es jet.

"O Su-Su," he spoke finally, "thou hast looked upon me kindly in the
days that have gone and in the days yet young--"

"I looked kindly upon thee for that thou wert chief of the Thlunget,"
she answered quickly, "and because thou wert big and strong."

"Ay--"

"But that was in the old days of the Fishing," she hastened to add,
"before the Shaman Brown came and taught thee ill things and led thy
feet on strange trails."

"But I would tell thee the--"

She held up one hand in a gesture which reminded him of her father.
"Nay, I know already the speech that stirs in thy throat, O Keesh, and
I make answer now. It so happeneth that the fish of the water and the
beasts of the forest bring forth after their kind. And this is good.
Likewise it happeneth to women. It is for them to bring forth their
kind, and even the maiden, while she is yet a maiden, feels the pang
of the birth, and the pain of the breast, and the small hands at the
neck. And when such feeling is strong, then does each maiden look
about her with secret eyes for the man--for the man who shall be fit
to father her kind. So have I felt. So did I feel when I looked upon
thee and found thee big and strong, a hunter and fighter of beasts and
men, well able to win meat when I should eat for two, well able to
keep danger afar off when my helplessness drew nigh. But that was
before the day the Shaman Brown came into the land and taught thee--"

"But it is not right, Su-Su. I have it on good word--"

"It is not right to kill. I know what thou wouldst say. Then breed
thou after thy kind, the kind that does not kill; but come not on such
quest among the Tana-naw. For it is said in the time to come, that
the Raven shall grapple with the Wolf. I do not know, for this be the
affair of men; but I do know that it is for me to bring forth men
against that time."

"Su-Su," Keesh broke in, "thou must hear me--"

"A _man_ would beat me with a stick and make me hear," she sneered.
"But thou ... here!" She thrust a bunch of bark into his hand. "I
cannot give thee myself, but this, yes. It looks fittest in thy hands.
It is squaw work, so braid away."

He flung it from him, the angry blood pounding a muddy path under his
bronze.

"One thing more," she went on. "There be an old custom which thy
father and mine were not strangers to. When a man falls in battle, his
scalp is carried away in token. Very good. But thou, who have forsworn
the Raven, must do more. Thou