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"It was in the afternoon, with the wind blowing from the ocean, and all the men who could shoot best with bow and arrow, or throw the spear well, stood on the other side of the wash." "Father was there," said Cleeta. "Yes, and many others," said Payuchi. "Then some of the men and all of us boys got green branches of trees and came down on this side of the wash. Nopal started the fire.
"Mother," asked Gesnip, as she finished her breakfast, "when am I to begin to braid mats for the new jacal?" "Soon," replied Macana. "This morning you and Payuchi must gather the tule. Have a large pile when I come home."
"We had such a good time at the rabbit drive," said Payuchi. "And such a big feast afterwards, nearly as good as last night," said Gesnip. "Tell me about the rabbit drive," said Cleeta, squatting down beside the children in front of the fire. "It was in the big wash up the river toward the mountains," began Payuchi.
As the hoop rolled another boy stepped forward and tried to throw a stick through it, but failed. Then all the players pointed their fingers at him and grunted in scorn. Again Nopal rolled the hoop, and this time the boy threw through the ring, and all the boys, and Payuchi too, gave whoops of delight.
The labors of an Indian mother ceased only while she slept. "Come, Payuchi," said Gesnip, "let us go down to the river and get tules." "All right," replied the boy, readily. "Sholoc is going down too. He is going to show the men how to make log canoes like his instead of the tule canoes our people use. But I like the tule canoes, because I can use my feet for paddles."
Gesnip struggled on, bending under the weight and size of her awkward burden until, with a sigh of relief, she seated herself on a stone to rest while Payuchi, throwing his bundle on the ground, stood up to watch the boys. "See, Nopal is It," he said. Nopal, coming forward, stooped low and rolled a hoop along the ground, which the boys had pounded smooth and hard for the game.
In the middle of the opening they saw, by the light of a low fire, a small cone-shaped hut. Beside it stood a gigantic figure painted and adorned with shells, feathers, rattlesnake skins, and necklaces of bone. "Come back," whispered Payuchi, his teeth chattering with fear. "It is Chinigchinich himself; he will see us, and we shall die." "No," answered Nopal, "it is only Nihie, the medicine man.
"Come on, then," said the brother; so, stealing softly down the hillside, the boys cast their offerings on the pile in front of the hut and ran away, taking a roundabout path home, that they might not meet the medicine man returning. "We must hurry to get in the jacal before father," said Nopal, suddenly. "I didn't think of that. Run, Payuchi, run faster."
Payuchi, Gesnip, Cleeta, and their little four-year-old brother, Nakin, gathered about the basket, helping themselves with abalone shells, the small holes of which their mother had plugged with wood. "Isn't father going to have some first?" asked Payuchi, before they began the meal. "Not this time; he will eat with Sholoc and the men when the fish are ready," replied his mother.
The children pulled up the long rough stems one by one until they had a large pile. "I think we have enough," said Payuchi, after they had been working about two hours. "Yes, I think so too," said his sister. "My back aches, my hands are sore, and my feet are so cold."
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