Tahn-té saw it, and knew it; and felt as he had felt when a boy, and he had stood alone and apart––the only child of the sky. He had come again into his own! He was akin to none of earth’s children.
Then the man of the Po-Ahtun spoke.
“Two there were who held the secret of the sun symbol;––Now there is only one,––she has taken it through the Twilight Land to the Light beyond the light.”
“Two?”––said Don Ruy––“and this woman was one? And the other?”
No one spoke, but Tahn-té looked at him; and again there was no need for words.
“Medicine can be made to make a man forget,” said Tahn-té to the men of Te-hua––“but no medicine can be made to make a man remember! One keeper of the secret is dead by the magic of the white priest. Your children’s children will give thanks in the days to come that it was not given to the men of iron.”
“It is a secret of the tribe!” protested the man of the Po-Ahtun.
“It is now the secret of the god who hid it in the earth,” said Tahn-té. “By all earth people who knew it––it has been forgotten!”
“But––without it we will lose our brothers of the new god!”
“Without it you will surely lose your brothers of 327 the new god!” he assented. “Each time you look on the God-Maid of the mesa who has turned away her face, you will remember the prophecies of Tahn-té! Each time the God of Young Winter paints leaves yellow for the sleep to come, your children will see a sign on the mountain to tell them that Tahn-té was indeed Brother to the Serpent as that man said in his mocking!––also that the prayers of Tahn-té do not end. Free I came from the Desert to you, and I carried the Flute of the Gods, and fruit for your children:––free I go out from your dwellings and carry my ‘witch mother’ to rest!”