In the starlight he again faced the ancient diety of the Lost Others:––those Others who had carved the stone lions of Kat-yi-ti at their entrance to the Under world, and had set the white stone bear of the North on guard in the western hills. They did fine things––those people who had perhaps first named the stars above. And this one ancient cave god of the stone face was a link––so the wise old Ruler had told him––with strange Mexic Brothers of the far south––who gave worship––and gave human sacrifice, to a solitary mountain shrine, called the shrine of the Sleeping Woman, where few men could dance––or even learn the prayers of that dance.
No awesome Presence now faced him in the shadow of the rock as he chanted his prayer of farewell under the stars. He had danced all adverse spirits out of the charméd circle. His way was clearly marked now to follow the way of the eagle,––there on the shrine of Tse-c[=o]me-u-piñ he must say the final prayer. 129 All of harmony and all of hope was about him. Three days and three nights had he ran or chanted prayers, or danced fasting, yet weariness was not with him as he ended the ceremony which no man since his birth had made in this place.
Somewhere, he would perhaps fall on the trail, and the men of Kah-po or of Povi-whah would find him, as fainting medicine men had been found ere this––but that must be after he had reached the shrine, and gave prayers at the place of the eagle dream.
Past Pu-yé he went––scarce seeing the ghost walls of the older day; in sight of Shufinne, the little island of forgotten dwellings on the north mesa––through the pines to the cañon of Po-et-se where rocks of weird shapes stood like gray and white giants to bar his way. He thought at times voices sounded from the stone pillars, but it might be the echo of his own.––He knew evil spirits did lurk along his trail––no mortal could escape their shadows. Even the god who had lived in the sun had been hurled to earth by them when the earth was new, and the first trees––the pines, had begun to grow at the edges of the ice. Since that time the Sun God only lived in the sky one half the time. In the night he went to the Underworld, and the strands of his dark hair covered his face. He must not let himself think that the adverse spirits were less than men in strength––for man needed all the medicine of the gods to war against evil!
Thus he thought––and muttered and stumbled blindly towards the north. Into the stream of Po-eh-hin-cha he crept and drank,––then up––up to Po-pe-kan-eh––the Place where the Water is Born, and from there to the shrine of the Sacred Mountain, though his hands reached for help from every tree and rock past which he staggered or crept.
And Reached His Hands to His Brothers––The stars Page 129
Only water and the smoke of the medicine pipe had been his portion. One may not eat the food of man, yet commune with Those Above.