Magoosh 5

Magoosh admired his older friend Platta. Platta's father was the leader of the trading band of the Mescalero Apache. Each year, the Apache band traveled to the mountains that the Spanish called the Manzanos, then to the hills northwest of the town named San Antonio, and on west to the area near the Paquime ruins.

Their news was as valuable as their trade items. It was said that Platta's great-great-grandfather was Sabeata, the greatest leader of the now vanished people who had lived in the region for many generations. Sabeata had traded horses to many peoples who had none, including the newcomers who call themselves Kwerkenuh (the Comanches). The Kwerkenuh had pushed the Apaches away from the buffalo grounds east of the giant plains the Spanish referred to as the Llano Estacado.

Platta and Magoosh were sitting at water's edge. Magoosh was listening intently as Platta described a landmark that would be sought tomorrow. Platta was at the age of service, at the beck and call of the adult men, and could only converse with the warriors and male elders in a limited ritualistic vocabulary of less than 100 words. It was the beginning of his training to become a warrior. Magoosh was a year younger.

Magoosh hungered for knowledge. His Lipan Apache relatives knew that he would someday become a leader of the people. Magoosh had been granted permission to travel with Platta's band when he expressed a desire to do so. No pubescent boy had ever asked to do so in the memory of the elders.

As the boys sat together, the rest of the band had begun settling in for the night at the camp next to the playa. No structures had been erected. No brush was present to create a simple wickiup, and the poles for the tipis were being used as travois that remained laden with the trade goods. If it rained, it might rain for a few minutes, never for long periods of time, and wet clothing and bedding would dry within hours of sunlight. No thunderheads were in sight, not even in the far west, where the first of the mountains often created summer storms.

The band was small -- only 10 men, their wives, 10 adolescents and eight children younger than Platta. All of the men were in their prime. No elders accompanied them. Gomez's band of Mescaleros hosted the elders in the Davis Mountains at present and would meet them in the Guadalupe Mountains in a few days. When the bands met, the story of the great healer who brought the White Painted Woman ceremony to the Apache would be told. An opening had appeared in the huge cliff the Spanish had named El Capitan, and the healer had entered the underworld. She emerged many days after her people had given her up for dead. White Painted Woman had spent days upon days teaching the healer the songs and dances of the ritual that became the most complex celebration within the Apachean religion.

As the boys talked, they noticed that tiny toads were beginning to leave the playa. At first, a few hopped by. By the time the sun had disappeared, the ground writhed with the persistent tiny hops of thousands upon thousands of toadlets. As quickly as possible they hopped across the band of brown detritus of decayed grass and forbs at the edge of the water, and then slowed as they entered the "forest" of sneezeweed stalks turned brown and gone to seed.

As the darkness gathered, Platta's father joined them. He instructed Platta to go a mile to the south, and take the first watch of the night. A mile to the south, a small rise allowed an observer to see far, and not be ensconced in the shallow bowl of the playa set into the plains. It was Platta's very first night-time watch. Magoosh could see that his friend was apprehensive -- not from fear, but because what was to come was unknown. Platta's father sat with Magoosh and joined him in silently watching Platta mount a horse and ride it at a walk into the darkness. Magoosh was surprised when Platta's father took up the story that Platta had been telling.

"To find the hidden tinajas and springs you must look for the horned serpent. The ancestors of Sabeata carved them during a great drought. They had learned how other people much further south had been blessed after learning the story of the horned serpent. It was a time of great change. The drought had brought war as people competed for finite resources. Traders had begun coming from the south, offering to exchange birds of many colors for a bluish rock used as jewelry. Their stories were entrancing. The people that welcomed the new traders became stronger, while the people that feared them retreated and isolated themselves. As our guest, we will give you the honor of finding the horned serpent that protects the water we seek."