aught words by the
mocking bird,--in that time of our Ancient Fathers, gods spoke to
men--and in that time the order of Po-Ahtun was made. It was made that
men could work together on earth for spirit good. When the Mountain
God, Po-se-yemo, lived as a man on the earth,--he was the chief priest
of the Po-Ahtun order. Po-Ahtun means 'The Ruler of Things from the
Beginning.' Many men belong to the Po-Ahtun, and learn the prayers,
and the songs of the prayers. When the Po-Ahtun-ho walks no more on
the earth--and his spirit goes on the twilight trail to Those Above,
at that time the brothers of the order name the man who is to be
Ruler--and he rules also until he dies.

"Then it seems your Cacique is really a king. You but call him by a
different name."

"No--it is not so. Tahn-te has told the men of Povi-whah what a king
is. We have no king. A king fights with knife, and with spear, and he,
in his own village, punishes the one who does evil, and orders what
men work on the water canal for the fields:--and what men make new a
broken wall, or what men clean the court which is the property of all.
The king and his men say how all these things then must be done. With
the people of Povi-whah the governor does these works and orders them
done, and has the man whipped if the work he does is bad work. The
chief of war does work as do other men, until the Navahu and the
Yutahs have to be driven away;--then it is his work to fight them--he
is a warrior, but he does king work in war. These are the men who do
king work. But we have no king."

"By our Lady!--'tis a nice distinction," said Don Ruy as the old man
ceased, and the men of Te-hua nodded their appreciation of the old
man's statement. "Save your quill scratching, Chico--until you are in
camp. Their eyes show little favor for the work."

The secretary obediently thrust in his pouch ink horn and quill, and
clearly Don Ruy was right, for the bronze faces brightened, and their
eyes regarded the young man with approval--the magic of that black
water might prove potent and forbidding--never before had it been seen
in council.

Padre Vicente had given a cigarro to each man, and while the ancient
speaker rested, and Jose interpreted, all smoked the wonderful smoke
from the south, and Chico took occasion to say low to Don Ruy:

"Of all this there is little to make record that is new. Tribes of
Mexico have such rules of life. The legends of our people say they
came ages ago out o