In this uashtanyi we keep meal in order to do sacrifice at the time when rain ought to fall.

The pictures of the Shiuana call the Shiuana themselves! So you see what the Koshare want with this thing." Okoya's lips had slowly parted in growing astonishment; and Mitsha, to whom the explanation was not altogether new, watched the expression of his features with genuine delight.
"And when you pray and scatter meal out of this,"-- pointing to the bowl,--"does the rain always come ?" "Always." "Why, then, did it not rain last summer ?" "That I cannot tell you," said the woman.

"Only the Shiuana know.
Besides, there are bad people who stop the rain from coming." "How can they do that ?" cried both Okoya and Mitsha in surprise, neither of them having heard as yet of such a thing.
"I must not tell you that," said Hannay, with a mysterious and important air; "you are too young to know it.

Tell me, Okoya,"-- her voice changed with the change of the subject,--"does Shotaye Koitza often come to see your mother ?" This question was highly imprudent.

But Hannay was often imprudent.
Smart and sly in a certain way, she was equally thoughtless in other matters.