“I will see that they are found, but let it not trouble you,” stated Padre Vicente. “We must meet trickery by trickery here. Go to your bed, and sleep too sound for early waking.”
“But––how––”––between the shock and fear of the night, Gonzalvo fairly clung to the quiet strength of the padre.
“Take your sleep:––and keep a still tongue forever! I have had a dream or a vision this night,” 300 and the padre smiled grimly. “I can as well afford a vision as can the elect of the Po-Ahtun!––and my vision will send people of Ka-yemo’s clan to search for dead friends on the heights of Pu-yé!”
“And if they find there also––?”
“Ah!” and the padre nodded and smiled that the thought had penetrated the shocked mind of Capitan Gonzalvo;––“If they find there also the evidence that their high priest is the lover of a witch––and that he runs from council prayers to meet her in the night:––is that not the best of all things the saints could send us? You have done good work for the cause this night, Juan Gonzalvo. Go now to your sleep––and when you hear of that which is found on Pu-yé, you hear it for the first time!”
The council of that night had been a late council because of the quaking of the earth. Every one knew it was time that a sacrifice be made to the visitor in the sky. All of evil was coming to the land because this had not been done. One Yutah slave belonged to the Quan clan, and a robe and shell beads must be given by the vote of the council to that clan. It would be a better thing to use the new Navahu who was made captive by the men of iron, but their new brothers would not listen to this wisdom.
When the sun looked over the edge of the mountain in the new day the sun must see the heart lifted high;––and the body must go to the murmuring river––then only could hope come that the evil magic be lifted from the land of the Te-hua people.
Thus the vote had been, and thus had Tahn-té been held in council long after the time the Moon Mother came over Ni-am-be mountains.
Don Ruy was at that council, and asked to speak against the offering of blood to the god whose eye was 301 as the star. But Tahn-té listened and then spoke,
“Your own god of the book asks for sacrifice––your god of the book accepted his own son as a sacrifice––and that people prospered! Your priests teach the blood atonement, and the death they gave the earth-born god was a hard death––if he had really died there! Being a god he could not die in that way;––all medicine men who know strong magic know that. But the blood was spilled and the spirit went away from that place––the earth gods always go away like that while they are young;––never do they die. There are days––and there are nights, when they come back! They speak in many ways to earth people. You men of iron do not to-day make blood sacrifice to your gods;––so you say! Yet your people go out to battle and kill many people for your god––also many of your own people are killed in such god wars––your tribes of different names call these wars ‘holy’. Our people do not think like that. Even the wild tribes hold the Great Mystery sacred in their hearts. They will fight for hunting ground, or to steal women or corn––but to fight about the gods would bring evil magic on the land––the old men could not be taught that it is a good thing! Also your Holy Office has the torch, and the rack, and the long death of torture for the man who cannot believe. The priests of your jealous god do that work, and their magic is strong over men. You talk against our altars, but on our altars there is not torture,––there is one quick pain––and the door of the Twilight Land is open and the spirit is loose! This world where we live is a very ancient world, but it is not yet finished. All the old men can tell you that. It may be in the unborn days that earth creatures may see the 302 world when it finished,––and when the gods come back, and speak in the sunlight to men. In that time the sacrifice may be a different sacrifice. But in this time we follow the ancient way for the gods have not shown us a different way.”