"I do not think they want to kill us:--they still need us for many things. We are only boys, we have not wives that we refuse to give to the white men--if we had it might be different, who knows?"

"Is that the cause?"

"The white men will give a different one--but that is the cause!

The men of this valley think it is enough if they give their houses, and their corn, and their woven blankets to their fine white brothers:--the red men are foolish men,--so they burn at the stake out there!"

Ka-yemo stared at him, and crouched in his blanket.

"You say strange things," he muttered. "I think when they get crazy with the spirit to kill that they will kill us all. I do not stay to be killed--I go!"

Tahn-te staring at the emblems of holiness on the altar scarcely heard him.

"I go, Tahn-te,--I go if I have to swim the river with the ice.--Do you stay here to be killed?"

"I am here to learn many things--I learn but little yet, I cannot go."

"But--if you die?"

"I think it is not yet that I die," said Tahn-te--"There is much to do."

"And--if I live to see--our people?"

"Tell my mother I am strong--and I feel her prayers when the sun comes up. Tell the governor I stay to learn what the white G.o.d does for the red men; when I have things to tell the people I will come back to Povi-whah."

But the ice of that winter melted, and the summer bore its fruit, and the second spring time had come to the land before Tahn-te crossed the mesas and stood at his mother's door.

"Thanks--that you have come," she said, and wept, and he held her hand and did not know the things to say, only:--"Thanks that our G.o.ds have brought me back."

"And the magic of the white man?"

"It is here," and he opened a bag made of buffalo skin, and in it were books and papers covered with written words. She looked on them with awe. Her son was only a boy but he had won that which was precious, and earned honors from the men of her tribe and her clan.

"Not to me must you tell it first," she said--"The Ruler will hear you, and the governor,--they will decide if it is to be known, or if it is to be secret."

The old men sprinkled prayer meal--and smoked medicine smoke over the books to lift any lingering curses from the white men's G.o.d, and then the boy opened the pages and made clear how the marks stood for words, and the words put all together stood for the talk of the white G.o.d. It was a thing of wonder to the council.

"And it is a strong G.o.d?" asked the Ruler.

"It is strong for war:--not for peace," said the boy.

"Ka-yemo brought back the words of the medicine-man of the grey blanket who talked of their G.o.d. All his talk was of peace and of love in the heart. Is that true?"

"It is true. He was a good man. It may be that some men are born so good that even the G.o.ds of the men of iron cannot make them evil. And Padre Luis was born into the world like that."

"We listen to you to hear of the moons and the suns since you went away."

The boy told of the fruitless search to the east for the wonderful land of the slave's romance, where the natives used golden bowls instead of earthen vessels for food, where each soldier was so sure of gaining riches that the weight of provisions carried was small lest the animals be not strong enough to carry all the gold and the food also.

The old men laughed much at this search for the symbol of the Sun Father along the waters of the Mischipi, and commended the wise men of Ci-cu-ye who had the foresight to plan the romance, and to send the slave to lead the adventurers to the land of false dreams.

It was bad, however, that the strangers had not lost themselves in the prairies, or were not killed by the fierce tribes of the north:--it was bad that they came back to the villages of the P[=o]-s[=o]n-ge river.

Then the boy told of the final despair of the conquerors, and their disheartened retreat to the land of the south. For two years they had terrorized the people of the land--worse enemies than the Navahu or the Comanche or the Apache fighter, then when they had made ruins where towns and gardens had been, they said it was all of no use since the yellow metal was not found in the ground.

"Did the wise men of iron not know that where the yellow metal is in the earth, that there is ever the symbol of the Sun Father, and that it must be a thing sacred and a hidden place for prayer?"

"They did not know that:--no man told them."

K[=a]-ye-fah, the ancient Ruler blew smoke from his pipe to the four ways, and spoke.

"Yet among the men they burned to ashes in the village square were many who could have told them that, and three who could have told them where such prayer places were hidden! It is well, my children, that they did die, and not tell that which the Sun Father has hidden for his own people:--it is well!"

"It is well!" echoed the others of the council.

"We all die when the day or the night comes,"--continued the old man.

"It is well that we die in bravery for the sake of the others who have to live and walk the earth path. It is well that we have strong hearts to think about. One day I shall go in the ground with my fathers; I am old, and the trail has been long, and in my old days the sunlight has been covered for me."

Tahn-te did not know what he meant, but the other men bent their heads in sympathy.

"It is twice four moons since my child K[=a]-ye-povi was carried away in the darkness when we fought the Navahu in the hunting grounds to the west,"--he continued. "No one has found her--no trader has brought her back. When a woman, she will not know her own people, or our own speech. I think of that, and grow weak. Our people have never been slaves--yet she will be a slave for our enemy the Navahu! So it is that I grow old more quick, and the time may come soon to sleep on our Mother--the Earth."