Three The people now shared a common name, Calusa, the followers of Caalus. Caalus’s storehouses overflowed with treasures both fundamental and fanciful: deer hides, antlers, and bones; barracuda, mackerel, and shark jaws; egret, heron, eagle, and osprey feathers; tortoise and sea turtle shells; cypress knees and gumbo-limbo knots. Ishkara took possession of the roots, seeds, and plants, establishing an orchard of the fruitbearing coco plum, hog plum, and mastic trees and rooting the vines of wild grapes from throughout the region: muscadine, frost, summer, and pigeon grapes. An exotic bush sent from the Gator Tail Islands, whose seed coverings produced lather when rubbed between the hands, promised the potential of replacing sand as a scrubbing agent, and the hard brown seeds of this same soapberry plant made excellent buttons. Near the temple he grew gourds and bird peppers, the former for use in the casine ceremony, the latter because he loved their fiery flavor. Papaya, too, the sweet exotic fruit grown by Tanpa. But Ishkara especially prized his row of hackberries, whose sweet red seeds he chewed incessantly. But nothing was as important to Ishkara as the healing plants: saltwort , nickerbean, wild sage, sea purslane, trailing wedelia, white stopper. With these the tirupo made poultices for wounds, salves for the stings 22 joseph of rays and catfish, and teas to aid itching, relieve burning urination, stop bleeding or running bowels, and a hundred other purposes. Under Ishkara’s guidance, the island of Caalus became the medicine pouch of Escampaba. Caalus’s palace grew, too, as he added rooms for the growing multitude of more than thirty wives. More than any other, this custom reinforced alliances and ensured the loyalty of villages too remote to control directly. For the most part, the distant chiefs sent their daughters willingly, for the practice elevated their status too, since the offspring of such marriages would be nobility by virtue of Caalus’s blood. There was only one problem. The marriages produced no children. Ishkara gave Caalus a tea of the rock tree leaf for strength, fed him a broth of boiled tadpoles for virility. The tirupo donned the mask of the dolphin, known to couple fruitfully with many partners and shook a snakeskin rattle above Caalus’s head,a ceremony that should have driven out the spirits spoiling his brother’s seed. But the spirits were strong. They’d arrived, Ishkara was certain, on the sails of the wind ships. Although the ships had been driven away not once but twice, their evil lingered . And other wind ships returned. Not to Calusa waters, but to those of Tocobaga, Uzita, and Mocoso, only a few days’ paddle to the north. New Spanish leaders named Narváez and Cabeza de Vaca came to replace the fallen Adelantado Juan Ponce and reportedly rode their giant deer inland. Neither Caalus nor Ishkara took much solace either from the knowledge that the old Adelantado had indeed died from Aricata’s arrow or from the new Spaniards’ terrorizing of Calusa enemies. They were too close. More suns passed, that great being making his slow journey north toward the anchor star and back south again, wet season followed by dry, endless unrelenting heat followed by the short uneven cold or mild days. Ishkara sired two daughters, Escuru and Piyaya, while Aricata fathered song of the tides 23 two daughters of his own, Juchi and Teyo. But while the palace halls rang with the sounds of girlish games and songs, there remained no male offspring in the royal family. And no germination at all of Caalus’s seed, though his nights were even more demanding than his days. When Tequegua bore Aricata a son, everything changed. Ishkara named the boy at an unusually early age: Stepana, Cheeks Full of Milk. He refused weaning, screaming day and night for the breast even at three suns, then punishing Tequegua by biting the nipple that fed him. As soon as the boy had a name, Aricata began to speak openly of the need for a successor to Caalus. The great captain was as insistent as he was crude, proudly strutting about the city without breechclout, parading his own productive loins as he proclaimed the inadequacies of Caalus’s: “Perhaps the cacique should enlist my services not only in the arena of war, but also in that of love.” As time went on and Caalus remained childless, Aricata’s demands grew ever louder. “Name an heir, Cacique. You’re a young man no longer...