fraid of the Koshare."

The other shrugged his shoulders.

"I am not," he said. "Men can do harm with their hands and with their
weapons; and against those you have your fist and the shield. Those
Above"--he pointed at the skies--"can harm us; they can kill us. But
men--why, we can defend ourselves."

Okoya felt shocked at words which sounded to him like sacrilegious talk.
Timidly and morosely he objected,--

"Don't you know that there are witches!"

"Witches! There are no witches."

Again there was a mutter from the west, a hollow, solemn warning; and
the cliffs responded with a plaintive moan. Even incredulous Hayoue
started, and Okoya sighed.

"I will tell you why I ask all this," said he, and he went on to
explain. Beginning with the incident provoked by Shyuote, he confessed
to the suspicions which it had aroused in his mind, and laid the whole
process of his reasoning bare before his listener. His speech was
picturesque, but not consciously poetic; for the Indian speaks like a
child, using figures of speech, not in order to embellish, but because
he lacks abstract terms and is compelled to borrow equivalents from
comparisons with surrounding nature. Hayoue listened attentively;
occasionally, however, he smiled. At last Okoya stopped and looked at
his friend in expectation. The latter cast at the boy a humorous glance;
he felt manifestly amused by his talk.

"Mot[=a]tza," he began, "in what you have told me there is not more
substance than in the clouds above, when the Shiuana do not dwell in
them. It is colour, white colour. It is nothing. You have been painting;
the picture is done, but no spirit is there. Shyuote is a lazy, idle
brat; he shirks work; but when you say to him, Sit down and eat, then he
all at once becomes active. In this way he sneaks around from house to
house. He may have overheard something said about you and your ways, he
may even have surprised the Koshare while talking among themselves. But
it is quite as likely that the toad has invented the whole story just in
order to anger you, for he always finds time to sneak, to lounge, and to
hatch lies, the lazy, good-for-nothing eavesdropper! I tell you what it
is, that boy is fit for nothing but a Koshare, and a real good one will
he become."

"But," Okoya rejoined, "if the Delight Makers have spoken about the yaya
and me, there must be some cause for it."

"Don't you know that these shutzuna always find some occasion for
gossip?" Hay