While the man was stooping and fastening the leather thongs, Shotaye scanned his appearance thoroughly.  She perceived on his back, aside from a bow and the usual quiver filled with war-arrows, a shield.  The painting on that shield she examined with particular care.  The target was painted white, with a black rim; and in the centre was a green crescent, with four red crosses.  Such figures have no heraldic signification; they are but the creation of fancy or taste, and recall the designs of the ancient Teutons which Tacitus describes, “Scuta tantum lectissimis coloribus distinguunt.”

Shotaye evidently took an interest in the stranger.  He, on the other hand, looked up to her from time to time with a terrific grin that was intended for a sweet smile.  As often as he turned his face toward her she sought to decipher his real features, which the war-paint rendered utterly unrecognizable.

At last the sandal was fastened again, and the Tehua stood erect.  He waved his hand to the west and north, repeated the words, “Cayamo, cuinda,” and placed a finger on his lips.  She nodded, raised eight fingers, softly uttered “raua, raua, Shotaye,” and pointed to the north also.  Thereupon he moved away stealthily; but before disappearing in the timber, he turned around once more and waved his hand northward.  The woman replied with affirmative nods, and after his form had disappeared she also turned to go.  Her eyes sparkled; a gleam of intense satisfaction illumined her features, as with head erect and heedless of the plants she had come to gather, she penetrated deeper into the forest.  She now went due east, in a direction opposite to the one the Tehua had taken.

This had been a very remarkable meeting indeed.  More than ever, Shotaye believed that she was invulnerable.  The Queres of the Rito and the Tehuas, living north of them on the other side of savage mountain-fastnesses, and more than a day’s journey distant, were not always on the best of terms.  There was no regular intercourse between the tribes, for the speech of one differed from that of the other.  Barter and traffic took place at long intervals; but as not a soul at the Tyuonyi spoke Tehua, and no one at the Puye understood Queres, such attempts at commercial intercourse usually terminated in a fracas, in bloodshed even, and the party offended sought to make things even afterward by waylaying and murdering such of the other side as might chance to wander in the neighbourhood of their abodes.  Actual warfare had taken place between the tribes within the time of Shotaye’s recollection, and engagements were fought; one party got worsted and ran home, the other went home, too, and that settled the matter for the time being.  It was, therefore, not at all safe for an Indian from the Rito to meet one from the Puye, and vice versa.  Women made an exception, inasmuch as they were exposed only to capture and adoption in the tribe to which their captors belonged.  Such compulsory adoption was rendered very easy by the fact that nearly the same clans existed among all the Pueblos.  But the Eagle clan, for instance, which the Queres called Tyame hanutsh in their dialect, bore in the Tehua language the name of Tzedoa.