He coughed, and began addressing the leading shaman,-- "Yaya Hishtanyi, you hear that the Water people refuse to give us the land that we so much need.

They ask of us that we should give them all we have for a small part of theirs.

The mot[=a]tza from the hanutsh Huashpa has asked whether Tzitz hanutsh is perhaps the cause that the crops failed last year.

I say it is the cause of it!" "How so ?" cried Tyame.
"Through Shotaye, their sister," replied the old man, slowly.
It was not silence alone that followed this utterance.

A stillness ensued so sudden, so dismal, and so awful that it seemed worse than a grave.