ttracted
his attention.

[Illustration: Looking out from one of the weathered Cave-Rooms of the
Snake-Clan]

It was as if something glided through brushwood. He forgot to pray, and
listened. Now it sounded again, at a greater distance from him. Only
some animal could have produced the noise; a human being would either
have come up to him if a friend, or kept absolutely still if a foe. He
looked and looked, and at last caught a glimpse of the panther's
yellowish fur gliding along the ground. When a cat glides stealthily she
is on the hunt. His curiosity was fully aroused; he longed to see what
the animal was hunting and how he would succeed. Furthermore the panther
is in the eyes of the Pueblo Indian the symbol of the greatest physical
power. A feeling overcame the old man as if this symbol was presenting
itself to him at the very time when he needed the greatest moral
strength himself; and the animal appeared like a living fetich, a hint
from Those Above. He followed the movements of the puma eagerly. The
tree where the turkeys sat stood near; he had heard their gobblings long
ago without paying any attention to them. But now they explained the
movements of the gigantic cat; he was creeping up to the birds. The puma
approached the tree noiselessly; at its foot he laid down his head, and
raised his tail, sweeping the ground with nervous force. Now the beast
of prey began to climb the trunk of the pine carefully and noiselessly.
He reached the lower branches and disappeared within their maze. Then
followed his spring; and the turkeys flew away, all but one. With a
tremendous leap the cat broke through the tree-top and down on the
ground, with the wriggling bird in his jaws, and trotted off howling.

Topanashka had witnessed the performance with interest and with genuine
pleasure. He admired the strength and the swiftness of the animal
hunter. Unconsciously his thought turned back to the intended prayer,
and he earnestly addressed it now to Those Above, that they might give
to his heart the strength which the panther had shown in his limbs.
Placing two sticks on the ground before him and a stone over them, he
rose to go. But another sight met his eyes, and he stood still as if
rooted to the soil, gazed and gazed. His eyes opened wide, then his
expression became dark and almost fierce.

On the clear space beyond the pines on which the puma had caught his
prey, a woman sat near a cedar-bush; and in the shade of the bush