ed at the end of a thong, for the fear of the unknown
was upon him. But stronger than his fear was his desire to know
what lay behind the door, stronger even than his fear of those
strange animals that were drawn in the dust, dust pictures that
made his blood ice.

"Before the door he stopped and glanced back the way he had come,
at his well and well-house he looked, then pushing against the door
with his hand, stepped within the house builded by Yaeethl, made by
Yaeethl the Raven, Yaeethl the Cunning.

"No man knows what Heenhadowa found within the lodge of the Raven.
Only this we know.

"When the time of the boiling of a salmon had passed, from the door
stepped Yaeethl walking as a man walks who has been carrying a
heavy pack. Behind him he closed the door and against it rolled a
heavy stone, a stone so heavy that not even K'hoots the Grizzly,
the Strong One, could have moved it away again.

"Within the lodge was silence, silence big with unborn noise.

"To the well of Heenhadowa, the father of wells among the
mountains, the well untasted of man or beast, flew Yaeethl, Yaeethl
the Desirer of All Things.

"And when the Raven stood beside the well he bowed his head and
drank.

"Some say that it took him many moons, some put it the length of a
man's life, but, long time or short time, when the head of Yaeethl
the Raven was lifted the well was dry.

"Of water there was none in the well of Heenhadowa.

"In the belly and mouth of the Raven was the water. All.

"Then did Yaeethl spread wide his wings of blackness and fly the
way of his coming.

"As he flew over the bosom of Klingatona-Kla, the Earth Mother, in
this place and in that he spat out some of the water. And where
spat the Raven there sprang up streams, and rivers, and lakes.

"When he had flown so long and so far that the water was gone from
his mouth, and in his belly was not fresh, then from his belly and
his mouth he cast it, salt, and Athlch, the Ocean, was."

* * * * *

[Illustration]

I waited silently, for there was an uplift in Zachook's voice that
made me think there was more to follow, but it was only:

"If you listen to the words of them that know not, they will tell
you that Haechlt is a great bird the falling of whose eyelids makes
thunder, the flashing of whose eye is the lightning, but if my
words be the words of truth, then is thunder the angry voice of
Heenhadowa whom Yaeethl made prisoner, and l