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The group was about to disperse when the Shikama Chayan called back the men who had brought the news. All stood still and listened. "Is the head entire?" asked the medicine-man. "The scalp is not on it." A murmur of indignation arose. The chayan turned away and walked slowly along the foot of the cliffs toward his dwelling.
Below the house of Yakka hanutsh there stood a group of men, their faces turned toward the brink of the mesa. The nashtio of the Water clan rose, and pointed at the 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.
He bent his head again in token that he had said as much as he cared to say for the present. Hoshkanyi Tihua then interrogated the Shkuy Chayan, who very pointedly answered, "It is good." His colleague, the Shikama Chayan, remained non-committal, saying, "It may be good, it may not be good; I do not know.
He also had raised his head and bent the upper part of his body forward. The Shikama Chayan assumed a dark, threatening look. The name of Shotaye had aroused dark suspicions among the medicine-men. Their chief now asked slowly, measuredly, "You accuse a woman of having done harm to the tribe?"
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.
"But you are right also, nashtio yaya, when you say that it is Tzitz hanutsh who shall decide whether or not it wishes to part with some of its fields for the benefit of the Turquoise people." Both Tyope and the Koshare Naua grew very serious at these words. "We cannot compel the Water people to give up any of their soil." "No," the Shikama Chayan audibly whispered.
He was the Hishtanyi Chayan, the principal medicine-man of the tribe. Next to him was the Shkuy Chayan, or great shaman for the hunt, equally tall, slender, and with a thin face and quick, unsteady glance. The third, or Shikama Chayan, was an individual of ordinary looks and coarse features, who was decorated by a single upright feather.
He and the Shikama Chayan fasted and mourned together; their mourning was not only on account of the great loss suffered by the tribe in the person of the deceased; they bewailed a loss of power. That power had gone over into the enemy's ranks with the scalp of the murdered man.
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