Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/230

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STBBET FAIR ON THE FLAIKS. '217.. borge-race, a niimber of the Spaniards dlspl^ed tiieir marksmjanship with their muskets, but there 'was nothing very extraordinary about it, except its being incomprehensible to the throng of spectators. One point had been f iiUy settled by Coronado and his officers, that they must not compete with the na- tives in any of the sports for fear of exciting animos' ity or contempt; the first might be caused by sur- passing, the sccjoad by showing inferiority. l^e next thing, on the program is the display of the day, and now begins to assemble the horsemen preparatory to the ordeal. It might be good fiction to describe how the horses pranced with arched necks, ears pricked up, restless, impatient; how they champed their bits; but the reader of experience knows better, as they have to come onto the "Field of Cloth and Gold" in an ordinary and orderly manner, considering they had no grain for some time; yet because of tlieir rest since reaching Quivira they are in pretby good heart. It has all been ar- ranged as to the procedure, which is that twelve on a side shall be selected on the field of tournament, therefore the two dozen horsemen are lined up facing the principal chiefs, and Father PadUla, having been selected to act as herald, is standing in front of the troop, making a strange contrast. He is in his black clerical garb: all others in their best. It has been agreed that the selecting of sides shall .be .done.,ifiL , such a manner that no distinction shaU be made as to rank, so twenty -two grains of white corn and two of red corn are placed in a helmet, and then the Father beckons to a comely Indian maiden, the herald in-