len arms of bow, hatchet, and a flint knife, the man went
north--wading the river edge at night, and hiding by day until the
land of the Natchez was left behind. A strong river came from the
west--and an old canoe gave him hope of finding New Spain by the water
course. That journey was a tedious thing of night prowlings, hidings,
and, sometimes starvings. Then the end of solitude came, and he was
captured by heathen rangers.

"They were a large company and were travelling west. Later he learned
they were a war company and in a fight his master and most of the
others were killed. At the rejoicing of the victors, he sang louder,
and danced more wildly than all the others, so they did not kill him.
He was traded to other Indians further west for a painted robe and
some clay pots. This last move brought him to the villages of the
stream, named later by Coronado the Rio Grande, but called by the
Indians another name, the P[=o]-s[=o]n-ge."

"The very villages where we are to go?" demanded Don Ruy.

"Possibly some of the same," said the priest. "How many of you
remember the great comet of 1528?"

Several did, and all remembered the dread and horror it spread in
Western Europe.

"Think you then what that same threat in the sky must have been to
these wild people who seek magic ever from the stars and even the
clouds. It was a threat and it called for some sacrifice propitiating
the angry gods."

"Sacrifice? Do these infidels then practise such abominations?" asked
Don Diego.

"To look at the mild eyes and hear their soft voices of these our
guests it is not easy to think it," agreed Padre Vicente, "but these
people are but the northern cousins of the men Cortez conquered--their
customs differ only in degree. To both Venus and Mars were human
god-offerings made--that day of sacrifice is not so long past, and in
that day it was done here."

"And?"

"And your lucky Greek was the one to be chosen! He was fed well as one
would fatten an ox for the knife. He had some knowledge of simple
remedies, and in brewing herbs for their sick he had also stolen the
opportunity for the further addition to his coat of color. He was to
them an Indian of an unknown tribe, yet, since he was to be offered to
the gods, he was made the very center of ceremonial dances, and
infernal heathenish customs.

"Both men and women enter into certain sacred--or infernal orders,
whose ceremonies are only known to those initiate. An inter-tribal
con