History of California | Page 9

thought he was going to keep it and give me his old one," he added, with some disappointment.
"What are they offering for?" asked the young brother.
"For rain," said Nopal. "See, they are going now." In single file the men walked swiftly away, stepping so softly that not a twig cracked.
After a little the boys followed, slipping from bush to bush that they might not be discovered. They had walked about a mile, when they came to thicker woods with bigger trees and saw a light ahead of them. Nopal laid his hand on his brother to stop him. Peeping through a scrub-oak bush, they looked down into a little glade arched over with great live oaks. 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. He looks so tall because of his headdress. It is made of framework of dried tules covered with feathers and fish bladders. I saw it one day in his jacal, and it is as tall as I am. That jacal beside him is the vanquech [temple], and I think there is something awful there. You see if there isn't. Hush, now! Squat down. Here they come."
In a procession the men came into the opening, and, stalking solemnly by, each cast down at the door of the temple an offering of some object which he prized. Cuchuma gave a bone knife which he greatly valued, and a handsome new bow. Sholoc gave a speckled green stone olla from Santa Catalina and a small string of money; but these were chiefs' offerings. The other gifts were simpler--shells, acorn meal, baskets, birds' skins, but always something for which the owner cared.
At last the medicine man, satisfied with the things offered which became his own when the ceremony was over, stooped and drew forth the sacred emblem from the temple. It was not even an idol, only a fetich composed of a sack made from the skin of a coyote, the head carefully preserved and stuffed, while the body was dressed smooth of hair and adorned with hanging shells and tufts of birds' feathers. A bundle of arrows protruded from the open mouth, giving it a fierce appearance. While Nihie held it up, the men circled round once again, this time more rapidly, and as they passed the medicine man, each gave a spring into the air, shooting an arrow upward with all his force. When the last man had disappeared under the trees, Nihie replaced the skin in the temple, put out the fire, and, singing a kind of chant, he led the men back to their jacals. The boys stood up. Payuchi shivered and drew a long breath.
"We must get away now; Nihie will be back soon to get the offerings," said Nopal.
"But first we must offer our gifts, or Chinigchinich will be angry," said Payuchi.
"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." But they were in time after all, and were stretched out on their mats some minutes before their father and Sholoc came in.
Macana's first duty in the morning was to attend to the baby, whose wide-open black eyes gave the only sign that it was awake. She unfastened it from the basket and unwrapped it, rubbing the little body over with its morning bath of grease until the firm skin shone as if varnished. When it had nursed and was comfortable, she put the little one back in its cradle basket, which she leaned up against the side of the hut, where the little prisoner might see all that was going on.
Instead of the usual breakfast of acorn meal mush, the children had a plentiful meal of fish which their mother had saved from the feast of the night before.
"I didn't think any one could catch so many fish as uncle brought last night," said Cleeta, as she helped herself to a piece of yellowtail.
"Yes, they do, though," said Payuchi. "Last night, after supper, uncle told the men some fine stories. I think he has been in places which none of our people have ever seen.
"He told us that once he journeyed many moons toward the land of snow and ice until