The Flute of the Gods

by Marah Ellis Ryan

“We could kill these few, and then sleep sound for a long time with no trouble thoughts,” suggested one, a patriarch from Ui-la-ua.

“That is true,” said Tahn-té––“but if we do that 188 way we would be no better than these men of iron. Their god talks two ways for killing, and their men live two ways. Our god when he taught our fathers, gave them but one law for killing, it was this:––‘Go not to battle. A time will come for you to fight, and the stars in the sky will mark that time. When the star of the ice land moves––then the battle time will be here! Until then live as brothers and make houses––use the spear only when the enemy comes to break your walls.’ That is the world of the Great Ruler. To kill these men only holds the matter for your sons to decide some other year.”

“What then is to do?” demanded a man of Naim-be––“they do not break the walls, but they are beside the gates.”

“When the Yutah and the Navahu traders come with skin robes, what is it you do?” asked Tahn-té.

“We trade them our corn and our melons and we get the robes.”

“And,”––added Tahn-té––“the governor of each village gives them room outside the walls when the night comes, and the chief of war sees that the gate is closed, and that a guard never goes down from the roof! If these men are precious to you, make of them brothers, and send prayer thoughts on their trail, but never forget that they are traders, and never forget that the watchers must be on the roof so long as they stay in your land! They come for that which they can carry away, and once they have it you will be in their hearts only as the grass of last year on the hills––a forgotten thing over which they ride to new harvests!”

“You talk as one who has eaten always from the 189 same bowl with the strangers,” spoke one man from Oj-ke––“yet you are young, and some of these men are not young.”

“Because––”––said Tahn-té catching the implied criticism of his youth and his prominence––“because in the talking paper which their god made, there is records of all their men since ancient days. They have never changed. Their gods tell them to go out and kill and take all that which the enemy will not give,––to take also the maids for slaves,––that is their book of laws from the Beginning. Since I was a boy I have studied all these laws. It was my work. By the god a man has in his heart we can know the man! Their god is a good god for traders, and a strong god for war. But the watchers of the night must never leave the gate unguarded when they camp under the walls.”

All this Padre Vicente heard, all this and much of it was comprehended by him. Plainly it was not well to seek converts when the pernicious tongue of the Cacique could speak in their ears.

“It may be that we abide many days beside you,” he said gently and with manner politic––“also it may be that we visit the wise men of the other villages, and take to them the good will of our king. The things said to-day we will think of kindly until that time. And in the end you will all learn of the true god, and will know that we have come to be your brothers if you are the children of the true god.”