Sun races were made
in the Moon of Yellow leaves. At that time the Sun Father grows weak,
and the races are made that he may look down and see the earth
children as they show strength, and the prayer of the race is that the
Sun Father goes not far away, but seeks strength also, and grows warm
again after a season.

Thus Tahn-te knew kindly the people, and the chief men were called to
hear why a runner had been sent at this time to the brothers of the
North.

The head men wrapped themselves in the robes of ceremony, the younger
priests painted their bodies with the white, and into the kiva of
council they descended with their visitor of high office.

On the shrine there, Tahn-te placed a fragment of the sun symbol taken
from the pouch at his girdle. Before a white statue of the weeping god
he placed it, and the Keeper of the Sacred Fire there, breathed on his
hand, and threw fragrant dried herbs of magic on the live coals, that
all evil and all discord be driven out by the fumes, and when the
smoke drifted upwards and out by the way of the sky, the talk was
made.

With briefness Tahn-te stated all heard in the council of Povi-whah
concerning the wishes of the strangers from the South.

[Illustration: INTO THE KIVA OF COUNCIL THEY DESCENDED _Page 206_]

The men smoked the sacred smoke of council and listened, and when all
was said, they nodded to each other.

"That which you say is that which the tribes have always talked about
when the wild people came for war. In old days of our fathers, we
people of the houses and the fields did make compact with each other
as brothers. But always it has been broken, often it had to be broken.
We are far apart. When the Yutah comes from the north, and the Pawnee
from the east--and the Apache and the Navahu from every place, the men
of each village must look to their own women. He cannot go to his
brother to learn if he also is having war."

"That is true," said Tahn-te. "But the wild people fight and go away
again. If these strangers find the symbol of the sun in our land, they
will never go away--more will come--and then more always! I have seen
the talking leaves of their people. If they get room for their feet,
they then ask the field; if the way of the door is opened to them,
they then take the house. They and their animals will ride us down as
the buffalo tramp under foot the grass on the wide lands."

"That other year the white strangers came. They staid not long. Thi