Hardly was the shield visible when its owner felt a sudden blow against it, and the point of an arrow came through the hide.  The shot must have come from a short distance, or it would not have pierced the shield.  Ere Tyope discovered whence it came, his companion had discharged his bow, and with a loud whoop hurled himself forward, where he fell headlong behind a little tree.  Wild yells sounded from the Tehuas, and several of their warriors rushed up to the spot; branches rattled and bushes shook as the men brushed past them.  Tyope had an arrow ready, and he despatched it at one of his foes.  He pulled another from the quiver without looking to see whether the first had struck a mark or not, darted up, and with a shout bounded ahead to encounter the enemy.  A shot grazed his right hand, scratching the wrist and causing him to drop his arrow.  For a time the arm was numb, but Tyope heeded it not.  Where the man who had stood beside him had fallen, a number of warriors from both sides were wrangling.  A Queres lay dead on the dead body of a Tehua whose scalp he had intended to secure.  Two of his brethren were defending his corpse against half a dozen Tehuas.  Tyope’s right wrist had been paralyzed by the arrow-shot, but he raised his arm and flung the war-club that dangled from it against the head of the nearest foe.  The blow was too feeble, and Tyope grabbed the man’s hair.  Arrows whizzed and shrieked past the fighting group; shrill yells and wild howling sounded from every quarter.  The contending parties exchanged insulting cries and abusive words in both languages.

The Tehua whom Tyope had grabbed by the hair made desperate lunges at him from below with a sharply pointed arrow.  He succeeded in slightly wounding him in several places.  Tyope kicked him in the abdomen, causing him to double up at once.  Regardless of the pain in the right hand Tyope succeeded in grasping the war-club at last.  With it he directed several blows at the head of the enemy, but they were so weak that only at the third stroke did the Tehua fall.  At this juncture an arrow grazed Tyope’s temple.  He looked up, and saw that he had been very imprudent in yielding so far to ardour and excitement as to mingle with his men in a strife for the possession of a single scalp, and thus expose unduly his own person.  He began to think of withdrawal into the neighbourhood of the Hishtanyi Chayan, but it was not easy to extricate himself.  Warding off a blow aimed at his skull, with his shield he pushed it into the face of the new assailant with sufficient force to cause the man to stagger.  Then he shouted a few words to his own men, turned around, and rushed back to his tree, where he fell down at full length, exhausted and bleeding.  The other Queres, two in number, followed his example, and the Tehuas did not pursue.  The result was so far favourable to the Queres that they lost but one man and the Tehuas two; but the scalp of the dead man from the Rito remained with the enemy.