Tyame noticed the intended slight; so when Hoshkanyi called him up he opened his talk with the remark,—­

“One can see that you are Shyuamo.”

“That is what I am,” the little fellow bragged.

“But you are tapop also,” Tyame objected.

“Why do you speak thus?  Are you angry that you could not be used for the place?” venomously inquired the governor.

[Illustration:  The Hishtanyi Chayan, or Chief Medicine Man]

“If I were in your place,” retorted the Eagle, “I should do as is customary, and call upon each one in turn.”

“You have time enough left to speak against Shyuamo,” said the chief of the Delight Makers in a wicked manner.

“That I shall do, most assuredly,” exclaimed Tyame.  “I am against giving Shyuamo any more ground than they have at present.  You have enough for yourselves, for your women, and for all your children.  Do more work in the field and do less penance; be shyayak rather than Koshare!” He rose and turned toward Tyope.  “Your woman belongs to our hanutsh, and I know that it is not you who feed her; and so you are, all of you.  You live from other people’s crops!”

Tyope looked up, and his eyes flashed; but in a quiet tone he answered,—­

“Your woman is Shyuamo; you know best how it is.”  The other continued with growing passion,—­

“And when your wife was from Tzitz everybody knew that it was not you who supported her, but that she maintained you!”

Loud murmurs arose, and the Shkuy Chayan called Tyame to order, so that Tyope did not have time for a reply to this insulting insinuation.

Of all the clans represented three had yet to express their views.  These were the clans of Yakka, of the Panther, and Shyuamo.  The delegate of the Corn people was no friend of Tyame’s, therefore he spoke directly against what the Eagle had intimated.  He emphasized how detrimental it might become for a small cluster to own too much tillable land while a large and important clan was suffering for the lack of vegetable food.  With notable shrewdness, he exposed to the meeting the danger for the whole tribe in case one of its principal components should begin to decrease in numbers.  He wound up by saying,—­

“The strong hanutsh are those who maintain the tribe, for they are those who give us the most people that do penance for the welfare of all, be they Koshare or Cuirana.  They also have the greatest number of warriors and hunters.  If they have nothing to eat, they cannot watch, pray, and fast in honour of Those Above!  So the Shiuana and the Kopishtai become dissatisfied with us, and withdraw their protection from their children; and we become lost through suffering those to starve who are most useful.”  But he omitted altogether the important fact that there was still waste land in the gorge, and that it was far preferable to redeem such tracts than to create dissension.