ic--and again it may be that he is half lost in his mind and dreams
the dreams of a man. It is a new thing that men listen to a child in
council."

Then K[=a]-ye-fah the aged Po-Ahtun-ho made a sign for silence, and
sat with closed eyes, and it was very quiet in the council until he
spoke.

"You have brought a big thought out of the world of the Spirit People,
Phen-tza," he said. "It has been given to you to say, and that is
well! It has been given to me to see--and I see with prayer. When the
God-thought is sent to earth people is it not true that the child of
dreams, or the man of dreams, is the first to hear or to feel that
thought? Was not the earth-born god, Po-se-yemo, called a youth that
was foolish? Was he not laughed at by the clans until he wept? Was he
not made ashamed until out of his pain there grew a wisdom greater
than earth-wisdom? Let us think of these things, and let us hear the
words of the child who dreams."

"It is well," said another, "even when half the mind is gone, it may
be gone only a little while on the twilight trail to the Great
Mystery."

"The life music comes in many ways," said K[=a]-ye-fah, the Ruler.
"Many reeds grow under the summer sun, but not in all of them do we
hear the call of the spirit people when the wild reed is fashioned for
the flute. The gods themselves grow the flutes of High Mystery. This
youth is only a reed by the river to-day--yet through such reed the
gods may send speech for our ears."

"We will listen," said the others. "Let us hear more of the men whose
blankets are made of the hard substance." And at this Tahn-te again
took courage and spoke.

"These iron men say they are only on a hunting trail--they say they
will not trouble the people--that is what their men say who speak for
them! But if one boy, or one man, could talk as they talk, you men of
Povi-whah would know better if they speak straight. My mother has
found the trail to her people on the right day, and has brought me
here. I want to be the boy who learns that talk of the hunters of the
blue stones and sacred sun metal of the earth, and then I can come
back and tell it to the wise men of my mother's people."

"But you may not come back."

"I will ask all the Powers that I will come back. My mother will pray
also, and her prayers are strong."

"I will pray also," said S[=aa]-hanh-que-ah.

The men smoked, and the boy watched them and waited until K[=a]-ye-fah
spoke.

"That which the son o