Tahn-té did not know what he meant, but the other men bent their heads in sympathy.
“It is twice four moons since my child K[=a]-ye-povi was carried away in the darkness when we fought the Navahu in the hunting grounds to the west,”––he continued. “No one has found her––no trader has brought her back. When a woman, she will not know her own people, or our own speech. I think of that, and grow weak. Our people have never been slaves––yet she will be a slave for our enemy the Navahu! So it is that I grow old more quick, and the time may come soon to sleep on our Mother––the Earth.”
“We wish that it comes not soon,” said the governor, and the others signified their assent.
“Thanks, thanks that you wish it. I do not speak of it to give sad hearts. I speak because of the days when I may be gone, and another than me will hold the knowledge of a sacred place where the Sun Father hides his symbol. It is good that I hear of the men who let themselves go into ashes, and when if they had said once:––‘I know where it is––the metal of the Sun!’ all might have gone free and lived long days. My children:––it may be that some day one of you will hold a secret of the sacred place where strong magic lives! If it be so, let that man among you think in his heart of the twenty times ten men who let themselves be burned into ashes by the white men of iron! Guard you the sacred places––and let your ashes go into the sands, or be blown by the winds to the four ways. But from the sacred things of the gods, lift not the cover for the enemy!”
The old man trembled with the intensity of the thought and the dread of what the unborn years might bring.
After a moment of silence the governor spoke:
“It may be that you live the longest of all! No one knows who will guard the things not to be told. But no Te-hua can uncover that which belongs to the Sun Father, and the Earth Mother.”
“It is true:––thanks that it is true!”––said the other men, and Tahn-té knew he was listening to things not told to boys.
“Thanks that you speak so,” said the Ruler. “Now we have all spoken of this matter. It is done. But the magic of the white hunters of gold, we have not yet heard spoken. How is it, boy, that 50 you have brought all these signs of it:––what made blind their eyes?”