asted over, danced over, prayed at,
and sung to. Shotaye found herself in a most painful situation. She
noticed how complacently the tuyo smiled, the more she attempted to
insist. At last he turned to Teanyi and said a few words to the latter.
Teanyi shook his head, and Shotaye followed the discussion that ensued
between the two men with eager eyes and ears.

It soon became clear to her that they were of different opinions, and
that each one persisted in his own. Finally Teanyi spoke alone, and for
quite a while in a low voice; and the governor listened attentively and
with growing interest. Though Teanyi's voice was muffled, Shotaye still
overheard the word Cayamo several times. Straining her sense of hearing,
she caught the words tupoge, tema quio, finally Shotaye also. The tuyo
listened, smiled, winked slyly, and at last laughed aloud. At the same
time he turned his face to her and nodded most pleasantly; thereupon he
said a few words to Teanyi aloud, and the latter turned to his family,
which had little by little congregated in the room, and repeated, as
appeared to Shotaye, his statements. At the close of his talk all broke
out in a joyful laugh. The housewife, who until then had rather frowned
at the visitor, now smiled and nodded too, repeating the words,--

"Not Queres; Tehua woman, wife of Cayamo."

All laughed, and the governor exclaimed,--

"It is well."

The case was clear to all. Cayamo, on his expedition to secure scalps,
had picked up a sweetheart. Food was placed before Shotaye, and the
woman caressed her, inviting her to eat.

In the mean time, one of the boys had left the room. Shotaye was still
eating when he returned in company with an elderly man of low stature,
whose greeting was answered with the usual reply.

This man cowered down among the rest, and listened with the closest
attention to a long speech of the governor. At the close of it he sat
for a while scrutinizing the woman's appearance, but when she looked up
at him he addressed her in her own dialect, and with the words,--

"Where do you come from?"

A heavy load fell from Shotaye's heart. The ice was broken; henceforth
she could explain herself in her own tongue, and inform the Tehuas of
everything that was so important to them, so momentous to her. But her
first impression, on hearing her tongue spoken by one who was certainly
not of her stock, was almost one of fright. People who spoke more than
one language were excessively r