ABSTRACT

It was the height of the warm-time. The marshes dried and grew hard, and the game wandered away into the mountains, toward Angry Bear or Water Bird Landing. The heat grew fierce on them and the People scattered, many to harvest the grain at their stands, others to gather materials for weaving, or wood for weapons and tools. Some were rebuilding, and the riverbank was thick with drying bricks. When the heat was at its most intense the Place was nearly empty. Only the elders, the sick, mothers with very young children, and a handful of others remained.