alone ere the dread moment came.  Others could not help; he was alone with his thoughts, and yet, as he did no fasting, not alone in the proper use of the word.  On that last day, therefore, he resolved upon retiring to some solitude.  It would attract no undue attention, and he would have done according to the spirit of the shaman’s instructions.  After leaving the Rito he climbed to the northern mesa, and instead of resting on its brink as Shotaye had, he strolled into the timber perfectly at random, hardly conscious whither he directed his steps, and content to be for once alone with his dismal thoughts.

However much he speculated and reflected upon the matter, he drew not the slightest comfort from it.  The main factor he lacked; namely, a knowledge of the judgment which Those Above would render.  This the chayani alone knew, and they alone would proclaim it at the council.  If the case of Shotaye only had been before the meeting, his position would have been very simple.  All he had to do was to kill her if found guilty, and he was ready to do this at any time.  He did not especially hate the woman, and all he cared for in such an event was to perform his duty.  In regard to his daughter Say he no longer entertained any apprehension.  Matters, however, had degenerated into a venomous contention between two clans, amounting almost to a schism in the tribe.  If now the Chayani in the name of the Shiuana proclaimed that Shyuamo was right, and the others, his own clan included, resisted, what then?  He had to obey, he had to execute what Those Above decreed; for that purpose was he called maseua, like him who bears the same name and is the most active among all the deities on high.  What the Shiuana determined was right always.

The old man sat down under a tree and attempted to ponder over this little query of “always.”  But he did it in vain.  It was a problem perhaps not beyond the reach of his intelligence, if it had been properly cultivated, but far beyond the limits which training and custom had set to the working powers of that intelligence.  He staggered from doubt to doubt, and finally gave it up.  No other conclusion could he reach than to wait.  But waiting alone gives no light, does not comfort, gives neither strength nor wisdom.  Strength and wisdom, so the Indian believes, are gifts from above, and can be obtained by prayer.  Topanashka came to the conclusion that he would pray.  He picked up a stone, and was searching his memory for one of the many formulas that the Indian has in his rituals, when a faint pattering sound attracted his attention.

[Illustration:  Looking out from one of the weathered Cave-Rooms of the Snake-Clan]