In proposing for the vacant position of tapop a member of the Turquoise people, the chief penitents had in a measure acted discreetly.  They certainly acted very impartially, or they considered that already one important office,—­the office of maseua, or war-captain,—­was held by a member of one of the most numerous hanutsh, Tyame.  It appeared unwise to them to refuse to as large a cluster as Shyuamo an adequate representation in the executive powers of the community.  So they chose Hoshkanyi, as a member of the Turquoise clan, and proposed him for the office of tapop, or civil chief.  That more opposition was not made to this selection was due to two facts,—­first, to the tacit acknowledgment on the part of all that it seemed fair to give Shyuamo a share in the tribal government, and second, to the equally tacit conviction that Hoshkanyi, while in appearance a man of determination and perspicacity, was in fact but a pompous and weak individual, ambitious and vain, and without the faculty of doing harm.  In both these points public opinion at the Rito was right.

It will be seen from what has been said that there prevailed a strong desire on the part of the chief religious authorities to preserve a certain equilibrium between the components of the tribe.  That anxiety to maintain an even balance of power was in itself evidence of danger that this equilibrium might be disturbed.  The great penitents,—­or as they are erroneously called to-day, caciques,—­had not and could not have any clear conception of the condition of affairs in the government of their people.  Men old, even prematurely old from the effects of the life of constant abnegation and self-sacrifice to which they had to resign themselves, excluded from listening to anything that was or might indicate strife and contention, they knew not what was going on under cover of apparent harmony.  Theoretically and from the standpoint of their duty, which consisted in praying and suffering for the peace and happiness of the community, and thus securing these boons by means of more direct intercourse with Those Above, their choice was excellent.  Practically, it was the most dangerous step that could have been suggested and carried out.

They did not consider that instead of giving to Shyuamo a legitimate share in the government of the tribe, they virtually gave the Turquoise people a majority.  For the latter had already two representatives of great influence.  Tyope was delegate to the council, where he represented his clan; and the Koshare Naua, who also was a member of Shyuamo, not only belonged to the leading councilmen but was one of the religious heads!  By adding Hoshkanyi as tapop it gave the Turquoise clan an unfair preponderance.  For while Hoshkanyi was a weak man,—­while he was mortally afraid of his inflexibly honest colleague, the maseua Topanashka, he was dependent upon Tyope and upon the chief of the Delight Makers, because both belonged to his clan.  He very soon began to display an utter flexibility to the desires of the two last-mentioned individuals, to the disadvantage of those who did not coincide with their views.