y means of their number, and by their
connection with the leader of the Koshare. The Turquoise clan was
beginning to assert in tribal affairs an unusual influence,--one that
really amounted to a pressure. Tyame and Tanyi particularly felt this
growing power of Shyuamo at the expense of their influence. Of all the
less numerous groups, Tzitz hanutsh was almost the only one who took the
side of Tanyi under all circumstances, and this was due exclusively to
the fact that the marriage of Zashue with Say Koitza bound the two clans
together. Topanashka himself was a member of the Eagle clan, and through
him the Water clan, feeble in numbers, enjoyed the support not only of
Tanyi but also of Tyame hanutsh.

In proposing for the vacant position of tapop a member of the Turquoise
people, the chief penitents had in a measure acted discreetly. They
certainly acted very impartially, or they considered that already one
important office,--the office of maseua, or war-captain,--was held by a
member of one of the most numerous hanutsh, Tyame. It appeared unwise to
them to refuse to as large a cluster as Shyuamo an adequate
representation in the executive powers of the community. So they chose
Hoshkanyi, as a member of the Turquoise clan, and proposed him for the
office of tapop, or civil chief. That more opposition was not made to
this selection was due to two facts,--first, to the tacit acknowledgment
on the part of all that it seemed fair to give Shyuamo a share in the
tribal government, and second, to the equally tacit conviction that
Hoshkanyi, while in appearance a man of determination and perspicacity,
was in fact but a pompous and weak individual, ambitious and vain, and
without the faculty of doing harm. In both these points public opinion
at the Rito was right.

It will be seen from what has been said that there prevailed a strong
desire on the part of the chief religious authorities to preserve a
certain equilibrium between the components of the tribe. That anxiety to
maintain an even balance of power was in itself evidence of danger that
this equilibrium might be disturbed. The great penitents,--or as they
are erroneously called to-day, caciques,--had not and could not have any
clear conception of the condition of affairs in the government of their
people. Men old, even prematurely old from the effects of the life of
constant abnegation and self-sacrifice to which they had to resign
themselves, excluded from listening to an