“Ay—­”

“But that was in the old days of the Fishing,” she hastened to add, “before the Shaman Brown came and taught thee ill things and led thy feet on strange trails.”

“But I would tell thee the—­”

She held up one hand in a gesture which reminded him of her father.  “Nay, I know already the speech that stirs in thy throat, O Keesh, and I make answer now.  It so happeneth that the fish of the water and the beasts of the forest bring forth after their kind.  And this is good.  Likewise it happeneth to women.  It is for them to bring forth their kind, and even the maiden, while she is yet a maiden, feels the pang of the birth, and the pain of the breast, and the small hands at the neck.  And when such feeling is strong, then does each maiden look about her with secret eyes for the man—­for the man who shall be fit to father her kind.  So have I felt.  So did I feel when I looked upon thee and found thee big and strong, a hunter and fighter of beasts and men, well able to win meat when I should eat for two, well able to keep danger afar off when my helplessness drew nigh.  But that was before the day the Shaman Brown came into the land and taught thee—­”

“But it is not right, Su-Su.  I have it on good word—­”

“It is not right to kill.  I know what thou wouldst say.  Then breed thou after thy kind, the kind that does not kill; but come not on such quest among the Tana-naw.  For it is said in the time to come, that the Raven shall grapple with the Wolf.  I do not know, for this be the affair of men; but I do know that it is for me to bring forth men against that time.”

“Su-Su,” Keesh broke in, “thou must hear me—­”

“A man would beat me with a stick and make me hear,” she sneered.  “But thou ... here!” She thrust a bunch of bark into his hand.  “I cannot give thee myself, but this, yes.  It looks fittest in thy hands.  It is squaw work, so braid away.”

He flung it from him, the angry blood pounding a muddy path under his bronze.

“One thing more,” she went on.  “There be an old custom which thy father and mine were not strangers to.  When a man falls in battle, his scalp is carried away in token.  Very good.  But thou, who have forsworn the Raven, must do more.  Thou must bring me, not scalps, but heads, two heads, and then will I give thee, not bark, but a brave-beaded belt, and sheath, and long Russian knife.  Then will I look kindly upon thee once again, and all will be well.”

“So,” the man pondered.  “So.”  Then he turned and passed out through the light.

“Nay, O Keesh!” she called after him.  “Not two heads, but three at least!”

* * * * *

But Keesh remained true to his conversion, lived uprightly, and made his tribespeople obey the gospel as propounded by the Rev. Jackson Brown.  Through all the time of the Fishing he gave no heed to the Tana-naw, nor took notice of the sly things which were said, nor of the laughter of the women of the many tribes.  After the Fishing, Gnob and his people, with great store of salmon, sun-dried and smoke-cured, departed for the Hunting on the head reaches of the Tana-naw.  Keesh watched them go, but did not fail in his attendance at Mission service, where he prayed regularly and led the singing with his deep bass voice.