Night had fallen when another message came, to the effect that the numbers of the enemy were increasing, and beginning to spread over the timber in small groups.  The war-chief sent a messenger to the Puye, and after midnight the great medicine-man of war appeared in person.  The shaman was, like all the others, painted black; a tall plume taken from an eagle rose behind each ear; the left hand carried a rattle; and a little drum was suspended from his shoulder.  As soon as he arrived, one of the warriors retired to a spot which was almost hedged in by several bushy cedar-trees.  There he built a fire, and as soon as it burned he covered it in such a manner that only a thin film of smoke arose from it.  To this smouldering heap the shaman proceeded alone and sat down.  There he spent the night, muttering incantations and prayers, shaking his rattle, and striking the drum softly from time to time.

The sounds that proceeded from his discordant music were so faint that they could be heard only in close proximity.  They were besides the only human sound in this wilderness.  Animal voices occasionally disturbed the quietness of the night.  Nobody would have supposed that between the Rito and the mesas opposite San Ildefonso of to-day several hundred Indian warriors were hidden, patiently waiting or slowly moving forward.  It was a quiet, still night, cool, as the nights mostly are in the rainy season, and dark.  The sky was partly overcast; but the clouds did not drift, they formed and dissolved overhead; and the stars appeared and disappeared alternately as the nebulous fleeces disclosed or shrouded them.  Behind the mountain, thunderclouds rested, and occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the crests, and faint thunder muttered in the distance.  It had no threatening sound, and the lightning did not seem like prophetic writing on the sombre clouds.  It was a pleasant night and an excellent one for Indian warfare.

The scouts of the Tehuas had reported in the last instance that the bulk of the war-party from the Rito must now be on the move, for no fresh additions were coming up from the gorge.  So careless and unconcerned were the Queres, so absolutely sure of the enemy’s ignorance of their designs, that they never thought of sending scouts to the upper end of the northern mesa.  From there a few Tehuas had comfortably observed everything that happened in the gorge during the day, and as evening came they could report even the numbers of the warriors who took part in the campaign.  As soon as these warriors were all on the Ziro kauash, the Tehua spies, after warning those behind them, crept cautiously into the rear of the advancing foe.