ers, give it to you for nothing? You
are thieves, you are Moshome, shutzuna, tiatiu! No!" He stamped his foot
on the ground. "No! we will give you nothing, nothing at all, even if
you give us everything that the Koshare have schemed and stolen from the
people!"

The commanding voice of the Hishtanyi sounded through the
tumult,--"Hush! Hush!" but it was of no avail; passions were aroused,
and both sides were embittered in the highest degree.

The delegate from Tanyi jumped up, yelling, "Why do you want the ground
from Tzitz alone? Why not our field also;" and he placed himself
defiantly in front of Tyope.

The member from Huashpa cried,--

"Are the Water people perhaps to blame for the drought of last year?"

"They are!" screamed the Koshare Naua, rising; "Tapop, I want to speak;
make order!"

"Silence!" ordered the little governor, but nobody paid any attention.

"Satyumishe Maseua," now shouted the principal shaman, "keep order, the
nashtio Koshare wants to speak!"

The tall man rose calmly; he went toward the cluster of wrangling men
and grasped Kauaitshe by the shoulder.

"Be quiet," he ordered.

Nobody withstood his determined mien. All became silent. Topanashka
leaned back against the wall, his gaze fixed on the Koshare. Everybody
was in suspense, in expectation of what the Naua might say. He coughed,
and began addressing the leading shaman,--

"Yaya Hishtanyi, you hear that the Water people refuse to give us the
land that we so much need. They ask of us that we should give them all
we have for a small part of theirs. The mot[=a]tza from the hanutsh
Huashpa has asked whether Tzitz hanutsh is perhaps the cause that the
crops failed last year. I say it is the cause of it!"

"How so?" cried Tyame.

"Through Shotaye, their sister," replied the old man, slowly.

It was not silence alone that followed this utterance. A stillness
ensued so sudden, so dismal, and so awful that it seemed worse than a
grave. Every face grew sinister, every one felt that some dread
revelation was coming. Tyope held his head erect, watching the face of
the old maseua. Topanashka's features had not moved; he was looking at
the Koshare Naua with an air of utter unconcern. The Hishtanyi Chayan,
on the contrary, raised his head; and the expression of his features
became sharp, like those of an anxious inquisitor. In the eye of the
Shkuy Chayan a sinister glow appeared. He also had raised his head and
bent the upper part of his bo