such at their inception, but their origin has been forgotten by subsequent generations, and nothing has remained but the bare wonderful, inexplicable fact of their performance.  Thus they have become in course of time hallowed; and the shaman who causes lightning to flash through a dark room, or corn to grow and mature in the course of one day, honestly believes in the supernatural origin of the trick.  Such men are often very punctilious, and while they will go to the direst extremity in what they regard as their duties and privileges, will with equal scruple avoid going a single step beyond.  Imbued with an idea that they are the mouth-pieces of Those Above, they listen anxiously to everything that is striking and strange, and attribute to inspiration forcible arguments as well as their own speeches and actions.  So it was with the Hishtanyi Chayan.  The refusal of Hayoue to accept an honourable charge struck him as being an expression of the will of the Shiuana, against which it was his duty not to protest.  When the young man brought forward such strong arguments he was still further confirmed in his belief, and bowed to the inevitable in respectful silence.

At the close of the council the Koshare retired to the estufa, the caciques followed their example, and the Chayan came next.  But before he withdrew into privacy, the great medicine-man had a long talk with Hayoue, his object being to strengthen the tie which united the young man with the people of the Rito, and to engage him not to forsake altogether the abode of the spirits of his tribe.  Hayoue made no definite promise beyond what he had already pledged himself to at the general meeting.

Hayoue and Zashue had taken leave of the invisible ones as well as of the inhabitants of the Tyuonyi, and ascended to the brink of the southern mesa above the Rito.  Here they turned around to look back upon the home to which neither of them was any longer strongly attached.  The sun was setting, and they wished to improve the night, for fear that Navajos might still be prowling about on the mesas.  At the bottom of the gorge there was little life, compared with the bustle that prevailed in former days.  On the plateau the evening breeze fanned the trees; in the east, distant lightning played about sombre clouds.

“The corn-plant is good,” Zashue remarked to his brother; “the Zaashtesh will not starve this winter.  We have called loudly to Those Above.”

“It is well,” said the other in a tone of authority, which since his achievements he was wont to assume toward his elder brother; “when the Koshare perform their duty they are precious to the people.”

“Without the Cuirana,” the elder replied, “the sprouting corn cannot grow.”  Zashue had conceived a very high opinion of Hayoue, and his weaker mind gladly leaned upon the strong will of the youth.  Hayoue started; it was as if a sudden thought struck him.  “Look, see how good the Shiuana are!  We are leaving the Tyuonyi; and behold, if we find our people there can be no lack of food wherever we dwell.  I am Cuirana, you are Koshare.  I pray and fast for the growing corn, you do the same for the ripening of the grain.  It will be well.”