"In the old days," said Moke-icha, "men spoke with beasts as brothers.
The Queres had come too far on the Man Trail. I had no words, but I
remembered the trick he had taught me, about what to do when I met a
Dine. I laid back my ears and snarled at him.

"'What!' he said; 'will you make a Dine of _me_?' I saw him frown, and
suddenly he slapped his thigh as a man does when thought overtakes him.
Being but a lad he would not have dared say what he thought, but he took
to spending the night on top of the kiva. I would look out of my cave
and see him there curled up in a corner, or pacing to and fro with the
dew on his blanket and his face turned to the souls of the prayer plumes
drifting in a wide band across the middle heaven.

"I would have been glad to keep him company, but as neither Tse-tse nor
Willow-in-the-Wind paid any attention to me in those days, I decided
that I might as well go with the men and see for myself what lay at the
other end of the Salt Trail.

"I gave them a day's start, so that I might not be turned back; but it
was not necessary, since no man looked back or turned around on that
journey, and no one spoke except those who had been over the trail at
least two times. They ate little,--fine meal of parched corn mixed with
water,--and what was left in the cup was put into the earth for a thank
offering. No one drank except as the leader said they could, and at
night they made prayers and songs.

"The trail leaves the mesa at the Place of the Gap, a dry gully snaking
its way between puma-colored hills and boulders big as kivas. Lasting
Water is at the end of the second day's journey; rainwater that slips
down into a black basin with rock overhanging, cool as an olla. The