Part 33 (1/2)
However, they were expert by this ti methods; and so abundant was the animal life which swarh lay on the beach to feed them all; whose forms and colors, nauess frok, for I know too little of thehbors; and then from under the bushes shot out a canoe, on which all eyes were fixed in expectation
Aher race, was disappointed enough at seeing on board only the usual half- dozen of loed, dirty Orsons, painted red with arnotto: but a gray-headed elder at the stern seeold ornaments, to be some man of note in the little woodland community
The canoe came close up to the island; A down his weapons, advanced alone to the bank, ns of amity They were returned with interest by the oldforward the fish which the fair nyh the ive the cacique (for so he seemed to be) to understand that he wished to render every one his own This offer was received, as Aside; but the crew still seemed afraid to land Amyas bade his men throw the fish one by one into the boat; and then proclaimed by the boy's mouth, as was his custom with all Indians, that he and his were eneainst them,--and that all which they desired was a peaceable and safe passage through the dohty potentate and renoarrior whoh, that even if the old fellow aft was not the cacique, he would be none the less pleased at beingin the canoe, pointed to heaven, earth, and the things under, and co sermon, in tone, reat black-bearded apes were in the habit of preaching every evening when they could get together a congregation of little reat scandal of Jack, ould have it that so partly interpreted by the Indian lad, seenify, that the valor and justice of the white men had already reached the ears of the speaker, and that he was sent to welcohter of the Sun
”The Daughter of the Sun!” quoth Amyas; ”then we have found the lost Incas after all”
”We have found so,” said Cary; ”I only hope it ”
”Or an adder's,” said Yeo ”We must beware of treachery”
”We ,” said Amyas, pretty sharply ”Have I not told you fifty times, that if they see that we trust them, they will trust us, and if they see that we suspect the to see who strikes the first blow, they are sure to come to fisticuffs from mere dirty fear of each other”
Aes which had been committed by the Spaniards, and which was in later and worse tilish, ont to be excused in that same base fear of treachery Alish voyagers, had been all along to inspire at once awe and confidence, by a frank and fearless carriage; and he was not disappointed here He bade the men step boldly into their canoes, and follow the old Indian whither he would The simple children of the forest bowed theers, and then led thee in the covert, to a hidden lagoon, on the banks of which stood, not Manoa, but a tiny Indian village
CHAPTER XXIV
HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
”Let us alone What pleasure can we have To ith evil? Is there any peace In always clis have rest, and ripen toward the grave In silence; ripen, fall, and cease: Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease”
TENNYSON
Hu on so stupidly round their fires, bes ants and clay, he somewhat naively remarks, that were it not for science, which teaches us that such is the crude material of humanity, and this the state from which we all have risen, he should have been teraded rereat traveller had been bold enough to yield to that temptation, which his own reason and common sense presented to hiht, instead of following the dogmas of a so-called science, which has not a fact whereon to base its wild notion, and ood sense, it seems, coincided instinctively with the Bible doctrine, that , doomed to death--a viehich may be a sad one, but still one more honorable to poor huan as some sort of two-handed apes It is surely more hopeful to believe that those poor Otoht to be, than to believe that they were It is certainly more complimentary to them to think that they had been soone by, than that they were such blockheads as to have dragged on, the son after the father, for all the thousands of years which have elapsed since h to discover any better food than ants and clay
Our voyagers, however, like those of their ti the Bible story as they found it, they agreed with Humboldt's reason, and not with his science; or, to speak correctly, agreed with Huic theories which happened to be in vogue fifty years ago; and their new hosts were in their eyes immortal souls like themselves, ”captivated by the devil at his will,” lost there in the pathless forests, likely to be lost hereafter
And certainly facts seeh these Indians had sunk by no means so low as the Guahibas whom they had met upon the loaters of the sae of pal fros in the forest, patches of cassava and indigo appeared; and there was a look of neatness and coe
But now for the signs of the evil spirit Certainly it was no good spirit who had inspired them with the art of music; or else (as Cary said) Apollo and Mercury (if they ever visited America) had played their forefathers a shabby trick, and put them off with very poor instruments, and still poorer taste For on either side of the landing-place were arranged four or five stout fellows, each with a tall dru out in the course of its length into several hollow balls froers set foot on shore, so deafening a cacophony of howls, and groans, and thu upon their devil, sir” To which Cary answered, with some show of reason, that ”they were the less likely to be disappointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come to listen to such a noise”
”And you mark, sirs,” said Yeo, ”there's some feast or sacrifice toward ”I'm not overconfident of them yet”
”Nonsense!” said Amyas, ”we could kill every soul of them in half- an-hour, and they know that as well as we”
But soreat demonstration was plainly toward; for the children of the forest were arrayed in two lines, right and left of the open space, the men in front, and the women behind; and all bedizened, to the best of their poith arnotto, indigo, and feathers
Next, with a hideous yell, leapt into the centre of the space a personage who certainly could not have complained if any one had taken him for the devil, for he had dressed hiuar-skin with a long tail, grinning teeth, a pair of horns, a plue rattle
”Here's the Piache, the rascal,” says Amyas
”Ay,” says Yeo, ”in Satan's livery, and I've no doubt his works are according, trust hihtened, Jack,” says Cary, backing up Brimblecombe from behind ”It's your business to tackle him, you know At hihed; and the Piache, who had intended to produce a very sole accustoet his bread by his impudence, he soon recovered himself, advanced, smote one of the musicians over the head with his rattle to procure silence; and then began a harangue, to which Aar in mouth
”What's it all about, boy?”
”He wants to knohether you have seen Areat water?”
Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after thethe mysterious sculptures which appear upon so ain whence he ca forth the praises of Queen Elizabeth
To which the Piache replied, that she hters, sos of the rest to prevent their running away, and left them to people the forests
To which As were certainly not broken; for she was a very race and activity, and the best dancer in all her dominions; but that it was ive them cassava bread, and let them stay peaceably on that island, to rest a while before they went on to fight the clothed men (the Spaniards), on the other side of theand turning head over heels with , beckoned A that the Indians were all unarood humor
The Piache went toward the door of a carefully closed hut, and crawling up to it on all-fours into some one within
”Ask what he is about, boy”
The lad asked the old cacique, who had acco the Daughter of the Sun
”Here is our mare's nest at last,” quoth Cary, as the Piache froesticulations, and then to violent convulsions, foa of the eyeballs, till he suddenly sank exhausted, and lay for dead
”As good as a stage play”
”The devil has played his part,” says Jack; ”and now by the rules of all plays Vice should come on”
”And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right sweet Iniquity, my Jack! Listen”
And fro, at which all the silish were hushed in astonishuttural, like that of an Indian, but round, clear, and rich, like a European's; and as it swelled and rose louder and louder, showed a compass and pohich would have been extraordinary anywhere (and land, was a good judge enough of such a lee, and catch, and roundelay, and psalain, and rose once more to fall once more, all but inarticulate, yet perfect in h, the anderers were rapt in new delight, and did not wonder at the Indians as they bowed their heads, and welcoher world At last one triuain, and then dead silence The Piache, suddenly restored to life, ju at A villain to make short work of it, lad! His tune won't do after that last one”
The lad, grinning, infornified their acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends were theirs, and her foes theirs Whereon the Indians set up a screa another tobacco leaf up in another strip of plantain, answered,-- ”Then let her give us soar
Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated themselves to the earth, as there came forth the same fair apparition which they had encountered upon the island, but decked now in feather-robes, and pluinable hue
Slowly and stately, as one accusto proudly round on her prostrate adorers, and pointing with graceful arave hins (so expressive were her looks, that no words were needed) that all was at his service; after which, taking his hand, she lifted it gently to her forehead
At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose froain to her hut, they pressed round the English, caressing and ad with equal surprise to their swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and to the trophies of wild beasts hich they were clothed; while wo fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and (to A drink; and, to lish sat down beneath the trees, and feasted merrily, while the druirls and lads danced uncouth dances, which so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that they persuaded Aet back to the island while the s and promises of return on the morrow, and the party paddled back to their island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or what the mysterious maid could be