on the beach
“here’s another! here’s another! here’s another!”
it is the excited voice of a naked, gesticulating youngster, little more than three years old, who is pointing to a tiny hole in the smooth surface of the tide beach at his feet.
“yes, yes, child, i am coming,” is the reply, in soft, affectionate tones, by a woman a few steps away.
“but i am hungry, i am hungry,” comes the insistent, half-petulant voice.
“well, you can’t have any clams now, you know. mark the one you have and run along to find some more. soon we shall go home.”
at this the child stoops unsteadily and with a rough, pointed splinter of bone draws a circle around the hole, then patters away along the wet beach.
presently his mother comes forward, with a rough basket in one hand and a short, stout, pointed stick in the other. she is barefooted and bareheaded. her only garment is a sort of skirt made of loose bark strands, reaching from the waist to the knees. her heavy, glistening, black hair is fastened in two locks hanging down in front, partially covering her breasts. her complexion, a shade darker than that of the child, is the color of a smoked, reddish brick or of a certain shade of oriental bronze. scarcely more than twenty years old, she has a fine, comely figure.
having reached the spot indicated by the child, the young woman sets the basket down. then, grasping the stick with both hands, she drives it into the firm beach mud and with a single, deft, prying motion brings to the surface a good-sized clam. she picks it up, throws it into the partly filled basket, and proceeds a few steps to where the child is calling her anew.
similar scenes are being enacted on every hand. women and children, numbering close to one hundred in all, are scattered along the beach for nearly half a mile; a hundred yards or so beyond there 274 is another, somewhat smaller group. in both groups the women and older children are busy with the digging-stick, while the younger children run about over the beach locating the clams. presently there is a curious splash near the edge of the receding waters. the splash is repeated once or twice and with it a chorus of voices rings out.
“wixi! wixi!” (stingaree! stingaree!)
a dozen or so half-grown children come running from different directions, all shouting vehemently, “he’s mine! he’s mine! i saw him first! i saw him first!”
there is nothing actually to be seen, except perhaps a small area immediately off shore where the water is unusually muddy. into the water the children rush, keeping clear of the roiled spot, and when ranged partly around it on the sea side, they begin to poke into it with their sticks. very soon there is another violent splash and a large, monstrous looking creature is seen to lift itself almost bodily out of the shallow water.
“wixi! wixi! we’ve got you!” shouts the chorus. “we’ve got you!”
the steadily receding water soon reveals the cause of the excitement—an extra large eagle ray, a kind of flat-fish, in outline something like an immense butterfly, plus a long whip-like tail, near the root of which appears a sharply-pronged, bony excrescence which can inflict a severe wound. wixi is an ugly fellow, and as he lies there in two or three inches of water, flopping spasmodically, lashing his tail viciously from side to side, the children plant their sticks firmly in the ground, making a sort of fence around him, while they stand back out of reach. but, the moment the monster subsides, all pound and punch with their sticks, screaming and carrying on like a pack of fighting dogs. finally, the oldest of the children, a girl of ten or eleven, manages to insert her digging-stick in the creature’s eye. a few violent lashings, and the ray lies still.
the girl remains leaning on the stick, holding the great fish firmly transfixed. the other children fall over each other in a scramble to get near it. all seek to pierce the dead body with their sticks and to pull it away. but their implements are too weak and dull. some grasp with their fingers at the slimy thing, but to no avail. the girl stands unmoved.
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in their rage some of the children suddenly turn upon her. in an effort to defend herself, she lets go her stick, and at the same moment the big ray is pulled away, but not by any of the original claimants. during the tumult a boy of thirteen or fourteen had approached unnoticed from the larger group of clam gatherers, and had wound the tail of the ray two or three times around his hand. now when the girl’s hold on the stick is released, he jerks the ray away and starts to run as fast as his legs can carry him toward his own people, the body of the big fish dragging behind him over the slippery mud.
there is a tremendous uproar. some of the children attempt to follow, but they are soon outdistanced. the girl who killed the ray, finally realizing what has happened, bursts out: “you took my wixi! you took my wixi! you—wixi! you—!” her voice chokes with sobs. but her epithet is taken up by a chorus of voices in both groups of clam diggers, those of kawina and those of akalan: “you wixi! you wixi!”
but the boy pays no heed. when he reaches the shore proper, he winds the ray’s tail a few more times around his hand, swings the immense body over his shoulders, and disappears among the marsh weeds in the direction of his home.
wixi! wixi! thus the boy is nicknamed for life.
at breakfast
it is still early morning on san francisco bay. the tide is going out, and the sun, just topping the eastern hills, is reflected in the placid waters as in a great oval mirror. on the horizon beyond the expanse of the waters of the bay, the sunlight glitters on the snowy summit of mt. hamilton; to the left, looms the hazy outline of mt. diablo; and to the right, glorious in the clear sunlight, stands green-clad mt. tamalpais, guarding the entrance to the broad channel heading north into san pablo bay. the surface of the channel is slightly choppy, because here passes out to sea the collected volume of the great rivers that drain the interior mountains and valleys. the shore of the bay is low and marshy, lying in sweeping curves. along these curves faint blue smokes rise at intervals against the shadowy276 background of the hills. these smokes mark settlements, of which there are along the entire bay shore about two hundred, strung like pearls on a necklace.
in one of the curving arms of the bay, smoke ascends from a grayish spot in the marshland, some three hundred yards back of the shore line. it is the village of kawina. four miles farther east, directly on the water front, lies the village of akalan. beyond that the shore line turns, and other settlements hug the shore at every point where a fresh water streamlet empties into the bay.
the clam diggers are straggling along the beach toward home. a number of young men from akalan have gone to the head of the cove a few rods away. they are engaged in dragging a dozen or more curiously shaped bundles of dried tule-rushes down the muddy slope to the tide channel, which drains the extensive marshes ranging along the entire east base of the potrero. when the clam gatherers left home the channel was dry, but the tide already is fast returning and the breakfast bringers have to be assisted across.
it is a lively, not to say noisy, occasion. the older children glide down the slippery mud into the water, and flounder across amidst laughter and shouting. only the women with their baskets, and the smaller children cross by ferry; for these tule bundles are boats or, rather, floats. some of them carry only from four to six persons, others as many as fifteen. the ferrying proceeds rather slowly, to the lively chatter of the women. the children have run on ahead, up the grassy incline to the village.
the grass suddenly ceases at the foot of a blackish eminence on which the village stands. the eminence is about twenty feet high and of an irregular contour, the slope in places being gradual, in others steep, while the top is roughly flattened. on approaching nearer, the whole mound-like structure appears to be composed of the shells of clams, mussels, and oysters. there is an occasional brightly colored abalone shell. here and there are scattered pairs of deer antlers, and the wing bones of ducks, geese, and other birds with feathers still attached. crushed or broken bones of various animals lie everywhere. and there are fish bones. flies are swarming about; the odor is far from enticing. closer inspection would reveal the presence of ashes and charcoal, as well as a goodly number of bowlders and pebbles of crackly surface. the impression is that277 of a huge ash pile or refuse heap. and yet on top of it all stands the village!
the village is an irregularly grouped cluster of about thirty hive-shaped huts, with openings facing either south or east. the huts themselves are constructed on a framework of slender poles set in circles from twelve to sixteen feet in diameter, the top ends being bent together and intertwined some eight or nine feet above the ground. over this is placed a layer of twigs and grass, and this again is covered with earth and sod. only the top is left open for the exit of smoke. this morning, however, the fires are out in front of the doors, each family having its own.
a number of fair-sized bowlders form a ring around the edge of the dying embers. ranged about each of these circles, within reaching distance, are seated the members of the family. even the older men, who do not condescend often to eat with the women and children, are present. they are mostly grizzled, ill-kempt, sluggish looking fellows, who have barely had time to rub the sleep out of their eyes. through the rainy winter months they have been comparatively inactive, the women have been doing the work; but now it is april and the warmth of spring is bringing them out of their hibernation. soon they will be off for the entire summer, and fall to leading an active life among the hills where food is not so easily obtained as it is on the bay shore, though it can be had in greater variety if all hands, including the men, make the effort.
the clams brought in from the beach are being distributed, and the older folk place them, just as they are, on the hot rocks around the fire. the smaller children watch intently and yet uneasily, having repeatedly been scolded for poking their fingers against the sizzling shellfish lying nearest on the rocks. suddenly some of the clams open up, ready to eat. they have been cooked in the most admirable fashion in their own juice. in the group around the fire, next to one of the rear huts, are seated a very old man, a middle-aged woman, two children, and a half-grown boy. it is the boy wixi, who has just proposed to his mother to boil some of the fish.
“boiled fish! boiled fish! who ever heard of boiled fish?” blurts out the old man in a cracked voice. he is blind, or nearly so, judging from his dull, deeply sunken eyes. his hair, as well as his straggly beard, is white, and his face and neck are seamed and 278 wrinkly, suggestive of tanned alligator skin. his body is thin and frail, his hands shaking.
“well, fish could be boiled,” wixi retorts. “you boil acorn meal and you boil buckeye meal and you boil lots of things. why couldn’t you boil fish?”
“why couldn’t you boil fish? why couldn’t you boil fish?” the old man screams, his whole frame trembling. “you couldn’t boil fish because—because nobody ever did such a thing! chakalli didn’t tell us to boil fish.”
this sort of dispute has been an almost daily occurrence for many moons, since the time of the boy’s initiation ceremony, when he began to assume the responsibilities of manhood. his father, as wixi would say, is away. a shaman, he had failed to cure the poisoned wound of a certain chief, and he had been quietly waylaid on the trail. since then, his family had had to suffer partial disgrace.
that was some years ago, and the boy, thrown thus early upon his own resources, had learned through stress of circumstances to practice a number of new devices. he discovered that by suspending a grass mat in a vertical position by means of an upright stick to serve as a support, he was able alone to sail his tule float speedily before the wind. other young men would have copied his device, only they had elders in direct authority and were prevented. but wixi, being already something of an outcast in the village, was suffered to do much as he pleased, his feeble old grandfather being in no position to check him.
on this occasion, wixi, instead of arguing with the old man, dips his hands quickly into a basket standing in a slight hollow, well away from the fire, and brings out four or five small rocks dripping with water. he throws them to one side, and by means of a couple of sticks, pulls several rocks out of the fire and drops them, one by one, into the basket, half full of water. there is a momentary splutter and rise of steam, and then the water in the basket begins to boil. wixi places several chunks of the stingaree in the boiling water, and in a short time is eating boiled fish.
drake passes
the fires have flashed more than once from mountain to mountain and have been answered not only by akalan, but by every one of the 279 two hundred settlements on the bay shore. the principal event, one for which no predetermined signal existed, was the passage along the california coast of the golden hind, early in the summer of 1579. the great captain, sir francis drake, did not see the golden gate because of the heavy fog, but the watchers on mt. tamalpais saw his ship and did their duty as best they knew. before evening of that day, every dweller on the bay shore (those on the coast could see for themselves) understood that wasaka, the eagle who brought the original fire to the mutsun people while they yet lived in the far north, had passed by.
three or four weeks later, when the vessel returned from the north, and was drawn ashore for repairs within the shelter of point reyes, the signals were revised as a result of messages brought to tamalpais by runners from the tamala?os, otherwise known as the “peaked-house” people, who lived directly at drake’s landing place. this time the mutsunes were informed that it was not wasaka, but the great chakalli himself. chakalli, the “man above,” or the “great one above,” was much in their thoughts, but to have him visit was an event foreboding ill. nearly every one wished to flee from his presence. as it turned out, the visitor conducted himself peaceably and in due course went away, leaving few of the mutsunes any the wiser.
drake’s bay, as it happened, lay in the country of the miwok people, who spoke a different tongue from the mutsunes and who, besides, were ordinarily jealous of their territorial rights. but a few of the mutsunes had gone around by sea, wixi among them. wixi was the only one from akalan who had gone, and the adventure proved a turning point in his life. he came back somewhat of a hero, at least in the eyes of those of his own age, the older men holding aloof. wixi had learned many wonderful things during his few days’ sojourn with the bearded white men, among them that other people used sails to drive their boats. if any doubted the story that he told, he had but to exhibit the proofs: a small mirror, a couple of strings of colored glass beads, a square of red cloth, and, above all, a truly marvelous thing, a knife of metal. these things were given wixi by the great captain himself, in the general exchange of presents that followed one of the indian dancing ceremonies that we read of in drake’s own log book.
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in the council lodge
in early manhood wixi had become fairly conscious of his own strength and skill, as well as of his power to direct and improve the life of his people. he had decided, however, to wait his time. the old men would slowly give way or would “disappear.” why quarrel? besides, it was not his nature to hurry. his patience was shown in still another way, namely, by the fact that he was not yet married. according to custom his parents should have chosen and purchased a wife for him; but, having no parents, or at least only a mother who accepted his assistance and submitted to his authority, the matter was left largely to himself. he had indeed performed the acts that entitled him to a wife. that is, he had carried presents of food, and skins for clothing to the door of the girl he had chosen, and she had silently accepted them. still he did not bring her home, because she was not acceptable in his own village, because she belonged to the neighboring village of kawina. she was none other than the girl to whom he owed his name, the girl from whom he had wrested the stingaree.
now the people of kawina were not friends of the people of akalan. nevertheless, wixi had met mahúdah again and again, both on the beach and in the hill country, and, somehow, they had settled their quarrel and were friends.
wixi had waited and yet, contrary to his expectations, the sentiment of his village people continued to harden against him. true, more and more power and authority fell to him, but the stern opposition of the old men was doing its work. admired though he was by the younger generation, none dared to stand by him openly. he was constantly meeting the old men in council and they listened respectfully enough to his words, but stood solidly against him whenever he suggested departure from the ways of old.
one night in the council lodge at akalan, the small blaze in the centre reveals wixi and about a dozen of the old men looking unusually stern and solemn. the pipe is passing around the circle and the war chief—the youngest man present, barring wixi—is stating the purpose of the meeting.
“for many winters,” he is saying, his eyes averted to the roof, 281 “for many winters we have all been troubled about the future of our tribe. we have not known what to do. the white man has come to the land. we thought first he was wasaka, and later that he was chakalli. but he is instead a powerful enemy. he has done us no harm. that is good. he is killing our enemies, the longhairs beyond the mutsun waters to the south. that is good, too. he has taken away some of our neighbors, the miwok. and that also is good. but some day, when the clouds float high in the sky, he will discover the way into the mutsun waters and then why should he not kill and enslave us also?”
there is a nodding of grave heads all around and some exchange of furtive glances, in part directed toward wixi, who is seated alone opposite the main group of elders.
“in these circumstances,” the speaker continues, this time looking sharply in the direction of a very old man central in the group, “in these circumstances some of us have thought it well to have kakari, our peace chief, tell us the ancient story of our people, so that together we may judge from past experience what is best for the future.”
every one present, including wixi, nods his head, and the word is taken up slowly and deliberately by the feeble old man, kakari, the peace chief.
“the story of the mutsunes,” the old man begins, “is long. it would take many nights to tell it all. i shall tell only two or three things that happened and which will show us what the ‘great ones above’ expect us to do.”
“yes, yes, what they expect us to do,” echo the hearers.
“long ago,” the old man continues, “when the mutsun people first came to this water, they were poor. they came on foot from the far north. they had no boats and they had no bow and arrow. wasaka had brought them fire and they had the digging-stick. that was all. our people first went to live at old-old akalan. at that time the place was not an island, it was a part of our own long mutsun hill that shelters us here on the west. and while they lived there chakalli came. he came from the ‘great ones above’ and he brought with him the boat and the bow and arrow and the pipe and many other things. these he gave to the mutsunes and he showed them also how they were to be used. but later, coyote282 came along and told them how to make different ones and to use them differently. that made chakalli angry and he struck at old-old akalan with his digging-stick, the lightning, and, missing the village, knocked a big piece out of the hill beside it. this shook the ground and when the piece, struck off the hill, fell into the mutsun water, over where it runs out to the big sea, the mutsun water came up high and ran through the hole made in our hill, and old-old akalan became an island. the piece knocked out of the hill also became an island, mutsun island, where our young men rest and wait for the tide when they go out to the big sea after abalones. then chakalli went away, but he did not go back to the ‘great ones above,’ for every now and then the earth shakes and we know that somebody else has disobeyed instructions.”
here old kakari paused. it was becoming plain to wixi why the meeting had been called. but there was more for him to hear.
“after chakalli went away,” went on kakari, “the mutsun people had to move. the beach around the small island was not large enough to give them the clams they needed. moreover, the driftwood for the fire would not lodge near the village as before. it all went through the new channel made by chakalli, and across to where now live our neighbors the earth people at kawina. some of it came up here. therefore the peace chief of that day—walen was his name—advised the people to move across to kawina, but he himself remained with the ‘old people’ at old-old akalan (i. e., he died), and with him were left all the things that chakalli had brought. to-morrow we shall sail over to old-old akalan to see them.
“the mutsunes had made other boats, as well as bows, arrows, and everything, all copied after those brought by chakalli. and they had no difficulty in sailing across the water to kawina.
“all went well for a long time at kawina. then trouble came once more. coyote had brought a basket from the north, which he gave to the young women of the miwok people over across the water at tamalpais. he told them to boil food in it. they did so and liked it. later on, the miwok people told some of the young men from kawina, who were over there looking for wood for new bows. chakalli must have heard about it all, for he struck the earth a fierce blow over near where the bearded men came with the283 great white-winged ship. chakalli’s blow made a long, deep rent in the earth, and the big sea came in and filled it. you can see it there to-day. at that time the water also came up, and drowned many of the mutsun people at kawina, although they lived on a high mound they had made, like the one we now live on. only the top of the mound was left above the water.
“soon after that the mutsun people left kawina, or old akalan, as they called the place. many of them went east and south, making new homes all around the mutsun water. our people alone came over here, where they have been ever since. those are the stories of old-old akalan and of old akalan.”
old kakari’s strength is being spent, and he leans back against the wall. but presently he goes on: “after we came over here, all went well again for a long time. every one did as he was told by the elders, and chakalli was pleased. one day the earth shook again and the water went away from around kawina or old akalan. our people thought it was chakalli making ready for their going back to live once more near the ‘old people.’ but before they could move over, coyote came down from the north with some of the earth people, who settled at kawina. coyote brought with him also the cooking basket and the fishing net.”
at this point the anger and resentment of the listeners are expressed by low growls and explosive breaths through set teeth. wixi alone, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his chin resting in his hands, remains silent.
old kakari makes a last effort: “the earth people, the poma, belong in the north. they do not belong here. some of them speak our tongue, but they are not our people. at first we made war upon them, but coyote was too clever for chakalli. yet though we are now at peace, we never marry their women, nor they ours. we are neighbors, not friends. to-morrow we shall go to see the proof of what i have told you. katka (be full of crickets).” and with this formula of conclusion the peace chief ceased.
after a few moments of silence he leaned once more back against the wall as if in deep sleep. no one spoke, but, one after another, the listeners arose and left the council house. outside, the night was black and no sound was to be heard except the sigh of the breezes over the marsh grass.
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proof
at daybreak a large tule float stands out from the high, pointed cliff forming the southern extremity of potrero san pablo, and heads straight for brooks island. in a moment the swiftly paddled float is gone from sight. it carries all the men who were in the council lodge except one. wixi is not there. the float left akalan while the night was yet black, and the paddlers were obliged to feel their way along the shore as far as the pointed cliff, and to wait there until the island became faintly visible. fortunately, this happened before they themselves could be observed from the home village, for their mission to old-old akalan is secret.
the skiff slips behind a large outlying rock and the next moment grates on a low, narrow, curving sand bar connecting the rock with the island proper. as the men step ashore, they see emerging out of the dim north a small float bearing one paddler. the solitary boatman lands on the opposite side of the sand bar, a few yards nearer to the island. it is wixi. he draws his float across the ridge to the south slope of the bar, to lie with the other float. it is a precaution, lest sharp eyes at akalan or kawina discover that visitors are on the island.
with the war chief in the lead, the men proceed a few rods to the northwest corner of the island, which slopes conveniently to the beach. bearing onward to the north shore, they walk eastward across a noticeable rise of ground toward a number of buckeye trees. tall grasses and weeds cover the place. it is the mound left by the people of old-old akalan. here rest the bones of the oldest ancestors of the mutsunes.
having passed over the summit, the war chief sights a line in the direction of the two oldest buckeye trees, and stations wixi on the line. the older men he directs to sit down. he himself walks briskly to the nearest of the two trees, and returns again with steady, measured steps straight toward wixi. as he walks, he counts the steps on his fingers. at a point half-way down the east slope of the mound, he suddenly comes to a halt and with a significant nod of his head motions every one toward him. from one of the men he takes a digging-stick, draws a rough circle around his standing place and says, “this is the place. dig!”
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the men drop to their knees, partly to keep hidden in the tall grasses, and none dares to stand up again for it is now almost sunrise. some take to loosening up the earth with digging-sticks, and others scoop up the loosened portions with large abalone shells. in this way they make a hole several feet in diameter. presently, at a depth of about two feet, they uncover the bones of a full-grown person with arms and legs doubled up tightly against the body. all exclaim under their breath. from the presence, next the skeleton, of a mortar and pestle, as well as certain bone awls and needles, the old men know that these are the remains of a woman. the spirit of the implements which the woman used in daily life, had gone, they would say, with the spirit of the departed to her new dwelling place in the far west.
deeper down, perhaps five or six feet, the workers come to another skeleton. on the breast of the body, they uncover a large, beautifully shaped obsidian blade. close to the shoulder are found a number of arrow points, just as they were left when the wooden shafts decayed away. near one hand lie, side by side, two highly polished, steatite tobacco pipes. on either side of the skull is a disk-shaped ear pendant of iridescent abalone shell, and all about the neck and shoulders are many beads of clamshell. the workers are agreed that these are the remains of a great man and the war chief emphatically declares them to be those of the ancient peace chief walen, himself. all the old men demur to this, however, contending that walen, according to the traditions, was buried, not in the black refuse material left by the inhabitants of old-old akalan, but lower down in virgin soil.
all through the day the digging continues, and skeleton after skeleton is taken up—men, women, and children. each was originally buried beneath the floor of the hut in which he or she died, and in the course of time, as shells and ashes accumulated above their bones, a new hut was built, again to be destroyed with the succeeding death.
as the men dig deeper and deeper, the paraphernalia of the dead become fewer and fewer, and even where anything at all is present, the object is crude and unfinished. there are no more pipes, no beautiful obsidian blades, and no fine, ivory-like awls or needles. what can it mean? did the ancestors of early days not possess 286 these things? some such thoughts are surely passing through the mind of some of the workers, certainly of the war chief, for he suddenly declares his belief that they are not digging in the right place. but the old men only smile and work on.
at last, shortly before dark, there are signs of bottom to the mound material. real earth is beginning to appear, and before long human bones are turned up. very soon the complete skeleton is laid bare. no implements have been found, but every one’s attention is centred on a bright red spot near the extended right hand of the skeleton. it is a quantity of paint powder, such as has been noticed to accompany several of the men skeletons. the war chief, now visibly excited, grasps a sharp-edged abalone shell and eagerly cuts into the red substance. the next moment the shell drops from his hand. he, with the rest, is staring blankly at seven large, beautifully clear quartz crystals—the whole of walen’s treasure!...
it is morning. the remains of the dead have been replaced and all obvious traces of disturbance removed. let the “old people” of old-old akalan rest until the sea removes them! wixi has labored hard and is weary in body, but in spirit he is a new man. has he not had proof from the graves? knows he not for a certainty that the life of the mutsunes has not stood still in the past, and is he not determined that it shall unfold and develop in the future?...
the old men are sleeping after their arduous work, continued far into the night. wixi alone has watched restlessly for the dawn, and when the cliff across the mutsun channel is distinctly visible, he puts off with his featherweight skiff. he is scudding along with swift, sure strokes and is already near enough to the opposite shore to see a woman waving to him from the top of the bluff. it is mahúdah, who has watched for his return since the evening before. the sun’s first rays are just beginning to play around her as she stands there on high, and wixi is raising his paddle in the air to wave recognition. at that moment mahúdah utters a loud, piercing scream and turns to run from the edge of the precipice. portions of rock and earth fall to the beach, and a rising cloud of dust obscures the figure of the fleeing woman. a moment later wixi is raised on the crest of a tremendous wave, which carries him with the speed of a swooping eagle directly against the face of the cliff.
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the old men of akalan, awakened by the first tremors of the earth, witness the whole scene. most of them simply shake their heads. but the war chief, affecting solemnity, announces: “chakalli has struck! the old order remains.”
n. c. nelson
