ightning the cracks in
the lodge walls when he throws himself against them, struggling to
be free. Should he succeed----

"But, bird or Thirst Spirit, from Yaeethl is the gift of water. So
say I again----when you drink, give thanks to the Raven that chewed
roots are not the answer to thy dry lips,--give thanks, and pray
that the rock rolls not away."

And I gave thanks, quoting to myself another of Zachook's sayings,
"Better a wasted arrow than lost game."

[Illustration]

_Ta-ka the Mosquito and Khandatagoot the Woodpecker_

"As Foolish as One Who Shoots Arrows at Mosquitoes."

Zachook, with a half amused, half sympathetic smile at my futile
efforts to slaughter a small percentage of the mosquito cloud that
enveloped us, made a smudge of leaves, and I willingly exchanged
the tortures of being eaten alive for those of slow strangulation
in the acrid smoke.

My remarks had been neither calm nor patient, consisting mainly of
my entire vocabulary of opprobrious adjectives and epithets several
times repeated and diversified, aided by a wide, but wholly
inadequate, range of profanity in the various languages at my
command. And, to digress slightly, I would recommend the study of
Arabic and Spanish to those feeling a similar need; they do not
meet all requirements of forcible expression, but they add some
wonderful flights of imagination to the more practical English
expletives.

Zachook was apparently as unimpressed as the mosquitoes, but when I
had recovered some portion of my breath and equanimity, remarked:
"He who shoots with his tongue should be careful of his aim."

Choking with anger and smoke I could only splutter in reply, while
Zachook continued:

"Ta-ka is Ta-ka, and Yaeethl is Yaeethl."

"What has the Raven to do with these insufferable pests? Has he not
enough to answer for without linking his name with these suckers of
blood? Yaeethl is Yaeethl, but Ta-ka is Ta-ka."

"Yaeethl or Ta-ka. The get of the Raven are ravens, and from
Yaeethl comes Ta-ka the Biter.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

"When the selfishness of men had driven the gods from the earth,
the Great Ones held a council in Tskekowani, a potlach in the World
Beyond. All the gods were there. They talked of the sins of men and
of the punishments that should be visited upon them. Long they
talked.

"Then Theunghow, Chief of Gods, called each by name, and bade him
name his sending.

"And each god named a sickness, a pai