Säh-pah sulkily obeyed, and Yahn laughed and continued her work.
“It is not good to laugh when the bad fortune comes to any one,” said the old woman, but Yahn refused to be subdued.
“It is true, mother––” she insisted––(all elderly women are mothers or aunts to village folk)––“it is true. When the dance of the corn was here and the women made choice of their favorites––it is well known that Säh-pah did follow Phen-tza a long ways. He laughed at her.” Yahn herself laughed as she told it,––“he laughed and he asked why she comes so far alone––and he gives her his blanket and goes away! That is how he takes her for favorite that day!––he only laughs and let go his blanket to Säh-pah!”
The old woman put up her hand that her laugh 109 be not heard. The humor of primitive people is not a delicate thing, and that the blandishments of Säh-pah had been of no use––as was witness the blanket!––had made many laugh around the night fires. Yet the old “mother” thought it not good that quarrels should grow out of it.
“Is your heart so bright with happiness that you understand nothing of the shame another woman may know, Yahn Tsyn-deh?”––she asked seriously. “Säh-pah is of the free woman––and we are not of her clan to make judgement.”
“Speak no words to me of a bright heart!” said Yahn, and arose, and went away. Across the roofs she went to the stairway of her dwelling, where she had lived alone since the death of her mother. It was a good room she entered, very white on the walls, and the floor white also, with the works of her own fingers on the smoothness of it. In a niche of the thick wall stood a bronze god, and a medicine bowl with serrated edges, and a serpent winged and crowned painted in fine lines to encircle it. On the wall was a deerskin of intricate ornamentation, good and soft in the dressing, it was painted in many symbols of the Apache gods and the prayer thoughts. From her mother Yahn had learned them and had painted them in ceremonial colors. The great goddess of the white shell things––and white flowers––and white clouds––was there, and the sun god was also there, and the curve of the moon with the germ of life in its heart. The morning star was there––and also the symbol of the messengers from the gods. Circling all these sacred things was the blue zig-zag of the sky lightening by which Those Above send their decrees to earth children who know the signs, and at each corner the symbols of the Spirit People were on guard.
The Prayer of Yahn Tsyn-deh Page 109