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 Gift U.C. Library 
 
 Withdrawn 
 
 BOOK HCHAKa 
 113L2cdo.
 
 LO-TOKAH.
 
 I sped away over the brown sands in pursuit of the woman."
 
 LO-TO-KAH 
 
 BY 
 
 VERNER Z. REED 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY ' 
 
 CHARLES CRAIG AND L. MAYNARD DIXON 
 
 MDCCCXCVII 
 
 CONTINENTAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON
 
 Copyright 1897 
 by 
 
 co.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 I. 
 
 Lo-To-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED, .... 15 
 
 ii. 
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLEDAD, . . 37 
 in. 
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN, . 73 
 
 IV. 
 
 Lo-To-KAH AND THE WlTCH, . . . .113 
 V. 
 
 THE DEATH OF Lo-To-KAH, . . . .171 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH, 201
 
 TO 
 CLARENCE CLARK HAMLIN.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE six tales that make up this little book were 
 composed hastily, and at long intervals, and all 
 of them were written in the scant leisure that falls 
 to the lot of a busy man of business. This may, in 
 part, account for their imperfections. 
 
 The supernatural is taken into account, to a great 
 extent, because it is taken into account in the lives 
 of the Indians. I hope to have the leisure and good 
 fortune, at a later time, to study and treat fully of 
 the religion of the Ute Indians, but for the pur- 
 pose of explaining the mystical references in these 
 stories, it will suffice to say that some of the Utes 
 believe in the re-incarnation of the soul, in the 
 power to send the spirit (they do not know the 
 term " Astral body " ) away from the physical body, 
 and in the possibility of holding communion with 
 the spirits of the dead. However, I have not 
 attempted to confine myself to their literal beliefs. 
 
 These stories are published in the hope that they 
 will serve to amuse the limited number of people 
 who may read them. If they serve no other pur- 
 pose than to introduce the pictures of I/. Maynard 
 Dixon and Charles Craig in new fields, the writer 
 believes that they will not have been published in 
 vain.
 
 LO-TO-KAH THE UNCIVILIZED.
 
 I HAD known old Lo-To-Kah a month. Dur- 
 ing that time the old man had " made medi- 
 cine " over me, and discovered that, according 
 to Indian ideas, it was safe to trust me as a 
 friend. We had ridden over the mesas and 
 plains, had eaten together, had exchanged 
 presents, and had become better acquainted 
 than most men do in a year. 
 
 One day we had ridden about twenty miles 
 to see an old Indian who was dying of pneu- 
 monia. On the return journey we stopped 
 under a clump of pinons, ate a lunch of jerked 
 beef, and after eating were lolling back on a 
 blanket that the old man had unstrapped from 
 his saddle. While we were lazily smoking 
 
 15
 
 jg LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 and looking up at the blue Colorado sky, my 
 companion became more communicative than 
 was usual for him. He told me of the Ute 
 belief in Chah-now-woof, the Great Spirit, and 
 he explained in detail the mysteries and cere- 
 monies of one of the dances of his people. 
 He recounted various adventures he had met 
 with while journeying to the dances and festi- 
 vals of the tribes who dwelt in various parts 
 
 pf the Southwest, all of whom he had visited. 
 
 1 then-' a'sfced'.him to tell me an old-time 
 : talje. of -liis people; 'and the tale he told me is 
 'writte'n here Iii'his-own words : 
 
 I could tell you many tales of the things 
 that have been in the thirty years since I first 
 learned the English speech, or I could tell 
 you many tales of the things that have been 
 in the more than fifty years since I first 
 learned the Spanish speech from the Mexi- 
 can people ; but I will tell you instead of 
 these, a tale of a time long ago, when I could 
 speak no speech but that of my own people 
 and of the people of the Navajos. It is a 
 tale of many words, and it takes me far back 
 into the time of the past the time when 
 the white-skinned people had not yet driven 
 the Indians from the lands that were given 
 them by the Great Spirit. And when I have
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 17 
 
 told you, then you will know a stranger tale 
 than is known in the city where you dwell. 
 For I have been among the people of your 
 race, and they know no tales but those of win- 
 ning gold, or of weak love that would faint and 
 cry out at the sight of blood. 
 
 When I was a young man, I was a mighty 
 hunter, and in the wars with the enemies of 
 my tribe I was the bravest of all the young 
 warriors. I could shoot an arrow straighter 
 than an eagle can fly ; I could throw a stone 
 with as much force as your gun can speed 
 a bullet, and no arm was stronger than 
 mine in wielding the stone-shod battle-clubs 
 of my people. I know not how I came to 
 be so strong and so mighty among men ; for 
 my father was but a weak man, who was so 
 little liked that he was called the woman- 
 man. Because my father was despised, I too 
 was despised when a boy. But strength is 
 respected among people like mine, and while 
 I was yet a youth it came to be said that I 
 was not my father's son, for with single blows 
 I almost broke the heads of those who cast 
 their gibes upon me. I am old now and my 
 face is wrinkled, and I seem not to have the 
 strength of a child, but there were times in 
 the past when I fought such fights as the white
 
 jg LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 men never know. And there was a time, too, 
 when the fairest woman that ever lived lay in 
 my arms and that was worth more to me than 
 all the battles I ever won. 
 
 I was twenty-two years old when the chief of 
 my tribe called me to his wickeup and told me 
 he had chosen me to go to the land of the 
 Navajos to arrange for a great spirit-dance 
 that the two tribes were to celebrate together. 
 It was a great honor for so young a man as I, 
 and I went forth with my heart full of gladness. 
 I liked the Navajos but little ; I knew them to 
 be as false as snakes and that they would kill 
 men whose backs were turned, but our tribes 
 were then at peace, and I knew too that the 
 fame of my courage had gone forth even as far as 
 their land, so I set out alone and was not afraid. 
 It was ten days' ride to the land of the Navajos 
 ten weary days, across dead plains, brown 
 mesas and dry arrqyos and in those ten long 
 days I did not meet a man of any tribe. 
 
 The chief of the Navajos was kind in his 
 greeting to me ; he accepted the presents I bore 
 to him, and he told me of presents of belts 
 and blankets that he would send in return to 
 the chief of my tribe. I never bore those pres- 
 ents to my chief, and the scalp of that Navajo 
 chief is one of the things I shall pass down to
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. jg 
 
 the children of my children to remind them of 
 my battles in the olden time. 
 
 In the camp of the Navajos, I learned that 
 preparations were being made to kill a woman 
 for the crime of being a witch, the charge being 
 made by a man who had sought her love in 
 vain. I thought little of the matter when it 
 first came to my ears, for of all evil things 
 witchcraft is most evil ; and anyhow, a Navajo 
 woman is but a crow. But when the time came 
 for the woman to be killed I went to the plains 
 with the people, as the spectacle was to be a 
 great one. The people seemed to rejoice that 
 the woman was to be killed, and to be glad 
 that the severest punishment had been chosen 
 for her ; and among them all, she did not have 
 one friend. I know now that the men rejoiced 
 because they longed for her in vain, and that 
 the women rejoiced because they were jealous 
 of the doomed woman's beauty. 
 
 The chiefs came in their feathers and the 
 warriors in their paint, while the women, who 
 are always mean and of little souls, gibed one 
 to the other and were glad that the hated 
 woman was to die. There, too, was the hus- 
 band of the woman, and also the man who had 
 loved her and had charged her with sin when 
 she had repulsed him. The husband was a
 
 20 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 dull-looking man, with the face of a brute, and 
 the lover was a proud man, who spread his 
 blanket and strutted as though glad to vent 
 his spite by having a woman killed. I liked 
 not that man when I saw him first, and when 
 he passed near me, I raised my club as though 
 I would strike him. Such a thing done by a 
 stranger in my tribe would have fared badly 
 with the stranger; but that man quailed and 
 slunk away, and I knew him to be a coward 
 a man of no bravery, and not a fit man to gain 
 the love of even a woman of the Navajos. 
 
 The chiefs and the old men of the tribe had 
 decreed that the woman should be torn apart 
 by wild horses. That was one of the laws of 
 the olden time ; but it is little known now, 
 since the white soldiers ride so much over the 
 land that was once the land of the Indians. I 
 had seen that punishment meted out before ; 
 but never did I see such wild horses, nor those 
 that were so beautiful as the ones the Navajos 
 had chosen. The people arrayed themselves 
 in lines, and a stalwart chief led forth the 
 horses. One was as black as the darkness of 
 night, and the other was as white as the whitest 
 clouds of summer. When the horses were 
 ready and strong men were holding their heads, 
 while other men stood ready with the whips,
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 2 I 
 
 the woman was brought forth from the hogan 
 where she had been kept. 
 
 Among the white-faced people it is likely 
 that you have seen women of great beauty ; 
 but I say to you that never, in all your life, 
 have your eyes rested upon a woman so fair 
 as was that doomed woman of the Navajos. 
 She was brought forth all unclad, and her 
 beauty shone upon me as the sun shines upon 
 the earth after a storm. Her form was the form 
 of a goddess, and her eyes shone like the 
 brightest stars of the night. Her hair fell to 
 her knees and was as soft as the hair of an 
 otter. When I first looked upon her I be- 
 lieved her to be no witch, and that the blood 
 that flowed in her veins was not the blood of 
 the brute Navajos, and my heart warmed to 
 that woman in a great love. I learned in time 
 that she was not aNavajo, but had been stolen 
 from another tribe when she was a child. She 
 walked forth as a queen might walk among 
 slaves, and the soulless man who had sought 
 her love in vain lowered his eyes to the ground 
 and slunk back like a dog that had been kicked. 
 The woman saw me and knew me to be a 
 stranger. She saw, too, that upon my face there 
 was a look of love for her. She stretched out 
 her arms to me, and begged me to save her
 
 22 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 from the brutes who would murder her ; and 
 though I was a stranger, alone, and in a far 
 land, I raised my club that was heavy with 
 flint and commanded the chief to free her. 
 Before I could do more I was pinioned from 
 behind by the arms of a dozen Navajo cowards, 
 thongs were placed about my hands and feet, 
 and I was thrown to the ground. The people 
 then turned from me, and all their interest was 
 centered in the spectacle before them. I began 
 biting the thongs with my teeth, but it seemed 
 that it was not possible for me to get free before 
 the horses would be started on the mad race that 
 would bring death to the most beautiful woman 
 who ever walked upon the earth. Before they 
 bound the woman to the horses she turned to me 
 and told me I was a brave man, and then she 
 knelt upon her knees and said words to the 
 sky. Then strong men bound ropes of hair 
 to her arms and to her legs, and fastened the 
 ropes to the tails of the wild horses. It was a 
 cruel sight to see that fair woman, that sweet, 
 tender woman, bound to wild beasts that would 
 race away and tear her beautiful limbs one from 
 the other. As they bound her I was almost 
 mad with rage and grief ; but my thongs held 
 me, and I could not free myself to lend her 
 aid. As I lay there, impotently biting the
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 33 
 
 thongs that cut into my flesh, I made memory 
 of the men who bound her, and I afterwards 
 killed them and laughed in their writhing faces 
 as they died. 
 
 At last the woman was bound, the horses 
 reared and thirsted to be away, and were held 
 in check only by the strength of many hands, and 
 then the woman turned to me and called out : 
 " Farewell to you, O brave stranger of unknown 
 blood ! I thank you for the aid you would 
 have given me, and I grieve that you have 
 brought suffering upon yourself for me; for 
 these dogs, these snakes who are cowards and 
 worse than dogs, will kill you when they have 
 seen me torn limb from limb." 
 
 Then the men struck the horses with the 
 whips, and just as they bounded away I broke 
 my thongs and stood free. I thirsted for the 
 blood of the men who had bound that woman 
 to the wild horses ; but the horror in my heart 
 was so great that I stood impotently, like the 
 others, to watch the mad race that had death 
 at its end. 
 
 The death of the woman would have been 
 speedy and terrible; but just as the horses 
 gave one wild leap, the thongs that bound her 
 to one of them broke. She fell free from that 
 horse, and it ran away, while the bonds that
 
 24 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 fastened her to the other horse held fast. 
 She struck the ground and bounded up, then 
 struck the ground again, and it seemed that 
 her life would not last as long as it takes a 
 man to breathe. Then she struck the ground 
 upon her feet, and the bonds that held her 
 broke. She made one forward leap that was 
 as swift as a flash of lightning, caught the flow- 
 ing tail of the horse, and with strength like the 
 strength of a spirit she climbed upon the 
 horse's back. Then with a cry of defiance she 
 waved her hand in menace as the horse shot 
 away over the plains. The way was full of 
 danger to the woman, as she had no means of 
 making the horse obey, and the plains were 
 full of holes and arroyos ; but it was the glad- 
 dest sight I ever saw. It turned the blood in 
 my veins to fire, and I gave the terrible war- 
 cry of my people, and raising my giant's club 
 in the air I crushed in the head of the nearest 
 man at a blow. Then the whole tribe turned 
 upon me and fought me backward, step by step, 
 until it seemed that my time had come to bite 
 the dust. I slew five of the men, and then they 
 pressed me hard; and, when it seemed that 
 all was over with me, I saw the black one of 
 the wild horses racing toward where we were 
 fighting. The horse had run wildly away when
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 25 
 
 the woman had broken loose from his tail, and 
 now he was racing home again. When I saw 
 him coming, I believed that I might catch him 
 and go free ; and, swinging my club to the 
 right and to the left, I ran straight through 
 the people, breaking some heads as I went, 
 and I caught the wild horse by the mane, 
 while the people stared in wonder. I swung 
 myself to his back, I laughed in the teeth of 
 the Navajos, and I sped away over the brown 
 sands of the plains in pursuit of the woman, 
 who would now be fairly mine if I could reach 
 her and save her. 
 
 The horse that bore the woman was far ahead 
 of me so far that he seemed only a speck on 
 the edge of the distance. I cut a strip from 
 my blanket, slipped it into the mouth of the 
 horse I rode, and then I believed I might over- 
 take the woman ; for she had nothing but her 
 hands to guide with, and her horse ran one 
 way and another and not in a straight line. 
 I was in great fear, though ; for if her horse 
 should fall into a deep arroyo, she might be 
 killed by the fall. I rode for two hours before 
 I came to the woman, and when I came to 
 her, both the horses were spent from long run- 
 ning. With another strip cut from my blanket, 
 I lassoed the horse she rode, and then we dis-
 
 2 6 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 mounted and tied the horses to bushes of 
 cactus. 
 
 In the latter years of my life I have dwelt 
 much with the white-skinned peoples. I have 
 talked to their wise men, who asked me much 
 of the gods and the old tales of my tribe. I 
 have even learned to read in their books, and 
 I know so much of those people that I can 
 talk as they talk. I have many times heard 
 them speak of love and of gratitude ; but I say 
 to you, Sefior, that no man knows so well as I 
 the meaning of those words. When the woman 
 came down from her horse there was such a 
 look in her eyes as I expect to see in the eyes 
 of the deathless women who dwell in the bright 
 hunting-grounds that lie beyond the grave. 
 She came to me with that look on her face ; 
 she placed her round arms about my neck ; she 
 nestled my head to her shoulder as a mother 
 nestles a child ; and then she told me she 
 loved me above all the men and the things of 
 earth, and that she would be my slave and 
 would follow me until the day of her death. 
 It was then, Sefior, that I learned to love. 
 The woman's touch brought ecstasy to every 
 fiber of my flesh, and I took her in my arms I 
 pressed my lips to hers in kisses that seemed to 
 bring our very souls together, and I forgot the
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 2 j 
 
 Navajos, I forgot my own people, I forgot all ex- 
 cept that I was young, that the world was beau- 
 tiful, and that she I loved she who was the 
 very heart of my heart was in my arms. Ah, 
 Sefior, you white-skinned men know wondrous 
 things ; but until you know such a love as I 
 have known, until you know the first wild, 
 mad love of a free child of nature, you know 
 not the true secret of joy. 
 
 I took the maid with me, and we went to 
 the land of my own people. I went, not like 
 a man who goes to seek honor among the men 
 of his kind, but like a man content who might 
 have dwelt in paradise a man with no sorrow 
 in his memory ; a happy man. My chief chided 
 me, but when he saw the maid he took back 
 his words, and said that I had done well. 
 Then I builded me a can-nee of the skins of 
 buffalo and was happy happy as few men 
 ever are. But in time there came thoughts of 
 the brute-faced husband who had known the 
 love of my peerless maid, and thoughts of the 
 cowardly, strutting lover who had sought to 
 work her doom. Then fierceness came again 
 into my soul, and I knew that happiness would 
 not abide with me so long as those two men 
 breathed the breath of life. 
 
 I went among my people and I chose ten
 
 2 8 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 men, ten men who, like me, were young, 
 and I induced them to join me in a raid on the 
 tribe of the Navajo people with whom my wife 
 had dwelt. When we went forth I rode the 
 milk-white stallion that my maiden had ridden, 
 and I left her the black horse as a token that 
 I would safely return. When we came to the 
 land of the Navajos, we went boldly among 
 them as a band of conquerors might go among 
 a tribe of slaves. We were but ten and one, 
 and they were many ; but we were men with 
 right on our side, and they were only Navajos, 
 who had sought to do a cowardly thing. The 
 chief who had bound my maiden to the horses 
 met us with parley, and asked us what we de- 
 sired, that we rode into their land in the gear of 
 war. My face was masked with paint, and he 
 knew me not, and I gave answer : 
 
 " A young warrior of our tribe has come from 
 the land of the Navajos bearing a woman who 
 was once wife to one of your warriors. We 
 come to get tidings of that man." 
 
 The chief answered : 
 
 "The man has taken another woman to 
 wife, and has forgotten the false woman whom 
 the witches helped to ride to your land on an 
 untamed horse." 
 
 Then I said : " There was a man who was a
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. ^ I 
 
 lover of the woman, and who charged her with 
 being a witch. What of him ? " 
 
 The chief laughed and said : " Oh, he has 
 a wife, and some lovers, too, and has forgotten 
 the woman who rode to your land." 
 
 Then I said : " Bring forth this man who 
 was the woman's husband ! Bring forth the 
 last woman he has taken for a wife, and bring, 
 too, the man who was the lover ! " 
 
 The chief obeyed and brought them forth ; 
 but they all feared danger, and they brought 
 forth also full fifty of their warriors that 
 being all who were near. 
 
 Then I said : " I am he whom you bound 
 with thongs ; I am the man who slew five of 
 your coyotes, who are called warriors ; I am 
 the man who rode the black stallion after the 
 only beautiful woman that ever dwelt in the 
 land of the Navajos, and I have come to take 
 the life of the coward who was her husband, 
 and of the brute who sought to have her killed. 
 I have come to kill them and the men who 
 bound her to the horses ; and, when I have 
 killed them, I will take the last wife of the 
 husband of the black heart, and that woman 
 shall be a slave to my wife. Defend for your 
 time has come /" 
 
 Then, with a mighty swing of my stone war-
 
 32 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 club, I crushed the head of the chief as I 
 would crush the egg of a wild-bird ; and with 
 the war-cry of our people ringing on our lips 
 we rede upon those dogs of Navajos, and with 
 every swing of our clubs a white hearted coyote 
 bit the dust. With my own hand I slew him 
 who had been husband and him who had been 
 lover, and then we slew to the right and to the 
 left slew all who came in our way, until the 
 ones who were not slain turned and fled like 
 the fawn before the hunter. Then we took 
 the scalps of the slain to pass down to our 
 children, and I lassoed the wife of the man 
 whose life I had come so far to take. I bound 
 her behind me on the white horse, and I took 
 her to the land of my people to be a slave to 
 the fair woman who was my wife, and whom I 
 never allowed to work as the other wives had 
 to do. I have fought often since that fight ; I 
 have fought the white soldiers when I would 
 have given my life to have killed one of them : 
 but never have I taken the life of a man when 
 killing was so sweet to me as it was when I 
 laughed in the faces of the men who had 
 striven to murder the woman whose smile was 
 sweeter than victory to me. 
 
 That was long in the past, Senor many 
 moons in the long, long ago. It was when I
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 33 
 
 was a young man, and eighty springs have 
 blossomed and faded since I was born. 
 Thirty years ago my wife died in my arms 
 an old woman, but as young to me as that 
 time when we raced for life or death across 
 the bare, brown plains upon the two wild 
 stallions. When she died I came to like not 
 this land, and the spirit of roving entered me. 
 I joined a show owned by a white-skinned 
 man, and I traveled to many places and many 
 cities. I mingled much with the people of 
 your blood. I learned their speech so well 
 that, but for my color, you would not know 
 me for an Indian; and when I returned to 
 my own land, as men will do when old age 
 comes upon them, there came to this land a 
 priest from Mexico telling strange tales of the 
 right and the wrong of life. That priest be- 
 came my friend ; I talked much with him, as 
 I knew his language, and he chided me for 
 the sins of my early days. I know now that 
 those deeds were sins, but I knew it not then, 
 and before I knew it I called them the best 
 things that came into my life. The creed of 
 the priests may be true I know not ; but I 
 would give my hopes of the white man's heaven 
 to be young again to live again that wild, 
 glad day when I rode that wild ride on the
 
 34 
 
 LO-TO-KAH, THE UNCIVILIZED. 
 
 plains, and at the end of it folded my sweet 
 Zeetah for the first time in my arms. 
 
 That is all of my tale, Senor. It is a wild 
 tale a tale that tells much of bloodshed and 
 battle, and it will not be liked by many of the 
 people of your kind. But you came among 
 us to learn true things of the Indian people, 
 and I have told you a tale that is true.
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLEDAD.
 
 IT was one of the burning days of the South- 
 land. The fierce sun smote the brown New 
 Mexican mountains with scorching rays ; the 
 bare mesas seemed to shine and quiver in the 
 white glare, and waves of shimmering heat 
 could be seen rising from the waterless soil. 
 It was the season of drouth that dreary time 
 when the poor fields of the peons dry up; when 
 even water to drink is scarce, and when the 
 gaunt spectre of poverty hovers over the 
 stricken land. Down an uninhabited valley, 
 on this dreary day, went a traveller, riding a 
 jaded horse, and both man and beast seemed 
 exhausted from weariness and thirst. The 
 
 37
 
 ,g THE WITCH Of RANCHO SOLED AD. 
 
 man was young : the rounded curves of youth 
 still beautified his figure ; but in his eyes was 
 the look of one who had sought long and far 
 for something he had not found. 
 
 In time the traveller turned from the wind- 
 ings of the valley and rode over a low mesa 
 into a smaller valley, and just as the sun was 
 sinking in the west he drew rein before an 
 adobe Mexican house of the better class. In 
 answer to his call, a gray-haired Mexican ap- 
 peared in the doorway. The traveller ex- 
 plained that he had journeyed a long distance ; 
 that he was weary, thirsty and hungry ; that 
 his horse could go no farther, and he craved 
 the Mexican to give him entertainment. 
 
 " No man craves shelter in vain among my 
 people," said the Mexican. " Alight : enter 
 my poor house, which is now your house, and 
 you and your horse shall be cared for. Ho, 
 Ramon ! " calling a servant, " stable and feed 
 the horse, and then prepare food for the 
 guest." 
 
 The servant, a thin, shambling Mexican, 
 bowed low, took the horse to the corral, and 
 the old man and the traveller entered the 
 house. 
 
 " I have no wife, no child, to welcome you," 
 said the Mexican, as they entered the dim
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 39 
 
 room. " I live alone with my servant and my 
 thoughts, save when some chance Indian or 
 traveller reaches this secluded place, and I fear 
 I shall be but sorry company for you. But sit 
 you down, rest, and I will give you wine, which, 
 after all, holds a truer welcome than a man 
 may get from a woman ; I will give you food, 
 that staff of life which brings dull content to 
 those of dull minds ; I will give you tobacco 
 to lure sweet languor ; and then, if you prefer 
 solitude, I will retire and leave you alone with 
 memory that many-faced companion from 
 whom no man can flee." 
 
 The words and tone of the hermit-like Mexi- 
 can betokened that he was partly crazed ; but 
 the traveller heeded little, for besides being 
 weary he was despondent. The world had given 
 him much, but he wanted more, and all he had 
 gained was disappointment. He ate of the 
 Mexican's food, drank of his wine, and then 
 settled himself upon a blanket-covered couch 
 and smoked in silence, while the old man 
 stared at the cemented wall, and seemed to 
 forget that he was not alone. 
 
 For an hour the two silent men sat, each 
 engrossed in his own thoughts, and then 
 Ramon, the servant, entered the room and 
 announced that a visitor was without.
 
 40 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 
 
 " Whom may it be ? " asked the old man, 
 rousing himself from his revery. 
 
 " It is Mape-ah-sas, the Ute," answered the 
 servant. 
 
 "He is welcome," said the old man, his 
 face lighting up ; " he is welcome, and my 
 house is his house. Admit him." 
 
 The traveller, who knew something of the 
 customs of the. natives of the Southwest, 
 wondered why the Indian had so far departed 
 from the local usage as to have himself an- 
 nounced before entering. The servant retired 
 from the room, and soon a small old Indian 
 entered. 
 
 The Indian seemed to be about sixty years 
 of age. His thick hair was slightly grizzled ; 
 he stooped the veriest trifle, and he walked 
 with a silent, gliding step. He was dressed 
 in the usual costume of the Utes elk-hide 
 moccasins, deerskin leggins, a " gee-string " of 
 cloth, a shirt of bright colored material, and 
 over all a Navajo blanket. He was short and 
 slight, his eyes were bright and set very close 
 together, and his thin lips were habitually 
 compressed, giving him an eager expression of 
 countenance. The Mexican met him at the 
 door, embraced him, and said in Spanish : 
 
 "Welcome to my poor house, Mape-ah-sas,
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. ^ x 
 
 my friend. It is good to look upon you again 
 you, who come to me so seldom. Be seated, 
 rest, and eat of the food my servant shall pre- 
 pare. But first let me make you known to the 
 stranger who tarries with me. Stranger, this is 
 Mape-ah-sas, the Ute. He is a pivu-au-gut J of 
 renown among his own people, and even 
 among the Navajos and Apaches. He is a 
 medicine-man and my good friend." 
 
 "My-eck!" said the Indian, scarcely look- 
 ing at the stranger. 
 
 The stranger knew the meaning of the Ute 
 salutation, and he answered in Spanish : " I 
 welcome you, friend." 
 
 The servant brought food to the Indian, 
 and when he had eaten he rolled a brown 
 cigarette and began talking to the Mexican, 
 speaking in the low, guttural dialect of the 
 Utes, which the traveller did not understand. 
 After the conversation had lasted a few min- 
 utes, the Mexican turned to the stranger and 
 said : 
 
 " It is not courteous that I and my friend 
 speak in a tongue that you do not understand. 
 Mape-ah-sas knows something of the Spanish 
 language, and we will speak in that, craving 
 
 1 Medicine Man.
 
 42 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 
 
 your pardon for our forgetfulness in not doing 
 so sooner." 
 
 " I know but little Spanish," said the 
 stranger, " and would not understand it much 
 better than the language of your friend. Be- 
 sides, your conversation concerns only him 
 and you, and I beg you not to trouble your- 
 selves on my account." 
 
 " We speak no secrets," said the Mexican, 
 "and would like you to join in the talk; for 
 pleasant converse is potent to drive away the 
 cares that stay with silent men. But the 
 pwu-au-gut knows scarce ten words of the 
 English language, and if you are not familiar 
 with Spanish we cannot all three converse un- 
 less I act as interpreter, which I shall be glad 
 to do." 
 
 " I beg of you not to trouble yourself," said 
 the stranger. 
 
 Mape-ah-sas now turned in his seat and 
 gazed intently into the stranger's face; then 
 he said something in his native tongue to the 
 Mexican. The Mexican shook his head in 
 dissent, but the traveller could see that the 
 medicine-man persisted in the statement he 
 had made. As he felt sure that the remarks 
 of the Indian touched himself, he asked the 
 Mexican what was said.
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. 
 
 43 
 
 The Mexican smiled faintly, and replied : 
 " Mape-ah-sas asks if there is not Indian 
 blood in your veins." 
 
 " There is none not a drop," answered the 
 stranger, also smiling. 
 
 The Mexican translated the reply, but the 
 Indian shook his head, and peered more 
 closely at the stranger. 
 
 " Mape-ah-sas says the Indian blood flows 
 in your veins," said the Mexican gravely. 
 "Mape-ah-sas is a great pimi-au-gut, or magi- 
 cian, among his people, and he makes but few 
 mistakes. Review carefully your knowledge 
 of your genealogy, and try to remember if a 
 slight strain of Indian blood may not have 
 been mixed with the blood of your ancestors. 
 And if it prove to be so, Mape-ah-sas may tell 
 you some things that are strange, for he would 
 then speak to you as one Indian speaks to an- 
 other ; and I believe he has garnered all the 
 strange knowledge that is known to the un- 
 schooled wild peoples of the West and South." 
 
 The traveller was amused at the earnestness 
 of the other two men ; but he welcomed the 
 episode, as it was causing him to forget the 
 dull regret that was with him night and day. 
 He smiled and answered : 
 
 " You may say to our interesting friend that
 
 44 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 
 
 I am absolutely sure there is no Indian blood 
 in my veins. All my ancestors were more or 
 less worthy Anglo-Saxons ; I half regret, though, 
 that I am not wholly Indian, for while their 
 knowledge is only slight their cares are 
 but few, and one might find a dull kind of 
 content if he lived the empty, simple life of an 
 Indian." 
 
 " Speak not hastily, my son," said the old 
 Mexican gravely. " The Indians, like us^ are 
 the children of God, and while they may have 
 but little of our knowledge, they may be wise 
 in many things that are beyond us." 
 
 Mape-ah-sas rose, placed his blanket care- 
 fully over the back of a chair, advanced to 
 the stranger and took his hand. He looked 
 steadily at the palm for a little time and then 
 gazed intently into the stranger's eyes. After 
 searching the man's eyes for a few moments 
 he straightened himself to his full height, still 
 retaining the hand; then his face became 
 rigid, his eyes took on a wide, staring expres- 
 sion, and to the intense surprise of the 
 stranger he began speaking in the purest 
 English. 
 
 " Stranger," spoke the rigid Indian, " the 
 wild blood calls to the wild blood the wide 
 world over. The scent of the forest is dear to
 
 The trance of Mape-ah-sas.
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLEDAD. 47 
 
 you as it is dear to me ; the evening sunlight 
 falling on the everlasting hills makes beautiful 
 pictures to your eyes as it does to mine ; the 
 sun, the moon, the myriads of stars, speak to 
 you of infinite space, infinite eternity, infinite 
 mystery. The petty rules of the tame people of 
 civilization are galling to your soul : like me, 
 you love the wide plains, the deep forests and 
 the wild mountains. O stranger of the white 
 skin, in the veins of your body flows the 
 Indian blood the Indian blood that makes 
 you known to me, and will make you known 
 to all Indian men of magic, no matter of what 
 tribe they are. The Indian blood in your 
 veins is but little so little, indeed, that its 
 first advent into the stock of your people has 
 been forgotten ; but it is there, and it is 
 known to me. It is not good for Indian blood 
 to flow in any but Indian veins ; it is an 
 Indian law that children of mixed blood shall 
 not live. But as the sin of which you are a 
 distant fruit is of the long ago, you shall be 
 my friend, and I will teach you of the Indian 
 knowledge a knowledge that few but Indians 
 ever know." 
 
 The Indian ceased speaking, and stood with 
 a vacant expression on his face, still holding 
 the white man's hand.
 
 48 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLEDAD. 
 
 " You told me he spoke no English ! " said 
 the stranger, addressing the Mexican. 
 
 " Be silent," replied the old man, speaking 
 almost in a whisper, " Be silent, and you may 
 learn some wondrous things. Mape-ah-sas 
 is now entranced. I have seen him thus 
 before." 
 
 The Ute stood with upturned face for a few 
 moments ; then the tenseness of his attitude 
 relaxed, a look of dullness came into his face, 
 and he released the stranger's hand and re- 
 turned to his seat. After sitting in silence for 
 a little time he spoke in the Ute language to 
 the Mexican, who turned to the stranger and 
 said : 
 
 " Mape-ah-sas says he knows the Indian 
 blood is in your veins ; he knows that you are 
 troubled ; and, if you desire, he will endeavor 
 to help you in the fulfillment of the wish that 
 has possession of your heart." 
 
 The traveller stared curiously at the two 
 strange figures before him the old Indian 
 sitting quietly in his chair, apparently without 
 a thought in his mind ; the Mexican, speak- 
 ing of magic and of supernatural things in as 
 easy a manner, as though they were the sim- 
 plest things in life. The situation was strange, 
 and the spell of its weirdnesswas taking hold
 
 THE WITCH OF RANG HO SOLED AD. ,g 
 
 upon the traveller. Why was it that that un- 
 lettered Indian could speak in good English ? 
 Why was it that the Mexican, who seemed a 
 man of some education, should believe so im- 
 plicitly in the wild statements of the medicine- 
 man ? And what if, after all, these strange 
 things might be true ? It might possibly be 
 true that Indian blood was in his veins. 
 Might it not be true that the power of the 
 Indian could help him to the realization of 
 his wish ? There was a wish in his heart a 
 burning, unsatisfied wish. There was a wo- 
 man whose memory was in his mind by day 
 and by night, whose image appeared to him 
 in his sleep. And if this claim of magic 
 might be proved, if the woman could be 
 with him again ; if they might spend one 
 short hour together, as in that glad old time 
 before he had become a wanderer upon the 
 face of the earth and she had immured her- 
 self from the world, he believed that life 
 would be more endurable. 
 
 Mape-ah-sas spoke to the Mexican, who 
 translated to the stranger : 
 
 " Mape-ah-sas says it is well, and that your 
 wish shall be fulfilled. If you desire, the fair 
 woman shall be with you once more ; but 
 make sure first that that is your desire, for
 
 t;o THE WITCH OF RANG HO SOLE DAD. 
 
 that instant of bliss may be atoned for by years 
 of longing and regret." 
 
 The stranger stared at the two men in wide- 
 eyed astonishment. Could they, then, read his 
 mind ? He was sure he had not allowed his 
 thoughts to form themselves into spoken words, 
 but the answer that had been given him was 
 as apt as though it had been a reply to a ques- 
 tion. He shook himself to make sure he was 
 not dreaming ; and for the second time dur- 
 ing this strange interview, it occurred to him 
 that there might, after all, be some truth in 
 this magic in which the other men seemed so 
 implicitly to believe. " Ask Mape-ah-sas 
 when my wish shall be granted," he said to 
 the Mexican. 
 
 "This very night, within the duration of 
 the present darkness that now hangs over the 
 earth," translated the Mexican. " This very 
 night, if you are not afraid." 
 
 " I am not afraid ; why should I be ? " 
 answered the stranger. "Life is a fearful 
 thing, and I do not fear even it. What would 
 the pwu-au-gtit have me do ?" 
 
 " He would have you retire to the room 
 where you will sleep. Come, let me conduct 
 you to your chamber." 
 
 The Mexican led the way to another room ;
 
 THE WITCH OF KANCHO SOLE DAD. 51 
 
 the stranger followed him, and was followed 
 in turn by the Indian. The room they en- 
 tered was a very large one : the ceiling 
 was much higher than the ceiling of the 
 room they had been in ; and a wide, high 
 window, opening to the south, let in great 
 floods of moonlight, making the room so light 
 that one might almost have read large print. 
 On the floor was a carpet of Navajo blankets ; 
 a bed, built into the wall, was covered with 
 the same kind of blankets; and on one side 
 of the room was an archway that was closed 
 with two blue Chimolla curtains of fine weav- 
 ing. A low chair, covered with blankets, was 
 in the room ; but there was no other furni- 
 ture, save the bed. The Mexican brought a 
 pair of deerskin slippers, and the stranger 
 donned them instead of his dusty shoes. 
 
 " Now lie down upon the couch," said the 
 Mexican. 
 
 The traveller stretched himself at full 
 length upon the bed, pillowed his head upon 
 a folded blanket, and looked curiously at the 
 other men. A sense of rest soon came to 
 him a delicious languor that made all unreal 
 things seem half true and all true things half 
 unreal. 
 
 The Mexican sat down on the low chair,
 
 52 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. 
 
 and the Indian lay down upon the floor, prone 
 upon his face, and stretched out his arms 
 toward the northwest. The languor that had 
 come upon the stranger made him so indiffer- 
 ent that he scarcely noted the strangeness of 
 the actions. 
 
 After lying silently on the floor for a little 
 time the Indian arose, approached the bed, 
 and placed his cheek to the stranger's breast. 
 After remaining in this position for a few mo- 
 ments he waved his arms over the traveller's 
 head, retreated a few steps, and began chant- 
 ing in a weird, uncanny tone. The weirdness 
 of the chant was indescribable. It was like 
 what the cry of a lost soul might be if it were 
 mingled with the sough of the wind in a pine 
 forest; and as it went on, the old Mexican 
 drooped his head upon his hands, and objects 
 became indistinct to the eyes of the traveller. 
 Was this tale of magic true, then ? Was the 
 pwu-au-gut placing him under a spell that 
 would enable his soul to leave his body and 
 go to the loved woman who was thousands of 
 miles away, locked behind the stern walls of a 
 convent ? The objects in the room became 
 more and more indistinct : the silent Mexican 
 seemed to be receding farther and farther 
 away ; the sound of the weird chant became
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SO LED AD. 53 
 
 lower and lower ; and, before he was aware, 
 the traveller fell asleep. 
 
 How long he had slept he did not know ; 
 but when he awoke he was conscious of a 
 delicious languor, like that which comes to one 
 who awakes from a sleep after a plunge in the 
 waters of the ocean. The sensation of com- 
 plete rest was perfect, and at first he was so 
 indifferent to his surroundings that he scarcely 
 opened his eyes. However, he became fully 
 awake before long, and raised himself 
 upon his elbow and looked about him. He 
 was still lying, dressed, upon the blanketed 
 couch ; the deerskin slippers were yet upon 
 his feet ; the soft moonlight was shining 
 through the broad window. But the Ute 
 and the Mexican were gone. Sounding 
 faintly, as though coming from a long dis- 
 tance, he heard the noise of the chant, rising 
 and falling in weird cadences. This, then, 
 was the magic of the Indian pwu-au-gut ! 
 This, and this only ! The Indian was some- 
 thing of a mesmerist, and could put men to 
 sleep ; and because this thing seemed mirac- 
 ulous to his heathen mind he believed him- 
 self to be endowed with supernatural power. 
 The traveller was somewhat sorry that the 
 charm had failed ; that the Indian had not
 
 C4 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. 
 
 really been able to take him to the side of the 
 beautiful woman who was dearer than life to 
 him the woman that he had lost, but still 
 loved. But it was for the best, after all, that 
 there was no such charm or power as the In- 
 dian boasted. The night was beautiful, the 
 blanketed couch was soft and welcome to him 
 after the fatigues of the day, and it were best 
 to sleep and forget. It surprised him, too 
 that for a little time he had almost believed 
 in the power claimed by the Indian. 
 
 The gaze of the traveller wandered over the 
 room. There was a lace curtain at the win- 
 dow that he had not noticed before, and those 
 blue Chimolla curtains at the door were of 
 finer texture than he had at first observed. 
 Again came the sound of the distant chant- 
 ing. He smiled. He had heard that Indian 
 medicine-men believe implicitly in their own 
 powers ; and no doubt Mape-ah-sas thought 
 the chant, even then, was enabling the man 
 and woman to be with each other. 
 
 While the traveller was musing idly he saw 
 the blue Chimolla curtains that covered the 
 portiere move ; then they slowly parted, and 
 the form of a beautiful woman came into the 
 room. He gave a violent start. Could it be 
 true, after all, that the charm had worked and
 
 THE WITCH OF RANG HO SOLED AD. r r 
 
 that the woman was coming to him ? A mo- 
 ment sufficed, however, to show him his error 
 The woman who entered the room was sur- 
 passingly beautiful, but she was not the one 
 named in his wish. She was a woman who 
 might have been twenty, or might have been 
 thirty, years of age ; she was of medium 
 height, and her figure was full. Her hair was 
 neither black nor brown, but was of that in- 
 describable shade that is between the two 
 colors. Her ripe lips were full and beautiful ; 
 her features were finely molded, and her eyes 
 were of that shade of dark shimmering blue 
 that no man can describe. Over her hair she 
 wore a thin, gauzy black rebosa ; her neck, 
 arms, and shoulders were bare, and gleamed 
 in the moonlight like carved ivory, and she 
 wore a thin, clinging dress. She was superla- 
 tively beautiful as beautiful as any woman 
 the traveller had ever seen ; but even then her 
 beauty did not seem so good to him as the 
 more imperfect beauty of the woman he loved. 
 The woman glided to the side of the couch 
 whereon the traveller lay, and in soft accents 
 she said in English : 
 
 " I greet you, stranger : peace be with you ! " 
 
 " Greeting ; and to you peace," answered 
 
 the traveller, not noticing that he had uncon-
 
 r(3 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. 
 
 ciously adopted her rather Oriental mode of 
 address. 
 
 The languor of sleep was still in the veins 
 of the traveller, and he did not rise, but lay 
 with his head leaning upon his hand. The 
 woman drew the low chair to the side of the 
 couch and sat down, performing the act in so 
 natural a manner that the stranger did not 
 notice that it would have been unusual under 
 most circumstances. He gazed indolently 
 upon her for a time, and then asked : 
 
 " Who are you ? " 
 
 The woman smiled, showing two perfect rows 
 of pearly teeth. 
 
 " Tell me, first who are you ? " she said. 
 " You, who come from a shadowy past and go 
 forth to meet a still more shadowy future ; 
 you, who comprehend neither time nor eter- 
 nity ; you, who play with life and wish for 
 death ? " 
 
 " I am a wanderer, roaming over this strange 
 Southwest for distraction. I am a guest for the 
 night at this house, which is a strange place 
 to me ; but I did not know the house sheltered 
 you also, as my host told me he had neither 
 wife nor child, and he did not speak of other 
 guests." 
 
 To recline on the couch and talk to the
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLEDAD. 57 
 
 woman, whose name he did not know and 
 whom he had never seen before, seemed to the 
 man to be a perfectly natural thing. 
 
 "Neither has your host a wife or child," 
 answered the woman. " He lives alone with 
 Ramon, his servant, save when some Indian 
 or traveller visits his solitary ranch. But he 
 is rich in guests this night ; for, besides you 
 and me, Mape-ah-sas, the pwu-au-gut is with 
 him. Do you not hear the chant he is mak- 
 ing?" 
 
 As she spoke, the faint sound of the weird 
 chant came again to the ears of the travel- 
 ler. 
 
 "I hear the chant," he said smiling. "It 
 was begun to work magic for me. I was put 
 to sleep, but there its potency seemed to fail, 
 and nothing came of it." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said the woman, smiling 
 strangely. " And you are disappointed ? Do 
 you regret that the fair woman of your love 
 is not with you instead of me ? Are you sorry 
 that you are denied the pleasure of holding 
 her in your arms for one last time ? After all, 
 is it not best for you not to see her ? She has 
 taken vows to cast all human loves from her 
 heart ; and it is best, for her sake, that she 
 sees you no more."
 
 ijg THE WITCH OF RANCHO SO LED AD. 
 
 The traveller sat bolt upright in astonish- 
 ment, and stared at the woman, who sat 
 placidly by the side of the couch. 
 
 "Are you all bewitched here?" he asked. 
 " Are you all bewitched, or am I asleep and 
 dreaming ? You read my inmost thoughts as 
 though my mind were an open book in your 
 hand. You fathom the hidden secrets of my 
 heart. Am I asleep ? Are you a witch ? Ex- 
 plain these mysteries to me." 
 
 Again the woman smiled that peculiar smile 
 that added to her beauty. 
 
 "You ask for explanation of mysteries," she 
 said " you, who have lived out the little 
 number of your days surrounded by greater 
 mysteries ! Have you seen the sun rise in the 
 east and float to the zenith of the heavens ? 
 Have you listened to the sound of the sea- 
 waves breaking upon the shore ? Have you 
 seen the towering mountains that rear their 
 crests to the sky ? Have you seen children 
 born, grow to maturity, and sink back to earth ? 
 Have you felt the blood of life coursing in 
 your veins ? Have you thought of the thing 
 called existence, whose very beginning you 
 cannot remember, and whose ending you can- 
 not conceive ? Let us not talk of mysteries 
 for we know not whereof we speak."
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLEDAD. en 
 
 The traveller gazed long and wistfully at the 
 beautiful face that was before him. 
 
 " How marvellously beautiful you are ! " 
 he ejaculated, almost unconsciously. " He 
 who has your love must be indeed a happy 
 man." 
 
 " No man has my love," said the strange 
 woman ; " and even with my love no man that 
 I could love would be happy. History tells 
 of no happy men. Happiness, to the great, is 
 a fleeting mirage that ever vanishes before it 
 is overtaken; and I could love none but a 
 great man. Even with you, love has not 
 brought happiness ; yet you would not forget 
 your love, if you could. You love deathlessly 
 a woman who can never be yours in this life. 
 That is your fault in part and hers in part, but 
 now is irrevocably true. You did not ap- 
 preciate the beauties of your paradise until 
 you were driven from it, and now the woman 
 who was to have been your bride is the bride 
 of the cloister. But it may be consolation to 
 you to know that the woman suffers as you 
 suffer, and that she loves you to this day even 
 as you love her." 
 
 " You know her, then ? " 
 
 " I did not say so. But I know that she 
 suffers as you suffer, and as most of the chil-
 
 6 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. 
 
 dren of the earth suffer. Ah ! I myself have 
 suffered ; but that is past and was almost for- 
 gotten until your sorrow brought it to my 
 memory again. List ! Do you not hear the 
 chant of the pwu-au-gutt '" 
 
 Again was faintly heard the indescribably 
 weird wail of the Ute, floating on the breeze 
 like an echo. 
 
 " I hear it, but it is in vain," answered the 
 traveller. " It was intended to take me to the 
 woman I love, or bring her to me ; but it has 
 served only to excite afresh the bitter mem- 
 ories that I am striving to cast out of my 
 heart." 
 
 "It is not in vain," said the woman with 
 sudden decision ; " it is not in vain, and I, 
 Raymeya, say it. Many of the powers given 
 to us of this world are abused; but there is a 
 power, a human power, that will enable your 
 wish to be gratified. And, if nothing more, it 
 will serve to teach you one more of the great 
 truths of nature. It is a human power, yet a 
 divine one, as all great human powers are. 
 Many truths are hidden because the poor, 
 cowardly souls to whom they might be revealed 
 go skulking through the years that lie between 
 the cradle and the grave, fearing to look up 
 and learn the truth. You are not one of those,
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCffO SOLE DAD. ( >l 
 
 and the truth shall not be withheld from you. 
 Rest now, and hold your peace." 
 
 The traveller lay back upon his blanket- 
 pillow, and closed his eyes for an instant ; but 
 when he opened them again the woman was 
 gone. It seemed strange to him that she had 
 vanished so suddenly and silently : he had 
 not heard a footfall, nor the rustle of a gar- 
 ment but she was gone. 
 
 As the man lay wondering over the disap- 
 pearance of the woman, it seemed to him that 
 the room grew darker ; a gust of cold air came 
 in, and then he felt a sudden movement of the 
 atmosphere that could not have been made by 
 the wind. The darkness grew denser : for an 
 instant all light was gone, and then the room 
 was again dimly light. As the light returned 
 the traveller almost swooned from astonish- 
 ment ; for there before him, seemingly in her 
 proper person, was the woman of his earnest 
 wish. He stared in gaping wonder for an 
 instant : he seemed to lose consciousness for 
 a minute period of time, and then he found 
 himself in the middle of the room approaching 
 the woman. He went within arm's reach of 
 her and stopped to gaze once more upon the 
 well-beloved features that he had not hoped to 
 look upon again in life.
 
 6 2 THE WITCH OF RANG HO SO LED AD. 
 
 The woman stood in the centre of the room, 
 her eyes closed, her hand stretched forth as 
 though she might be just awakening from a 
 sound sleep. She was clad only in a clinging 
 white garment that half revealed the lines of 
 her form, and her dark hair showed through a 
 gauzy veil that covered it. The man gazed at 
 her reverently, spoke her name, and asked if 
 she knew him. 
 
 " I know you ; yes," came in low, faltering 
 accents from the woman's lips. " I know not 
 if I be dead or living; but I know you know 
 you and love you." 
 
 The man would have clasped her to his 
 bosom, but just then the other woman stepped 
 from behind the blue curtains and placed her 
 finger on her lips. She said : 
 
 " Do not touch her. By misery and des- 
 peration you have been so prepared that no 
 truth is terrible to you ; but it may not be so 
 with her. Her life is given up to meditating 
 upon beliefs that say souls leave their bodies 
 but once, and if you waken her for she is in 
 a state akin to sleep you may unhinge her 
 mind. You have seen her : you must be con- 
 tent with that." 
 
 " Not to speak to her, now that she has 
 come back to me almost from the grave ! Not
 
 I know you, yes."
 
 .
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 65 
 
 to touch her oh, that is cruel ! " said the 
 man. 
 
 " You may speak to her, then, one short 
 sentence or two ; but do not touch her, and 
 make haste," said the strange woman, standing 
 near, as if to prevent the man from touching 
 the form that stood in the centre of the room. 
 
 The man approached the woman he loved 
 and spoke to her, saying words that caused 
 the closed eyes to fill with tears, which, how- 
 ever, seemed to be happy tears, and caused 
 tears to come to the eyes of the other woman. 
 
 When the traveller had spoken for a little 
 time he involuntarily turned his face away to 
 hide his emotion, and when he looked again 
 the form of the sleeping, or entranced, woman 
 was gone, and he was again alone with the 
 strange woman who had first come to him. 
 He stood for a time in a dazed stupor, unable 
 to comprehend the strange events that had 
 filled the last few moments of his life. Then 
 he turned and threw himself face downward 
 on the couch and gave up his mind to thoughts 
 of her who had come to him across the dis- 
 tance and the darkness who had miraculously 
 come to him while he sorrowed, as it were, in 
 the desert. What his thoughts were no man 
 can guess. Had he been of a morbid temper-
 
 g THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 
 
 ament he might have grieved as one grieves 
 who sees the grave yawning before him ; but 
 with this man, whatever his thoughts were, 
 they caused him presently to raise his head 
 with a chastened, half-happy look upon his 
 face. He turned to the strange woman who 
 was again sitting by the couch, and asked : 
 
 " What are you called ? Are you a sorceress ? 
 How do you compass these strange things ? " 
 
 " I am called the Witch of Rancho Sole- 
 dad," gravely replied the woman. " I am also 
 known to some as the Witch of the Deserts 
 of Chihuahua, and under that name a not 
 very enviable reputation has been fastened 
 upon me, of which you may have heard. It is 
 said by ignorant ones that in Chihuahua I 
 dwell in a dark cavern ; that I consort with 
 snakes and vultures and owls, and that the 
 beasts of the desert are my servants and do 
 ill deeds at my bidding. In the far south, in 
 Peru and in Chili, I am known by the name 
 of Raymeya ; but there also I am known as a 
 witch, and they call me the deathless one. It 
 is true that I know things that are not known 
 to many people ; but I trust that to you I need 
 not say that I am not a malignant sorceress, 
 and that I am not in league with the powers 
 of evil."
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SO LED AD. 67 
 
 " But your strange powers ? " 
 
 " Have you not heard of the astral body that 
 every human being has ? " replied the woman. 
 "That will explain the occurrences of this 
 night to you as far as I have time to explain 
 them now. It will not explain them, of course, 
 to any one who has mental power to endeavor 
 to trace things to their sources. Men see 
 great bodies moved by wires, and the thought- 
 less say it is done by electricity ; but what wise 
 man on the face of the earth can say what that 
 magic electricity really is ? A wise man once 
 saw an apple fall from its branch to the ground, 
 and he explained it by saying it was due to 
 the force of gravity ; but who among all the 
 wise of the world knows what is gravity ? So 
 in telling you of the attributes of the soul, 
 for the body is but clay I would be telling 
 you of things that you could not understand, 
 and that I myself do not understand farther 
 than to know that they are some of the myste- 
 rious truths of existence mysterious as all 
 truths are." 
 
 " But the half crazed Mexican ? And the 
 wild Indian ? Why do they have knowledge 
 that is denied to me ? Why may I not know 
 as much as a wild man ? " 
 
 " Speak not slightingly of wild men," said
 
 58 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 
 
 the woman gravely. " Odin (for there was in 
 reality such a man) was a wild man ; Moses 
 was a wild man, and likewise Mahomet wild 
 in the ways that the people of this day are 
 taught to call wild." 
 
 The woman was silent for a time, gazing 
 upon the reclining man with a half-smiling, 
 half-wistful manner. Suddenly she rose and 
 said : 
 
 " I think that some time I may see you 
 again and know you better, and perchance 
 you may come to know more of me. I know 
 that I must seem a mystery to you, and truly 
 much of mystery has been in my life. The 
 tale of my life is a strange tale stranger than 
 the wildest dreams of poets : and some time 
 1 may tell it all to you, but not to-night. But 
 know this : life is terrible, yet it is good to 
 have lived ; all things are mysteries, but out 
 of these mysteries will come knowledge and 
 truth; many things are fearful, but there is 
 nothing to fear. You and I and the people 
 we know and the deeds we do and the mys- 
 teries that come before us are all mere parts 
 in an infinite purpose a purpose that will 
 unfold itself as time and eternity go on, and 
 as it unfolds will fill us with wonder, with awe, 
 with love and devotion. For all things are
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLED AD. 69 
 
 good. They seem bad only because we do not 
 know their purpose. Fear not ! In this world, 
 and in all worlds, all is well with those who 
 learn to wait. And now farewell ! " 
 
 The woman witch, sorceress, spirit, what- 
 ever she was was gone ; the traveller was 
 alone in the dim room ; the languor of sleep 
 was stealing through his veins, and the moon 
 was going down and leaving the world in dark- 
 ness. The traveller slept till morning. When 
 he awoke he went to the outer room of the 
 house, where he found Ramon, the servant 
 preparing a breakfast for him. 
 
 The servant said that his master had gone 
 to a distant rancho upon a matter of business, 
 and as he was compelled to start early in the 
 morning he had not disturbed his guest to say 
 farewell. The traveller asked for Mape-ah-sas 
 the Indian, but the servant said curtly that he 
 too was gone ; and when the traveller asked 
 regarding the strange woman who had spent 
 the night there, the servant gazed at him 
 dumbly and professed not to understand. 
 
 The traveller ate his frugal breakfast, and as 
 he -could gain no further information, he 
 mounted his horse and set out to ride to the 
 little town of Amargo, which place was a long 
 day's journey away. He rode all day, not
 
 7 
 
 THE WITCH OF RANCHO SOLE DAD. 
 
 meeting a single person, and just as the sun 
 was setting and causing long shadows to fall 
 behind Archuleta Mountain, he came within 
 sight of the straggling village. Just before he 
 reached its outskirts, he overtook a solitary 
 horseman riding a jaded pony, whom he found, 
 upon coming up with him, to be Mape-ah-sas 
 the Ute. The traveller endeavored to talk to 
 the Indian, but Mape-ah-sas only gazed at him 
 in a dull, surly way, said " No sabe" turned his 
 pony down a by-road and galloped away, soon 
 being out of sight among the pines and 
 pifions.
 
 LOTOKAH AND THE GOLDEN 
 WOMAN.
 
 THE Indian agency of the allied tribes of 
 the Capota, Moache, and Weeminuchee Utes 
 is located in a picturesque part of the valley of 
 the little river in Southwestern Colorado, to 
 which still clings the old Spanish name of 
 Rio de los Pinos, the River of the Pines. The 
 little adobe huts and frame houses that consti- 
 tute the agency, stand in the narrowest part of 
 the valley, and high mesa walls rise from the 
 river on either side. Far away in the distance, 
 their crests showing high above the mesa lines, 
 can be seen the La Plata Mountains and the 
 mountains that hem in grim old Cumbres Pass. 
 
 The main building at the agency is a long, 
 huge affair built of logs, with a "lean-to" 
 addition of boards at either end. It looks like 
 
 73
 
 74 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 a fort, and indeed its walls were made thick 
 for good reasons. The doors of this building 
 open toward the river, and there is a platform 
 of rough boards that runs the entire length of 
 the structure. On a clear day, and the most 
 of the days are clear, with a crystalline clear- 
 ness not known to lands of lower altitude, 
 one can sit on this porch and look for miles up 
 and down the valley ; watch Indians on horse- 
 back, racing after colts or cattle ; and squaws, 
 tanning hides or cooking over rude tripods. 
 
 For a month the old log agency building 
 was my home. During the day I lived among 
 the Indians, listening to their strange tales of 
 magic, of battles and hunts of the golden long 
 ago, before the day of reservations and Indian 
 agents, and at night the month was March 
 we clustered about the big open wood-fire in 
 the doctor's quarters, and talked of the hun- 
 dred thousand things that isolated men with 
 time to spare can find to talk of. 
 
 The two artists who shared the outing with 
 me were working like mad, painting every- 
 thing in sight from sprawling pappooses to 
 dignified council meetings, and almost every 
 day I was astride a canny little black mare, 
 racing over the reservation now helping to 
 round up the refractory herd of an Indian,
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. *jt 
 
 now going with the doctor to see some sick 
 baby that was almost suffocated in a smoky 
 can-nee, and then just riding for the pure joy 
 of riding. That little black mare was nearer 
 human than any horse I ever knew ; she would 
 run for the sheer enjoyment of it, and she 
 could leap like a jack-rabbit. 
 
 One midnight found me sitting on the 
 agency porch smoking and wondering at the 
 beauty of the brilliant moonlight that filled the 
 valley. About two hundred yards from the 
 building was a cluster of can-nees, or tents, one 
 of them brilliantly lighted by means of a bright 
 wood fire, and sharp at midnight there went up 
 from this tent a chorus of as weird, unearthly 
 wails as I believe a white man has ever 
 listened to. I knew it to be some of the 
 " medicine-making " of the Indians, and I 
 thought indolently of going to the place to 
 ascertain if any of the Indians who were my 
 friends were there, and if I might witness the 
 ceremony, but I decided that I was too lazy to 
 move. 
 
 I sat so for half an hour, listening to the 
 wail that came from the medicine tent ; and 
 just because I had nothing better to do, I was 
 going to turn in, when, without a sound, old 
 Lo-To-Kah stood before me. He was dressed
 
 7 6 LO-TO-KAH, AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 in full native costume ; an eagle feather was 
 in his hair, and he was wrapped in a rich 
 Navajo blanket. He \vas not known to be on 
 the reservation, and I had not expected to see 
 him. 
 
 " Lo-To-Kah ! " I said in surprise, " where 
 do you come from ? Why are you here ? " 
 
 " I am here, O friend, for two things. 
 One is to see you, for Jose' Amarillo met me 
 in the Blue Mountains and told me. And the 
 other thing I am here for is to be present at 
 the chant of the Golden Woman. Do you not 
 hear the chant the medicine men are making ? 
 That loudest voice is that of Charvys, the fat 
 pig who would not know any difference between 
 the glorious Golden Woman and the meanest 
 squaw who runs naked on the Mojave Desert." 
 
 " I hear the chant," I answered, " but what 
 is it all about? And who is the Golden 
 Woman ? " 
 
 The old man seemed not to hear me, and 
 he gazed away down the valley as though he 
 saw something. As though speaking to him- 
 self he said : 
 
 "She of the golden hair! The Golden 
 Woman with the heart of gold ! Ah ! she 
 was more beautiful than the sun in the sky on 
 a May morning ! "
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 77 
 
 " But who is she, or was she ? " I asked. 
 
 " It is a long story, O friend of mine, and the 
 night grows old," answered Lo-To-Kah. "To- 
 morrow you will ride with the mah-soot-quickct I 
 to the Rio Florida to witness an Indian cere- 
 mony performed by old Mape-ah-sas of the 
 squinting eyes. It is better for you to sleep 
 to-night than to listen to the old tale of the 
 Golden Woman. Another time I will tell the 
 tale to you." 
 
 He made a pillow of his blanket, and 
 leaned restfully against the log wall of the 
 building. After smoking for a time in silence 
 he said : 
 
 " The tale of the Golden Woman is an old 
 tale of my nation. It is a true tale, and the 
 things of which it tells happened in the old 
 time of the long, long ago before I was fully 
 a man ; before I had ever seen Zeetah, who 
 became my wife. Eighteen summers had come 
 into my life, and that was all, and I was but a 
 boy when the Golden Woman was brought a 
 captive to one of the encampments of my 
 people. She was tied to a horse, riding astride 
 like a man, and she was so weary that she 
 swooned from faintness and fatigue as soon 
 as she was lifted from the saddle. I have but 
 
 1 White physician.
 
 j 8 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 to close my eyes, and in memory I can see 
 that beautiful woman again. I can see her 
 fair face, her eyes as blue as the arch of the 
 sky, and her long silken hair that was of the 
 glorious color of molten gold. There was a 
 time, too, just a fleeting bit of time, scarcely 
 long enough to be remembered, when I 
 gazed upon her and was almost sorry my skin 
 was red instead of white ; for I thought if I 
 had been white and had been of the blood of 
 her race, I might have won her love. Such 
 thoughts were foolish thoughts, amigo ; just 
 stray, half-formed thoughts that wandered un- 
 asked into the empty head of a boy. And, too, 
 that was before Zeetah had ever been seen by 
 me." 
 
 The old man ceased speaking. He leaned 
 his head back against the wall of the old 
 agency building, a dreamy look came into his 
 eyes, and he gazed down the valley. His 
 cigar went out. I lit a match and offered it to 
 him, but he did not see it. A belated Indian 
 swain, returning to his tent from some amorous 
 expedition, passed us and spoke ; but Lo-To- 
 Kah did not stir. His mind was wandering 
 back to that old time, almost three-quarters of 
 a century gone, when he had been a youth and 
 had known her who was called the Golden
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. >jg 
 
 Woman. It seemed strange to me that Lo-To- 
 Kah, the savage nobleman who had been a very 
 knight in his loyal devotion to the one woman 
 who had been his wife, should lose himself in 
 a flood of memories of a woman whom, I began 
 to believe, he had loved in secret. He had 
 had but one wife ; and if a lurking love slept 
 in his heart through all the long years that lay 
 between his youth and his old age, it was a 
 secret that he would not confess, and would 
 not even give a hint of unless in some un- 
 guarded moment. After a time he roused 
 himself and said : 
 
 " Pardon me, friend I was dreaming with- 
 out being asleep. We old men, when we live 
 past the time that is allotted for action, live 
 over the years again in memory, and I was 
 living over again a time that was old before 
 you were born. I will now go on with my tale : 
 
 " When I was a boy, and esteemed by some 
 of the vainglorious warriors as being too young 
 for battle, a party of our warriors set out on a 
 raid against a roving band of Kiowas that 
 were journeying beyond Tierra Amarillo. I 
 desired to go with the band, and could have 
 gone, except that Mirdo, who was a sub-chief 
 and had command of the expedition, said that 
 I should not. This Mirdo had longed to pos-
 
 So LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 sess my mother when she was a girl, and be- 
 cause she would not wed him, he hated her 
 and my father and myself. Mirdo, who was 
 on his horse, stood up in his stirrups, pointed 
 his goad at me and said : 
 
 " ' I go forth to lead men, and not children, 
 to battle. Yon Lo-To-Kah is called a Ute, 
 because he was born to a Ute woman ; but he 
 acts like no Ute. He is now old enough to be 
 a man, to have lovers, to cheat slow old men 
 out of the kisses of their young wives, and to 
 play in the games of kan-yitte, where men win 
 horses and blankets. He is not a man in love 
 or games, and he will not be a man in war. 
 He cannot go with any band I lead.' 
 
 " I stood in silence, my arms crossed upon 
 my breast, and listened to the talk of Mirdo. 
 And as he talked I promised to myself that a 
 time should be when I would hold the throat 
 of Mirdo in my grasp and make him eat his 
 words and beg for his life like a craven. But 
 I spoke no word in answer ; for an Indian, as 
 you know, can bide his time when he promises 
 himself to be revenged upon his enemies. 
 And Mirdo and his band rode away, their 
 feathers streaming in the morning sunlight, 
 and I was left in the camp with the women, 
 the children, and the old men.
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 83 
 
 " It was evening when our warriors returned 
 an evening two weeks after they had gone 
 forth, an hour before the going down of the 
 sun, when from far over that mesa which 
 lies toward the cruel heights of Cumbres, we 
 heard a cry of ' ho-la-ho-ho ! ' The cry was a 
 cry of victory. Soon the men came in sight, 
 riding one ahead of another. Both men and 
 horses showed the signs of long travel and 
 hard riding. Mirdo rode at the head, two 
 fresh Kiowa scalps flying from the shoulder of 
 his hunting-shirt ; and by his side, strapped to 
 her horse and riding astride like a man, was 
 the fairest and most beautiful woman that ever 
 trod the earth in the valley of the River of the 
 Pines. I liked not Mirdo, and I expected to 
 hear him insult me ; but I stood among the 
 tents to greet the warriors. Mirdo rode up 
 with a flourish, dismounted, and called some 
 old women to come and unbind the woman. 
 When she was unbound she swooned, but she 
 soon recovered, for she was a woman who was 
 brave. 
 
 " ' Who is the woman with the golden hair, 
 Mirdo ? ' asked an old man. 
 
 " ' She is my captive,' replied Mirdo. ' The 
 Kiowas took her from the Navajos, and I took 
 her from the Kiowas. She is mine to keep
 
 84 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 my tent ; she is mine to enjoy ; she is mine to 
 work for me. I am Mirdo, and I am a man 
 without fear a man who deserves the most 
 beautiful woman in the land.' 
 
 " So boasted Mirdo ; and as he boasted he 
 looked upon the woman with his greedy gaze, 
 and as he looked she cowered and shrunk. 
 Then I spoke to the woman, asking her name 
 and whence she came. The woman could not 
 understand the Ute speech ; but she seemed 
 to feel that I was her friend, and she came 
 close to me and held out her hands to me in 
 appeal. I could speak the Navajo tongue 
 also, and Mirdo could not; and I spoke to the 
 woman in that speech, and she answered and 
 asked me to protect her. I gave answer that 
 I would protect her even with my life. And 
 then Mirdo took me roughly by the shoulder 
 saying : 
 
 " ' Speak not to my woman, you squaw ! 
 What ! Do you think to play with her and 
 prattle to her. Get you to your mother's tent ! ' 
 
 " Mirdo stood leering into my eyes ; and as 
 soon as he finished, I shot my clenched fist 
 into his face and felled him as the blow of a 
 stone axe would fell a sheep. He rose to his 
 feet and drew his knife. The men caught 
 him and took it away, and said that Utes must
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 85 
 
 fight, not like enemies, but with their naked 
 hands. Mirdo cursed, for he was a coward at 
 heart ; but he liked not to be humiliated be- 
 fore the woman he had captured, and he came 
 on. It was the first time I had ever fought a 
 man. When Mirdo came within reach of my 
 fist, I sent him sprawling in the sand again, 
 and again and again, as fast as he rose. Then, 
 after I had almost knocked the breath from 
 his body, while he was lying in the dirt, I put 
 my foot upon his neck, I spat upon him, I 
 threw dust in his eyes, and then I gathered 
 him up as a man might gather a log of wood, 
 and I carried him to the river and threw him 
 in. The water was deep enough to wet the 
 garments of Mirdo and to fill his eyes and 
 mouth. When he came up, I said : 
 
 " ' O Mirdo ! you coyote, who call yourself 
 a chief, look upon the Golden Woman, who 
 has four times been made a captive. First 
 this woman was taken by the Navajos, and 
 because they took her they had the right to do 
 with her as they liked. Then she was taken 
 by the Kiowas, who had the same right for 
 the same reason. Then she was taken by you, 
 and the rights of the other thieves became 
 your rights. But now she is taken by me, 
 mine is the right to do with her as I choose ;
 
 36 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 and it will fare ill with any man who dares to 
 so much as lay his ringer upon her.' 
 
 " Mirdo stood glowering at me, his bleeding 
 lip hanging and a look of murder in his eyes, 
 I had not intended to strike him again, but 
 the sight of his big brute face was a tempta- 
 tion that was too strong ; and, just as he was 
 ready to snarl some reply to the speech I had 
 made, I struck him, breaking his nose. 
 
 " Then Mirdo slunk away, cursing me as he 
 went. He vowed that he would leave the 
 tribe and lay in wait for me in the forest. 
 But an old pwu-au-gut, the one who was the 
 teacher of old Mape-ah-sas, whom you know, 
 said to Mirdo that he was a coward, and that 
 if he ever sought to do me wrong save in a fair 
 fight or open battle, he would cause the evil 
 spirit to haunt him all the days of his life. 
 You know, amigo, that no Ute would incur the 
 danger of a pwu-au-gufs curse ; and I knew 
 that I was safe. 
 
 " Then the old men said the woman was 
 mine and that I had fairly won her. I took 
 her to my mother's tent, but with no thought 
 of making her my slave or my wife as Mirdo 
 would have done. I told her that she was 
 safe from all danger, and then I sat down on
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN, g* 
 
 the ground before the tent and thought. I 
 tried to think of Mirdo and the battle I had 
 fought with him ; but I could not think of 
 him, because I was thinking of the Golden 
 Woman who had come into my life so strangely. 
 I sat there all the night, keeping guard over 
 the tent, and wondering what the days of the 
 future would bring forth. 
 
 " From that time on life was different to me. 
 Before then I had been a lonely, silent boy, 
 wandering in the forests or sitting aside while 
 the men and boys played games. But it was 
 not long until the Golden Woman became my 
 friend and then my companion ; and we talked 
 to each other and wandered together in the 
 forests, and rode ponies from one encamp- 
 ment of my people to another. Not at first, 
 of course ; for at first the woman was timid 
 and half afraid. She was afraid of my people, 
 and also afraid of me, for she knew I could 
 make her my slave or my wife if I cared so to 
 do. But she besought me not to take her to 
 wife, and I placed my hand in hers and told 
 her I would guard her, and that her life should 
 be lived as she desired. It was after that 
 after she had thanked me and kissed my hand 
 that she became my companion. 
 
 "A few times the woman was affronted.
 
 gS LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 One burly man of my tribe, when drunk upon 
 Mexican mescal, attempted to embrace her. 
 I was sitting in front of our tents at the time, 
 fitting heads to arrows ; but her first cry took 
 me to her side, and when I had been there 
 but a little time the brute lay upon the ground 
 in a stupor that came very near being death. 
 I was mad with anger, and after I had felled 
 the man to the ground and knocked him 
 senseless, I sprang upon his body and trampled 
 his face in the dirt. Then I took the Golden 
 Woman in my arms, as a mother might take a 
 babe, and bore her to my tent. When we 
 were inside the tent, she placed one of her 
 soft arms about my neck ; she drew my face 
 down to hers and kissed me, crying as she did 
 so. Her kiss thrilled me through and through, 
 and I was in danger of forgetting my promise. 
 And I told her if she desired me to keep the 
 promises I had given, she must kiss me no 
 more. It seemed for a moment as though 
 she, too, were tired of the promise ; for she 
 held my hand in hers, and looked wistfully 
 into my eyes. 
 
 " After the fear of my people left her, it 
 came about that she would go among them. 
 At first she went only to the women and chil- 
 dren ; but it was not long until she went
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 89 
 
 among all, even the chiefs and medicine men. 
 When a child was born in some cold tent on a 
 hillside, the Golden Woman was there. When 
 a woman or a child was sick, there was the 
 woman ; and when a plague came upon our 
 people, when the men died in their tracks as 
 they stood in the camp ground, and little 
 children were daily found dead in the arms of 
 their dead mothers, then it was that the 
 people of the Ute nation learned to love the 
 glorious being whom we named the Golden 
 Woman. She comforted the sorrowing, cared 
 for the sick, and prepared the dead for burial. 
 She seemed sleepless and tireless ; and every 
 hour of the day and night while the plague 
 lasted she would be seen flitting from one 
 tent to another, making tasteful things for the 
 sick ones to eat, and bathing the hot brows 
 of those who were in the throes of death. 
 Our people believed she was a medicine- 
 woman sent from the bright land that lies in 
 the sun. Then some men came from the other 
 Ute tribes, and they took home to their people 
 the tale of this Golden Woman, whose heart 
 was said to be of pure gold. And thus it 
 came to be that this woman was looked upon 
 by us almost as a goddess, and that feasts and 
 chanting are yet given in her honor.
 
 go LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 " There are not many secrets among In- 
 dians who live in one encampment, and the 
 people knew that the woman was not my wife. 
 I had another can-nee made, joining the one 
 my mother had before, and I lived in the outer 
 one. 
 
 " In time I taught her the Ute speech, and 
 in time she told me something of her life. She 
 was born in a great city in the East, and had 
 gone to the West to be a missionary among 
 the Indians. She first lived with a band of 
 peaceful Navajos, and learned their speech ; 
 then she went to El Paso del Norte for rest. 
 Between El Paso del Norte and Ciudad Santa 
 Fe she had been captured by a roving band of 
 Navajos ; but before they had reached their 
 camp they were beaten in battle with Kiowas, 
 and the Kiowas had taken her. The Kiowas 
 started for their own country and were sur- 
 rounded by the Utes under Mirdo. In this 
 way she had been stolen by one tribe after 
 another, and so swiftly that no harm had be- 
 fallen her. 
 
 " More than this the woman did not tell me, 
 thinking because I was an Indian I would not 
 understand. But I learned in time that she 
 had journeyed to the wild lands of the West 
 because of an almost hopeless hope that she
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMEN, gj 
 
 might find her lover, who had come to the West 
 and had never been heard of again. 
 
 " But as time went on, the Golden Woman 
 grew silent as she went about her work of 
 healing the sick. I fancied that she tired of 
 dwelling in my can-nee, and when I asked her, 
 she said it would please her if she might dwell 
 alone. It is not well for a woman to dwell 
 alone, especially if the woman be young and 
 as beautiful as a spirit, and I would not give 
 my consent; but an old Navajo woman, who 
 had been taken captive, and who had grown 
 too old to work, also desired to live apart 
 from the others. So the two women, the fair 
 young one and the wrinkled old one, had a 
 hut built in a sheltered part of the valley of 
 the Rio Florida, and there they took up their 
 abode. They tilled some land, and hunters 
 brought them much game, and they did not 
 want for anything. The other people did not 
 at first note the change that was taking place 
 in the Golden Woman ; but I, who knew her 
 as well as though she were my sister or daugh- 
 ter, knew that she was becoming crazed. 
 
 " After this the years sped on, and I lived 
 my life as it came to me. I met Zeetah, and 
 took her to be my wife. I became a chief 
 among my people, and much honor came to
 
 02 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 me. My mother died, my brother was killed 
 by the Apaches, and many adventures of 
 many kinds befell me. Often I journeyed 
 to the ends of the lands that were known 
 to my people, and often the time was long 
 between my visits to these valleys. But 
 whenever I came I went to the hut of the 
 Golden Woman going alone, as Zeetah did 
 not like to go with me. And always I found 
 the woman living as I had left her, alone with 
 the old Navajo woman. The hair of the 
 Golden Woman became longer and more 
 golden, her eyes seemed to become larger 
 and more blue, and her fair form grew 
 into the very perfection of loveliness. But 
 even the people who cared little for beauty 
 or goodness in women came to see that she 
 was becoming crazed ; and then she was safe 
 for a certainty, for no Indian will harm those 
 who are demented. 
 
 " One time I took my band of people and 
 went into the West, and for almost two years 
 we did not see the Valley of the Pines. After 
 a time we began, very slowly, to make our 
 way homeward again, but going only by short 
 marches, and hunting and fishing by the way. 
 While we were encamped in a valley in the 
 Blue Mountains, a man came to our camp,
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. Q^ 
 
 being on his way from this valley to visit one 
 of our tribes in the place that is now Utah. 
 And when he visited us he told me that the 
 Golden Woman was sick in her hut, and that 
 the old Navajo woman was also sick and had 
 lost her mind. Then I told Zeetah what I in- 
 tended doing, and I saddled my fleetest horse 
 and set out for this place, hoping to see the 
 woman again before she died, or perchance to 
 save her life. 
 
 " I had not been to the hogan of the two 
 women for two years, and I scarcely knew the 
 place as I came to it. The building in which 
 the women lived was somewhat like the hogans 
 of the Navajos or the ivick-e-ups of the Utes, but 
 it was also better than any hogan or wick-e-iep 
 I ever saw. Wild flowers were trained before 
 the building, wild vines clambered over it, and 
 behind it was a little irrigated field, in which 
 corn and other things were growing. When I 
 came to the place I dismounted and went with- 
 in. Upon a shelf-like bed built into the wall lay 
 the old Navajo woman, dead. And seated on 
 the floor, in the middle of the room, her 
 wealth of golden hair falling all about her, sat 
 the Golden Woman, moaning and rocking her- 
 self to and fro. I stood in the door and gazed 
 upon her, and it was long before she heeded
 
 96 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 me. In time, though, she saw me, and smiled 
 a sad, sad smile that almost broke my heart. 
 And she said : 
 
 " ' So you have returned to me, Lo-To-Kah. 
 Did you find Hugh ? ' 
 
 " I had never heard of any man named 
 Hugh, and I knew not what answer to make. 
 I stood in silence, trying to think, and the 
 woman got up from her seat on the floor. 
 She came and stood by my side and took my 
 hand in hers. 
 
 " ' Lo-To-Kah, I have been crazed. For 
 how long I do not know, but I know that 
 when last a glimmer of reason and memory 
 was left to me the Navajo woman was living 
 and was well ; and now you see she lies dead. 
 It must be that I am very ill, and it may be 
 that I too will soon lie dead in this little hut. 
 Now, when I am dead, I desire that you go 
 forth and journey among the white-faced 
 peoples until you find a man named Hugh ; 
 and when you find him, tell him that Helen 
 died with his name on her lips, and that the 
 love of him was the only love that ever was in 
 her heart.' 
 
 " She sank down on the floor again, and 
 before I could think of an answer to make, I 
 heard a shout from outside, and upon looking
 
 LO-TO-KAII AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 97 
 
 I saw a small party of Navajo warriors riding 
 toward the wlck-e-up. I did not fear the 
 Navajos, for our tribes were then at peace. 
 And when they came nearer I saw that a white 
 man was with them. I was glad of this ; for 
 I knew not how to set about the task of find- 
 ing this Hugh, and thought perhaps the white 
 man could tell me. I told the Golden Woman 
 to look, but at first she paid no heed, and she 
 would pay no heed until the party of riders 
 had drawn up their horses and stopped before 
 the door. Then the woman rose to her feet ; 
 she brushed her long hair out of her eyes, and 
 with me she went out. As she stepped out- 
 side the door I saw the white man leap from 
 his horse with a great shout. The woman 
 saw him the same instant, and stopped in her 
 tracks as though she had been stricken with a 
 palsy. The two white-faced people stood in 
 mute, wondering silence for an instant ; then 
 the man called out the name ' Helen.' He 
 sprang forward and clasped the woman in his 
 arms, and all the time he wept as a mother 
 might weep who had found a long lost-child. 
 I thought at first the man might be her father, 
 for he seemed older than she ; but he was not 
 her father he was her lover. The woman 
 nestled in his arms, and then for the first time
 
 gg LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 in long years I saw the light of perfect reason 
 shining in her eyes; and for the first time 
 since I knew her I saw her with a happy look. 
 
 "And then he saw me, and at once he 
 stood as straight and firm as though he were 
 made of stone. ' Is this woman your wife ? ' 
 he asked in a fierce tone. 
 
 " ' Is she your wife ? ' I asked in turn. 
 
 " The man flushed hot and red ; for a mo- 
 ment he did not speak, and then he hung his 
 head and said : ' No, God forgive me, she is 
 not. You have as much right to her as I.' 
 
 "'Why, Hugh, what is all this talk of 
 right ? ' asked the woman, looking curiously 
 into his face. 
 
 " The face of the man hung lower and lower ; 
 his cheeks grew first red and then white, and 
 he said, ' It means, dear one, that I gave you 
 up as dead, and married another woman.' 
 
 " And then the Golden Woman lay on the 
 ground at his feet, in a faint that seemed like 
 death. And the man took her face in his 
 hands, and kissed her lips, and wept over her 
 as one weeps over the dead. It was a sad 
 thing to see, friend, sadder than I, at that 
 time, could understand. For then I knew 
 only the ways of the Indians, and it seemed 
 to me that if the woman loved the man, and
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN U'OMAN. 99 
 
 the man loved her better than the other wo- 
 man, who was his wife, that he could cast off 
 his wife and take the Golden Woman in her 
 stead. 
 
 "In time the woman recovered, and it 
 seemed to me that the shifting light of lunacy 
 was again beginning to come into her eyes ; 
 and I, knowing no better, stood by their sides 
 as they talked, and I learned that the man who 
 was named Hugh had been the lover of the 
 woman, Helen, and was to have taken her for 
 his wife. He was an officer of the white- 
 skinned soldiers, and had gone into the West, 
 and the report had gone back to his home that 
 he was dead. Then it was that the first touch 
 of lunacy fell upon the woman, but she did 
 not believe him dead ; and saying she was go- 
 ing as a missionary among the Indians, she 
 went to the West to seek him. She was capt- 
 ured, as I have told you. And the man, who 
 had not been killed, in time returned to his 
 home in the East, and found that the woman 
 had gone ; and he believed her dead, and he 
 had married another woman. He told the 
 blue-eyed Helen that the woman who was his 
 wife was cold and proud and haughty, and 
 that he did not love her and she did not love 
 him.
 
 \r>QLO-TO-KAH, AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 " ' But she is your wife,' said Helen. 
 
 " ' Yes, God pity me, she is my wife,' an- 
 swered the man, his eyes upon the ground. 
 
 " What more they said I do not know, for I 
 went with the men to help bury the old Navajo 
 woman ; and while we were thus at work, the 
 white man and woman talked, and the Navajos 
 talked to me. They told me that the white 
 man was a man who had first come to their 
 country to fight them, but that he had become 
 their friend, and that more than a year before 
 he had come among them to live, telling 
 them only that he was not happy in his own 
 home. And I knew that he had left his wife, 
 and would never call her wife again, whether 
 Helen married him or not. 
 
 " When we had buried the old woman and 
 returned to \hehogan, the man and the woman 
 were still talking, both speaking in the Navajo 
 tongue, which had come, from long usage, to 
 be the same to them as the tongue of their 
 own people. And I, knowing the thing that 
 was troubling them, asked if a runner might 
 not be sent to the white man's home to learn 
 if his wife still lived, in order that he might 
 take the Golden Woman to wife. The man 
 said that could not be done ; then he mused 
 a while, and said to me :
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLD Eft 
 
 " ' Do you know the trails that lead to 
 Santa Fd?' 
 
 " ' I do,' I replied. 
 
 " The man took a paper-book from his 
 pocket, tore out a leaf, wrote upon it, and 
 asked me how much gold I would require of 
 him to carry that to Santa Fe*. I replied 
 that I would not do it for gold, but would do 
 it for the Golden Woman. He told me the 
 paper was for a man who lived in Santa Fe', 
 and was to ask him to write to the East and 
 learn if the woman who was his wife still 
 lived. I was told to give it to the man, and 
 then in six weeks' time the man said he would 
 send to Santa 6 again, and get a letter that 
 would let him know what he sought to know. 
 I took the leaf of paper and said I would go. 
 and that I would also tarry in Santa Ft?, if he 
 desired, until the answer came out of the East. 
 
 " ' But the time will be so long,' said the 
 man, and there was a look of great yearning 
 in his eyes. ' The time will be long, Helen,' 
 he continued, ' and when the answer comes I 
 fear it will have no hope in it for us. We are 
 here in the West, away from our people and 
 away from the things they know and do. Let 
 us abide here, among these Indians, who are 
 our friends, and let us spend the remainder
 
 \QlLO-TO-K'AH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 of our days in peace, which we have never yet 
 known. Let me write to Sante Fe', or send 
 word by a runner, saying we are both dead. 
 Then let us live here in this little valley, alone 
 with each other and love.' 
 
 " ' It cannot be ; it must not be,' said the 
 woman. But as she spoke her voice was very 
 low, and her eyes were cast upon the floor. 
 
 " ' Do you love me ? ' asked the man. 
 
 " Friend, in the eyes of a woman was never 
 seen such a look as was in the eyes of the 
 woman, Helen, when she looked upon her 
 lover. She took his face between her hands ; 
 she drew his head down upon her breast and 
 kissed him, and she answered no word. 
 
 " Then the man said : ' Helen, I believe 
 my wife is living, and I believe there is no 
 way that I can have your love. I think it is 
 best for me to go away from the Indians, with 
 whom I have cast my lot and go back to my 
 wife and my people, and be an honest man if 
 I can. But I cannot go away unless your love 
 is mine, if but for one fleeting hour. Think ! 
 An hour is so little out of a long, lonely life- 
 time. Cannot we live this night, just this one 
 short night, as though we were the only two 
 people upon the earth as though I had never 
 lost you ? '
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. ^^ 
 
 " A great, yearning, hungry look came into 
 the woman's eyes such a look as I never saw 
 before, and but once since ; the time since 
 being when I saw that look in the eyes of 
 Raymeya. The woman again said, ' No,' but 
 she spoke so faintly that scarcely could her 
 voice be heard. 
 
 " ' But think,' continued the white man, 
 ' that we may never see each other again. 
 We came together to-day as two people from 
 two graves ; neither of us hoped to see the 
 other again in life. Let us forget, justfor one 
 short day let us forget everything but that 
 we live and love.' 
 
 " The woman's head was pillowed upon the 
 shoulder of the man, and the man had won 
 the contest that it gave the woman so much 
 joy to lose. And the Navajos and myself 
 went down the valley and made a shelter of 
 the bushes of chaparral, and we left the two 
 white people alone. 
 
 " The next day I was told that the white 
 man was going to send one of his Navajos to 
 Santa Fe, and that the woman desired me to 
 stay with her until the courier came back. I 
 talked to her but she did not hear half I said, 
 and she seemed so happy that she would smile 
 when no one was speaking to her. The time
 
 \0* ( LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 went on thus for a long, long time ; and then 
 the white man, as I had done once before, 
 seemed to have become the companion and 
 friend of the woman. They gathered flowers 
 together, and wandered in the woods hand in 
 hand, like two children; but there was little 
 talk of love between them, for this the woman 
 would not permit until the courier re- 
 turned. 
 
 " As the time drew near for the courier to 
 return, both the man and the woman became 
 troubled ; and often they would anxiously gaze 
 away over the mesas as though hoping, yet 
 fearing, for the return of the runner and for 
 the news he would bring. I sent a runner to 
 my camp to tell Zeetah why I should be away ; 
 and although I greatly respected the two white 
 people, I thought they were fools. For if they 
 had been wise, they would have lived and 
 loved, and forgotten the East, and paid no 
 heed to the going and coming of runners. 
 And when the time came for the return of the 
 runner, I too began to grow restless ; and I 
 would go far down the valley, many miles be- 
 low where the rancho of Sevaro now is, to try 
 to meet him. And it chanced that I met the 
 runner fully two hours' ride away from the
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 105 
 
 " ' Ho ! Navajo, what news ? ' I asked as 
 soon as the man came near. 
 
 " ' The wife of the white man lives,' replied 
 the Navajo. 
 
 "The reply so angered me that I almost 
 struck the man, for I knew how it would grieve 
 the Golden Woman and the man she loved. 
 You know, friend, that only Indians with evil 
 hearts will lie. But at that time I resolved to 
 lie, or to induce the Navajo to lie, which was 
 as bad. And I said to the Navajo, whom I 
 knew well : 
 
 " ' Do you know the cayuse that is in my 
 herd the one with the glossy hair, that can 
 run like a deer and leap like an antelope ?' 
 
 " ' I know that pony,' said the man. ' If it 
 were mine, many are the blankets I would win 
 with it in races.' 
 
 " ' It is yours,' I replied, ' if you will forget 
 this foolish message that was told to you by 
 the white man in Santa Fe', and will tell the 
 white man and the Golden Woman that the 
 wife in the East is dead.' 
 
 " ' But the writing that I carry will tell the 
 truth,' said the Navajo, his eyes shining at 
 thought of my cayuse. 
 
 " ' Tear up the writing and say you lost it,' 
 said I. A strange thins: was that I did not
 
 lo (^LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 feel like a mean man, even when I advised 
 such things. 
 
 " And the Navajo tore up the writing and 
 then galloped to the hogan with his lying mes- 
 sage. And when I returned I saw two happier 
 people than I had ever seen before. Food 
 was cooked and we all partook of it ; but 
 while we were eating we heard the sound of a 
 horse's hoofs, and a rider stopped at the door. 
 The Navajo looked frightened, and whispered 
 to me that the new-comer was a half-breed 
 courier from Santa Fe'. The man gave a letter 
 to Hugh, and when he read it he said : 
 
 " ' This is another message saying my wife 
 is dead, and saying the news had been learned 
 after my own courier had started on his 
 return.' 
 
 " It seemed strange to Hugh and Helen 
 that two messages, each alike, should be sent 
 so near together, and yet one to say the news 
 was learned between the going of the couriers. 
 But they were so happy that they heeded little, 
 and I gave the cayuse to the Navajo anyhow, 
 for he had done what he could to earn it." 
 
 Lo-To-Kah pulled a gold hunting-case watch 
 from some fold or pocket in his garments, 
 looked at it leisurely, and asked me for a 
 match.
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. Io y 
 
 " But the Golden Woman ? " I asked. 
 " What became of her ? " 
 
 " She is dead," answered the old man, 
 lapsing into the stolidity of his race. 
 
 "But what befell her before she died? 
 Come, tell me the remainder of her story." 
 
 " I knew a man once, a Jicarilla Apache, 
 who was as crazy in his desire to eat wild 
 honey as you are crazy to hear every word of 
 even the longest stories," said Lo-To-Kah 
 smiling. " But I will tell you the little there 
 is yet to tell. The man and the woman talked 
 long about returning to their own land and 
 their own people ; but the wilderness, the 
 forests, and the wild life have many charms 
 for those who have had sore hearts, and they 
 like not to return to the clanging cities and 
 the unwise ways of their kind. And Hugh, 
 the white soldier, and Helen, the Golden 
 Woman, agreed with each other that they 
 would abide in the wild lands of the West. 
 They went away that night, telling me not to 
 say that I knew aught of their going ; and I 
 did not learn more of them for many long 
 years. My people believed that Helen had 
 been an enchanted woman, and that she had 
 vanished in the air and gone to her home in 
 the sun. I said nothing to change their be-
 
 IOS LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 lief ; and they began the chant of the Golden 
 Woman, and the custom has lasted through 
 all the years since then. 
 
 " After that time I knew no more of the 
 Golden Woman for ten long years. Then I 
 was riding alone, going to a great medicine 
 ceremony on the river Gila, to which all men 
 must go alone. While I was riding across the 
 desert I came to a fertile little valley, hidden 
 away among cliffs, from which I saw smoke 
 arising. I thought it must be the encampment 
 of some wandering Indians, and I approached 
 it with caution.' And when I rode nearer to 
 the place I saw in the valley a house built of 
 stone, and it was surrounded by fields of corn 
 and melons and trees. And I rode to the 
 house, and upon a porch that was covered 
 with the boughs of trees, there sat a man and 
 a woman. The man was Hugh, the white 
 soldier, and the woman was Helen, the Golden 
 Woman. They were glad to see me, and I 
 was treated like a chief returning from a long 
 absence. But I was grieved to note that the 
 woman was again partially insane. She knew 
 me, she knew her husband as well as ever; 
 but she had forgotten many things that took 
 place in the East. The man told me that they 
 had builded that rancho and lived there alone,
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE GOLDEN WOMAN. 
 
 109 
 
 but that once each year they went to Santa 
 Fe or some other Mexican town for supplies. 
 And he said that he was happier, living alone 
 with his wife in the wilderness, than he would 
 have been if he had been a king, and had not 
 had her with him. And I believe I under- 
 stood, in a dim way, how this might be a true 
 thing that he said."
 
 LO-TOKAH AND THE WITCH.
 
 LOTO-KAH/^THE WITCH 
 
 ONE hot summer day I was leisurely ex- 
 ploring a quaint old Indian pueblo in New 
 Mexico. It seemed to me that the hands of 
 time had been turned back a few centuries, 
 and that I was living in the olden age, when 
 men were either hunters, tillers of the soil, or 
 herders of flocks. In little mud-walled fields 
 men were trimming their vines ; far out on the 
 mesas could be seen the browsing flocks, each 
 attended by one or two cotton-clad herders ; 
 and coming up from the winding acequias 
 were women and girls, each bearing upon her 
 head a large water-jar. In time I became 
 tired, and was resting in the shade of an adobe 
 wall, when I caught sight of a horseman rid- 
 
 "3
 
 114 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 ing toward the pueblo. Before he was near 
 enough for me to discern his features, I could 
 tell by his costume that he was no Pueblo 
 Indian ; and as he rode through the narrow 
 streets and came into the bare little plaza, I 
 recognized in him my old friend, Lo-To-Kah 
 he to whom I am indebted for so many strange 
 tales of the Indians. He was very old, but 
 he sat as erect on his horse as any warrior in 
 the prime of life. When he saw me, he rode 
 to my side and called out : 
 
 "Ho, friend vagrant Merikotch that you 
 are! I come upon you in all places. I am 
 glad to fall in with you this day for I have 
 ridden alone over many weary miles of the 
 desert, and the face of a friend is a welcome 
 sight to lonesome eyes. To see you brings 
 back memories of the days when I wandered, 
 far from my people, in the strange places of 
 the world ; and I love to tell you the old tales 
 of the days that are gone, for in telling them 
 I live them over again in memory. To-night, 
 after I have eaten and rested, I will tell you a 
 tale of one of whom you asked me long ago 
 Raymeya, the witch. When you asked of her 
 before, I replied not; but I have seen that 
 
 1 White man.
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. nr 
 
 woman again, and to-night I will tell you of 
 her. With whom do you abide in this place ? " 
 
 I led the way to the house of Ho-leka, and 
 Lo-To-Kah, who was well known there, was 
 received as a welcome and honored guest. 
 Food was spread, after which tobacco and 
 corn leaves were brought; and then our old 
 host and his family clustered about the room 
 and listened to the talk of the old wanderer 
 until far into the night. Then, one by one, 
 they went to their couches, until all were gone 
 but Lo-To-Kah and myself. When we were 
 left alone the old man sat in silence for a long 
 time, and then he said : 
 
 " Now, O friend of mine, will I tell you of 
 Raymeya, the witch. And, as with all the 
 tales I have told you, I enjoin you not to give 
 it in books to the white-skinned people until 
 after I am dead. I am very old now: nty 
 blood is cold and my heart beats slowly ; it 
 will not be long till you are free to give the 
 tales to the people of your kind the white 
 race of unbelievers, who will say that the tales 
 are lies. 
 
 " I am just come from Moqui, the land 
 once known to the whites by the name of 
 Tusayan, where I went to assist in the dread 
 dance of the snakes. Although not a Mo-
 
 jjg LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 quino, I am a priest of the Antelope Order, 
 and I was versed in the mysteries of the 
 snake-worship before thirty summers had come 
 into my life. The spirits of birth gave me a 
 wandering foot, and many times have I been 
 absent from the snake-dance because I was 
 journeying in the far places of the world. 
 But I went to the dance this year because it 
 is likely to be the last one I shall ever see. 
 My hold on life is now so feeble that when I 
 close my eyes in sleep I know not whether I 
 shall awake in this world of trouble or in the 
 bright land of peace that lies beyond the 
 grave. At the snake-dance this year I saw 
 Raymeya, the witch, and I say to you that 
 she seemed as young and as wondrously fair as 
 she did at a time that is now more than fifty 
 years in the past a time when she came to 
 me in the forest and besought me to love her. 
 Ah, she is fair fairer than any woman who 
 walks upon the earth to-day ! But to me she 
 is not so fair, and was never so fair, as was 
 Zeetah, my wife she who awaits me beyond 
 the grave, and whose image is in my memory 
 by night and by day. 
 
 " I have told you of the early years of my 
 life. I have told you how I rescued Zeetah 
 from the wild horses to which the brute Nava-
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. nj 
 
 jos had bound her. I have told you how I 
 avenged in blood the injuries the Navajos had 
 done her. I have told you how she became 
 my wife, and brought me greater joy than 
 most men ever know. I have told you of my 
 journeyings among the white-faced peoples, 
 and of my battles and hunts in my own coun- 
 try. All these tales I have told you before, 
 and I could have told you of Raymeya before 
 if I had cared to speak of her. And even 
 now I am not sure that it is good to tell you 
 of her. You are tome a friend, and I believe 
 I have a warm place in your heart. When I 
 am gone from the earth I desire that you will 
 remember me as a man who knew no fear, 
 and as a man who spoke ever in true words. 
 And this strange tale of Raymeya is so unlike 
 all other tales ; it is so much like the lies of 
 an evil spirit ; it is so much like the speech 
 of one who is crazed that I fear you will not 
 believe it, but will think that old Lo-To-Kah 
 spoke to you lies. Come, friend of mine, let 
 us seek our places of sleep, and leave the tale 
 of the witch untold." 
 
 I assured the old man that nothing could 
 make me think he spoke in lies ; that I might 
 not believe the tale he would tell, but would
 
 n8 
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 believe, at any rate, that he thought it true. 
 And, after much persuasion, he said : 
 
 " It is well, my friend ; the tale shall be 
 yours. The people to whom you tell it will not 
 believe, but for them I care not. And you 
 may believe, for you already know many un- 
 believable things that are true of this mys- 
 terious, silent land that is my home. You 
 know that a Navajo shaman can plant a seed 
 of corn in sterile ground, and make it sprout, 
 grow into stalk, tassel out, and ripen, and all 
 in a single day. You know that many of the 
 Indians have a charm that makes the bite of 
 the most poisonous snake as harmless as the 
 bite of a fly. You know that the Utes can 
 detach the soul from the body, and send it 
 wandering many, many miles from where the 
 body lies asleep. So to you the tale of Ray- 
 meya may not seem all made up of falsehood. 
 What the people of your race believe, I care 
 not. They are the greatest of all the races that 
 have had existence since the face of the earth 
 first appeared above the mighty waters ; yet with 
 all their wisdom they are a race of wrangling 
 unbelievers. But the night grows old, and I 
 have yet to tell you what I know of the tale 
 of Raymeya. 
 
 "After I returned from the great raid
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. ng 
 
 against the Navajos, of which I told you, I 
 was treated with great honor by my people. 
 War-songs were sung about me, the children 
 gazed upon me in awe, and my words were 
 held in high esteem in the councils. I loved 
 the honor and the praise ; but more than all 
 things else I loved Zeetah, my wife, and I 
 would leave the councils and the dances and 
 the games of the men, and spend the time 
 apart with her. Ah, amigo mia, never does a 
 man know the fullness of life till he knows 
 such love as I have known ! 
 
 " One day in council the old chief of the 
 tribe to which I belonged arose in his place 
 and said that he was old, and the days of his 
 life were almost gone, and that before he was 
 gone he desired to surrender his office to a 
 man who was young and strong, and just and 
 fearless, so that the years to come would be 
 good years for his people. Then, while the 
 warriors and the old men held their very 
 breath in silence, he placed his hand upon 
 my head, and asked me to be chief in his 
 stead. 
 
 " I was but a youth then, Senor : an honor 
 had come to me that many aged men had 
 sought through their lives, without finding ; 
 but instead of being pleased, I was so grieved
 
 I20 LO-TO-KAH AND THE H'lTCH. 
 
 that I almost wept. While I sat in silence, 
 with my eyes cast down, the people began 
 shouting: 
 
 " ' Lo-To-Kah, the chief ! Lo-To-Kah, the 
 chief ! We are the warriors of Lo-To-Kah, of 
 the oaken heart, and no people can stand 
 before us ! ' 
 
 " I embraced the old chief and thanked 
 him, and I thanked the warriors who were 
 willing to have me for chief ; and then I told 
 them that not yet would I consent to be their 
 chief, but that in six days I would give them 
 an answer. And then I left the council and 
 went to Zeetah. 
 
 " I told Zeetah that if I became chief the 
 troubles of the people would become my 
 troubles, and their cares would be my cares. 
 I said to her that many times would I be 
 called from her side to decide among the 
 people, to direct the hunts, to parley and treat 
 with other tribes ; but, if I were not chief, 
 much of my time would be hers, and could be 
 spent with her; and I asked her to decide 
 whether I should be chief or not. 
 
 " Zeetah said : ' Whether you are chief or 
 not, O Lo-To-Kah, ever will you be found in 
 the thickest of the battles that are fought 
 against our enemies ; ever will your voice be
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. J2I 
 
 listened to in the councils ; ever will the people 
 be guided by your wisdom, and ever will you 
 be a leader among them ; for nature has made 
 you a chief, and what is offered you is only 
 your due. Yet the matter is a grave one, for 
 every hour you would be away from me would 
 be an hour that my life would lack to make it 
 complete. I cannot tell, my husband : you 
 yourself must choose.' 
 
 " Then we decided that I should go alone 
 into the forest, away from my wife, and away 
 from my people, and there should meditate 
 until I should be guided aright. And I took 
 blankets, and a bow and arrows, and I went 
 alone into the depths of the forest. 
 
 " I went many miles, and when night came 
 I builded a fire and lay down by it to sleep. 
 But I was so lonesome and longed so much 
 for my wife, that I was minded to go back in 
 the night and tell the people I would not be 
 their chief. But I did not go, and I slept till 
 the sun came up, and then I killed game and 
 cooked it, and sat down to meditate again. 
 In this way the days and nights passed, until 
 the sun had risen and set four times, and I 
 had made no choice. Then the night came 
 on again, and I sat by my fire and brooded. 
 It was a night of moonlight, and multitudes
 
 122 LO-TO-KAH AND THE 11'ITCff. 
 
 of stars shone in the sky above me. Away in 
 the far distance I saw the white-topped mount- 
 ains that the Spanish people call the Mountains 
 of Silver. Far behind me lay the peaceful 
 valley where my people were encamped, and 
 all about me were the numberless trees of the 
 forest. While I sat there musing and gazing 
 away at the mountains, I heard a soft step in 
 the leaves behind me ; and before I could fit 
 an arrow to my bow, there stood before me a 
 woman as fair as any woman who has ever 
 breathed the breath of life. She was a white- 
 skinned woman, and she was clad in finer 
 garments than had ever been seen in the 
 lands of the Indians. Her dress was of white, 
 clinging silk; a black reboso was over her 
 head ; and on her white neck, and around her 
 arms, and on her fingers, were jewels of so 
 wonderful brightness that scarce could I look 
 upon them. The woman smiled as she gazed 
 upon me, and she said : 
 
 " ' You are Lo-To-Kah, and you are such a 
 man as I had hoped you would be. I have 
 journeyed great distances to meet you. I 
 have arrayed myself so that I may seem fair 
 in your eyes. Look upon me ! Am I not 
 more beautiful than any woman you ever 
 saw?'
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 123 
 
 " I answered : ' You are arrayed in garments 
 of greater beauty than any I ever saw. You 
 wear stones in which are imprisoned the light 
 of the sun and the splendors of the rainbow. 
 You are fairer than any woman known to me 
 except Zeetah, my wife. What do you desire 
 of me ? ' 
 
 " The face of the woman became somewhat 
 sad when I spoke with such reverence of my 
 wife, and she gazed upon me for a time in 
 silence. Then she said : 
 
 " ' Lo-To-Kah, I am the fairest woman upon 
 the earth ; and even time and the passing of 
 the years cannot mar my beauty. I am wise 
 wiser even than all of the oldest and wisest 
 men of your tribe, or of all the Indian tribes 
 under the sun ; I am rich so rich that all the 
 wealth of your people would be but a bauble 
 to me ; I am great so great that chiefs are 
 my subjects. What think you of me now ? ' 
 
 " I gave answer that I thought the great 
 Chah-now-woof ' had blessed her beyond all 
 women ; and again I asked what she desired 
 of me, and she said : 
 
 " ' But one thing do I lack, O Lo-To-Kah, 
 and that thing I seek from you. I am known 
 to many of the greatest men in the world, and 
 
 1 The Great Spirit.
 
 124 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 they seek me for lover or wife ; but I care not 
 for them, for they are proud, or vain, or false, 
 or have the hearts of cowards. I long for a 
 man in whose heart fear is not ; a man who 
 stakes his life upon his promise ; a man who 
 is so great that he can rule even me, who am 
 a ruler. Among tribes far from here I heard 
 of you, for the fame of your deeds has 
 traveled far, and I came to this land to seek 
 you. I came disguised as a woman of your 
 own nation ; and when the people of your kind 
 who dwell in the North came to this land to 
 dance, I was with them. I have watched you 
 since then ; I have come to believe that you 
 are the man of men ; and now I seek from you 
 the only thing my life needs to make it com- 
 plete. The thing I seek from you is love.' 
 
 " Remember, Seiior, that at that time 1 had 
 never journeyed among the white peoples; I 
 knew not of their ways ; and I thought of 
 women in the way my people thought of them. 
 Among my people a man is much greater than 
 a woman ; and, too, a man often has many 
 wives. Many of the women of my nation had 
 sought to be my wife, and the offer of the 
 white woman did not then seem to me so 
 great a thing as I now know it to have been. 
 I answered her and said :
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. I2 - 
 
 " ' In the encampment of my tribe there 
 stands a can-nee, made of the hides of buffalo, 
 which is larger than any of the other can-nees. 
 In it dwells a woman who is fairer and dearer 
 than any other woman of my nation. The 
 can-nee is mine, and the woman is my wife. 
 The woman is so dear to me that I have prom- 
 ised her, and have promised myself, to have 
 no other wife than she. Many men in my 
 tribe have more wives than one ; and among 
 our men are many who will be glad to take 
 you. Go to them.' 
 
 " The woman gazed upon me with a strange 
 look upon her face. She folded her arms, 
 and stood for a time in silence, and then she 
 said : 
 
 " ' You are but a simple Indian, and you 
 know not what you say. I would not live an 
 instant in a can-nee with a man who had an- 
 other wife. Who loves me, must love me 
 only.' 
 
 " I answered : ' I love only Zeetah, my wife. 
 No lips but hers have ever pressed my lips in 
 love, and so it shall be till the day of my 
 death.' 
 
 " Then was the woman angered, and she 
 said : ' Fool, you know not what you say ! I 
 have untold wealth, great knowledge, great
 
 I2 6 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 power. I can fulfill your any hope. Why 
 am I not better for you than a wild Indian 
 woman ? I can take you to the ends of the 
 earth ; with me you can live in a palace and 
 be attended by slaves. But if you care not 
 for such things, I too will live with you as an 
 Indian woman, if you will but cast off this 
 Zeetah and take me for your wife.' 
 
 " I answered the woman not at all ; and 
 then she sought to tempt me with her loveli- 
 ness, telling me she would always be young 
 and fair. That failed ; and then she told me 
 a strange tale of a city hidden in an undis- 
 covered valley of the Sierra Madre Mountains 
 a city of wise Indians who had great houses, 
 and heaps of gold, and great wealth in such 
 jewels as she wore. She said she was the 
 queen of that people, and if I would go with 
 her I might be their king. Then she told me 
 many tales of the far countries of the world, 
 and of the great oceans, and of the mighty 
 ships, and of the cities whose size is so great 
 that they stretch away farther than the sight 
 of a man can carry. She said she had seen 
 all those places and lands and wonders, and 
 would take me to them if I would go. But I 
 still refused, and I would have refused if she 
 had offered me the world, and all it contains.
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 12 
 
 The woman again became angered, and she 
 said : 
 
 "'What, then, if this precious Zeetah of 
 yours should die ? Would you then refuse 
 me?' 
 
 " My heart was then filled with trouble, for 
 I feared the woman might work harm upon 
 my wife ; and I told her that if so much as 
 one hair upon my Zeetah's head was harmed, 
 I would know it to be her work, and that I 
 would seek her till I found her, and would kill 
 her. 
 
 " The woman smiled, and told me I could 
 not kill her. Then she became sad, and she 
 gazed upon me a long, long time, and she 
 spoke no word. But in time she roused her- 
 self, and said : 
 
 " ' I have journeyed over the world seeking 
 the man of men, and until I met you I had not 
 found him. And now that I have found you, 
 I learn in bitterness that you are not for me. 
 Fear not for your Zeetah ; I will do her no 
 evil. See ! I have here a charm that is revered 
 among all Indians. If your Zeetah is ever in 
 trouble I will lend her this, and thus show you 
 that I hold your happiness even above my 
 own.' 
 
 " From a fold in her robe the woman drew
 
 I2 g LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 forth the dried dead body of a two-headed 
 rattlesnake a charm that is sacred among all 
 Indians, no matter of what tribe they are. It 
 is the holiest emblem we know, and fortunate 
 is the man whose privilege it is to see it. A 
 two-headed snake is born but once in a hun- 
 dred years, and it is sent to earth by Chah- 
 Now-Woof himself. While it lives it is de- 
 voutly worshipped, and when it is dead its 
 dried body is so potent a token that no Indian 
 will harm any man or woman who has it. 
 With such an emblem, amigo, you could jour- 
 ney to the uttermost ends of the lands that the 
 Indians know, and all men would do you 
 homage. With such an emblem I could jour- 
 ney through the heart of a land of foes, every 
 warrior of which might be thirsting for my 
 blood, and no harm would be done me. I 
 asked the woman to allow me to touch the 
 snake, for one had never been seen by any 
 man of my tribe ; and because I touched it is 
 one of the reasons that life has gone so well 
 with me. 
 
 " Then I asked the white woman her name, 
 and when she told me I gazed upon her in 
 awe and wonder; for the name she gave me 
 was the name of the Great Witch of the South, 
 whose fame is known to every Indian man of
 
 LO-TO-RAH AND THE WITCH. I2 g 
 
 magic that dwells upon the earth. She said 
 her name was Raymeya. When she spoke her 
 name, I cast down my eyes in reverence. And 
 when I looked again the woman was gone. 
 It seemed as though she had melted into 
 the air. I did not see her again until more 
 than five and-twenty years had gone into the 
 past. 
 
 " After the woman was gone I again medi- 
 tated as to becoming chief, but six days passed 
 and I had not made a decision. I returned to 
 the encampment of my people, and before I 
 had been there long the question was decided 
 for me. I found my people in great uproar ; 
 for a runner had come to the camp, bearing 
 the tidings that a band of Apaches was coming 
 down upon us, wearing their war-paint, and 
 saying they would wipe our warriors from the 
 face of the earth, steal our horses, and take 
 our women for slaves. I had not been in my 
 can-nee an hour when the warriors of my 
 tribe came and called me and told me I must 
 be their chief; for the old chief was sick in 
 his tent, and unless I guided them they would 
 all be killed. Thus was the matter decided 
 for me ; my duty became greater than my de- 
 sire, and I told the people I would be their 
 chief.
 
 130 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 " Then sacred po-o-kan-te was made by our 
 men of medicine, war-paint was donned, the 
 feathers of eagles were fastened in our hair, 
 and we danced the war-dance and sang the 
 old war-songs of our people while we awaited 
 the coming of the Apaches. It was not long 
 till they came, but they came like snakes and 
 not like men. They tried to deceive us, and 
 cause us to follow a few of them in one direc- 
 tion, while the others stole upon us from be- 
 hind our backs to kill us. I had fought bat- 
 tles with the Apaches before, and when a few 
 of them fired arrows upon us from the south, I 
 directed my men to stand firm and not to 
 follow them. The numbers of the Apaches 
 were very many, and soon they ceased trying 
 to decoy us, and charged down upon us, think- 
 ing we would flee before their great numbers, 
 and leave our women behind. But we stood 
 side by side, as the white soldiers do when 
 they fight, and we all shot our arrows at once. 
 My men were brave, and they stood by me 
 till many an Apache devil had bit the dust ; 
 but soon the Apache fiends crowded upon us 
 in such great numbers that my men were 
 forced backward step by step. Soon we had 
 gone backward so far that we found we could 
 not go farther without exposing our women
 
 I rushed into the midst of the shrieking Apaches."
 
 L O- TO-KA H A ND THE Wl TCH. I -, 3 
 
 and children to danger, and at that place I 
 told my men to halt, and fight till they were 
 killed. Then we fought such a battle as was 
 never before known even to the oldest men of my 
 tribe. The Apaches are like reptiles, and they 
 like not to stand on their feet and fight like 
 men ; but we killed so many of them that they 
 went mad with anger, and they crowded upon 
 us like hordes of demons. When the fight 
 began I had with me a hundred young men. 
 Soon ten of them were dead, then ten more, 
 and then they fell dead about me as the trees 
 fall in the face of a mountain storm. It 
 seemed to me that soon we should all be 
 killed, and I thought of the Apaches bearing 
 away our women to make slaves of them. I 
 thought of my Zeetah being forced to dwell 
 with some Apache brute, and the thought 
 made me so mad that I forgot all danger. I 
 shouted the terrible war-cry of my people, and 
 I rushed into the midst of the shrieking 
 Apaches, swinging my giant club as I went. 
 I smote the Apaches to the right, and a man 
 fell dead ; I smote them to the left, and an- 
 other of them bit the dust ; I smote them on 
 all sides, and as I smote they fell before me. 
 But all the time they crowded upon me closer 
 and closer, and it seemed that my life could
 
 1, 4 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 not last as long as it takes a man to breathe. 
 All about me was a sea of writhing, upturned 
 faces, and a multitude of arms reaching out to 
 deal me the blow of death. In my youth I had 
 learned the whirling dance a dance in which 
 one whirls upon his heel, going around so 
 swiftly that scarcely can an onlooker see his 
 face. When I was sorely pressed by the 
 Apaches I thought of my skill in that dance, 
 and I resolved to make it serve me. I whirled 
 my club so fast that soon I had an open space 
 about me, and then I spun upon my heel, and 
 as I spun I swung my club. I went so fast 
 that my club sped through the air making a 
 noise like the rushing of many waters. The 
 Apaches had never seen such a sight, and as 
 they saw their warriors fall dead before my 
 terrible club they became afraid, and they 
 shouted : 
 
 " ' This man cannot be killed ! This man 
 bears a charmed life ! He must be Chah- 
 Now-Woof, and we cannot harm him ! Let us 
 flee, or he will kill us all ! ' 
 
 " I knew not where my own men were, for I 
 had gone into the midst of the Apaches. And 
 as the Apaches turned and fled I pursued 
 them, and I dealt a blow of death at every 
 step. The hot blood from gaping wounds
 
 L 0- TO-KA H A ND THE IV 1 TCH. j 3 e 
 
 spurted into my face, but I heeded not. The 
 shrieks of a score of dying men rent my ears, 
 but I heeded not. Writhing men who were 
 dying upon the ground rose up and struck at 
 me with their clubs, but I heeded not. And 
 making the war-cry of my nation sound wildly 
 through the forest, I sped on after the fleeing 
 Apaches ; and when they were all gone from 
 before me I was a great distance from the en- 
 campment of my people. I was bleeding from 
 a dozen wounds a hundred arrows had pierced 
 my flesh ; but so great had been my rage that 
 J had not felt the stings of my wounds until I 
 stopped to rest. 
 
 "I made my way back to the place 
 where the camp of my people had been, and 
 as I went my path was strewn with the dead 
 and dying forms of the Apache devils whom I 
 had slain. One dying man raised upon his 
 elbow, and impotently tried to send an arrow 
 through me ; but I jeered at him and went on. 
 And when I came to the place where the 
 homes of my tribe had been, I saw a sadder 
 sight than my eyes had ever looked upon. 
 The can-nees of my people had been burned to 
 the ground ; the dead bodies of little children 
 were burning in the fires of the tents, and the 
 bravest and best warriors of my nation were
 
 !36 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 strewn over the place, cold and stark in 
 the grasp of death. And as I went towards 
 the place that had been my home, I came 
 upon the body of my young brother a 
 brave boy, whom I had loved next to 
 my wife ; and as I saw him lying cold and 
 still in death, I broke down and wept as weeps 
 a babe. I lifted his stiff body in my arms, and 
 caressed him ; and then I took a vow to kill 
 half a hundred Apache fiends to avenge his 
 death. Then in sorrow I went on, and when 
 I reached my can-nee I found it half burned to 
 the ground ; and when I looked within, I found 
 it empty." 
 
 When the old man reached this place in his 
 tale, a sigh burst from his lips, his wrinkled 
 old face went down into his palms, and for 
 many minutes he did not speak. But the sad 
 spell soon left him, and he continued : 
 
 " I went within the ruined remnant of my 
 home, and in the ground that was the floor I 
 found little furrows that I knew had been 
 made by the feet of my wife as she was dragged 
 resisting from her home by the naked devils 
 who had stolen her. And then I turned my 
 face to the sky, and I vowed to Chah-Now- 
 Woof himself that I would spend my life in 
 avenging the wrong done to my wife. Of mji
 
 And I turned my face to the sky and vowed to Chah-naw-woof 
 himself."
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. j , 
 
 thoughts at that time I will not tell you, for I 
 am old, and great excitement does me harm. 
 But many an Apache has gone to his everlasting 
 home because I have sometimes remembered 
 that awful time. 
 
 " I found that part of the Apache band had 
 crept away from the ones I fought, and had 
 gone around our camp and set fire to our can- 
 nces and killed some women and children ; and 
 that they were preparing to steal all our women, 
 when my men had turned upon them and 
 forced them to fly for life. But before they 
 were forced to fly they had stolen my Zeetah, 
 and she was the only one of our women they 
 had got. Ah, the thoughts that came to me 
 of my Zeetah being forced to endure the em- 
 brace and the leers of a naked Apache fiend ! 
 Senor, allow me to stop, and to tell you no 
 more of this tale." 
 
 The old man arose from his seat and strode 
 up and down the room, his face working with 
 excitement. But after a time he stopped, and 
 placed his hand upon my shoulder and said : 
 
 " There will come a happier part of my tale, 
 so I will go on : 
 
 " I found that many of our bravest and best 
 warriors had been killed. I found that the 
 old man who had been chief for many years
 
 1 40 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 was gone. But the troubles of my people did 
 not rest so heavily upon me as did the sorrow 
 of losing my wife. 
 
 " The women cut their hair and wailed in 
 sorrow, and the men sang the song of death, 
 and gathered our dead friends together to pre- 
 pare them for the journey to the Happy Hunt- 
 ing Grounds. And while the rites of death 
 were going on, I donned fresh paint ; I filled 
 my quiver with fresh arrows ; I packed some 
 dried meat in my pouch, and I started away to 
 the south in the track of the Apaches, who had 
 stolen all that the world held that was dear to 
 me. At first the trail was clear, but after a 
 day's journey I found that I must contend 
 with the cunning of the Apaches, who are 
 more cunning than serpents ; for the trails 
 seemed to divide and go in all directions. 
 Then the trails seemed to disappear, and to 
 fade from the ground. But I had tracked 
 Apaches when I was but a boy, and I followed 
 them as surely as though the way was an open 
 road before me. They had gone with the 
 speed of the wind, and I followed them over 
 the mountains and across the deserts for many, 
 many weary days. My feet bled from the 
 rocks, my strength weakened ; but I dragged 
 myself along, determined to find them, to kill
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 1^1 
 
 my beloved wife so she could be in the other 
 land to meet me, and then sell my life for as 
 many Apache lives as I could get for it. 
 
 " I went by day and by night ; and at last, 
 in the dead time of a moonless night, I came 
 within sight of the raiicheria of the Apaches. 
 
 Chah-Now-Woof, sweet is revenge ! When 
 
 1 saw the Apache encampment I forgot that I 
 was weary, and was again a strong man and a 
 chief. I crawled upon my hands and feet, 
 gliding as silently as a serpent glides, and soon 
 I was among the miserable tents of my foes. 
 I went from one tent to another, listening ; for 
 I thought I would know my Zeetah even by 
 her soft breath as she slept. At last I came 
 to a tent larger than any of the others, and 
 there I heard a sound that sent my heart into 
 my mouth. It was the voice of Zeetah, who 
 talked as she slept. I listened, and heard her 
 say : 
 
 " ' Lo-To-Kah, dear one, I have had an evil 
 dream. I dreamed I was stolen from your 
 side. O Lo-To-Kah, take me closer in your 
 arms.' 
 
 " Then my eyes were wet with tears. I 
 scratched upon the wall of the tent to awaken 
 her, and soon I kne,\v she was awake, for she 
 spoke in fright. I whispered to her, telling
 
 !^ 2 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 her I was Lo-To-Kah, and asking her to steal 
 out to me if she were not bound. Soon she 
 came, silently creeping to me, and 1 took her 
 in my arms and kissed her as a mother might 
 kiss a loved child who had come back to her 
 from the grave. And then, as she was weak 
 from so much fear and excitement, I took her 
 in my arms and bore her away into the depths 
 of the forest ; and as I bore her I saw that she 
 held some strange object in her hands. 
 
 " I am different from the men of my tribe, 
 and I could not bear the thought of living with 
 my wife after the great dishonor that had been 
 put upon her; and I determined to live with 
 her one night of bliss, and then to kill her, and 
 then go to the ranchcria of the Apaches and 
 fight them as long as my life should last. 
 Most of the men of my kind would have kept 
 the woman, being glad to have her love at any 
 price : but I loved her so much that I would 
 rather have killed her than have her live, and 
 remember dishonor. 
 
 " When we reached a safe place in the 
 forest, I told Zeetah what I had determined to 
 do, and then she showed me the dried body of 
 the two-headed snake, and told me that while 
 the battle had raged hottest a strange woman 
 with a white skin had crept into our can-nee
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. j^ 
 
 and given her the emblem, and then faded as 
 though she had gone up in smoke. Zeetah 
 knew of the snake emblem, and she had car- 
 ried it with her ; and because she had borne 
 it she had not been harmed, even though she 
 was among the brute Apaches those devils 
 who are worse than the lowest brutes the gods 
 have placed upon the earth. And when my 
 wife told me she was free from disgrace, it was 
 the happiest moment I have known in all the 
 years of my life. 
 
 "Then Zeetah and I crept back to the 
 camp of the Apaches, and we went to the tent 
 where she had been a prisoner, which was the 
 tent of the head chief. We crept inside, 
 making no noise, and we found the chief still 
 sleeping. Before he awoke a gag was in his 
 mouth, and I threw him across my shoulder 
 and bore him away into the forest, Zeetah 
 following after me. It would have been no 
 wrong thing to have killed him as one would 
 kill a serpent ; but when we were in the forest 
 I unbound him. I placed his battle-club in 
 his hands and told him to fight for his life, as 
 he and I would never both go forth alive. 
 The battle was fierce and short, but when it 
 was done the Apaches lacked a chief. 
 
 "I knew it was Raymeya, the witch, who
 
 144 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 had come to my can-nee, and given the charm 
 to my wife, but I told my wife nothing of her. 
 And one day after that I came home from a 
 hunt and found my wife looking as though she 
 had a trouble, and when I asked the cause 
 she said that the strange white woman had 
 come again, and had taken away with her the 
 dried snake. Zeetah asked me if the woman 
 were a mortal or a spirit, and I replied that I 
 did not know. And I do not know unto this day. 
 
 " From that time on I did not see the witch 
 again for many long years. My wife died, I 
 tired of this land, and, as I have told you be- 
 fore, I learned the speech of the white-skinned 
 people, and journeyed among them with a 
 show. I went to many cities and many places, 
 and in time our show crossed the ocean and 
 went to the land called Europe. 
 
 " Never in all my life was I so lonely as I 
 was on the day when we sailed away on the 
 big ship, and set out into the heart of the 
 ocean. Behind us was the great city, its 
 towers and domes glittering in the sunlight, 
 and before us was the expanse of the trackless 
 sea. But the spell soon left me, for all the 
 world had been lonely since I laid my Zeetah 
 to rest in the ground in the shadow of the 
 snow-topped mountains.
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. T ^ 
 
 " We journeyed through the land of France 
 and through the lands of Italy and Germany, 
 and then we went to England. There the 
 people went wild over us, and multitudes of 
 them came every day to see the Indians. 
 Deerfoot, the Seneca, was with us, he who 
 was in his time the mightiest and fleetest run- 
 ner in the world. 
 
 "The English people numbered among 
 them one who was a mighty runner, and he 
 desired to try his speed with that of Deerfoot. 
 The race was arranged to take place in a great 
 arena, and on the appointed day a vast con- 
 course of people assembled. The white man 
 was a fleet runner, going with the speed of an 
 antelope ; but he was no match for Deerfoot, 
 who sped away like the wind. Away they 
 went, ten times around the great race-course, 
 and Deerfoot won as easily as a coyote would 
 win against a mongrel dog. 
 
 " The race set my blood to boiling, and I 
 yearned to do something myself to show the 
 white people that we children of the forests 
 and plains were not their inferiors. I mounted 
 the stand of their judges, and I challenged 
 any white man there to wrestle with me for a 
 stake of a thousand English pounds. The 
 English people are famed for athletic skill;
 
 146 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 and in that audience of people were the 
 famed boxers and runners and wrestlers of the 
 nation. My offer was taken at once, and soon 
 there stepped into the arena a man who 
 seemed to be stronger than the strongest 
 horse. When he was stripped his muscles 
 stood out on his body like the vines of the 
 poison ivy stand out on the trunks of trees, 
 and his hands seemed like vices. The people 
 shouted, and said the match should take place 
 at once; and I stripped off my outer garments 
 and stepped to the side of the man. He 
 shook my hand, according to the custom of 
 the white nations, and at once we began the 
 battle. 
 
 " Before I was aware, the man had grasped 
 me, and he strove to throw me over his head 
 and make short work of the match. But I 
 am an Indian, and while he was striving with 
 all his might I slipped through his iron hands 
 and stood free upon the ground. Then, while 
 he was gaping in wonder, I grasped him in 
 such a way that he could scarce move either 
 hand or foot. I raised him high above my 
 head, I bore him half around the arena, and 
 then I pitched him away from me, and he fell 
 twenty feet from where I stood. 
 
 " The people went almost mad with excite-
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. (47 
 
 ment ; they pressed about me and shook my 
 hand till I thought they would wring it loose 
 from my arm for I had thrown the greatest 
 and strongest wrestler that had ever been 
 known in England. Then a man who was a 
 nobleman came to me, and he invited Deerfoot 
 and me to go to his palace to a banquet that 
 he would give in our honor. 
 
 " I cared little to go to the banquet of the 
 great man, for such things are not to my 
 taste. But my companions urged me, and I 
 went. There were ladies at the banquet, many 
 of them ; all attired in rich robes, and with 
 their white necks gleaming like ivory. Deer- 
 foot and I donned the full dress of our tribes, 
 and when the night was growing old I was 
 called upon to make a speech. I stood up 
 and talked to the white people, and much 
 applause was bestowed upon me ; but while I 
 was speaking I glanced along the table and 
 my speech stopped short, because I saw the 
 two brightest eyes in the world gazing into 
 mine. I knew the eyes were those of the 
 witch, Raymeya, and I spoke no more, al- 
 though the guests wondered much. And 
 when I knew she was there the minutes seemed 
 like days, and as soon as I could I hastened 
 away.
 
 148 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 " The next day the witch came to see me. 
 She seemed as young as she did that day so 
 long before, when she surprised me in the 
 forests; but she seemed sadder and more 
 gentle. She took my hand, and held it to her 
 lips and kissed it, and then she asked me 
 how life had gone with me since my wife had 
 died, and asked if I were happy. I told her 
 that life was good, but it was no longer so 
 sweet to me as in those older days when I 
 was chief among my own people in the 
 mountains ; and that most of the joy of my 
 life had gone out with the breath of my 
 wife. And then she said, almost in a whisper : 
 
 " ' And you have not changed your mind 
 concerning the matter of which I spoke to you 
 in the forest ? ' 
 
 " I told her no ; and for a long time she 
 gazed mutely upon the ground. As she gazed 
 upon the ground I regarded her, and never 
 have the eyes of men looked upon a fairer 
 being. In Europe I saw fine pictures of 
 angels, and her features were like unto the 
 features in the pictures. I was saddened, too, 
 to think that such a creature was doomed to 
 go childless and loveless through life, and in 
 sorrow for her tears came to my eyes. I 
 turned my head away, and when I turned
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH, j^g 
 
 again the woman was gone. She had vanished, 
 seemingly into thin air, just as she had done 
 before. 
 
 " From that time on the witch was much in 
 my mind, and many times in the night I woke 
 to find that I had been dreaming of her. It 
 seemed to me that in my sleep she came and 
 stood by my couch, and gazed on me with her 
 great bright eyes all filled with love ; and she 
 seemed to point to the west, as though bid- 
 ding me to go again to the land of my own 
 people. In time I went again to the land of 
 my own people ; I forsook the cities and the 
 ways of the white-skinned races ; I donned 
 again the garments of my tribe, and I said to 
 myself that with the people of my own blood 
 I would spend the sundown of my life. I 
 hunted with the young men of my tribe ; I 
 went to Moqui to the dance of the snakes ; I 
 journeyed among the tribes whose lands lie 
 round about the lands of my own tribe. 
 Many years slipped into the past, and I had 
 come almost to forget that I had ever jour- 
 neyed so much over the face of the earth. 
 Like my people, I believe in magic ; and many 
 times I sat up far into the night listening to 
 tales of the wonderful magic of the great 
 Witch of the South. I held my peace, telling
 
 I r LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 no man that I knew her ; and often I thought 
 of the lost land in the Sierra Madres, of which 
 she told me she was the queen, and of which 
 she offered to make me king and ruler. 
 
 " In time the life of my people palled upon 
 me. On every hand were the forts that held 
 the white-skinned soldiers : no more rode our 
 young men forth to battle ; and when I was 
 surfeited with weariness I chose a strong horse 
 and set out alone to journey to the hidden 
 valleys that lie locked fast in the Sierra 
 Madres. I had many adventures on the 
 journey : but of them I need not tell you as 
 my tale is long without them. Among the 
 Navajos and all the Pueblo tribes I was treated 
 as a loved kinsman ; among the Apaches I 
 found that I was known, and when I entered 
 a rancheria I would hear the old men say : 
 
 " ' He who rides among us is Lo-To-Kah of 
 the charmed life. He is mighty in magic and 
 unconquerable in battle ; treat him well, that 
 he may pass on his way and leave us in 
 peace.' 
 
 " And in time I came to lands that I had 
 not seen since the days of my earliest man- 
 hood. Soon I was in an unknown land, and 
 was journeying in the lands that belong to the 
 fierce Yaquis. Some of them were hostile,
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. -^r^ 
 
 and at times it seemed that I must lay aside 
 my weight of years and again do battle like a 
 young warrior. But once, when the Yaquis 
 closed about me in scowling groups, I stood 
 up in my stirrups, and said : 
 
 " ' I am Lo-To-Kah of the North, and my 
 name may be known among you. I am on a 
 journey of peace, and I care not to fight ; but 
 if I am not treated as a warrior and a chief, 
 old as I am, I will fill some Yaqui graves. I 
 journey to visit the land of Raymeya. Now 
 let me pass, for I ask twice for nothing ! ' 
 
 " When I spoke the name of the witch the 
 Indians looked upon me in awe, and they 
 stood aside to let me pass. And then an old 
 chief came forward and shook my hand, and 
 told me he had heard of me in the time of 
 long ago, when he and I were both warriors 
 and were both young. And the Yaquis 
 craved me to abide among them until they 
 could honor me with a feast, but I hastened 
 on my way. 
 
 " In time I came to a place where the 
 valleys and mountain passes ceased, and then 
 my way was up, up, up, toward the very crest 
 of the frowning mountains. Soon I was at the 
 timber line ; then I came to the region where 
 snow lies forever on the rocks; and then I
 
 152 LO-TO-K AH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 was in a region of snow and hail and storms, 
 a desolate region never before trodden by 
 the foot of man or beast. My horse died in 
 that place, and I was almost minded to lie 
 down and die. Yet hope was with me and I 
 struggled on and on, sometimes falling into a 
 chasm of snow, sometimes stopping to rub my 
 frozen feet and hands, and then going onward 
 and always up. At last, while stones of hail 
 were almost knocking the breath from my 
 body, I came suddenly to a wall of masonry, 
 rising out of the snow sheer before me. I 
 believed then that my reason was gone and 
 that my mind was wandering in delirium, but 
 I placed my hand on the wall and followed it. 
 It was so high that I could not look over it ; 
 it was impenetrable, its massive side not 
 being broken by a single opening of any kind. 
 I followed it for many miles, going on long 
 after the storm had ceased ; and just as my 
 strength was gone and I could go no farther, 
 I came to a place where a ladder of rawhide 
 was hanging to the wall. I grasped the lad- 
 der, and with my strength leaving me at every 
 step, I painfully climbed to the top of the 
 wall. 
 
 " Friend, the people of your kind believe in 
 a land of Paradise a land of joy where milk
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. j^-j 
 
 and honey flow, and every grace is known. 
 And I say to you that your land of Paradise 
 can be no fairer than was the land that opened 
 to my astonished view when I had reached 
 the summit of that cruel wall. The mountain 
 I was on seemed to be split in twain, and the 
 wall was on the very crest of such a precipice 
 as those that are seen in the Grand Canon of 
 the Colorado. A few feet below me was a 
 roadway, cut out of living rock, which ran 
 around the face of the cliff ; and more than a 
 mile below me was a laughing valley of rip- 
 pling rivers and groves of trees, of golden 
 cities and level lawns. Spires and minarets 
 rose above the cities, lakes glistened in the 
 sun, boats shot over the waters, and from all 
 the valleys came up the incense of flowers 
 and the smell of growing crops. And as I sat 
 and gazed into the valley I knew it to be the 
 land whose people called Raymeya queen, 
 and I felt that the end of my journey was 
 reached. That was the land of which I might 
 have been king ; those golden cities might 
 have been mine ; and my life might have been 
 lived out in that wondrously beautiful valley, 
 if it had not been for the love I bore for Zeetah. 
 Then memories of Zeetah came crowding back 
 to me ; crowding back over the long, lonely,
 
 je^ LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 vanished years that I had lived since she went 
 from me. And as I mused of her and of her 
 love for me, I gazed again into the valley, 
 and felt that all its wonders and honors had 
 been well lost. 
 
 " Then I climbed off the wall into the road- 
 way of stone, and started down into the valley. 
 Soon I was halted by a bronzed warrior, who 
 carried a silver spear. In a tongue that I did 
 not know he said words to me, and when I 
 answered him in the Spanish speech he shook 
 his head in perplexity, and gazed on me in 
 wonder. But he answered me in the same 
 tongue, and he lowered his spear and walked 
 by my side, and together we went down the 
 winding roadway that led into the valley. 
 When we came to the level land we met men, 
 women and children, and they all stopped and 
 gazed on me, and asked questions of my 
 guide. I was truly in a sorry state : my clothes 
 were worn out, my hands and feet were frozen 
 and swollen, and my face and body were 
 covered with scratches and bruises. And 
 thus, hungry, naked, penniless, and ill, I was 
 led into that golden city of which I might 
 have been the ruler. I was being led to a 
 prison that was kept for such wandering 
 Indians as found their way into the valley ;
 
 L O- TO-KA H A ND THE WI TCH. j c e 
 
 but as we were passing a palace of marble I 
 saw the eyes of Raymeya gaze out from a 
 window. At first she did not see me, but 
 soon her eyes fell upon me, and then she 
 called to the officer who was guiding me, tell- 
 ing him to stop. He stopped and stood mutely 
 by my side ; and soon another officer came, 
 and ordered that I be taken before the queen. 
 I was led through the palace-grounds into the 
 apartment of the queen, and she rose from 
 her place and ordered that I be left alone with 
 her. When we were alone the queen knelt at 
 my side ; she took my hand in hers, and her 
 eyes were aflame with joy. She said : 
 
 " ' And have you come to me at last, O 
 Lo-To-Kah ? The time has been long ; the 
 years have passed on leaden feet ; but I en- 
 dured, because I believed that in time you 
 would come.' 
 
 " I said to her : ' Raymeya, he who stands 
 before you is an old man, whose days to live 
 are few. I came to this place because I tired 
 of the land of my own people ; but I came to 
 seek no bride. I have a bride who waits for 
 me in a land as fair as is this land of yours.' 
 
 " Raymeya rose and looked upon me in 
 sorrow ; and she was not one day older than 
 when she came to me in the depths of the
 
 j,c(5 LO-TO-KAH AND THE JVITCff. 
 
 forest, or when I saw her in the greatest city 
 of the world. The years had gone on, chang- 
 ing babes to men, and men back to earth ; but 
 the hand of time had not fallen on the fair face 
 or form of the witch who was ever young. 
 
 "We seated ourselves and drank wine ; and 
 we talked for many hours, and when we were 
 through talking, Raymeya was my friend, and 
 she no longer craved my love. I told her all 
 the tale of my journey through life. I told 
 her that never could I love any woman but 
 the one who had been my wife ; and she said 
 it was well, and that she would speak to me 
 no more of love. Then she gazed into my 
 face for a long time, her eyes filled with tears ; 
 and then she arose and walked up and down 
 the room, moaning to herself. But soon she 
 became quiet ; she smiled, and laid her hand 
 on my shoulder and called me friend; and 
 from that time forth she spoke no more of 
 love. 
 
 " I was tired and hungry, and the queen 
 ordered attendants to bathe me, and to give 
 me food and garments ; and when I was 
 dressed and had eaten, I lay down and slept 
 for many hours. 
 
 " The next day I walked with the queen 
 over the streets of her city, and wherever we
 
 The Statue.
 
 LO-TO-K AH AND THE WITCH. T ^g 
 
 went the people bowed in reverence. The 
 streets of the city were lined with beds of 
 flowers ; in the center were lawns of well-kept 
 grass, and the houses were all of marble and 
 fine stones, and the domes and spires and 
 minarets were of beaten gold. Never in all 
 my wanderings in the far lands of the earth 
 had I seen anything so beautiful, and many 
 times I asked of the queen, in wonder, how it 
 had all come to be. But she smiled and told 
 me to wait, and in good time she would tell 
 me all the tale of her life. And I was con- 
 tent to wait, while we wandered on through 
 the streets and plazas of that enchanted city. 
 Soon we were tired, and as soon as the queen 
 waved her hand a chariot drawn by four 
 horses came to our side. We entered the 
 chariot, and the queen ordered the driver to 
 go to the Plaza of the Statues. 
 
 " The Plaza of the Statues was a circular 
 place, hemmed in with palaces of marble, and 
 in the place golden statues were scattered 
 about, intermingled with statues carved in 
 the purest white marble. In the centre was 
 a colossal golden statue, towering above the 
 others. It was of beaten gold, and when I 
 gazed upon it I almost fainted with wonder, 
 for the statue was of myself. It was myself,
 
 j6 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 as I was when a young man. The habili- 
 ments were those of my people, and a mighty 
 war-club was in the hands. 
 
 " ' That,' said the queen, pointing to the 
 golden statue of myself, 'is the image of the 
 king of this land the king who never came to 
 claim his own.' 
 
 " The eyes of the Queen filled with tears, 
 and we drove in silence away from that place. 
 That matter of the statue troubled me, and 
 from the time I had seen it I yearned to 
 leave that fair city, and go again to live out 
 the remnant of my life in the rude land of my 
 own people. And on the next day I said to 
 the queen : ' O Raymeya, tell me now the tale 
 of your life the tale you promised me so long 
 ago in the forests that cover the mountains of 
 the La Platas. Let me know the truth of the 
 mystery of your life, and your endless youth, 
 and your changeless beauty ; and then let me 
 go out of your land and out of your life, and 
 let me go back to the land where I was born. 
 I am but a wild man, and I am out of place 
 among the splendors of your royal city. You 
 have a warm place in my heart ; you seem 
 at once my daughter and my friend, but it is 
 best that I abide not here with you.' 
 
 " And the queen told me the tale of her life.
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE IV ITCH. I 6i 
 
 In the lodges of my people, when the wild 
 mountain storms were howling, when the light- 
 nings were flashing, and the thunders were 
 shrieking among the mountain crags and 
 forests, often have I sat and listened to strange, 
 wild tales that were told by the story-tellers of 
 my tribe ; in the printed books of the white- 
 skinned peoples I have read many tales so mar- 
 vellous that they seemed untrue ; but never in 
 all the years of my life have I heard so strange 
 a tale as that which was told to me in that 
 luxurious palace, by the beautiful woman who 
 was always young. I will not repeat to you 
 all of her tale, for the night grows old ; and, 
 too, I fear at best you will think I speak to 
 you in lies. But as plainly and as shortly as 
 I can, I will repeat the tale that was told to 
 me by Raymeya. 
 
 " Raymeya told me that she was born in 
 Spain, before the time when Columbus sought 
 the Western world. She was the daughter of 
 a pirate, and in her early life she felt great 
 remorse for the life that was lived by herself 
 and her people, and she entered a convent as 
 a nun. There she fell in love with a priest, 
 and in order not to lay herself open to reproach, 
 she stole away at night, and fled from the 
 convent. At that time South America was the
 
 Z 6 2 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 haven for all men of adventurous spirits, and 
 at the time she fled from the convent a fleet 
 was fitting out to sail to that land to seek for 
 a land of gold, whose fame had reached earlier 
 explorers. She went to the admiral of the 
 fleet, and begged that he would take her with 
 him, and the admiral became enamored of her 
 beauty, and begged of her to go as his wife. 
 They were married before they sailed, and she 
 landed on the western shores as a wife. In 
 America the pioneers were wild over the tales 
 of El Dorado, the Gilded Chief of the land of 
 Cundinamarca a man who was said to have 
 so much gold that his house was built of it, 
 and his body was powdered afresh each day 
 with gold dust. Raymeya's husband set out 
 to find that land, and his wife went with him. 
 And after months of hardship they came to 
 the plain of Cundinamarca, and they found 
 only a village of seemingly wild Indians, who 
 had no gold, and who fought like demons. 
 And the Indians said there was no Gilded 
 Chief. 
 
 " The land of Cundinamarca seemed to be 
 full of curses for the Spaniards, and fevers 
 and pestilences came upon them, and death 
 abode in their camps by night and by day. 
 Some made their way back to the seashore,
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. jg-j 
 
 but many were too ill to move, and among 
 those were the commander and his wife. 
 When all but a few were dead, there came to 
 their miserable camp the one whom they had 
 sold their lives to find the Golden King 
 himself. When the aliens had entered his 
 land, he had taken all but a few of his people 
 and withdrawn to an almost inaccessible val- 
 ley, and there they had hidden themselves and 
 their wealth. But every day spies went to the 
 valley and told of the ills that befell the white- 
 skinned invaders. When the white men were 
 so few that all danger was past, the king had 
 gone forth to meet them ; and no sooner had 
 he come among them than his heart caught 
 fire from love of Raymeya. The Inca pro- 
 fessed great love for the Spaniards ; he took 
 them to his hidden city, and he studied their 
 speech. And when he had learned to talk 
 with them, he sought to win Raymeya for his 
 bride. At first she refused, but he showed 
 her his vast stores of gold and precious gems ; 
 and the woman was tempted, and she sold her 
 honor for a price. The warriors of the Inca 
 then fell upon the Spaniards and killed all but 
 the commander ; and with her own hands Ray- 
 meya slew her husband that she might be free 
 from him, and free to wed the Golden Chief.
 
 ! 6 4 L - TO-KA H A ND THE WI TCH. 
 
 " Raymeya told me that in the gray dawn 
 of the next morning after she had killed her 
 husband, while she was lying with staring, 
 sleepless eyes by the side of the sleeping Inca, 
 the miracle took place that in South America 
 is still remembered, and is called the miracle 
 of Our Lady of the Wilderness. The appari- 
 tion of an angel formed before the eyes of 
 Raymeya, the angel's hands were pointed at 
 her, and then these words were said : 
 
 " ' O sinner, viler than the work of a fiend 
 has been your deed this night ! To gain 
 wealth and place you have taken human life, 
 and the soul of your victim is now in 
 Purgatory. Until that soul is freed, you shall 
 not grow old, and the passing of time shall 
 harm you not ; but you shall be denied the 
 blessing of death. And you shall wander over 
 the earth, seeking something you shall not find, 
 and bearing the memory of this time with you 
 forever ! ' 
 
 " Thus it is that Raymeya is ever young and 
 ever fair ; thus it is that she wanders over the 
 earth, seeking love and finding it not ; thus it 
 is that she is the most unhappy woman who 
 breathes the sweet air that the Great Spirits 
 have given to the children of men. 
 
 " In time the Inca died. During the long,
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. I (^e 
 
 almost countless years that have been from 
 then till now, Raymeya gained wisdom and 
 the wealth that is now hers. Long ago she 
 found the hidden valley in the Sierra Madres, 
 occupied then by a tribe as wild as the Yaquis. 
 Because they could not kill her they made her 
 their queen ; and she wrought with them and 
 their children, and the children of their chil- 
 dren's children, until the result is that her 
 people are a wise and learned people, who 
 dwell in a golden city in the fairest valley 
 upon the earth. She has taught her people all 
 things except knowledge of the world ; but she 
 never allows them to journey beyond the 
 mountains that shut in their valley. She her- 
 self wanders up and down the earth, appear- 
 ing sometimes in a wild camp, disguised as an 
 Indian woman ; then going as a great lady in 
 the courts of kings, and sometimes going as a 
 nun to nurse the dying when the great wars 
 are raging. But all the time she bears in her 
 bosom a heart that is on fire, and joy is a 
 thing that is not known to her." 
 
 Lo-To-Kah abruptly ceased speaking ; he 
 rolled a corn-husk cigarette and lighted it, and 
 then he walked up and down the room and 
 smoked, his head bent low in thought. When
 
 j66 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 he had finished smoking he sat down again 
 and began talking. He said : 
 
 " Friend, when you think of all the blessings 
 the Great Spirits have given to us of earth, 
 remember that the greatest of all is death. It 
 is the end of trouble, the ceasing forever of 
 evil-doing. It will come to me soon, and may 
 come to you also at any time ; for a man's life 
 is but as a breath of air. My mind now is 
 often filled with thoughts of a fair land that I 
 soon shall journey in ; a land as fair as the 
 land where Raymeya rules, but a land where 
 no one's heart is like a stinging adder." 
 
 The old man spread his blanket on the 
 floor, and it was not long till I also slept, for 
 the night was almost gone. 
 
 In the morning I studied the old Indian 
 with a new interest. He had travelled so far 
 and wide, he was so much wiser than the men 
 of his race, that it seemed strange that he 
 should believe such strange, weird tales as 
 the one he had told me the night before. I 
 hoped he would speak further about the witch ; 
 but he did not mention her, and seemed to 
 forget that he had spoken of her, or that such 
 a person lived. He told me old tales of the 
 long ago ; he described the " outfits " that used 
 to journey down the trail to Santa Fe' before
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. t 6y 
 
 the railroads were built, and he discussed the 
 various army officers who had fought in the 
 West. The day was hot, and I slept an hour 
 after noon. When I awoke and went outside, 
 I found the old chief on his pony, waiting to 
 bid me farewell. He said : 
 
 " Being in this place has brought to my 
 memory other places where the Pueblo peoples 
 dwell, and has made me long to see some of 
 these places again before I die. I want once 
 more to ride up the trail, lined with wild plum 
 trees, that leads to the tall houses of Taos. 
 Once more I desire to rest under the giant 
 alamos that grow in the bare plaza at San 
 Ildefonso. Once more I desire to journey 
 over the barren lands that lie round about 
 Picuris, and to visit friends of mine who dwell 
 in Tesuque. I long to look again upon the 
 great rock of Acoma, and then I desire to 
 journey to San Juan where are sacred pictures 
 of Po-so-yemmo the God of Water, and where 
 a priest who is my friend has concealed in his 
 house the sacred snakes that are cherished and 
 worshipped from one year to another. To see 
 all these places requires a long journey and 
 time is now my scantest possession, so I must 
 say farewell and be on my way. I hope to 
 meet with you again soon ; but if I do not see
 
 i68 
 
 LO-TO-KAH AND THE WITCH. 
 
 you until after we have both taken the four 
 days' journey across the bad lands that lie be- 
 tween life and the Happy Hunting Grounds re- 
 member that old Lo-To-Kah the Ute counts you 
 as much his friend at though your skin was 
 red or his was white. Adios ! "
 
 THE DEATH OF LOTOKAH.
 
 FOR several days the Indians had been con- 
 gregating in the valley of the Rio de los Pinos 
 to celebrate the great annual bear-dance. First 
 the little grove of tall cottonwoods was filled 
 with tents ; then numerous wreaths of smoke 
 were to be seen rising from the crest of 
 the mesa on the west, and then tents, ap- 
 parently springing from the ground, lined the 
 river bank for almost a mile. The ah-vick- 
 wock-et, or corral of evergreen boughs, in 
 which the dance was to be held, had been in 
 readiness for several days : the bands of sing- 
 ers had learned their songs by long practice, 
 the women had prepared a plentiful supply of 
 
 moratches, or " singing-sticks," and all was in 
 
 171
 
 j * 2 THE DEA TH OF L O- TO-KA H. 
 
 readiness for the ceremonies and festivities. 
 But friends who had not seen each other for a 
 year were desirous of visiting before the four- 
 days' dance began : hunters had come in who 
 had skins and pelts to barter or to wager on 
 their luck at the game of kan-yu-te, and the 
 chiefs postponed the opening of the dance 
 from day to day in order that all might have 
 time to race and visit and gamble to their full 
 content. The camp and the green enclosure 
 and the groups of gayly-clad Indians all went 
 to make up a picturesque sight. Here would 
 be seen a solitary Brave, his blanket wrapped 
 to his eyes, standing apart in silent dignity ; 
 there would be seen a group of boys playing 
 kan-yu-te with beads as stakes ; and over the 
 mesa could be seen an incoming caravan of a 
 dozen riders, moving in single file, the tents 
 fastened to poles that were strapped to the 
 horses of the women. I watched the sights 
 all day, wandering from tent to tent and from 
 group to group. The day before I had spent 
 with Lo-To-Kah, but on this morning a young 
 Indian had come to me and said that the old 
 man was sick ; that famed, pwu-au-guts, or medi- 
 cine-men, were going to make a great chant over 
 him ; and that no visitor, friend or foe, could 
 see the old warrior that day.
 
 THE DEATH OF LO- TO-KA H. j 7 , 
 
 As the sun went down that evening I stood 
 at the entrance to the tent of one of my friends 
 and gazed over the camp as it lay radiant in 
 the light of the slanting sun-rays. Tents that 
 had been a dirty yellow by day now took on a 
 golden hue ; the white tents seemed pink, and 
 even the brown tents were tinged with the 
 rare, mellow light of the sunset. Soon the sun 
 sank behind the white walls of the towering 
 La Plata Mountains, and then wreaths of 
 smoke could be seen ascending from a hun- 
 dred can-nces the name by which those people 
 call their tents. Soon it was dark, and all 
 that could be heard was the crooning of the 
 moratchales as they practised the songs for the 
 morrow. Just as I was going within the tent, 
 I saw a bright light flare up in a small can-nee 
 that stood apart from the others. The light 
 shone so brightly that at first it seemed that 
 the tent must be on fire, and the figures within 
 it were sharply silhouetted against the canvas. 
 I started to walk to this tent, and as I drew 
 near there came from it the weirdest, 
 most uncanny wail that I ever heard. It 
 seemed like the sound of three or four voices, 
 rising and falling in unison. First there was 
 a wail, long, quavering and weird, that might 
 have been the despairing cry of a lost soul ;
 
 !^4 THE DBA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. 
 
 then a short, almost painful, pause ; and 
 then the weird notes again, sinking lower and 
 lower, until they seemed to go down, with a 
 quavering cadence, into the earth. Then 
 again came the high, uncanny wail, and I 
 knew it was the chant of the pwu-au-guts, who 
 were "making medicine "over Lo-To-Kah, and 
 I feared that my friend must be very ill. As 
 I approached the tent I was stopped by a tall, 
 bronzed figure that stood in silence a few feet 
 from the entry, and a sharp lance was lowered 
 to a level with my breast. It was a guard, 
 one of those who always stand watch over a 
 medicine-tent when ceremonies of supreme 
 importance are being performed. The guard 
 looked at me closely, for the night was dark, 
 and then he lowered his spear and said : 
 
 " Is it you, friend of mine ? I knew you not 
 in the darkness, for I am growing old and my 
 eyes have lost much of their keenness. But 
 I cannot allow even you to go nearer no, not 
 if you were one of our own chiefs. Sacred 
 po-o-kan-te is being made over the old man, 
 Lo-To-Kah, and no man can now go to him 
 unless by his own earnest wish. I fear the 
 time of Lo-To-Kah has almost come to an 
 end, and that even the great pwu-au-guts who 
 are with him cannot lengthen his stay among
 
 THE DBA TH OF L O- TO-KA H. 177 
 
 the people of the earth. And now good-night 
 for we must not converse here." 
 
 I turned to walk away, my heart heavy 
 with sadness because of the sickness of the 
 oaken-hearted old man who lay within that 
 dreary tent with a lot of half-naked savages 
 crooning mummery over him. I should have 
 liked to send for a white physician ; but I 
 knew that even Lo-To-Kah had little faith in 
 the efficiency of white men's medicine; and 
 then, too, it would have been a dangerous 
 place for a physician in case the old man 
 died, for the Indians would almost surely have 
 accused him of witchery. I retired and slept 
 till midnight, when I was called by a young 
 Indian, who entered my tent without ceremony 
 and shook me. 
 
 " Arise," said he, " and go with me to the 
 medicine can-nee, where lies Lo-To-Kah. The 
 evil witches have had the old man's brain 
 since the sun went down, and he has talked 
 only of things that were before you or I were 
 born, and he has not known the men who 
 were with him this night. But his brain is 
 now clear, and he has sent for you. Come, 
 let us go." 
 
 It was the moonless time of the night, and 
 all objects were shrouded in sombre blackness.
 
 ! yg THE DBA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. 
 
 The lights from the fires had gone out in all 
 but the medicine-tent, and even that burned 
 faintly. As we came to the can-nee the guard 
 stood mute as we passed him, and when we 
 entered, the medicine-men ceased chanting 
 and sat down on the ground, which served as 
 floor. There was nothing in the tent but the 
 fire in the center, and a heap of furs upon 
 which the old man lay. He was only half- 
 dressed ; his skin leggings and moccasins were 
 on, but in his frenzy he had torn his cloth 
 shirt almost to shreds. Then I knew how 
 sick Lo-To-Kah was, and I feared that he 
 might never see another sunrise. He raised 
 himself upon his elbow and looked straight at 
 me ; it was evident, however, that he was de- 
 lirious and did not see me. Half-rising he 
 clenched his hand and said : 
 
 " Oh, fools ! false makers of medicine ; 
 idiotic singers in the wind ! why do you not 
 send for my friend ? Am I so old and so 
 weak and of so little account that I must lie 
 impotent upon my back and be ruled by 
 whimpering coyotes like you? Bring my 
 friend, I say; or, old as I am, I will make 
 you quiver under the weight of my hand ! " 
 
 I took the old man's hand, and at once he 
 knew me. He took my hand in both his
 
 THE DEA Tfl OF L O- TO-KA H. \Jg 
 
 wrinkled, wasted palms ; he closed his fingers 
 tightly over my own, and then closed his eyes 
 wearily and lay back upon his couch. Pres- 
 ently, he opened his eyes and said : 
 
 " Forgive me, O medicine-men, for my anger. 
 I am old and sick and my temper is like the 
 temper of a hag ; but I mean you no ill, and I 
 crave your pardon." 
 
 Then, still holding my hand, he once more 
 closed his eyes and lay back upon his couch 
 of furs. It was easy to see that he had suf- 
 fered greatly. There was blood on his palms, 
 where he had dug his finger-nails in paroxysms 
 of pain ; there were streaks under his eyes, 
 that showed darkly against even his dark skin, 
 and a slight clammy perspiration had broken 
 out on his forehead. He held my hand limply, 
 and there seemed no more strength in his grip 
 than there would be in the grasp of a child. 
 It was truly a sad sight to see that iron-hearted 
 old man that old Indian who had been a 
 human lion, fierce, yet noble going weakly 
 and painfully down to his death. Time was 
 when his strength had been as the strength of 
 a giant, when his prowess was so terrible that 
 it had been heralded to the ends of the world 
 that the Indians knew, and when his name 
 was feared from the frozen North to the wilder-
 
 j g THE DEA TH OP LO-TO-KAH. 
 
 nesses of the unexplored Sierra Madre Mount- 
 ains. His life had been long, reaching almost 
 to eighty years, and his name had become old 
 in Indian tales of battle. Lo-To-Kah it was 
 who had fought a tribe of Navajos single- 
 handed, and had come out victor ; it was he 
 who had fought a grizzly bear, hand-to-hand, 
 to save the child of a thieving Mexican who 
 had robbed him ; it was he who was both ad- 
 mired and feared by the frontier soldiers of 
 fifty years ago ; it was he who in the heat of 
 battle, when sorely put upon and disarmed, 
 had torn up a sapling by the roots and smitten 
 his enemies to death with the ponderous 
 weapon ; and it was he who had journeyed 
 more and farther in strange lands than any 
 Indian of any tribe except old Deerfoot, the 
 Seneca, hale old Deerfoot, who is wandering 
 yet! 
 
 Lo-To-Kah was an Indian who had kept 
 pace to the fullest degree with the changes in 
 the destinies of his people ; who had learned 
 the customs, the languages, and even some- 
 thing of the literature of the white- skinned 
 hordes who had overrun the ancestral lands of 
 his people as the locusts overran Egypt. But 
 he was ever an Indian, and he was dying the 
 death of an Indian; not a death in battle,
 
 THE DBA TH OF L O- TO-KA H. j g r 
 
 stripped to the skin for the fray and with the 
 scalps of hated rivals hanging to his leathern 
 belt, but as an old Indian who had outrun fate 
 and outwitted the spirits of war should die 
 in an Indian can-nee, surrounded by the 
 shamans and priests of his people who made 
 po-o-kan-te, or magic, that was to clear the way 
 of the undaunted old man's spirit to the abodes 
 of the blest in the bright hunting-grounds 
 where there is no evil. 
 
 The flower of the civilization of America 
 and of Europe had been seen by Lo-To-Kah. 
 Great men of the Anglo-Saxon and Latin 
 races had received him as an equal and had 
 been glad to call him friend ; wealth had come 
 to him only to be wasted ; but in his old age 
 he had yearned again for the bare, brown 
 plains and the white-crowned mountains of 
 the land of his youth, and he had gone back 
 to his own people. And now his tale of life 
 was almost told, and I was the only man of 
 an alien race who was near to write the end 
 to the last sad chapter. 
 
 After lying still and silent for a few minutes, 
 the old man awoke with a start and almost 
 leaped to his feet. His mouth twitched and 
 his eyes rolled, and it was easy to see that he 
 was again delirious. Rising to his feet, a
 
 ! 8 2 THE DEATH OF LO- TO-KA H. 
 
 thing which I did not think he had the 
 strength to do, he shaded his eyes with his 
 hand and peered away as though he were 
 scanning a plain or a wide stretch of country, 
 although in reality he could not have seen 
 farther than the side of the tent. As he 
 gazed, every muscle of his body became tense, 
 every vestige of weakness seemed to leave 
 him, and it seemed that he was a strong man 
 again. It was easy to see that in imagination 
 he was living over some long-past episode 
 in his life. Suddenly, he waved his hand in 
 the air and shouted : 
 
 " Ho, warriors, the Comanches are coming ! 
 Look ! Do you not see them on the crest of 
 the mesa ten of them to every one of us ? 
 Lasso your horses, look to the strings of your 
 bows, and let us meet them before they can 
 come upon us ! O/i, la-ay-lilla-ho ! " shouting 
 his war-cry in a loud, clear tone that echoed 
 throughout the length of the sleeping camp. 
 
 Some sleeping Indian who had been dream- 
 ing of war heard the old man's battle-cry, and 
 soon an answering Oh, la-ay-lilla-ho ! was heard 
 from the other end of the encampment. As 
 its echoes reached the old man 'sears it seemed 
 to rouse him ; his eyes lost their vacant stare, 
 but his weakness again coming upon him,
 
 THR DEA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. x g, 
 
 he almost fell. I supported him, and as he 
 lay down again he said : 
 
 " Again was my mind running wild, O friend ! 
 Again was I in thoughts a young man, and 
 again was I making ready for battle with the 
 Comanches. It was only delirium, but ah ! it 
 was sweet to be in imagination a strong young 
 man again to be at the head of my steel- 
 hearted warriors, and to be galloping over the 
 dry mesas to try our strength against the 
 strength of our hated foes ! But that is past ; 
 I am now but an old man, and the coldness 
 of death is fast chilling my blood and steal- 
 ing within me to freeze my heart. Death ! 
 Death ! Death ! the thing the white men fear 
 so much ; the thing the red men fear so little ! 
 But it has come to me none too late. All my 
 life I have tasted to the full of the joys of 
 living. My foes have fallen before me as the 
 oak trees fall before the mountain storm ; my 
 friends have loved me, and have given me joy 
 as the flowers give joy to the birds of sum- 
 mer ; and my wife ah ! she was to me as a 
 spring of sweet water down until the time of 
 her death." 
 
 The old, dim eyes closed again, the thin 
 palms held my hand closer, and then the old 
 man raised his head with a start, and said :
 
 ! g 4 THE DEA TH OF L O- TO-KA H. 
 
 " Dead ? Dead? Who says that my Zeetah 
 is dead ? If she is dead it is by the foul work 
 of a cowardly coyote who is my enemy, and I 
 will seek him till the flesh rots from my bones, 
 and when I do find him I will roast him over 
 a slow fire, I will prick out his eyes with the 
 needles of cactus, I will Oh, you lie, you lie ! 
 You are a race of liars and men with the tongues 
 of snakes ; for Zeetah is not dead she can- 
 not be dead ! " Then his voice became low 
 and soft, and he said : " O Zeetah, neenah 
 pagosaf they told me you were dead. It was 
 a dream, sweet wife of my heart, but it has 
 sorely troubled your Lo-To-Kah. Hold my 
 hand, sweet wife, that I may know you are 
 here ! " 
 
 Again the old man was silent for a little 
 time, and when he spoke again he was rational. 
 He said : 
 
 " Friend of mine, again has my mind wan- 
 dered like a vagrant bird. Again have I been 
 living in thought the old days of my young 
 years those glad old days that have been 
 gone from me, for lo ! these many moons. 
 Again was I a young man, a warrior and a 
 hunter ; and again was Zeetah, the bride of 
 my youth, in my arms. But it will now be 
 
 1 Wife of mine.
 
 THE DEA TH OF L 0- TO-KA H. j g c 
 
 only the time needed for a few breaths when I 
 will be with her again. For more than thirty 
 years she has been waiting for me in the bright 
 hunting-grounds that lie beyond the mystery 
 called death ; yet I think that even in that 
 glad place she has not been happy, because I 
 have not been with her. As I lie here on my 
 couch of death, the scenes of my life come 
 before me in a succession of pictures ; all the 
 wars, the battles, the combats, the hunts, the 
 dances, the wanderings, the strange peoples 
 and the far places that I have visited, come 
 again before my eyes in memory ; but of 
 them all the brightest and best are the memo- 
 ries of Zeetah she who was my only wife. 
 Ah, friend ! I have journeyed to the great 
 places of the world ; I have seen the kings 
 before whom men bow the knee ; I have seen 
 the wondrous cities of the white-skinned 
 peoples : but of all the things I have seen 
 none were so beautiful to me as the bare 
 plains and the high mountains of the land 
 where I loved and won my Zeetah. I have 
 seen vast cities, where the houses were 
 palaces; where the wealth of a nation was 
 garnered in a single room. But all the time I 
 was gazing and wondering at the greatness of 
 the white peoples, my heart was here in the
 
 j g 5 THE DEATH OF L 0- TO-KA H. 
 
 canons, and in my mind I was again chasing 
 the wild buffalo and deer across the dry 
 arroyos. Ah, to be young again to be young 
 again ! Why, there was a time when my 
 strength was like the strength of a rod of iron ; 
 there was a time when I could catch one wild 
 horse after another and ride them till in turn 
 they died. And when my hand was turned in 
 war against my enemies, then went forth the 
 saying that many graves would yawn to hold 
 those slain by Lo-To-Kah." 
 
 The old man ceased talking. Again his 
 weird, wild war-cry was heard reverberating in 
 the night, and we who were watching him knew 
 that he was again in the hold of the delirium 
 and was fighting over some battle of his far- 
 away youth. I noticed that his strength was 
 failing, and it seemed to me that he would not 
 again regain the use of his reasoning faculties ; 
 but after muttering and raving for a time he 
 became rational. He sat up on his couch and 
 told me of a fight he had fought when he was 
 young, telling his story with a directness and 
 connection that would not have been looked 
 for from a dying man. I give the story here 
 in his own words ; but I cannot give the mag- 
 nificent gestures, nor the wonderful expression 
 of his matchless eyes, which were bright and
 
 THE DEA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. jg; 
 
 sparkling despite the dimness of old age. He 
 said : 
 
 " One time after Zeetah had been my wife 
 for two summers I killed buffalo, tanned the 
 skin, and builded my wife a new can-nee. It 
 was the finest and largest can-nee that was 
 owned by any of the people of our tribe, and 
 Zeetah was very proud of it. Within it we 
 hung the scalps and trophies I had won in 
 battles ; we adorned the sides with the claws 
 of bears I had killed, and I thought we had 
 all the things needed by happy people. But 
 one day Zeetah said to me that she had heard 
 a tale setting forth that the Modocs who dwelt 
 in the lava-lands of the far North made bows 
 that were as wide as the oars of boats, and 
 that none but the strongest men could bend 
 them. She said she wished to possess one of 
 those bows, so that I might bend it, and show 
 the other men of our tribe that I was the 
 strongest and mightiest of them all, and so that 
 she might have it to hang on the walls of our 
 can-nee. I was but a youth then, any wan- 
 dering fancy possessed my mind as much as 
 great thoughts or ambitions did in my later 
 years, and I told Zeetah I would journey to 
 the land of the Modocs and bring her the 
 strongest bow they had. She besought me
 
 jgg THE DEA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. 
 
 not to go, saying she had spoken only in jest ; 
 but the drop of wandering blood that was in 
 my body was more potent than her pleadings, 
 and I set out alone for the land of the 
 Modocs. 
 
 " I passed through the lands of many tribes, 
 meeting some in friendship and fighting any 
 who cast gibes upon me, and at last I came 
 unhurt to the land of the Modocs. The Mo- 
 docs dwelt in a wild land a land that seemed 
 fit for none but evil spirits, and I said to my- 
 self that I would tarry there but a short time. 
 I asked of them what man among them owned 
 the greatest bow, and they answered me only 
 by asking questions of me and looking upon 
 me in suspicion. I learned that the greatest 
 bow among them was esteemed to be a thing 
 of magic, and was greatly prized by them. 
 They believed I wanted to work evil upon 
 them by obtaining it ; but I had promised that 
 bow to my Zeetah, and I vowed that I would 
 take it, or that I would never leave the land 
 of the Modocs alive. 
 
 " After I had parleyed much with the Mo- 
 docs, striving to obtain the bow by fair traffic, 
 one of their chiefs bade me leave their country. 
 I was no thief ; I desired not their horses nor 
 their women, and the order was an insult that
 
 THE DEA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. jg 
 
 I would not brook. By way of answer to the 
 order of the chief I spat upon him, and we 
 fought I and the chief and his men. We 
 fought for an hour ; and then the tribe of the 
 Modocs lacked one of its chiefs, and two of 
 the warriors were maimed. One of the men 
 with whom I had fought then said that their 
 great bow was owned by a man who was at 
 once chief and priest, and that, though he 
 fought but seldom, he was greater in battle 
 than any man who had ever lived. Then I 
 told the man to bear my defiance to that chief, 
 and to tell him he was a liar and a coward 
 and an eater of the flesh of dogs, and that I 
 was waiting for him in his own land to fight 
 him. The man bore my message to the chief, 
 and the chief wondered much whom I might 
 be, who came to his land from so far to fight 
 him. The chief came to meet me, but he 
 came hiding and skulking like a coward not 
 as a boasting chief should go forth in his own 
 land to fight a single stranger. When he came 
 near to me he drew the string of his great bow, 
 and I felt an arrow pass through the flesh of 
 my arm. Then the passion of war seized me. 
 I forgot that I was a single man in the land of a 
 tribe of enemies, and I rushed toward the tree 
 from behind which the chief had shot. My
 
 ! () THE DEA TH OF L O- TO-KA H. 
 
 rush was so swift that I reached him before 
 he could shoot another arrow, and behind him 
 I saw ten of his people hiding behind rocks. 
 With the swiftness of a flash of lightning I 
 grasped the chief by the throat with one of my 
 hands ; with my other I wrested his great bow 
 from him and threw it to the ground, and then 
 I swung him over my shoulder and reached 
 the tall tree from behind which he had shot. 
 The tree grew upon the bank of a great pre- 
 cipice, and when I reached it, I whirled the 
 body of the chief thrice around my head, and 
 I threw him far out over the bank, sounding 
 the great war-cry of my people as I threw him. 
 He fell upon the rocks at the bottom of the 
 chasm : a shriek came from his coward lips, 
 and then his voice was still forever. I hurried 
 then to where the men were standing gaping 
 in the wonder of fools. Before they could 
 stop me I gained the bow that the chief had 
 owned. It was a wondrous bow longer by 
 far than a man ; as thick as a man's foot, as 
 wide as the wing of a wild goose, and its string 
 was made of a great coil of sinew that was as 
 hard and strong as a rope of steel. I felt my 
 spirit leap with joy as I took up the bow, and 
 I fitted one of the great arrows to it and sent 
 it singing through the heart of a Modoc fool
 
 THE DBA TH OF L O- TO-KA ff. 191 
 
 who had not known enough to shoot me when 
 I was struggling with the chief. The man fell 
 dead, and then the madness of war grew upon 
 me. In the sight of my eyes all things seemed 
 red as blood, and I forgot danger, I forgot all 
 but the joy of killing, and I rushed upon the 
 remaining men as a mountain-lion might rush 
 upon a flock of rabbits. They were brave 
 men, though, those Modocs, and they stood 
 their ground and fought me hand to hand. 
 Soon we were so close to each other that I 
 could not use my bow, and then we all fought 
 with only our war-clubs as weapons. My club 
 was heavy with flint, and I swung it so fast 
 that it made a noise like a chant as it sped 
 through the air. A mighty swing, and a Modoc 
 fell dead ; another swing, swift as forked 
 lightning, and then another man was ready 
 for the scalping-knife ; and then a giant Modoc 
 smote me with his club and broke my left arm ; 
 then the blood of my body turned to a 
 white heat, and, with my broken arm hanging 
 limply at my side, I rushed upon the others 
 and one by one they fell before me ; but as 
 they were falling the giant rained his heavy 
 blows upon me, giving me scars that I have 
 carried down through my life to this day. In 
 due time I killed or wounded all but the man
 
 ! g 2 THE DEATH OF LO- TO-KA H. 
 
 who was the giant, and he was not even hurt. 
 I was bleeding from a dozen wounds : one of 
 my eyes was closed from a blow he had given 
 me ; my left arm felt as though it were being 
 pierced by knives, and the tall warrior rushed 
 upon me, thinking to finish me. We both 
 dropped our clubs and grasped each other's 
 bodies, I having only one arm to use. The 
 giant's arms closed about me strong, strong : 
 so strong that I thought my body would be 
 divided into two pieces ; but I grasped him 
 with my one good arm, and I tried to push him 
 from me. Then his hands of steel found their 
 way to my throat ; things began to turn black 
 before my eyes, and I felt that the sun of my 
 life was almost set. I thought of Zeetah in her 
 can-nee, waiting my return ; I thought of the 
 men of my tribe, who might think I had de- 
 serted them to cast in my lot with another 
 people ; I thought of the joys of life of the 
 years my life yet lacked to fill it out to the 
 number allotted to men ; and the thought came 
 to me that death was very bitter. I determined 
 to make the man die with me, and it occurred 
 to me that I might make one mighty rush and 
 carry him with me over the edge of the pre- 
 cipice. I braced one of my feet against a 
 stone ; I threw all the strength of my body
 
 The old man fell forward."
 
 ? :
 
 THE DBA TH OF LO-TO-KAH. 195 
 
 into one mighty effort, and I rushed toward 
 the cliff the man giving way inch by inch 
 before the strength I was using. When he 
 began to give way, hope came again to my 
 heart, and I believed that I might kill him and 
 yet not lose my life. I grasped him about the 
 neck and choked him, and he loosed his hold 
 on my throat for an instant. That instant was 
 his death ; for no sooner had his hand come 
 before my mouth than I bit it in my teeth, and 
 while he recoiled in pain I threw all my power 
 against him. Before he knew it, his body was 
 soaring like the body of a bird down toward 
 the bottom of the almost bottomless chasm. 
 And the great bow that I won that day was 
 ever after the dearest treasure that my wife 
 possessed. But these are things of the long 
 ago, and should not be dwelt upon by an old 
 man who is face to face with death." 
 
 Once more shouting his once terrible war 
 cry, the old man fell back from weakness. He 
 lay for a long time, perhaps an hour, with- 
 out speaking, and it seemed that all his 
 strength was gone. In time he asked for 
 water, and then again he lay silent while the 
 hideous old medicine-men motioned their 
 skinny arms over his body, placed their cheeks 
 to his naked breast, and chanted the weird
 
 ! n 6 THE DEATH OF LO- TO-KA H. 
 
 death-song that was believed to clear the way 
 for the dying man's soul to travel on its journey 
 to the next world. 
 
 Just as the first thin ray of the morning sun- 
 light came stealing over the eastern mesas, the 
 old man sprang to his feet, turned his face up- 
 ward, held out his arms, and said : 
 
 " O Zeetah, neenah pagosa at last, at last ! 
 I am coming, Zeetah, after long years ! I am 
 coming, and never will I depart from your side 
 again never, in the long forever. O Zeetah, 
 the time has been long so long, so long ! I 
 have lived a long life in a world full of trouble, 
 and few besides you have had a place in my 
 heart. None but you have been in my memory 
 by night and by day, and none but you could 
 make the place of endless joy a happy place to 
 me. Neenah pagosa, I come at last ! " 
 
 The old man fell forward on his face, his 
 arms still outstretched before him. We 
 thought at first he had fallen from weakness ; 
 but when we raised him and looked into his 
 face, we saw that he was dead. And in all the 
 weird, strange lands where the Indians dwell, 
 never again will be known another such man 
 as was old Lo-To-Kah of the oaken heart.
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH.
 
 ABOUT sixteen miles north of the Arkansas 
 River, in Otero County, Colorado, there is a 
 place called Antelope Springs. It is not a 
 town, or a farm, or a ranch ; it is simply a place. 
 It is ten miles or more from civilization, and is 
 the centre of a vast treeless, unfenced plain 
 that is used only for range for cattle. Here 
 the plains break away from a mesa-wall, and 
 out of the wall or slope there comes forth the 
 water of a group of springs. This is the only 
 water for miles, and the spot has long been 
 known to Indians and hunters, as well as to 
 the antelope, many of which still range in the 
 region. It is a desolate place to those who
 
 202 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 are lonely when out of sight of the towers and 
 crowds of cities ; but it is beautiful in the way 
 that the sea or the forests are beautiful. The 
 plains stretch away in undulating vastness in 
 every direction, and nothing can be seen ex- 
 cept the cattle and the wild animals that come 
 to the springs to water. And at that place 
 there occurred a thing so strange that the 
 people who hear of it will say it is not true. 
 
 A traveller on horseback came one evening 
 at sunset to the Antelope Springs. He was 
 tired, hungry, and thirsty ; but he carried food 
 with him, the springs afforded water, and he 
 decided to spend the night there. There is 
 an old, tumble-down adobe corral at the 
 springs that was once used by sheep-herders. 
 The traveller picketed his horse out to eat the 
 gramma-grass that grows quite abundantly 
 there, and made a rude camp in the old ruin. 
 He ate of the frugal lunch he carried with him, 
 and then, with his saddle for a pillow and his 
 overcoat for a covering, he lay down and 
 slept. 
 
 The traveller did not know how long he 
 had slept, but when he awoke it must have 
 been far in the night. He looked out over 
 the plains and saw the late moon rising over 
 the earth, half obscured by floating clouds.
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 203 
 
 He heard the hoot of an owl ; some creeping 
 thing moved near him ; and away over the 
 empty distance he heard the weird, ghostly 
 cry of the ravening coyotes as they wandered 
 forth in search of prey. He shivered and was 
 about to lie down again, when he chanced to 
 glance to the eastward, and there, just where 
 the old sheep-dip tank now lies, he saw a tent 
 and a camp-fire, and some horses grazing near 
 his own. 
 
 The traveller arose and went to the tent, 
 for in that uninhabited place he felt that 
 whoever might be the owners of the camp, 
 would be glad to see him. Sitting in front of 
 the tent was a black man, an African, of 
 gigantic size. His lips were compressed, his 
 face was free from hair, and his eyes shone 
 in the night like coals of living fire. He 
 stared at the traveller, but did not speak or 
 move. The traveller addressed him, and the 
 black man frowned, but did not answer. The 
 traveller was turning to leave his churlish 
 neighbor, when the flap of the tent was opened 
 and a beautiful woman invited him to enter. 
 The negro arose and stood to one side, the 
 traveller entered the tent; and when he was 
 within he believed that he was still asleep and 
 dreaming, so different were his surroundings
 
 204 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 from what he would expect to see in that 
 isolated and desolate solitude. The tent 
 was made of fine silk, the ground was 
 covered with rugs of the finest patterns, and 
 silken and golden draperies were all around. 
 Standing at one side of the tent was a 
 woman, more beautiful than any woman the 
 stranger had ever seen before which is not 
 to be wondered at, for she was the most beau- 
 tiful woman in the world. Her eyes were 
 blue and as bright as stars ; her features 
 were finely molded ; her dress was a robe of 
 clinging silk, which half revealed and half hid 
 the fair proportions of the wearer ; and the 
 undulations of her bosom caused her robe to 
 rise and fall with a gentle motion. Diamonds 
 of rare brilliance were on her fingers, a 
 diamond bracelet encircled her wrist, and 
 her soft hair was held back by a circlet of gold. 
 The traveller gazed upon her with such a look 
 as might have been on the face of a slain 
 Saracen when first he saw one of the immortal 
 houris of Paradise. 
 
 " Traveller, you are welcome," said the 
 woman, in a voice so sweet that every tone of 
 it is yet remembered by the traveller. " You 
 are welcome, and I am glad you are here, for 
 I am lonely. When we came to this place
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 205 
 
 and saw you asleep within the old adobe walls, 
 my attendant desired to hasten away ; but I 
 would not go, for something seemed to tell me 
 I must camp here. Is it not strange how we 
 will be guided by impressions ? " 
 
 The woman smiled into the face of the man, 
 and her smile was so brilliant and she was 
 so entrancingly beautiful, that he forgot to 
 answer, but stood gaping at her as a clown 
 might gaze at an angel. 
 
 " Will you not have wine ? " asked the 
 woman. 
 
 The traveller acquiesced, and the woman 
 called her attendant, who had been sitting 
 silently outside. The negro went to a leathern 
 bag, and procured a bottle of wine. It was 
 such wine as he had never drunk before ; it 
 seemed to go into his veins and take many 
 years from his age, and make him young. 
 
 " Is not the wine splendid ? " said the woman. 
 " It was made in Spain three hundred years 
 ago, and it has no peer in the world." 
 
 Three hundred years ago ! Made in Spain ! 
 And these strange announcements made by a 
 woman as beautiful as a dream a woman who 
 had a black king for a slave, and who dwelt in 
 a silken tent and wore jewels beyond price ! 
 The traveller believed that he was asleep.
 
 206 THE VISION OP THE WITCH. 
 
 But if he were asleep indeed, he was having a 
 beautiful dream, and did not desire to awaken. 
 
 Silken cushions were all about the tent, and 
 after a time the traveller sat down. The 
 woman talked to him for a time of the country 
 they were in, of books, of pictures and of 
 cities ; and after they had begun to get well 
 enough acquainted for the traveller to feel at 
 ease, the woman asked him if he had lived 
 long in the West. 
 
 " Many years," replied the traveller. 
 
 " Do you ever go among the Indians ? " 
 asked the woman. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Did you ever meet an Indian named Lo- 
 To-Kah an old man who was once a chief, 
 and who is now dead ? " 
 
 "Yes, I knew him well ; he was my friend," 
 replied the traveller. 
 
 " He was your friend, and he is now dead," 
 absently said the woman. 
 
 Then she roused herself and asked the 
 traveller many questions of the old chief. The 
 traveller answered as well as he could, but it 
 was hard to keep his mind upon the subject ; 
 for his greedy eyes were always roving from 
 the fair face to the perfect form of the woman 
 who sat before him.
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 2o y 
 
 The night wore on, and in time the traveller 
 arose and said he must go to his saddle and 
 sleep. 
 
 " Remain here," said the woman. " My at- 
 tendant will not sleep, but will guard me and 
 the tent. It is not good for a man to sleep 
 out of doors in the night. Lie down on the 
 cushions and sleep here." 
 
 The man lay down upon the cushions, and 
 the woman sat staring at the wall of the tent, 
 seeming to forget her guest altogether. A 
 man who is tired cannot remain awake always, 
 even to stare at a beautiful woman, and in time 
 the traveller fell asleep. He was awakened 
 after a time, and rose to a sitting posture and 
 looked about him. He saw the strange 
 woman sitting with staring eyes gazing into 
 vacancy, and the tall negro was in the tent 
 with a look of terror on his face. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked the traveller, speaking 
 in a whisper. 
 
 " I cannot tell," answered the negro, also in 
 a whisper. " I cannot tell. My mistress, the 
 Queen, often prays for death, and I feel that 
 at last it may be coming to her. She was 
 never thus before." 
 
 The talking did not disturb the woman, who
 
 208 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 sat rigid as a stone gazing with wide, unseeing 
 eyes into nothingness. 
 
 " Who is your mistress ? " whispered the 
 traveller. 
 
 " Raymeya, Queen of " began the negro. 
 
 Then he paused ; his big eyes flashed upon 
 the traveller, and he said : " Fool ! what 
 concern of yours is it who she is ? Is it not 
 enough that a clod like you can gaze upon 
 her ? Now speak to me no more ! " 
 
 A gust of cold air seemed to enter the tent, 
 a white mist seemed for a moment to envelop 
 all things ; and when it had faded a bearded 
 man stood before Raymeya, and the negro 
 was cowering on the ground, his eyes rolling 
 in terror. The bearded man seemed half 
 shadowy and unreal, and the traveller be- 
 lieved it was a ghost. The woman gazed at it 
 and screamed ; but she did not cower, and she 
 made no attempt to go away. She was silent 
 for a full minute ; then she spoke one word : 
 
 " Ransoval ! " 
 
 " Aye, Ransoval ! " said the apparition, " I 
 am Ransoval, whom you foully slew so long 
 ago in the accursed land of Cundinamarca. 
 How long ago that was I know not ; but I 
 know that since then your memory has not 
 been in my brain, and that I have not even
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 209 
 
 hated you, and do not hate you, for my mur- 
 der. I seem like a man who has just awakened 
 from a long sleep, my mind is not fully 
 clear. What do you here ? Why are you not 
 dead?" 
 
 " I am not dead, O Ransoval, because of 
 the curse that was placed upon me for my sin in 
 taking your life. Long years long and weary 
 years I have lived upon the earth since you 
 ceased to live. Great wealth has been given 
 me ; great knowledge is mine ; I am as fair as 
 any woman who dwells in all the world ; I am 
 as young as I was when first I became your 
 bride, but my heart is ashes, and I am the 
 most unhappy of all the creatures that were 
 created. Will you not forgive me for so foully 
 murdering you? " 
 
 The thing seemed to start, and the eyes 
 looked down at the woman. " Forgive you ! " 
 he said. " Why, you are my wife my young 
 lover, my bride ! You are to me the sunlight 
 of life, the sweet flower of existence ! For- 
 give ! What is there to forgive ? " 
 
 The woman was grovelling upon the ground, 
 moaning and crying. " Why," she said, " it 
 was a sin to kill you. I cut you off in the bloom 
 of youth, in the flower of your young man- 
 hood, and sent you, all unprepared, into that
 
 210 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 country of judgment where none should go 
 but those whose work upon earth is done." 
 
 " Yes ; I know," said the man, cr thing, or 
 spirit, absently. " I know ; I was thinking of 
 other things. I had forgotten for an instant 
 that you killed me." 
 
 "And had you forgotten that you loved 
 me ? " asked the woman, rising to her knees. 
 " Had you forgotten that once I was all the 
 world to you ; that you swore you would sur- 
 render your hope of heaven for me ? " 
 
 " No, I had not forgotten," said the shade. 
 
 The spirit stood with bowed head for a 
 little time, and then it spoke again, saying : 
 
 " Raymeya, but for the blow you dealt 
 me, the history of the world might have been 
 changed. The expedition I led to South 
 America was a contraband expedition, sailing 
 without authority of any kind. I stole away 
 from Spain in the night, and no man ever knew 
 what befell me and the men I led. From a 
 sailor who had been with Columbus I learned 
 of the Gilded Chief, and I resolved to find 
 him to learn of the vastness of his wealth, 
 and to then go the monarchs and disclose my 
 discovery. Because of my death I could not 
 make my great discovery known ; and in after 
 years, when the power of Spain was waning
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 2 \\ 
 
 because of the poverty of the nation, the gold 
 of the Gilded Chief would have enabled the 
 Spanish crown to almost conquer the world. 
 No man after me sought the Gilded One until 
 many years had gone into the past, and when 
 they sought they found him not ; for he had 
 gone from his country ; his wealth was gone 
 with him, and his name and fame became a 
 mocking and a byword. I know not how I 
 know these things, but I know them." 
 
 " Is it the wealth of him who was called the 
 Gilded One that you have in our valley ? " 
 tremulously asked the cowering negro, crawl- 
 ing nearer to his mistress. 
 
 The woman paid no heed to the black man, 
 but sat staring at the wraith that was before 
 her ; and in the twinkling of an eye the shade 
 was gone, and the room contained no person 
 save the beautiful woman, the negro and the 
 astonished traveller. 
 
 The woman sat like one bewitched, her 
 great starry eyes distended and gazing into 
 vacancy ; and no one of the little company 
 spoke a word. Soon a mist seemed to enter 
 the room again ; the air for an instant was 
 freezing cold, and then the mist changed and 
 a tall, bronze-colored man stood in the tent. 
 He was as straight as an arrow, his brow was
 
 212 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 high, his firm lips were compressed, and his 
 eyes seemed to look through the people who 
 were before him. He folded his arms with an 
 imperious gesture and gazed at the woman. 
 
 " Guatamozin ! " said the woman, speaking 
 almost in a whisper. 
 
 " I am Guatamozin," said the spirit, speak- 
 ing in a voice that rang out in the night. " I 
 am Guatamozin once the Emperor of Ten- 
 ochtitlan ; once your friend ; once the man 
 whose love you sought and never gained. 
 Why are you here in your living person ? 
 Why are you not dead ? " 
 
 " It is a sad tale," said the woman ; " a sad 
 tale, which I prefer not to tell you. Why are 
 you here ? What do you seek from me ? " 
 
 " Why I am here I know not," said the tall 
 warrior. " I seek nothing from you. I am 
 dead, and dead have been for almost un- 
 numbered years ; yet I seem to know but 
 little of what existence I have held since I left 
 the earth. To me the mystery of life has not 
 been explained, and I cannot fathom the 
 mystery of death. Mystery ! Mystery ! Why, 
 all is mystery ! My birth was mysterious, my 
 life was mysterious even to me, and death is 
 even more mysterious." 
 
 " Tell me of yourself," said the woman, her
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 2 j , 
 
 curiosity seeming to master her other emo- 
 tions. 
 
 " You remain as I knew you, a seeker after 
 knowledge," said Guatamozin, smiling. " Well, 
 I cannot tell you of myself, for I know but 
 little of myself. The histories that have been 
 written by the descendants of the white-skin- 
 ned conquerors tell that I was the nephew of 
 Montezuma, the Emperor ; but I was not born 
 a babe to any woman of his kin. I was a man 
 when I came to earth, and in the mountain 
 fastnesses I found a woman and by instinct 
 was led to call her mother. She was of the 
 blood of the Montezumas, but she had lived 
 in exile for many years. Yet when she re- 
 turned to the royal city and proclaimed that I 
 was her son, she was believed, and the people 
 called me a man of royal blood. The white 
 men learned but little of me ; I shot the first 
 arrow at Montezuma the fool, and from that 
 time the people knew me. It was then that 
 you came to me, a white witch with great 
 wisdom, and told me how to conduct battles. 
 Ah, you and I fought battles that were fit to 
 have been the battles fought by gods ! If I 
 could have loved you as you desired, if I 
 could have had love to press me forward to 
 victory, I would have driven the Spanish
 
 214 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 devils into the earth and purged the land of 
 Mexico from their presence forever. But I 
 fought as fights a man who had but little to 
 win, and in time I was beaten. I was a king ; 
 a queen should have been born for me, but 
 there was none that I loved. And because I 
 lacked a queen and love I was beaten." 
 
 The woman became visibly excited as the 
 spirit talked, and when he stopped she arose 
 and stood before him. 
 
 " O Guatamozin," said she, " tell me of 
 the place where now you have your being. 
 Are you still a king and a ruler of men ? 
 Does any woman now have your love ? " 
 
 " I am like one wakened from a long sleep," 
 said the spirit, " and I can tell you nothing. 
 Some things are in my brain, but they seem 
 like the shadows of dreams, and I cannot com- 
 prehend them." 
 
 The woman tore open the part of her robe 
 that was around her throat, her white neck 
 gleamed like fine ivory in the dim light of the 
 tent, her bosom heaved, and her excitement 
 was so great that scarcely could she speak. 
 The dawning of a great truth was in her 
 mind ; but the two men, whose understanding 
 was not so great, looked on in stupid wonder. 
 
 " King," said the woman, " tell me if, in the
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 215 
 
 world where you now abide, you know aught 
 of a man named Lo-To-Kah ? an Indian like 
 yourself." 
 
 " Lo-To-Kah ! " said the king, in a musing 
 way. " Lo-To-Kah ! Why, it seems to me 
 the name is as familiar as my own. Yet I 
 cannot remember." 
 
 He raised his hand to his brow and stood 
 in a thoughtful attitude for a little time, seem- 
 ing like one who strove to remember a familiar 
 thing that had slipped from his mind. Then 
 in an instant, in a shorter period of time 
 than can be comprehended by a finite mind, 
 he vanished into thin air and was utterly gone. 
 The woman, who seemed used to strange 
 things, seemed scarcely able to comprehend 
 the sudden disappearance, but sat gazing at 
 the empty place where he had been. The 
 traveller sat still, saying no word ; and the 
 eyes of the negro rolled in a paroxysm of ex- 
 cited fear. 
 
 The three persons in the tent sat in atti- 
 tudes of expectancy. No one of them was 
 conscious that he expected anything, yet each 
 believed the white mist and the deadly chill 
 would come again. And it was not long until 
 they came. When the mist faded the trav- 
 eller sprang to his feet in astonishment, for be-
 
 2I 6 THE VISION OF THE WITCH- 
 
 fore the woman stood a warrior and a chief 
 whose greatness has been heralded to the 
 uttermost ends of the earth ; a man with white 
 skin who was mightier than armies with ban- 
 ners ; a man before whom kings fell as falls 
 the trees before a mountain storm : one so 
 well known that his likeness is yet familiar in 
 almost all parts of the world. The name of 
 this man was not spoken, and if the traveller 
 who saw him, or the writer who relates this 
 tale, should name him, it would be said 
 that it was not true that he came to earth 
 again and appeared in a tent on the desert 
 plains. 
 
 The man, or spirit of a man, gazed upon 
 the woman for a time, his imperious eyes seem- 
 ing to look into her very soul. She rose and 
 took a step toward him, seeming like a bird 
 that is charmed by a serpent. Then the man 
 spoke. He said : 
 
 " Raymeya, why is it that I could not love 
 you when I was a man upon the earth ? Why 
 is it that I cannot love you now ? You did 
 more for me than all the kings and councillors 
 and generals I ever knew. You came to me 
 always in secret ; yet you put the sceptre of 
 power into my hand, and you enabled me to 
 win the crowns of rulers. Why was it that I 
 loved you not ? "
 
 Lo-To-Kah, in barbaric splendor, stood in the room.'
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 219 
 
 The woman did not answer, and after a 
 little time the man went on speaking : 
 
 " I possessed all the ambitions that are 
 known to warriors and kings. I possessed all 
 the ambitions but one that are known to men, 
 but that I lacked. You, who more than aught 
 else made me, offered me your love on your 
 bended knees, and I scorned you. Could I 
 have loved you, the world and all its fulness 
 would have been mine and thine : nations of 
 barbarians as well as civilized nations would 
 have bent the knee to us. I lacked nothing 
 but a lover." 
 
 The gloomy eyes of the wraith were turned 
 in meditation upon the ground, and just as 
 had happened before, the figure vanished into 
 thin air. 
 
 The woman trembled, tears came to her 
 eyes, and she whispered, as though speaking 
 to herself : 
 
 " Now must come Lo-To-Kah ! He was the 
 last of all the men I loved the last, the 
 greatest, the best, and the most dearly loved. 
 If he will come to me, and will say one word 
 of love, the curse that crushes me to the earth 
 will be easier to bear." 
 
 No sooner had she ceased speaking than the 
 mist and the chill were in the tent again ;
 
 220 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 and, when the mist vanished, Lo-To-Kah the 
 Indian, dressed in all the barbaric splendor of 
 his people, stood in the room. 
 
 " O Lo-To-Kah, loved one ! Speak ! Tell 
 me you have come to say the thing you never 
 would say in life ! " cried the woman, falling 
 upon her knees, and holding her hands in sup- 
 plication to the spirit. 
 
 The spirit was like a young man, although 
 Lo-To-Kah had been old and bent at the time 
 he died. He gazed at the kneeling woman, 
 and said : 
 
 " Raymeya, you remain, as I knew you, the 
 fairest woman who ever dwelt upon the earth. 
 You are fairer than the women strong young 
 men see in dreams ; you are fairer than the 
 women who dwell in the land that lies beyond 
 the gates of death : but I love you not. You 
 were my friend when I was upon earth ; you 
 are now my friend and that is all." 
 
 A look came into the eyes of the woman 
 that seemed to tell of all the sadness ever 
 known to women. She gazed beseechingly 
 and hopelessly into the eyes of the tall Indian ; 
 and then, with a sigh that seemed to rend her 
 bosom, she sank upon the ground. Soon she 
 raised her head again and said : 
 
 " O Lo-To-Kah, it is with me now as it ever
 
 THE VISION OF THE IV ITCH. 2 2I 
 
 was. All wealth, all power, and all wisdom 
 that I seek are given to me ; but love is not 
 for me. Through all the years of your life, 
 when you were a strong young man, as you 
 seem now; when you were an old man, 
 wrinkled and with one foot over the brink of 
 the grave, I loved you. I loved you, but you 
 loved me not. I have loved men before 
 loved them before you were born ; but never 
 loved I a man, never loved a woman a man, 
 as I have loved you. But as I cannot have 
 your love, teach me of the knowledge you 
 know. Tell me of that land that lies beyond 
 the grave, and of the wisdom you have gained 
 there ; tell me of the secrets of birth and death 
 of the life that lies after death, and of the 
 life that was before birth." 
 
 The Indian started. " Woman," said he, 
 " speak you of a life before birth ? Of what 
 are you thinking ? " 
 
 " Tell me of that life," said the woman. 
 
 " I know not of any life before birth," said 
 the Indian. He seemed to be troubled as he 
 spoke, and his gaze wandered from the 
 woman. 
 
 " Tell me ! " reiterated the woman. 
 
 The Indian gave a great start. He pressed 
 his hand to his eyes as a man might do who
 
 222 THE VISION OP THE WITCH. 
 
 had received a blow ; and then, seeming the 
 while to peer away into nothingness, he said : 
 
 "O Raymeya, witch of all human knowl- 
 edge, what is this spell you have caused to 
 be cast over me ? I know that I have died. I 
 have remembrance of the things that have 
 befallen me since my body was placed in the 
 ground to return to the earth from which it 
 came ; but until now I had no greater knowl- 
 edge. But now, now, the past seems to roll 
 open to my gaze as the leaves of a scroll open 
 to the gaze of a student. I see the forgotten 
 years and centuries as a man might see who 
 looks down a mighty corridor and through 
 mighty doors. Ah ! The first door opens, 
 and I see I see, O witch ! this cannot be 
 true ! You are casting a spell upon me ! 
 This thing cannot, must not, be true ! " 
 
 Beads of perspiration stood out on the white 
 skin of the woman. She gazed at the spirit 
 Indian as though she were gazing into the 
 very womb of all Infinity, and her breath came 
 in gasps like unto the gasps of one who is 
 dying. The negro and the traveller were rigid 
 and mute with fear and wonder ; and the 
 wraith, like a living, breathing man, stood in 
 the centre of the tent, gazing away into 
 vacancy with distended eyes.
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 22 3 
 
 " What of the gate you see ? " asked the 
 woman, speaking in so low a whisper that her 
 voice was barely audible. 
 
 " I see a man," said the Indian " a man 
 whose name struck terror to the hearts of 
 millions ; a man who was so great that scarce 
 could the earth contain the ambitions of his 
 limitless mind. He was a warrior, a states- 
 man, an emperor. And with him I see you. 
 You are kneeling at his side, pointing out the 
 way to even greater fame, and asking him to 
 give to you his love. Raymeya, that man 
 was " here he spoke a name, " and, why, 
 wonder of all wonders ! that man was also I ! 
 I, in another form, with another color, but it 
 was I." 
 
 The truth that had been made known to 
 Lo-To-Kah was so great, so stupendously 
 and unreasonably great, that he stood gaping 
 like the veriest fool. The woman rose to her 
 full height ; her loose robe slipped from her 
 bust, causing her to seem like a living statue 
 of the finest marble ; but she was more self- 
 possessed than the wraith, and she said : 
 
 " Look farther ! Never, in unnumbered 
 centuries, may so much of the pure truth of 
 existence be made known to you. Miss not 
 this opportunity. Look once again ! "
 
 224 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 Then the Indian said : " I see farther yet 
 down the avenue of the dead centuries, and I 
 see a land of red-skinned men men who are 
 half wild and half as wise as any men who 
 have lived. I see a vast concourse of people, 
 who seem in great trouble : their homes, their 
 kingdom, their religion, their very belief in all 
 things, are attacked and are being taken from 
 them ; and I see a young man with a stern 
 brow and gloomy eyes, who goes among them, 
 and as he walks among them they fall down 
 and kiss the hem of his robe. The man is a 
 warrior and a king, and his name, I seem to 
 hear the multitude shouting it, his name is 
 Guatamozin ! And oh, again the infinite 
 wonder ! Guatamozin I am ! I it was who 
 was Guatamozin the warrior. And by my side 
 as I lived then, I see you, the fairest 
 and wisest of all earthly women ; and you 
 guide me to victory, you instruct me in war- 
 fare, and you seek my love, which I cannot 
 give you. Oh, the marvellous wonder of all 
 this ! " 
 
 " Speak on ! " said the woman who had 
 been called witch ; " speak on ! For never, 
 in countless aeons of ages, may such knowl- 
 edge be given to you or to me again." 
 
 "Guatamozin and his land have faded from
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 22$ 
 
 my vision," said the wraith ; " but in their 
 stead I see another fair land a land of sun- 
 shine and flowers, of bright mountains and 
 clear streams. The land is Spain, and there 
 I see a man and a woman. The man is 
 named Ransoval, and the woman is yourself. 
 You love him, and he loves you more than 
 ever woman was loved. I seem to see O 
 witch, let me cease ! Let me go, for I fear to 
 learn more of this terrible truth." 
 
 " Speak on," said the woman, with lips as 
 ashen as the lips of the dead ; " speak on ! 
 Were you Ransoval ? " 
 
 "I I was Ransoval," said the Indian 
 speaking in a voice of awe. " I was Ransoval, 
 and you were my bride, my other self the 
 best part of all the world to me. You it was 
 who should have been my queen when I 
 half conquered the world ; you it was who 
 should have reigned with me, and won 
 with me, in the valley of lost Anahuac ; you 
 it was who should have been my bride when 
 I was a wild Indian in the forest. No, it 
 was Zeetah, the Indian maiden, who was 
 my bride then ! O witch, queen, let us 
 cease from our quest of this horrible knowl- 
 edge." 
 
 The witch had risen and was standing so
 
 226 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 close to the wraith that she could look into 
 its very eyes. 
 
 " Speak on," she said. 
 
 She was like a beautiful vision. Her white 
 bosom gleamed in the dim light, her eyes 
 sparkled like twin stars, and her long black 
 hair had become unbound and fell in great 
 profusion over her shoulders. 
 
 " I see, yea, I see much of my life when I 
 was Ransoval the soldier of fortune. But of 
 that I will speak no farther, for there is in that 
 life a mystery that I cannot understand when I 
 remember the life I lived as a chief in the for- 
 est. How could I have loved you so then, 
 when I so love Zeetah now ? But I see be- 
 yond that life ; I see a life that was lived 
 in a great land of the east in a land beloved 
 of the sun ; a land of wealth and wisdom. 
 And in that land I see you, and you are no ! 
 I will not speak the name you were then 
 known by to men." 
 
 The Indian bent his gaze upon the woman, 
 who stood, clothed in her unearthly beauty, 
 before him. 
 
 " O woman, witch, queen, empress ! " he 
 said. " In years that have not long been gone 
 I regarded you as the wisest and greatest 
 woman upon the earth ; but you were as
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 227 
 
 naught to what you were in that old time when 
 the world was young, and you ruled next to 
 Heaven itself. And in that time I was the 
 one man on the face of the earth who had 
 your love. Your kisses and your embraces 
 were sometimes bestowed upon others ; but, 
 in your heart, I ruled alone." 
 
 " In that life was I " 
 
 " Stop ! " said the Indian. " Who you were 
 I will not tell you. You are already so wise 
 that you are the most miserable person who 
 lives in all the world. I will tell you no more." 
 
 " Will you not tell me what I might have 
 been if I had not killed you when you were 
 Ransoval ? " 
 
 " I will tell you, because of the great love 
 I once bore for you. Listen : If you had not 
 killed me, you and I would have been born 
 upon the earth again as Guatamozin, and his 
 queen, and we would have saved the Aztec 
 Empire, and made it one of the wonders of the 
 world ; then we would have died and in time 
 been born again as as a great ruler and his 
 empress. We would have conquered the 
 world and all of its many lands and peoples, 
 and we would have ruled the world in love 
 and charity and wisdom. I ruled part of the 
 world, but I ruled with an iron hand, and in
 
 22 g THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 
 
 wickedness and bitterness of heart, which was 
 because I yearned for a beloved queen, and 
 had only unloved ones." 
 
 " When the curse was put upon me," said 
 the woman, " it was said that I should live 
 until you had been freed from Purgatory. 
 Have you not been so freed for many years ? " 
 
 " He who dwells upon the earth dwells in 
 Purgatory," said the wraith, sententiously. 
 
 "What will the future bring forth for you 
 and me ? " asked the witch. As she spoke 
 she trembled like one with palsy. 
 
 " Of the future I know not," said the Indian. 
 " Yet stop ! The future is unrolling to my 
 gaze as the past has done. I see the time 
 that I shall continue to live in the land of 
 spirits, happy in the quiet love of Zeetah, my 
 wife. Then there shall come a time, many 
 centuries from now, when the sons of men will 
 become altogether tainted with corruption, and 
 they will lie and do evil all the days of their 
 lives. Then I shall die from the life I now live, 
 and Zeetah shall die, and we shall both be 
 born again. And we will conquer the world, 
 and Zeetah will be my queen as you would 
 have been but for yourself ; and we will re- 
 deem the world to honor and truth. And 
 for you, I see I see "
 
 THE VISION OF THE WITCH. 22O 
 
 The voice fell to a whisper ; it quavered ; 
 it stopped. And when the dazed listeners 
 looked to learn the cause, the tent was empty 
 save for the three who had been there at first. 
 The witch was on the floor, face down, her 
 head between her hands ; the negro was half 
 dead with fear, and was so weak he could not 
 move. The traveller felt as though all the 
 blood in his body had frozen, and that all his 
 faculties were gone except those that enabled 
 him to hear and see. 
 
 The traveller did not think he slept, but the 
 night passed somehow, and in the morning he 
 awoke seemingly from a sort of stupor. He 
 found himself lying alone in the adobe corral 
 at Antelope Springs ; his head was pillowed 
 on his saddle, while his horse grazed near 
 him, and occasionally whinnied for water.
 
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