Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 41: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE had loved their chief. At length spoke Nan- a-ta, the new chieftain: : Let the priests be summoned; rece: be that your task. Bid them prepare the body for burial, three days hence, as is the law. To my cave go I, there to fast and pray till such time as the body of the Lord of the Winged Death be laid at rest.” Obedient, Men-ah, a youth of the new chieftain’s age and like him of the warrior clan, went on his errand, and the others stood silent till Sa-ko, chief priest of the Ta-an, entered, followed by four priests of the great altar; the priests of the lesser altar might not touch the body of a chief- tain. : Then the warriors withdrew, each to his- own cave, and Sa-ko, with his assistants, made ready the body for burial, binding it in a sitting position with thongs from the hide of a bison—it was with the Company of the Bison that T’san-va-men had marched to war—placing the insignia of the bison, concentric circles of red and yel- low ocher, specially ground in the sacred mortar, on the forehead, casting about the neck a chain of sacred shells, and placing in the hands of the dead chieftain his ax and dagger, his lance and bow and arrows, that he might have weapons for hunting or for defense in the spirit-land. For three days they watched, turn about, beside the body, and on the day appointed for the funeral the body was placed on a litter and borne by four priests to the great altar, far up the hillside. On a level plaza about the altar were gathered the tribes- men, and as the litter passed they fell on their knees, leaving open a lane through which the priests marched, lifting their voices in a weird rhythmic chant which had been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation—if the word may be used of celibates—of the hierarchy of the Ta-an. There followed prayers and chants, wail- ing of women and songs of warriors, till at the last the body was placed within the cave already prepared in the hillside back of the great-altar, food was laid beside it, and rocks, great enough to tax the strength of all the priests together, were rolled in to Close the opening—the Lord of the Winged MASTER OF - the Winged Death, has left us. MAGIC. 175 Death, facing toward the sunrise, sat in his last long sleep. The burial completed, the priests turned again from the sealed cave, coming forward, three abreast, to the altar, where they halted and spread out in a semicircle behind the flat-topped pile of stones, high as a man’s shoulder. The massed tribesmen, with their women and children, still knelt, the front rank, composed of warriors, but a few paces away, Nan-a-ta and Tsu-ven conspicuous among them. Standing out before the crowd, Sa-ko, chief priest of the Ta-an, flung wide his arms, and cried in a loud voice, the deep- throated, sonorous tones ringing far over the valley as he addressed the multitude: ‘People of the Mountain Caves,” he cried, “ our leader, T’san-va-men, Lord of Unavailing our prayers, our entreaties; no more does he lead us; never again shall his battle- cry summon the warriors to the fight, nor again shall his hunting-call draw the hunts- men to their prey. In the deep cave look- ing toward the birth of day, rests his body; for three days has his spirit fled through the dark places, and at last it rests in peace, in the glorious company of his fathers, in the place of good. Happy is T’san-va-men, Lord of the Winged Death! ‘““ But leaderless we; among the tribes- men none may call the warriors to battle or the hunters to the chase. Not well is this— choose we now a chieftain, people of the mountain caves! Ever is it the custom for the great chieftain, as his end draws nigh, to name who shall follow, placing in the hand of such a one the staff of cere- mony, carven from the tooth of the Hill That Walks; comes none forward, bearing this token,. the token by which he mele lead the Ta- an?” These words of the chief priest were of formula—part of the ritual of induction whereby the new chieftain was installed, and as Sa-ko raised his voice in question Nan- a-ta rose from where he knelt, stepped for- ward, and knelt again at the feet of Sa-ko, holding up the ivory staff, that all might see. ‘“Sa-Ko, chief priest, and People of the COMmiclboo S C@