o-Ahtun-ho have
cherished her! The priest of the men of iron is a man of strong magic.
His vision has sent us to find the one who has made angry the gods of
our land!"

"Go you and gather pine for the altar," said the head of the clan, and
two youths ran joyously down the slope;--for they were to aid in
driving evil magic from the valley!

"This maid did not touch those dead people," said Tahn-te,--"for that
she must not suffer."

"You Summer people are easily held by witches' craft," retorted one of
the men insolently,--a day before he would only have addressed Tahn-te
with reverence.

"Was she not marked for sacrifice at Te-gat-ha?"--"Has she not caused
the killing of the corn?" "Did not the Navahu men come to destroy us
because of her?" "Is the earth not angry that she has hidden in the
sacred places?"

These questions came thick and fast for Tahn-te to answer, and
Tahn-te held her hand and knew there was no answer to be made. And
Phent-zha, who was the oldest man there, looked at him keenly.

"Are you also not more weak in magic for her coming," he asked,--"is
your heart not grown sick? The magic of the white priest is against
you;--and it is strong! When we have taken the heart from this witch,
and you have again fasted in the hills, the sick land and the sick
people will be made better."

The maid looked from face to face in the glare of freshly lit torches,
and caught little of meaning from the rapid speech. But no one touched
her, and she looked with confidence into the eyes of Tahn-te. He had
not moved from his tracks, and he held himself proudly as he faced the
man who had long wished his humiliation.

"When the time comes to fast in the hills, I will know it," he
said,--"and no hand touches the heart of this maid, but--my own!"

"It is at sunrise," said the governor, stilled by the look of the
Po-Ahtun-ho--"a runner has been sent--the council will be waiting for
the enchantress, and the women to prepare her will be waiting."

"I will lead her," said Tahn-te and took her hand, and from the
medicine pouch he took one bead of the by-otle, and in Navahu he bade
her eat of it in secret, which she did wonderingly, and the men of the
Tain-tsain clan walked before and after them and held torches, and
they went down the steep of Pu-ye before the moon had touched the
pines of the western hills. And a runner was sent to Shufinne that the
people there might come and put Yahn Tsyn-deh and her lover under the