“This question I shall answer,” he said, “for it is wise in you to speak so.  Haatze the earth is round and flat, but it is also thick like a cake.  The other three wombs are down below inside, one beneath the other.  At Shipapu the people came out upon this world which is the fourth womb, but it was cold and dark.  Then the great sun rose in the heavens above.  In it P[=a]yatyama dwells, and on it he rides around the world in one day and one night to see everything which happens.  It is day and light, night and dark.  We have also summer and heat, winter and cold.  For this reason there are summer-people and winter-people, some who like to live when it is cold and others who enjoy the heat.  Every tribe, every clan, has some of both kinds.  Thus they came out of the third world, and thus they have remained until this day.  It was cold at Shipapu when the people came out on the surface, and Those Above saw that they felt weak.  Toward the south it was warm and bright, so Maseua and his brother said to their children, the men of our tribe, ’Go you where there is more light;’ and the summer people they directed to go along the Rio Grande; the winter people they sent south also but far around by the east over the plains where the great buffalo is roaming, where the wind blows and it is cold and dry.  To both kinds of men they said, besides, ’Come together in the mountains and live there in peace, each one getting food for himself and others as you are wont to do.’  But, lest the people might get weary on their long journey, Maseua and his brother commanded that from Shipapu there should come forth a man whose body was painted white and black, and who carried on his head dried corn-leaves instead of feathers.  This man began at once to dance, to jump, and to tumble, so that the people laughed and their hearts became glad.  This man led the summer-men southward, and as often as they grew tired he danced again and made jests; and the tribe followed him until they came to where we are now, and all met again.  The summer-people never suffered hunger in all their wanderings, for their leader was precious, and wherever they went he caused the fruits to be ripe.  That man was the Koshare.[4] Since that time there have been Koshare in every tribe.  Their task it is to keep the people happy and merry; but they must also fast, mortify themselves, and pray to Those Above that every kind of fruit may ripen in its time, even the fruit in woman’s womb.  To them is given the yellow flower from the fertile bottoms which makes the hearts of men glad.  Now you know what the Koshare are and,” he added emphatically, “why you should not laugh and make merry when you are not precious to them.”

The woman had listened with breathless attention.  At the close, however, she hung her head and sighed.  The old man gazed at her in silence.  In the outer room the regular breathings of the sleeping boy were heard, otherwise all was as still as a grave.

At last she lifted her face again.