group.

"There stand Hayoue, the Shikama Chayan, the three Yaya, the Hotshanyi,
Shaykatze, and Uishtyaka; and see, the Hishtanyi Chayan is down on the
Tyuonyi already, and goes up to them. Let us go now, and"--he turned to
Tyope--"you, brother, tell us what you have achieved and how you all
have fared. We cannot receive you as it behooves us; there is too much
mourning on the Tyuonyi. The Shiuana have punished us so that we cannot
be merry and glad. Therefore I have been sent to receive you, for the
men are few in the vale and"--he looked around as if counting the
bystanders--"of those that went out to avenge the death of our father
not many have come back either."

In dreary silence they began to move downward. Not a shout, not a whoop,
heralded their coming; not a scalp was waved on high in triumph. In dead
silence those below watched the sombre forms as they descended slowly,
clambering over rocks, rustling through bushes, and coming nearer and
nearer. From the caves issued plaintive wails; from the big house moans
and subdued crying ascended,--the lament over the dead on the Rito.

* * * * *

More than a week has elapsed since the return of the discomfited
war-party to their desolate and ravished homes. It is August, and the
rains have fallen abundantly. What little was left of the growing crops,
what the torrent has not destroyed and the Navajos did not lay waste,
looks promising. But this remainder is slight, and there is anxiety lest
the surviving inhabitants may starve in the dreary winter. The
formalities of mourning have therefore been performed hastily and
superficially. The remaining Koshare have retired into the round grotto,
there to fast and to pray for the safe maturity of the scanty crops. But
Tyope is not among them. His accomplice, the Naua, has forsaken him. He,
too, has become convinced that everything is lost for them, and he has
thrown away Tyope like a blunt and useless tool. Hereafter the Naua
attends strictly to his official duties, and to nothing beyond his
duties. For the Shkuy Chayan is dead, the Shikama Chayan has no love for
him, and the old Hishtanyi, who has seen more of the real nature of
events than any on the Rito, went over to the cave of the old sinner and
spake to him a few words. The "old sinner" comprehended; he has gone
back to his duties and attends to them exclusively.

Afterward the Chayan called upon the chief penitent, or Hotshanyi, and
s