Part 2 (2/2)
”Payuchi,” said a voice, ”wake up.”
”I have not been asleep,” answered the boy, stoutly, as he rubbed his eyes to get them open. ”What do you want, Nopal?” for he saw his brother speaking to him.
”Hush, do not waken mother,” said Nopal, speaking very softly. ”I know that the men will make an offering to Chinigchinich. I am going to watch them. We are old enough, at least I am. Do you want to come?”
A star shone in at the top of the jacal, and Payuchi gazed up at it, blinking, while he pulled his thoughts together.
”They will punish us if they find us out,” said he at length.
”But we won't let them find us out, stupid one,” replied his brother, impatiently.
”What if Chinigchinich should be angry with us? He does not like to have children in the ceremony of the offering,” said Payuchi.
”I will give him my humming-bird skin, and you shall give him your mountain quail head; then he will be pleased with us,” answered Nopal.
”All right,” said the boy; ”I do not like very well to part with that quail head, but perhaps it is a good thing to do.”
Creeping softly from the jacal, the boys crouched in the shade of a willow bush and watched the men by the camp fire.
”They are standing up. They are just going,” said Payuchi, ”and every one has something in his hand. Father has two bows; I wonder why.”
”I think he is going to make an offering of the new bow to Chinigchinich,” answered Nopal. ”I thought he was going to keep it and give me his old one,” he added, with some disappointment.
”What are they offering for?” asked the young brother.
”For rain,” said Nopal. ”See, they are going now.” In single file the men walked swiftly away, stepping so softly that not a twig cracked.
After a little the boys followed, slipping from bush to bush that they might not be discovered. They had walked about a mile, when they came to thicker woods with bigger trees and saw a light ahead of them. Nopal laid his hand on his brother to stop him. Peeping through a scrub-oak bush, they looked down into a little glade arched over with great live oaks. In the middle of the opening they saw, by the light of a low fire, a small cone-shaped hut. Beside it stood a gigantic figure painted and adorned with sh.e.l.ls, feathers, rattlesnake skins, and necklaces of bone.
”Come back,” whispered Payuchi, his teeth chattering with fear. ”It is Chinigchinich himself; he will see us, and we shall die.”
”No,” answered Nopal, ”it is only Nihie, the medicine man. He looks so tall because of his headdress. It is made of framework of dried tules covered with feathers and fish bladders. I saw it one day in his jacal, and it is as tall as I am. That jacal beside him is the vanquech [temple], and I think there is something awful there. You see if there isn't. Hush, now! Squat down. Here they come.”
In a procession the men came into the opening, and, stalking solemnly by, each cast down at the door of the temple an offering of some object which he prized. Cuchuma gave a bone knife which he greatly valued, and a handsome new bow. Sholoc gave a speckled green stone olla from Santa Catalina and a small string of money; but these were chiefs' offerings.
The other gifts were simpler--sh.e.l.ls, acorn meal, baskets, birds' skins, but always something for which the owner cared.
At last the medicine man, satisfied with the things offered which became his own when the ceremony was over, stooped and drew forth the sacred emblem from the temple. It was not even an idol, only a fetich composed of a sack made from the skin of a coyote, the head carefully preserved and stuffed, while the body was dressed smooth of hair and adorned with hanging sh.e.l.ls and tufts of birds' feathers. A bundle of arrows protruded from the open mouth, giving it a fierce appearance. While Nihie held it up, the men circled round once again, this time more rapidly, and as they pa.s.sed the medicine man, each gave a spring into the air, shooting an arrow upward with all his force. When the last man had disappeared under the trees, Nihie replaced the skin in the temple, put out the fire, and, singing a kind of chant, he led the men back to their jacals. The boys stood up. Payuchi s.h.i.+vered and drew a long breath.
”We must get away now; Nihie will be back soon to get the offerings,”
said Nopal.
”But first we must offer our gifts, or Chinigchinich will be angry,”
said Payuchi.
”Come on, then,” said the brother; so, stealing softly down the hillside, the boys cast their offerings on the pile in front of the hut and ran away, taking a roundabout path home, that they might not meet the medicine man returning.
”We must hurry to get in the jacal before father,” said Nopal, suddenly.
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