163
THE BLUE FEATHER
Chief Trall of the Almaya tribe assembled ten of his best
workers, and told them Bardala and Tital were going to bring
horses to the tribe as gifts. The men pounded their spears on the
ground in approval. The horses and burros could be trained by
the villagers to do all kinds of productive work. The group
walked over to the wooden corral Zotz had built to keep the
horses and little Lentito in. There they found Jonathan and
Viviana already busy teaching the village children about horses.
Sitting astride Mañoso was Trall’s daughter, Lena, listening to
Jonathan telling her how to properly hold the leather reins, and
turn the horse in a circle. Some of the villagers were still a little
afraid of horses; however, once they saw Lena riding confidently
around, they realized that the horses could be of great value to
them.
“You can learn to plow your fields with horses. They can pull
carts with heavy loads, like stones for building houses. Horses
are powerful work animals, and all of you can learn to ride on
them just like Lena is doing.” Bardala told everyone standing
nearby.
Lena rode up to the group of people on the outside of the
wooden corral and said, “Father, these are wonderful animals,
and they can be very friendly. My friend Jonathan is teaching me
how to ride a horse, and it is a lot of fun. Up here, you can see a
long ways off. Jonathan tells me there can be a horse for each
one of our people. Is that not wonderful, father?”
“Yes. Bardala and Tital say that we will have many fine horses
for each family in our tribe,” Trall told everyone proudly.
“Bardala, Jonathan tells me there are other animals you can
help us get that would help my tribe. Is that possible? I would