“That is it!” Hayoue exclaimed.  “If the Shiuana do not help, you can do nothing; no matter how swift you run, how far you see, and how sure your aim is.  But of the Shiuana there are many, as many as grains of sand on the shore of the great river below here, and when we do not know them we cannot speak to them and beg for assistance.  Just as there are Shiuana who assist the hunter, there are those who help us, that we may strike the enemy and take away from him what makes him strong, that it may strengthen us.  Look at Tyame, the nashtio of Tzitz hanutsh; he is swift and strong, but he knows not how to call to Those Above and around to help him take the scalp of the Moshome.  We must be wise, and listen to what those speak who know how to address the Shiuana, and what to give them.  We must learn in order to act.  I have learned, and thus I have become uakanyi.  And he who will soon be where in time we also shall find rest,—­he taught me many things.  He was good and wise, very good, our father the maseua,” he added, sighing deeply.

“Will you help me to learn and become uakanyi?” Okoya turned to him now with flashing eyes.

“I will, surely I will.  You shall become one of us.  But you know, brother, that you must be silent and keep your tongue tied.  You must not say to this or that one, ’I am learning, I have learned such and such things, for I am going to become uakanyi.’”

Okoya of course assented.  Then he asked,—­

“I am not uakanyi, and can the Hishtanyi Chayan tell me to go along too with the men to strike the Tehuas?”

“Certainly, for there are not many of us, and in the Zaashtesh all must stand up for each, and each for all.  But when many go on the war-path there are always some of us with them in order that the Shiuana be in our favour.”

“Do the Shiuana help the Tehuas also?  For the Tehuas are people like ourselves, are they not?”

“They are indeed Zaashtesh, like the Queres.  But I do not know how the Shiuana feel toward them.  Old men who knew told me that the Moshome Tehua prayed to Those Above and around us, and that they call them Ohua.  Whether they are the same as ours I cannot tell; but I cannot believe them to be; for the kopishtai who dwell over there must be good to their people, whereas the kopishtai here are good to us.  Only those who hold in their hands the paths of our lives help those who do right and give them what is due, wherever and whoever they be.”

“How soon shall we go against the Tehuas?”

“The Yaya Chayan and the uishtyaka perhaps alone know that.  As soon as the Hishtanyi has done his work he will call the uuityam, and then those shall go that must.  Perhaps I may go, perhaps not.  It may be that both of us will be sent along.  But we will go soon,” he fiercely muttered, “soon, to take from the Tehuas what is precious to the heart of our father, who now goes toward Shipapu.”