"Let the Koshare speak, and do you as you are commanded. The time must
come when I shall have to die. The sooner it comes, the sooner shall I
find rest and peace with our mother at Shipapu."
Her father also had risen, he clutched his cotton garment as if a sudden
chill went through his body. Without a word he turned and went off
dejected, stooping, with a heavy sigh.
The woman dropped to the floor beside the hearth with a plaintive moan.
She drew her hair over her face, weep she could not. The embers on the
hearth glowed again, casting a dull light over the chamber.
Say Koitza, as this wretched woman was called, was the only child of him
with whom she had just had this dismal interview. His name was
Topanashka Tihua, and he was maseua, or head-war-chief, of the tribe. In
times of peace the maseua is subordinate to the tapop, or civil
governor, and as often as the latter communicates to him any decision of
the tribal council he is bound to execute it. Otherwise the maseua is
really a superior functionary, for he stands in direct relation to the
religious powers of which we shall hereafter speak, and these in reality
guide and command through oracles and prophetic utterances. In war the
maseua has supreme command, and the civil chief and the diviners, or
medicine-men, must obey him implicitly as soon as any campaign is
started.
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