Slowly, imperceptibly, they pushed up, crossing the zenith and approaching the eastern horizon, toward which the boy's face was turned.

And while they shifted they grew in width and density.
Delicate filaments appeared between and connected bow with bow, gradually thickening, until the zenith was but one vault of pale gray.
The boy watched this process with increased eagerness; it caused him to forget his troubles.

He saw that rain--one of the great blessings for which he and his people had so fervently prayed, chanted, and danced yesterday--was coming on, and his heart became glad.

The spirits--the Shiuana--he thought, were kindly disposed toward his people; and this caused him to wonder what the Shiuana might really be, and why they acted so and so, and not otherwise.

The Shiuana, he had been taught, dwelt in the clouds, and they were good; why, then, was it that from one and the same cloud the beneficial rain descended, which caused the food of mankind to grow, and also the destructive hail and the deadly thunderbolt ?[9] A faint, muttering sound, deep and prolonged, struck his ear.