Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/259

244 2U YSOPISTB DOES SOME SCHEMING. oour^e these were for speed and not fot service. It' 1$ dMcalt to grit a fair start, ;but it will not matter much in the outcome, for if a canoe was the first to get the lead, he would be the first to upset; therefore many kept back. Let us confine ourselres to one character who is in this race. It is the son of Chief Tatarraz. He has been schooled by Ysopete how to win the race, and owing to the last named having reached the age when men realize that sometimes a Uttle schem- ing mixed with physical endurance will prevail over brute power, so our Indian guide had his protege practice many times unseen by anyone the trick by which the son of the chief expected to win the race, they having gone over the course surreptitiously and are cognizant of the favorable spot where to enact the winning card.'. Young Tatarrax, like many others, has his canoe marked with the insignia of his father, a small bunch of eagle feathers tied to the prow of his bark; the winner is supposed to get to the winning post with his own canoe, therefore it is necessary to recognize each his own. Just one little insinuation is thrown out at this time, which is, that Ysopete has taken a piece of hide and fastened to the bottom of the young chief's canoe; it is about like a handle on a trunk. At last, after considerable maneuvering they are oft, and for a short distance all is well; then the fun begins. Now there are four canoes which forge «head; one draws away from the other three, but just as his stern is about to pass the secondman, he grabs the foremost canoe and tips it over. This canoeist is of coiirse prepared, but it disconcerts him; tlien there