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Dorcas Jane Hears How The Corn Came To The Valley Of The Missi-Sippu
by
“As soon as the townspeople found that the Caciques were considering whether it was proper to give seed corn to the strangers, they began to consider it, too, turning it over in their minds together with a great many things that had nothing to do with it. There had been smut in the corn that year; there was a little every year, but this season there was more of it, and a good many of the bean pods had not filled out. I forgot,” said the Corn Woman, “to speak of the beans and squashes. They were the younger sisters of the corn; they grew with the corn and twined about it. Now, every man who was a handful or two short of his crop began to look at us doubtfully. Then they would crowd around the Cacique of the Sun to argue the matter. They remembered how our Shaman had gone apart to pray to her own gods and they thought the Spirit of the Corn might have been offended. And the Cacique would inquire of every one who had a toothache or any such matter, in such a way as to make them think of it in connection with the Shaman.–In every village,” the Corn Woman interrupted herself to say, “there is evil enough, if laid at the door of one person, to get her burned for a witch!”
“Was she?” Dorcas Jane squirmed with anxiety.
“She was standing on the steps at the foot of the Hill of the Sun, the last we saw of her,” said the Corn Woman. “Of course, our women, not understanding the speech of the Stone Houses, did not know exactly what was going on, but they felt the changed looks of the people. They thought, perhaps, they could steal away from the town unnoticed. Two of them hid in their clothing as much Seed as they could lay hands on and went down toward the river. They were watched and followed. So they came back to the house where Waits-by-the-Fire prayed daily with her hand on the Medicine of the Sun.
“So came the last day of the feast when the sacred seed would be sealed up in the god-house. ‘Have no fear,’ said Waits-by-the-Fire, ‘for my dream has been good. Make yourselves ready for the trail. Take food in your food bags and your carriers empty on your backs.’ She put on her Shaman’s dress and about the middle of the day the Cacique of the Sun sent for them. He was on the platform in front of the god-house where the steps go up to the Hill of the Sun, and the elders of the town were behind him. Priests of the Sun stood on the steps and the Corn Women came out from the temple of the Corn. As Waits-by-the-Fire went up with the Seven, the people closed in solidly behind them. The Cacique looked at the carriers on their backs and frowned.
“‘Why do you come to the god-house with baskets, like laborers of the fields?’ he demanded.
“‘For the price of our labor, O Cacique,’ said the Shaman. ‘The gods are not so poor that they accept labor for nothing.’
“‘Now, it is come into my heart,’ said the Cacique sourly, ‘that the gods are not always pleased to be served by strangers. There are signs that this is so.’
“‘It may be,’ said Waits-by-the-Fire, ‘that the gods are not pleased. They have long memories.’ She looked at him very straight and somebody in the crowd snickered.”
“But wasn’t it awfully risky to keep making him mad like that?” asked Dorcas. “They could have just done anything to her!”
“She was a wise woman; she knew what she had to do. The Cacique was angry. He began making a long speech at her, about how the smut had come in the corn and the bean crop was a failure,–but that was because there had not been water enough,–and how there had been sickness. And when Waits-by-the-Fire asked him if it were only in that year they had misfortune, the people thought she was trying to prove that she hadn’t had anything to do with it. She kept reminding them of things that had happened the year before, and the year before. The Cacique kept growing more and more angry, admitting everything she said, until it showed plainly that the town had had about forty years of bad luck, which the Cacique tried to prove was all because the gods had known in advance that they were going to be foolish and let strangers in to serve the Corn. At first the people grew excited and came crowding against the edge of the platform, shouting, ‘Kill her! Kill the witch!’ as one and then another of their past misfortunes were recalled to them.