But people dreaded her; she lived alone in her cave among the abodes of the Water people, and nobody knew but she might know more than the official medicine-men themselves.

In short, the majority of the tribe believed that Shotaye was a witch; but the woman was so wary that nobody could prove her to be one.
Shotaye was not an old woman.

Her appearance was not in the least repulsive, on the contrary.

The men knew that the woman showed no objections to occasional attentions, even to intimacy.

For this reason, also, she was not popular among her own sex.
Shotaye had had a husband once; but he had left her and was living with another woman.