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If he failed, the whole earth, as he knew it, would be laid waste; Tumwah would never stop his fiery onslaught until the Black Phantom had been slain. Had not Choflo, who knew all things, said so? Still, he could not but feel that the sorcerer had been at least to some extent influenced by personal motives in interpreting the wishes of the Great Spirit.
Why, see," he exclaimed suddenly, pointing to the East "even now the sky is overcast where the sun rises and soon the rain will fall upon you. Look, Oomah! They can ask for no other proof. Tumwah has come to save you." Just then shouts from the forest announced the coming of the hunters and before long the excited youths had filed into the village and joined the circle.
And the stench of the decaying masses that dotted the country for hundreds upon hundreds of miles hung over the pantenales like a pall. Tumwah was indeed angry! His fiery breath had indeed swept the green earth, parching and devastating it.
Therefore, by drying up the land and the water Tumwah hopes to destroy the great tiger so that the demon must leave the dead body and return to the place of blackness from which it escaped, even if in so doing all others that live must perish in the battle. To save ourselves we must kill the Black Phantom." "But, have we not seen how useless our weapons are against this monster?"
"And my arrows bounded off his neck and shoulders as from the horny back of a turtle," another added. "The phantom bears a charmed life. Our weapons cannot harm this monster from the other world that has come to destroy us." "Listen!" Choflo commanded. "Thus have I solved the mystery. Tumwah is not angry with us. He is angry with this evil spirit which is usurping his power on earth.
Let the corrals be well stocked with turtles and fill the calabashes with the oil of their eggs. A sacrifice must be made to Tumwah. Tonight, a crocodile shall be killed and eaten in his honor. Everyone must partake of it. And if the God of Drought be pleased with the offering a sign from heaven will show itself. If it displeases him woe to all living things that walk the earth."
Then both dancer and feasters went quietly to their shelters and the fire was allowed to die down. Daylight, as always, came with an appalling suddenness and soon the sun was high in the heavens with searing rays that transfixed the earth as relentlessly as before. Tumwah had not taken note of the sacrifice. He was more than angry; he was enraged, for his onslaught was more terrible than ever.
"Tumwah is angry," he muttered to the members of the tribe who were huddled in a cowering group several paces to his rear. "The heavens tell me so; the curling leaves whisper the sickening message.
"And today," Oomah, youngest but most fearless of the hunters panted, "I pursued a she-pig in the forest. Three young were running at her heels instead of two." "The signs do not lie," Choflo returned. "Look! See how the sand in the islands and on the riverbank is cracking! Tumwah is angry.
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