Ryan Marah Ellis - The Flute of the Gods стр 8.

And when they came in sight of the sacred mesa, Tuyo, a runner was sent ahead to tell the governor and the head men of the strange new people of the clanking iron at Ua-lano, and the wonderful and belated home-coming of the lost woman of many years mystery.

Because of this they were met at the edge of the mesa by many, and the Woman of the Twilight knelt and touched the feet of the governor and asked that the gate of the valley be open to her and to her son. And Tahn-té knelt also and offered the growing things.

These are sacred things of which the Ruler must speak, said the governor. I am but for one short summer and winter, but the Ruler is for always. Of the new things to bear fruit we still speak in council,also of the new people trading a new white god for blue stones, and painted robes.

But Tahn-té knew that a welcome was theirs, for the governor would not have come outside the walls except it had been so, and the old man watched keenly the delight of the boy as the river of that land came clear before him spread at the foot of the wide table land, and the great plain below. Trees grew there, and between them the running water shone in the sun. The Black Mesa Tuyo, Mesa of the Hearts, arose from the water edge,a great dark monument of mystic rites, and wondrous records of the time when it had been a breathing place for the Powers in the heart of the earth. The rocks were burned so red it always seemed that the fire was still under them. And south was the God-Maid mesa:its outline as the face of a maid upturned to the sky.

Beyond the river stretched the yellow corn fieldsthe higher land like a rugged red skeleton from which the soil had been washed,and beyond that was the great uplift of the pine-clad mountains where the springs never failed, and the deer were many.

Wild fowl fluttered and dove in the waters of the river, grey pigeons flew in little groups from the trail; as they walked, two men in canoes caught fish where a little stream joined the big water of P[=o] s[=o]n-géin every direction the boy was conscious of a richer, fuller life than any he had yet seen. His mother was righther people were a strong people! and their villages were many in the valleys of the river.

In Povi-whah the clan of the Arrow Stone people welcomed the Twilight Woman as their own, and the men and women who had journeyed with her from Ua-lano looked glad to have journeyed with her,they had to answer many questions.

Tahn-té also had much practise in the Te-hua words when he tried to tell them what the peach was like, and what the pear was like, and the youth were skeptical as to peaches big as six plums.

A boy larger than he flipped with a willow wand at the urn with the little trees, and told him that in Provi-whah a boy was whipped if he lied too often!

How many times may a boy lie and not be whipped? asked Tahn-té, and the other boys laughed, and one stripling gave him a fillet of otter skin in approval, and said his name was Po-tzah, and that their clan was the same.

But the tiny Yahn who looked from face to face, and saw the anger in the face of the boy of the willow wand, caught the switch and brought it down with all the force of her two chubby arms on the nurslings brought from Hopi land.

Tahn-té caught her and lifted her beyond reach of the urn.

I should have let the strange beasts of the iron men eat you, he said. You shall go hungry for peaches if you kill the trees!

The others laughed as she wriggled clearand lisped threats even while keeping out of range of his strong hands.

Always she is a little cat of the hills to fight for Ka-yemo, said Po-tzah. Little Ka-yemo will some day grow enough to fight alone!

Ka-yemo scowled at them, and muttered things, and sauntered away. He was the largest of all of them, but one boy does not fight six!

Yahn was in such a silent rage that she twitched and bent the willow until it was no longer any thing but a limp wreck:she would break something!

That is the Apache! said Po-tzah. I think that baby does not forget to fight even when she sleeps.

The little animal flung an epithet at him and ran after the sulky Ka-yemo:evidently her hero and idol.

The mother of Tahn-té was called in council for things of which Tahn-té was not to know. But he learned that she was of the society of the Rulers:that from which the spiritual head was selected when the Po-Ahtun-ho or Ruler no longer walked on the earth.

After the council sacred meal was sprinkled on the trees in the urn, and the priests of the order of Po-Ahtun divided them between the Winter people, and the Summer people, that it be proven which the care of the new fruit would belong to for prayers, and each planted them by their several signs in the sky. His mother spoke to him when alone and told him he was now to do a boys work in the village, and his training must begin for the ceremonies of high orders into which the council wished him to enter.

To serve our people?

Yes:it will be soto serve our people.

Since it is to be like that, may I also speak?he asked. May I not speak to the men who decide? I have thought of this each day since Ua-lano. At some time I must speak:is not this the time?

It may be the time, she assented. We will go to the old men of the orders. It may be they will listen.

All night they listened, and all night they talked, and the old men looked at the mother strangely that the son should speak the words of a man in council.

Thanks that you let me speak, he said. Thanks! It is true what you hear of the white gold-hunters magic. It is strong. It is good that we find out how it is strong. My mother tells you how the Snake priests of Tusayan make me of their order, so that I can know that magic for the rain ceremony. In my hands also was given the Flute of Prayer to the desert gods, and to know Hopi prayers does not hurt me for a Te-hua:it is Te-hua prayers my mother teaches me always! So it will not hurt me to learn the magic of the men of iron. They are strong and they will be hard to fight. The grey robe man is the man who teaches of their gods. He teaches it from magic white leaves in his hand, on the leaves there are wordsother iron men can talk from them, but only the grey robe is the priest and teaches. He would teach me if I would serve himthen I could have their magic with our own.

It may be evil magic, said one.

It tames the strange beasts as the Hopi prayers tame the snakes, replied the boyand every day the beasts do work for these people.

The old men nodded assentit certainly must be strong magic to do that!

But a man of the Tain-tsain clan arose.

This woman has been gone many moons on a strange trail, he said. The son she brings back to her clan speaks not as a youth speaks. It is as if he has been very old and grows young again. It may be magicand again it may be that he is half lost in his mind and dreams the dreams of a man. It is a new thing that men listen to a child in council.

Then K[=a] ye-fah the aged Po-Ahtun-ho made a sign for silence, and sat with closed eyes, and it was very quiet in the council until he spoke.

You have brought a big thought out of the world of the Spirit People, Phen-tza, he said. It has been given to you to say, and that is well! It has been given to me to seeand I see with prayer. When the God-thought is sent to earth people is it not true that the child of dreams, or the man of dreams, is the first to hear or to feel that thought? Was not the earth-born god, Po-se-yemo, called a youth that was foolish? Was he not laughed at by the clans until he wept? Was he not made ashamed until out of his pain there grew a wisdom greater than earth-wisdom? Let us think of these things, and let us hear the words of the child who dreams.