The Trail Book Read online

  XIII

  HOW THE IRON SHIRTS CAME LOOKING FOR THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA; TOLD BYTHE ROAD-RUNNER

  From Cay Verde in the Bahamas to the desert of New Mexico, by the Museumtrail, is around a corner and past two windows that look out upon thewest. As the children stood waiting for the Road-Runner to notice them,they found the view not very different from the one they had just left.Unending, level sands ran into waves, and strange shapes of rocks loomedthrough the desert blueness like steep-shored islands. It was vast andterrifying like the sea, and yet a very pleasant furred and featheredlife appeared to be going on there between the round-headed cactus, withits cruel fishhook thorns, and the warning, blood-red blossoms thatdripped from the ocatilla. Little frisk-tailed things ran up and downthe spiney shrubs, and a woodpecker, who had made his nest in its pithystalk, peered at them from a tall _sahuaro_.

  The Road-Runner tilted his long rudder-like tail, flattened his crestedhead until it reminded them of a wicked snake, and suddenly made up hismind to be friendly.

  "Come inside and get your head in the shade," he invited. "There's noharm in the desert sun so long as you keep something between it and yourhead. I've known Indians to get along for days with only the shade oftheir arrows."

  The children snuggled under the feathery shadow of the mesquite besidehim.

  "We're looking for the trail of the Iron Shirts," said Oliver. "AlvarNunez Cabeza de Vaca," added Dorcas Jane, who always remembered names.The Road-Runner ducked once or twice by way of refreshing his memory.

  "There was a black man with him, and they went about as Medicine Men tothe Indians who believed in them, and at the same time treated them verybadly. But that was nearly four hundred years ago, and they never cameinto this part of the country, only into Texas. And they hadn't any ironshirts either, scarcely anything to put either on their backs or intotheir stomachs."

  "Nevertheless," quavered a voice almost under Oliver's elbow, "theybrought the iron shirts, and the long-tailed elk whose hooves are alwaysstumbling among our burrows."

  The children had to look close to make out the speckled fluff offeathers hunched at the door of its _hogan_.

  "Meet my friend Thla-po-po-ke-a," said the Road-Runner, who had pickedup his manners from miners and cowboys as well as from Spanishexplorers.

  The Burrowing Owl bobbed in her own hurried fashion. "Often and often,"she insisted with a whispering _whoo-oo_ running through all thesentences, "I've heard the soldiers say that it was Cabeza de Vaca putit into the head of the King of Spain to send Francisco Coronado to lookfor the Seven Cities. In my position one hears the best of everything,"went on Po-po-ke-a. "That is because all the important things happennext to the ground. Men are born and die on the ground, they spreadtheir maps, they dream dreams."

  The children could see how this would be in a country where there wasnever a house or a tree and scarcely anything that grew more thanknee-high to a man. The long sand-swells, and the shimmer of heat-wavesin the air looked even more like the sea now that they were level withit. Off to the right what seemed a vast sheet of water spread out likequicksilver on the plain; it moved with a crawling motion, and a coyotethat trotted across their line of vision seemed to swim in it, his headjust showing above the slight billows.

  "It's only mirage," said the Road-Runner; "even Indians are fooled by itif they are strange to the country. But it is quite true about theground being the place to hear things. All day the Iron Shirts wouldride in a kind of doze of sun and weariness. But when they sat at meals,loosening their armor buckles, then there would be news. We used to runwith it from one camp to another--I can run faster than a horse canwalk--until the whole mesa would hear of it."

  "But the night is the time for true talking," insisted Po-po-ke-a. "Itwas then we heard that when Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain he made onereport of his wanderings to the public, and a secret report to the King.Also that the Captain-General asked to be sent on that expeditionbecause he had married a young wife who needed much gold."

  "At that time we had not heard of gold," said the Road-Runner; "theSpaniards talked so much of it we thought it must be something good toeat, but it turned out to be only yellow stones. But it was not allCabeza de Vaca's doing. There was another story by an Indian, Tejo, whotold the Governor of Mexico that he remembered going with his father totrade in the Seven Cities, which were as large as the City of Mexico,with whole streets of silver workers, and blue turquoises overthe doors."

  "If there is a story about it--" began Oliver, looking from one to theother invitingly, and catching them looking at each other in thesame fashion.

  "Brother, there is a tail to you," said the Burrowing Owl quickly, whichseemed to the children an unnecessary remark, since the Road-Runner'slong, trim tail was the most conspicuous thing about him. It tipped andtilted and waggled almost like a dog's, and answered every purpose ofconversation.

  Now he ducked forward on both legs in an absurd way he had. "To you, mysister--" which is the polite method of story asking in that part ofthe country.

  "My word bag is as empty as my stomach," said Po-po-ke-a, who had eatennothing since the night before and would not eat until night again."_Sons eso_--to your story."

  "_Sons eso, tse-na_," said the Road-Runner, and began.

  "First," he said, "to Hawikuh, a city of the Zunis, came Estevan, theblack man who had been with Cabeza de Vaca, with a rattle in his handand very black behavior. Him the Indians killed, and the priest who waswith him they frightened away. Then came Coronado, with an army fromMexico, riding up the west coast and turning east from the River of theBrand, the one that is now called Colorado, which is no name at all, forall the rivers hereabout run red after rain. They were a good company ofmen and captains, and many of those long-tailed elk,--which are calledhorses, sister," said the Road-Runner aside to Po-po-ke-a,--"and theIndians were not pleased to see them."

  "That was because there had been a long-tailed star seen overTo-ya-lanne, the sacred mountain, some years before, one of the kindthat is called Trouble-Bringer. They thought of it when they looked atthe long tails of the new-fashioned elk," said Po-po-ke-a, who had notliked being set right about the horses.

  "In any case," went on the Road-Runner, "there was trouble. Hawikuh wasone of these little crowded pueblos, looking as if it had been crumpledtogether and thrown away, and though there were turquoises over thedoors, they were poor ones, and there was no gold. And as Hawikuh, sothey found all the cities of Cibola, and the cities of the Queres, eastto the River of White Rocks."

  Dorcas Jane nudged Oliver to remind him of the Corn Woman andTse-tse-yote. All the stories of that country, like the trails, seemedto run into one another.

  "Terrible things happened around Tiguex and at Cicuye, which is nowPecos," said the Road-Runner, "for the Spaniards were furious at findingno gold, and the poor Indians could never make up their minds whetherthese were gods to be worshiped, or a strange people coming to conquerthem, who must be fought. They were not sure whether the iron shirtswere to be dreaded as magic, or coveted as something they could usethemselves. As for the horses, they both feared and hated them. Butthere was one man who made up his mind very quickly.

  "He was neither Queres nor Zuni, but a plainsman, a captive of theirwars. He was taller than our men, leaner and sharp-looking. His god wasthe Morning Star. He made sacrifices to it. The Spaniards called him theTurk, saying he looked like one. We did not know what that meant, for wehad only heard of turkeys which the Queres raised for their feathers,and he was not in the least like one of these. But he knew that theSpaniards were men, and was almost a match for them. He had theInknowing Thought."

  The Road-Runner cocked his head on one side and observed the children,to see if they knew what this meant.

  "Is it anything like far-looking?" asked Dorcas.

  "It is something none of my people ever had," said the Road-Runner. "TheIndian who was called the Turk could look in a bowl of water in the sun,or in the water of the Stone Pond, and he could see things
that happenedat a distance, or in times past. He proved to the Spaniards that hecould do this, but their priests said it was the Devil and would havenothing to do with it, which was a great pity. He could have saved thema great deal."

  "_Hoo, hoo_!" said the Burrowing Owl; "he could not even save himself;and none of the things he told to the Spaniards were true."

  "He was not thinking for himself," said the Road-Runner, "but for hispeople. The longer he was away from them the more he thought, and histhoughts were good, even though he did not tell the truth to the IronShirts. They, at least, did not deserve it. For when the people of Zuniand Cicuye and Tiguex would not tell them where the sacred gold was hid,there were terrible things done. That winter when the days were cold,the food was low and the soldiers fretful. Many an Indian kept thesecret with his life."

  "Did the Indians really know where the gold was?" The children knewthat, according to the geographies, there are both gold and silver inNew Mexico.

  "Some of them did, but gold was sacred to them. They called it the stoneof the Sun, which they worshiped, and the places where it was found wereholy and secret. They let themselves be burned rather than tell.Besides, they thought that if the Spaniards were convinced there was nogold, they would go away the sooner. One thing they were sure of: godsor men, it would be better for the people of the pueblos if they wentaway. Day and night the _tombes_ would be sounding in the kivas, andprayer plumes planted in all the sacred places. Then it was that theTurk went to the Caciques sitting in council.

  "'If the strangers should hear that there is gold in my country, thereis nothing would keep them from going there.'

  "'That is so,' said the Caciques.

  "'And if they went to my country,' said the Turk, 'who but I could guidethem?'

  "'And how long,' said the Caciques, 'do you think a guide would liveafter they discovered that he had lied?' For they knew very well therewas no gold in the Turk's country.

  "'I should at least have seen my own land,' said the Turk, 'and here Iam a slave to you.'

  "The Caciques considered. Said they, 'It is nothing to us where and howyou die.'

  "So the Turk caused himself to be taken prisoner by the Spaniards, andtalked among them, until it was finally brought to the Captain-General'sears that in the Turk's country of Quivira, the people ate off plates ofgold, and the Chief of that country took his afternoon nap under a treehung with golden bells that rung him to sleep. Also that there was ariver there, two leagues wide, and that the boats carried twenty rowersto a side with the Chief under the awning." "That at least was true,"said the Burrowing Owl; "there were towns on the Missi-sippu where theChiefs sat in balconies on high mounds and the women fanned them withgreat fans."

  "Not in Quivira, which the Turk claimed for his own country. But it allworked together, for when the Spaniards learned that the one thing wastrue, they were the more ready to believe the other. It was always easyto get them to believe any tale which had gold in it. They were so eagerto set out for Quivira that they could scarcely be persuaded to takefood enough, saying they would have all the more room on their horsesfor the gold.

  "They forded the Rio Grande near Tiguex, traveled east to Cicuye on thePecos River, and turned south looking for the Turk's country, which isnot in that direction."

  "But why--" began Oliver.

  "Look!" said the Road-Runner.

  The children saw the plains of Texas stretching under the heat haze,stark sand in wind-blown dunes, tall stakes of _sahuaro_ marching wideapart, hot, trackless sand in which a horse's foot sinks to the fetlock,and here and there raw gashes in the earth for rivers that did not run,except now and then in fierce and ungovernable floods. Northward theplains passed out of sight in trackless, grass-covered prairies, day'sjourney upon day's journey.

  "It was the Caciques' idea that the Turk was to lose the strangersthere, or to weaken them beyond resistance by thirst and hunger andhostile tribes. But the buffalo had come south that winter for the earlygrass. They were so thick they looked like trees walking, to theSpaniards as they lay on the ground and saw the sky between their hugebodies and the flat plain. And the wandering bands of Querechos that theExpedition met proved friendly. They were the same who had known Cabezade Vaca, and they had a high opinion of white men. They gave theSpaniards food and proved to them that it was much farther to the citiesof the Missisippu than the Turk had said.

  "By that time Coronado had himself begun to suspect that he should neverfind the golden bells of Quivira, but with the King and Dona Beatrisbehind him, there was nothing for him to do but go forward. He sent thearmy back to Tiguex, and, with thirty men and all the best horses,turned north in as straight a track as the land permitted, to the Turk'scountry. And all that journey he kept the Turk in chains.

  "Even though he had not succeeded in getting rid of the Iron Shirts, theTurk was not so disappointed as he might have been. The Caciques did notknow it, but killing the strangers or losing them had been only a partof his plan.

  "All that winter at Tiguex the Turk had seen the horses die, or growsick and well again; some of them had had colts, and he had come to theconclusion that they were simply animals like elk or deer, onlymore useful.

  "The Turk was a Pawnee, one of those roving bands that build grasshouses and follow the buffalo for food. They ran the herds into a_piskune_ below a bluff, over which they rushed and were killed.Sometimes the hunters themselves were caught in the rush and trampled.It came into the Turk's mind, as he watched the Spaniards going to hunton horseback, that the Morning Star, to whom he made sacrifices for hisreturn from captivity, had sent him into Zuni to learn about horses, andtake them back to his people. Whatever happened to the Iron Shirts onthat journey, he had not meant to lose the horses. Even though suspectedand in chains he might still do a great service to his people.

  "When the Querechos were driving buffalo, some of the horses were caughtup in the 'surround,' carried away with the rush of the stampeding herd,and never recovered. Others that broke away in a terrible hailstormsucceeded in getting out of the ravine where the army had taken shelter,and no one noticed that it was always at the point where the Turk washelping to herd them, that the horses escaped. Even after he was put inchains and kept under the General's eye on the way to Quivira, now andthen there would be a horse, usually a mare with a colt, who slipped herstake-rope. Little gray coyotes came in the night and gnawed them. Butcoyotes will not gnaw a rope unless it has been well rubbed with buffalofat," said the Road-Runner.

  "I should have thought the Spaniards would have caught him at it," saidOliver.

  "White men, when they are thinking of gold," said the Road-Runner, "areparticularly stupid about other things. There was a man of the Wichitas,a painted Indian called Ysopete, who told them from the beginning thatthe Turk lied about the gold. But the Spaniards preferred to believethat the Indians were trying to keep the gold for themselves. They didnot see that the Turk was losing their horses one by one; no more didthey see, as they neared Quivira, that every day he called his people.

  "There are many things an Indian can do and a white man not catch him atit. The Turk would sit and feed the fire at evening, now a bundle of drybrush and then a handful of wet grass, smoke and smudge, such as huntersuse to signal the movements of the quarry. He would stand listening tothe captains scold him, and push small stones together with his foot fora sign. He could slip in the trail and break twigs so that Pawnees couldread. When strange Indians were brought into camp, though he could onlyspeak to them in the language of signs, he asked for a Pawnee calledRunning Elk, who had been his friend before he was carried captive intoZuni Land. They had mingled their blood after the custom of friendshipand were more than brothers to one another. And though the Iron Shirtslooked at him with more suspicion every day, he was almost happy. Hesmelled sweet-grass and the dust of his own country, and spoke face toface with the Morning Star.

  "I do not understand about stars," said the Road-Runner. "It seems thatsome of them travel about and do not look the same
from differentplaces. In Zuni Land where there are mountains, the Turk was not alwayssure of his god, but in the Pawnee country it is easily seen that he isthe Captain of the Sky. You can lie on the ground there and lose sightof the earth altogether. Mornings the Turk would look up from his chainsto see his Star, white against the rosy stain, and was comforted. It wasthe Star, I suppose, that brought him his friend.

  "For four or five days after Running Elk discovered that the Turk wascaptive to the Iron Shirts, he would lurk in the tall grass and theriver growth, making smoke signals. Like a coyote he would call atnight, and though the Turk heard him, he dared not answer. Finally hehit upon the idea of making songs. He would sing and nobody couldunderstand him but Running Elk, who lay in the grass, and finally hadcourage to come into the camp in broad day, selling buffalo meat andwild plums.

  "There was a bay mare with twin colts that the Turk wished him to loosefrom her rope and drive away, but Running Elk was afraid. Cold morningsthe Indian could see the smoke of the horses' nostrils and thought thatthey breathed fire. But the Turk made his friend believe at last thatthe horse is a great gift to man, by the same means that he had made theSpaniards think him evil, by the In-knowing Thought.

  "'It is as true,' said the Turk, 'that the horse is only another sort ofelk, as that my wife is married again and my son died fighting theHo-he.' All of which was exactly as it had happened, for his wife hadnever expected that he would come back from captivity. 'It is alsotrue,' the Turk told him, 'that very soon I shall join my son.'

  "For he was sure by this time that when the Spaniards had to give up thehope of gold, they would kill him. He told Running Elk all the care ofhorses as he had learned it, and where he thought those that had beenlost from Coronado's band might be found. Of the Iron Shirts, he saidthat they were great Medicine, and the Pawnees were by all means to getone or two of them.

  "By this time the Expedition had reached the country of the Wichitas,which is Quivira, and there was no gold, no metal of any sort but acopper gorget around the Chief's neck, and a few armbands. The nightthat Coronada bought the Chief's gorget to send to his king, as proofthat he had found no gold, Running Elk heard the Turk singing. It was nosong of secret meaning; it was his own song, such as a man makes to singwhen he sees his death facing him.

  "All that night the Turk waited in his chains for the rising of hisStar. There was something about which he must talk to it. He had made agift of the horse to his people, but there was no sacrifice to wash awayall that was evil in the giving and make it wholly blessed. All nightthe creatures of the earth heard the Turk whisper at his praying, askingfor a sacrifice.

  "And when the Star flared white before the morning, a voice was in theair saying that he himself was to be the sacrifice. It was the voice ofthe Morning Star walking between the hills, and the Turk was happy. Thedoves by the water-courses heard him with the first flush of the dawnwaking the Expedition with his death song. Loudly the Spaniards swore athim, but he sang on steadily till they came to take him before theGeneral, whose custom it was to settle all complaints the first thing inthe morning. The soldiers thought that since it was evident the Turk hadpurposely misled them about the gold and other things, he ought to diefor it. The General was in a bad humor. One of his best mares with hercolts had frayed her stake-rope on a stone that night and escaped.Nevertheless, being a just man, he asked the Turk if he had anything tosay. Upon which the Turk told them all that the Caciques had said, andwhat he himself had done, all except about the horses, and especiallyabout the bay mare and Running Elk. About that he was silent. He kepthis eyes upon the Star, where it burned white on the horizon. It was atits last wink, paling before the sun, when they killed him."

  The children drew a long breath that could hardly be distinguished fromthe soft whispering _whoo-hoo_ of the Burrowing Owl.

  "So in spite of his in-knowing he could not save himself," Dorcas Janeinsisted, "and his Star could not save him. If he had looked in theearth instead of the heavens he would have found gold and the Spaniardswould have given him all the horses he wanted."

  "You forget," said the Road-Runner, "that he knew no more than the IronShirts did, where the gold was to be found. There were not more than twoor three in any one of the Seven Cities that ever knew. Ho-tai ofMatsaki was the last of those, and his own wife let him be killed ratherthan betray the secret of the Holy Places."

  "Oh, if you please--" began the children.

  "It is a town story," said the Road-Runner, "but the Condor that has hisnest on El Morro, he might tell you. He was captive once in a cage atZuni." The Road-Runner balanced on his slender legs and cocked his headtrailwise. Any kind of inactivity bored him dreadfully. The burrowingowls were all out at the doors of their _hogans_, their heads turningwith lightning swiftness from side to side; the shadows were long in thelow sun. "It is directly in the trail from the Rio Grande to Acoma, theold trail to Zuni," said the Road-Runner, and without waiting to seewhether or not the children followed him, he set off.