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The Trail Book by Mary Austin
Book, page 71 / 196



"'The Delight-Maker was for you, Tse-tse,' said the turkey girl next
morning. 'Kokomo cannot prove that you gave it to Kabeyde, but he will
never forgive you.'

"True enough, at the next festival the Koshare set the whole of Ty-uonyi
shouting with a sort of play that showed Tse-tse scared by rabbits in
the brush, and thinking the Dine were after them. Tse-tse was furious
and the turkey girl was so angry on his account that she scolded _him_,
which is the way with women.

"You see," explained Moke-icha to the children, "if he wanted to be made
a member of the Warrior Band, it wouldn't help him any to be proved a
bad scout, and a bringer of false alarms. And if he could be elected to
the Uakanyi that spring, he would probably be allowed to go on the salt
expedition between corn-planting and the first hoeing. But after I had
carried back the little Delight-Maker to Kokomo, there were no signs of
the four-colored arrow, which was the invitation to the Uakanyi, and
young men whom Tse-tse had mimicked too often went about pretending to
discover Dine wherever a rabbit ran or the leaves rustled.

"Tse-tse behaved very badly. He was sharp with the turkey girl because
she had warned him, and when we hunted on the mesa he would forget me
altogether, running like a man afraid of himself until I was too winded
to keep up with him. I am not built for running," said Moke-icha, "my
part was to pick up the trail of the game, and then to lie up while
Tse-tse drove it past and spring for the throat and shoulder. But when I
found myself neglected I went back to Willow-in-the-Wind who wove
wreaths for my neck, which tickled my chin, and made Tse-tse furious.

"The day that the names of those who would go on the Salt Trail were
given out--Tse-tse's was not among them--was two or three before the
feast of the corn-planting and the last of the winter rains.
Tse-tse-yote was off on one of his wild runnings, but I lay in the back
of the cave and heard the myriad-footed Rain on the mesa. Between
showers there was a soft foot on the ladder outside, and
Willow-in-the-Wind pushed a tray of her best cooking into the door of
the cave and ran away without looking. That was the fashion of a
love-giving. I was much pleased with it."


 
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