not afraid of the Dine. Sometimes I think he is afraid of me. That is
why he wished me to join the Koshare, for then he will be my Head, and
without his leave I can do nothing.'

"This was a true saying. Only a few days after that, I found one of
their little wooden images, painted and feathered like a Delight-Maker,
in my cave. It was an invitation. It smelled of Kokomo and I scratched
dirt on it. Then came Tse-tse, and as he turned the little Koshare over
in his hand, I saw that there were many things had come into his head
which would never come into mine. Presently I heard him laugh as he did
when he had hit upon some new trick for splitting the people's sides,
like the bubble of a wicker bottle held under water. He took my chin in
his hand. 'Without doubt,' he said, 'this is Kokomo's; he would be very
pleased if you returned it to him.' I understood it as an order.

"I carried the little Delight-Maker to Kokomo that night in the inner
court, when the evening meal was over and the old men smoked while the
younger sat on the housetops and moaned together melodiously. Tse-tse
looked up from a game of cherry stones. 'Hey, Kokomo, have you been
inviting Kabeyde to join the Koshare? A good shot!' he said, and before
Kokomo could answer it, he began putting me through my tricks."

"Tricks?" cried the children.

"Jumping over a stick, you know, and showing what I would do if I met
the Dine." The great cat flattened herself along the ground to spring,
put back her ears, and showed her teeth with a snarly whine, almost too
wicked to be pretended. "I was very good at that," said Moke-icha.

"'The Delight-Maker was for you, Tse-tse,' said the turkey girl next