“But I shall be one, if I go with you,” boldly uttered the boy.

His uncle shook his head, and smiled.

“Don’t you know, sa uishe, that every one cannot go with the warriors, when they go on the war-path?  Every one cannot say, ‘I am going,’ and then go as he pleases and when he pleases.  Every one cannot think, ’I am strong and wise, and I will follow the enemy.’  If the Shiuana do not help him, the strongest is weak, and the wisest is a child before the foe.  See, satyumishe, I am as good a uakanyi as any one, but I do not know whether, when the Hishtanyi Chayan says in the uuityam which men shall go and take from the Tehuas what is proper, I may go with them.  Perhaps I shall have to stay, and some other one will go in my stead.”

“Must not all go?” Okoya asked; he was astonished.

“Every one must go whom the maseua chooses.”  With a sad expression he added, “Our maseua is no more, and ere the Hotshanyi has spoken to the yaya and nashtio, and said to them, ’such and such a one shall be maseua,’ it is the Hishtanyi Chayan who decides who shall go and who shall stay at home.”

His nephew comprehended; he nodded and inquired,—­

“Does not the Hishtanyi Chayan fast and do penance now?”

“Our nashtio yaya,” Hayoue replied with an important and mysterious mien, “has much work at present.”

“Do you know what he is working?” naively asked Okoya.

“He is with Those Above.”

The reply closed the conversation on that subject.  Okoya changed the topic, asking,—­

“Satyumishe, you are not much older than I. How comes it that you are uakanyi already?”

Hayoue felt quite flattered.  He was indeed very young for a war magician, and he felt not a little pride on account of it.  Assuming a self-satisfied and important air, he turned to his nephew with the query,—­

“When you go out hunting, what is the first thing you do?”

“I take my bow and arrow and leave the house,” readily answered the boy.

“This is not what I ask for,” growled Hayoue.  “What kind of work do you do ere you rise to the kauash?”

The boy understood at last.

“I place the stone, and speak to Those Above.”

“If before you go hunting you do not speak to them, are you lucky?”

“No,” Okoya mumbled.  He recalled the unlucky turkey-hunt of some time ago, when he had forgotten to say his prayers before starting, of which we have spoken in the first chapter.

“Why have you no luck?” Hayoue further asked.

“Because the Shiuana are not satisfied,” replied the other.  His uncle nodded.

“Are you a hunter?” he asked.

“Not yet, I am only learning.”

“Why do you learn?”

“In order to know.”

“When you once know, what can you do then?”

“I can—­” Okoya was embarrassed.  “I can make the Shiuana help me.”