'It is a simply splendid,' said Cuwignaka, happily.
'Yes,' I said.
Children, too, I noted, those not in cradles, greased, their hair braided, their bodies and clothing ornamented, in splendid finery, likeminiature versions of the adults, some riding, some sitting on the skins stretched between travois poles, participated happily and proudly, or bewilderedly, in this handsome procession.
'They are bringing their goods with them,' I said. The travois with them were heavily laden, with bundles, and lodge skins and poles. Indeed, the travois poles themselves, when untied and freed from teh kaiila, would be used as lodge poles.
'It is the way our peoples move,' said Cuwignaka. Goods would not be left behind, save occasionally in hidden caches.
At the flanks of some of the warriors' kaiila marched stripped white women, in beaded collars. Their wrists were tied behind them. About their throats, on thong loops, below the collars, dangling between their breasts, hung leather, braided kaiila quirts. There was little doubt as to what such women were. I met the eyes of one, and she looked away, tossing her head, disdainfully, in her bonds and collar, the quirt about her neck. She was the property of a red master. I then met the eyes of another. This one, too, looked away, but she did so quickly, fearfully. She was very frightened. I gathered that she was terribly afraid of her master. She did not so much as dare to look at another man. These girls had both been blond. So, too, I noted, were most of the other such women.
'The two-legged, female animals here are mostly blond,' I said to Cuwignaka.
'Yes,' he said. 'They are being displayed.'
I nodded. Such a hair color is a rarity in the Barrens. I supposed the woemn understood clearly that they, like the silver pendants tied in the manes, like the coins fastened on the reins, like the saddles inlaid with gold, with golden wire wrapped about the pommels, were being displayed as protions of the wealth of the Isanna.
'The others,' said Cuwignaka, 'stripped, are kept in small heards, with the kaiila, outside the camp, watched over by boys.'
'I understand,' I said. The Isanna would probably see little point in marching more familiar types, more common women, before the Isbu.
I saw another blonde moving by. She was half stumbling, half being dragged along, weeping, on a short neck tether, not more than five feet long. She was, I would guess, about seventeen. The tether was in the first of a red master. I did not think he was more than eighteen years of age. He was moving his kaiila quickly, along the side of the lines, probably hurrying to occupy his designated place in the procession. He was not gentle with is lovely property. She was crying. She seemed new to her collar. I suspected she had not been a slave long. She was a survivor, perhaps, of the wagon train which had been attacked several days ago. She was doubtless still in the process of learning her new purposes in life. I saw no woman with the Isanna, incidentally, who had a hair color remotely like that of the slender, lovely Winyela, Canka's slave. I wondered if she knew the extent to which she was a prize in the Barrens.
'Mahpiyasapa is going to greet Watonka,' said Cuwignaka. 'Let us hrry forward, that we may see.'
I was not at all certain that this was a good idea, but I accompanied Cuwignaka. He was so young, so insuppressible, so elated to be again with the Isbu, his people, that, I think, he did not soberly consider whether or not he would be likely to be welcome at such an encounter, even as a bystander.
Mahpiyasapa, Black Clouds, civil chief of the Isbu, greeted Watonka, One-Who-Is-Rich, on foot, welcoming him officially to the Isbu camp. This honor accorded him, Watonka dismounted. The two men embraced. About them were gathered medicine men and high warriors. With Mahpiyasapa were his son, Hci, and members of the Sleen Soldiers. Canka, too, was there, and several of the All Comrades. Chiefs and representatives of the Casmu, Napoktan and Wismahi, too, were present. Among them I saw Kahintokapa, One-Who-Walks-Before, of the Casmu, and two other members, as well, of the prestigious Yellow-Kaiila Riders.
'Greetings, Iwoso,' said Cuwignaka. 'How beautiful you have become.'
He had spoken to a girl who was standing near the stirrup of another girl, mounted on a kaiila. The standing girl, to whom Cuwignaka had spoken, had come with the Isanna. She had come walking at stirrup of the mounted girl. She wore a rather plain shirtdress, with knee-length leggings and moccasins. Her braided hair was tied with red cloth. There were glass beads about her neck. She was quite lovely. The girl on the kaiila, too, was very lovely, indeed, perhaps even more lovely than she afoot. but her beauty, in any event, was much enhanced by her finery. Her dress was a soft-tanned hide, almost white, fringed into which, about the breasts and shoulders, were worked intricate patterns of yellow and red beading. Her leggings and moccasins were similarly decorated. Her braided hair, glossy and long, was bound with silver string. Two golden bracelets adorned her left wrist. She wore two necklaces of beads, and another on which were threaded tiny, heavy tubes and pendants, spaced intermittently, of silver and gold. Across her forehead hung a tiny silver chain on which were tiny silver droplets.
'You, too, Bloketu,' said Cuwignaka, looking up at the mounted girl.
'Do not speak to my maiden,' said the girl on the kailla.
'Iwoso is a Yellow Knife,' said Cuwignaka. 'She was taken when she was twelve. Bloketu is the daughter of Watonka.'
'I see,' I said. The girl, Iwoso, did not wear a collar. I had suspected, however, from the plainness of her dress, the fact that she was on foot, with the Isanna, and seemed clearly in attendance on the girl astride the kaiila, that she was not of the Isanna, but was, rather, one owned by them, or, at least, living with them.
'Iwoso has high status with the Isanna,' said Cuwignaka. 'You can see that she is not even collared.'
'Yes,' I said. The name 'Iwoso', incidentally, means 'Pouting Lips.' Her lips, on the other hand, were not protursive. The name, thusly, I conjectured, might once have been given to her for other than anatomical reasons. Probably she had once been sullen or petulant. She had then discovered that, by the decision of her master or mistress, she was 'Pouting Lips.' The expression 'Bloketu', incidentally, the name of the girl on the kaiila, the daughter of the Isanna cheiftain, Watonka, means «Summer» or 'Summertime.'
'What have we here?' asked Watonka, chieftain of the Isanna.
'I do not know her,' said Bloketu, not deigning to look upon Cuwignaka.
'From the summer dances, long ago,' said Cuwignaka. 'You remember me, surely. I was Petuste. I found flowers for you. We rode kaiila together.'
'Perhaps my maiden remembers you,' said the girl. 'Petuste' means 'Firebrand.' More broadly, of course, it can refer to any piece of burning wood. He was the brother of Canka, of course, Fire-Steel. This was the first time I had ever heard the former name of Cuwignaka.
'Do you remember her, Iwoso?' asked the girl on the kaiila of the girl at her stirrup.
'No,' said Iwoso.
'Iwoso!' protested Cuwignaka.
'You see,' said Bloketu, from the height of the saddle, 'you are not remembered.'
'Who is she?' inquired Watonka.
'A shame of the Isbu,' said Mahpiyasapa. He was still furious with Canka, who had seen fit, in virtue of capture rights, muchly desiring her, to put his collar on the lovely Winyela.
'Obviously she is only a female of the Isbu,' said one of the men with Watonka.
'Go away,' said Canka to Cuwignaka, angrily. 'You do us shame.'
'That is her brother,' said Hci to one of the Isanna. 'He has such a one for a sister, and yet was permitted to serve as Blotanhunka for the All Comrades.'
'Oh?' said the man.
'Yes,' said Hci.
'Bewear, Hci!' said Canka.
'Of what?' asked Hci. 'Do I not speak the truth?'
Canka clenched his fists, in fury.
'What do you think of one who takes a woman brought into our contry to be sold to his cheiftain?' aske Mahpiyasapa of Watonka.
'I think such a one should be punished.' said Watonka. 'Then the woman should be given to the chief.'
'I was within my rights,' said Canka.
