After making a hasty meal at the house, I started, full of pleasing
anticipations, for the wood; for how pleasant a place it was to be in!
What a wild beauty and fragrance and melodiousness it possessed above
all forests, because of that mystery that drew me to it! And it was
mine, truly and absolutely--as much mine as any portion of earth’s
surface could belong to any man--mine with all its products: the
precious woods and fruits and fragrant gums that would never be
trafficked away; its wild animals that man would never persecute; nor
would any jealous savage dispute my ownership or pretend that it was
part of his hunting-ground. As I crossed the savannah I played with this
fancy; but when I reached the ridgy eminence, to look down once more on
my new domain, the fancy changed to a feeling so keen that it pierced to
my heart and was like pain in its intensity, causing tears to rush to
my eyes. And caring not in that solitude to disguise my feelings from
myself, and from the wide heaven that looked down and saw me--for this
is the sweetest thing that solitude has for us, that we are free in it,
and no convention holds us--I dropped on my knees and kissed the stony
ground, then casting up my eyes, thanked the Author of my being for
the gift of that wild forest, those green mansions where I had found so
great a happiness!
Elated with this strain of feeling, I reached the wood not long after
noon; but no melodious voice gave me familiar and expected welcome; nor
did my invisible companion make itself heard at all on that day, or, at
all events, not in its usual bird-like warbling language. But on this
day I met with a curious little adventure and heard something very
extraordinary, very mysterious, which I could not avoid connecting in my
mind with the unseen warbler that so often followed me in my rambles.
It was an exceedingly bright day, without cloud, but windy, and finding
myself in a rather open part of the wood, near its border, where the
breeze could be felt, I sat down to rest on the lower part of a large
branch, which was half broken, but still remained attached to the trunk
of the tree, while resting its terminal twigs on the ground. Just before
me, where I sat, grew a low, wide-spreading plant, covered with broad,
round, polished leaves; and the roundness, stiffness, and perfectly
horizontal position of the upper leaves made them look like a collection
of small platforms or round table-tops placed nearly on a level. Through
the leaves, to the height of a foot or more above them, a slender dead
stem protruded, and from a twig at its summit depended a broken spider’s
web. A minute dead leaf had become attached to one of the loose threads
and threw its small but distinct shadow on the platform leaves below;
and as it trembled and swayed in the current of air, the black spot
trembled with it or flew swiftly over the bright green surfaces, and was
seldom at rest. Now, as I sat looking down on the leaves and the small
dancing shadow, scarcely thinking of what I was looking at, I noticed a
small spider, with a flat body and short legs, creep cautiously out on
to the upper surface of a leaf. Its pale red colour barred with velvet
black first drew my attention to it, for it was beautiful to the eye;
and presently I discovered that this was no web-spinning, sedentary
spider, but a wandering hunter, that captured its prey, like a cat, by
stealing on it concealed and making a rush or spring at the last. The
moving shadow had attracted it and, as the sequel showed, was mistaken
for a fly running about over the leaves and flitting from leaf to leaf.
Now began a series of wonderful manoeuvres on the spider’s part, with
the object of circumventing the imaginary fly, which seemed specially
designed to meet this special case; for certainly no insect had ever
before behaved in quite so erratic a manner. Each time the shadow flew
past, the spider ran swiftly in the same direction, hiding itself under
the leaves, always trying to get near without alarming its prey; and
then the shadow would go round and round in a small circle, and some new
strategic move on the part of the hunter would be called forth. I became
deeply interested in this curious scene; I began to wish that the shadow
would remain quiet for a moment or two, so as to give the hunter a
chance. And at last I had my wish: the shadow was almost motionless, and
the spider moving towards it, yet seeming not to move, and as it
crept closer I fancied that I could almost see the little striped body
quivering with excitement. Then came the final scene: swift and straight
as an arrow the hunter shot himself on to the fly-like shadow, then
wiggled round and round, evidently trying to take hold of his prey with
fangs and claws; and finding nothing under him, he raised the fore
part of his body vertically, as if to stare about him in search of the
delusive fly; but the action may have simply expressed astonishment. At
this moment I was just on the point of giving free and loud vent to the
laughter which I had been holding in when, just behind me, as if from
some person who had been watching the scene over my shoulder and was as
much amused as myself at its termination, sounded a clear trill of merry
laughter. I started up and looked hastily around, but no living creature
was there. The mass of loose foliage I stared into was agitated, as if
from a body having just pushed through it. In a moment the leaves and
fronds were motionless again; still, I could not be sure that a slight
gust of wind had not shaken them. But I was so convinced that I had
heard close to me a real human laugh, or sound of some living creature
that exactly simulated a laugh, that I carefully searched the ground
about me, expecting to find a being of some kind. But I found nothing,
and going back to my seat on the hanging branch, I remained seated for
a considerable time, at first only listening, then pondering on the
mystery of that sweet trill of laughter; and finally I began to wonder
whether I, like the spider that chased the shadow, had been deluded, and
had seemed to hear a sound that was not a sound.
On the following day I was in the wood again, and after a two or three
hours’ ramble, during which I heard nothing, thinking it useless to
haunt the known spots any longer, I turned southwards and penetrated
into a denser part of the forest, where the undergrowth made progress
difficult. I was not afraid of losing myself; the sun above and my sense
of direction, which was always good, would enable me to return to the
starting-point.
In this direction I had been pushing resolutely on for over half an
hour, finding it no easy matter to make my way without constantly
deviating to this side or that from the course I wished to keep, when I
came to a much more open spot. The trees were smaller and scantier here,
owing to the rocky nature of the ground, which sloped rather rapidly
down; but it was moist and overgrown with mosses, ferns, creepers, and
low shrubs, all of the liveliest green. I could not see many yards ahead
owing to the bushes and tall fern fronds; but presently I began to hear
a low, continuous sound, which, when I had advanced twenty or thirty
yards further, I made out to be the gurgling of running water; and at
the same moment I made the discovery that my throat was parched and my
palms tingling with heat. I hurried on, promising myself a cool draught,
when all at once, above the soft dashing and gurgling of the water, I
caught yet another sound--a low, warbling note, or succession of
notes, which might have been emitted by a bird. But it startled me
nevertheless--bird-like warbling sounds had come to mean so much to
me--and pausing, I listened intently. It was not repeated, and finally,
treading with the utmost caution so as not to alarm the mysterious
vocalist, I crept on until, coming to a greenheart with a quantity of
feathery foliage of a shrub growing about its roots, I saw that just
beyond the tree the ground was more open still, letting in the sunlight
from above, and that the channel of the stream I sought was in this open
space, about twenty yards from me, although the water was still hidden
from sight. Something else was there, which I did see; instantly my
cautious advance was arrested. I stood gazing with concentrated vision,
scarcely daring to breathe lest I should scare it away.
It was a human being--a girl form, reclining on the moss among the ferns
and herbage, near the roots of a small tree. One arm was doubled
behind her neck for her head to rest upon, while the other arm was held
extended before her, the hand raised towards a small brown bird perched
on a pendulous twig just beyond its reach. She appeared to be playing
with the bird, possibly amusing herself by trying to entice it on to
her hand; and the hand appeared to tempt it greatly, for it persistently
hopped up and down, turning rapidly about this way and that, flirting
its wings and tail, and always appearing just on the point of dropping
on to her finger. From my position it was impossible to see her
distinctly, yet I dared not move. I could make out that she was small,
not above four feet six or seven inches in height, in figure slim, with
delicately shaped little hands and feet. Her feet were bare, and her
only garment was a slight chemise-shaped dress reaching below her knees,
of a whitish-gray colour, with a faint lustre as of a silky material.
Her hair was very wonderful; it was loose and abundant, and seemed
wavy or curly, falling in a cloud on her shoulders and arms. Dark it
appeared, but the precise tint was indeterminable, as was that of her
skin, which looked neither brown nor white. All together, near to me as
she actually was, there was a kind of mistiness in the figure which made
it appear somewhat vague and distant, and a greenish grey seemed the
prevailing colour. This tint I presently attributed to the effect of
the sunlight falling on her through the green foliage; for once, for a
moment, she raised herself to reach her finger nearer to the bird, and
then a gleam of unsubdued sunlight fell on her hair and arm, and the arm
at that moment appeared of a pearly whiteness, and the hair, just
where the light touched it, had a strange lustre and play of iridescent
colour.
I had not been watching her more than three seconds before the bird,
with a sharp, creaking little chirp, flew up and away in sudden alarm;
at the same moment she turned and saw me through the light leafy screen.
But although catching sight of me thus suddenly, she did not exhibit
alarm like the bird; only her eyes, wide open, with a surprised look
in them, remained immovably fixed on my face. And then slowly,
imperceptibly--for I did not notice the actual movement, so gradual and
smooth it was, like the motion of a cloud of mist which changes its
form and place, yet to the eye seems not to have moved--she rose to her
knees, to her feet, retired, and with face still towards me, and eyes
fixed on mine, finally disappeared, going as if she had melted away into
the verdure. The leafage was there occupying the precise spot where she
had been a moment before--the feathery foliage of an acacia shrub, and
stems and broad, arrow-shaped leaves of an aquatic plant, and slim,
drooping fern fronds, and they were motionless and seemed not to have
been touched by something passing through them. She had gone, yet I
continued still, bent almost double, gazing fixedly at the spot where
I had last seen her, my mind in a strange condition, possessed by
sensations which were keenly felt and yet contradictory. So vivid was
the image left on my brain that she still seemed to be actually before
my eyes; and she was not there, nor had been, for it was a dream, an
illusion, and no such being existed, or could exist, in this gross
world; and at the same time I knew that she had been there--that
imagination was powerless to conjure up a form so exquisite.
With the mental image I had to be satisfied, for although I remained for
some hours at that spot, I saw her no more, nor did I hear any familiar
melodious sound. For I was now convinced that in this wild solitary girl
I had at length discovered the mysterious warbler that so often followed
me in the wood. At length, seeing that it was growing late, I took a
drink from the stream and slowly and reluctantly made my way out of the
forest and went home.
Early next day I was back in the wood full of delightful anticipations,
and had no sooner got well among the trees than a soft, warbling sound
reached my ears; it was like that heard on the previous day just before
catching sight of the girl among the ferns. So soon! thought I, elated,
and with cautious steps I proceeded to explore the ground, hoping again
to catch her unawares. But I saw nothing; and only after beginning to
doubt that I had heard anything unusual, and had sat down to rest on
a rock, the sound was repeated, soft and low as before, very near and
distinct. Nothing more was heard at this spot, but an hour later, in
another place, the same mysterious note sounded near me. During my
remaining time in the forest I was served many times in the same way,
and still nothing was seen, nor was there any change in the voice.
Only when the day was near its end did I give up my quest, feeling very
keenly disappointed. It then struck me that the cause of the elusive
creature’s behaviour was that she had been piqued at my discovery of her
in one of her most secret hiding-places in the heart of the wood, and
that it had pleased her to pay me out in this manner.
On the next day there was no change; she was there again, evidently
following me, but always invisible, and varied not from that one mocking
note of yesterday, which seemed to challenge me to find her a second
time. In the end I was vexed, and resolved to be even with her by not
visiting the wood for some time. A display of indifference on my part
would, I hoped, result in making her less coy in the future.
Next day, firm in my new resolution, I accompanied Kua-ko and two others
to a distant spot where they expected that the ripening fruit on a
cashew tree would attract a large number of birds. The fruit, however,
proved still green, so that we gathered none and killed few birds.
Returning together, Kua-ko kept at my side, and by and by, falling
behind our companions, he complimented me on my good shooting, although,
as usual, I had only wasted the arrows I had blown.
“Soon you will be able to hit,” he said; “hit a bird as big as a small
woman”; and he laughed once more immoderately at the old joke. At last,
growing confidential, he said that I would soon possess a zabatana of my
own, with arrows in plenty. He was going to make the arrows himself,
and his uncle Otawinki, who had a straight eye, would make the tube. I
treated it all as a joke, but he solemnly assured me that he meant it.
Next morning he asked me if I was going to the forest of evil fame, and
when I replied in the negative, seemed surprised and, very much to my
surprise, evidently disappointed. He even tried to persuade me to go,
where before I had been earnestly recommended not to go, until, finding
that I would not, he took me with him to hunt in the woods. By and by he
returned to the same subject: he could not understand why I would not go
to that wood, and asked me if I had begun to grow afraid.
“No, not afraid,” I replied; “but I know the place well, and am getting
tired of it.” I had seen everything in it--birds and beasts--and had
heard all its strange noises.
“Yes, heard,” he said, nodding his head knowingly; “but you have seen
nothing strange; your eyes are not good enough yet.”
I laughed contemptuously and answered that I had seen everything strange
the wood contained, including a strange young girl; and I went on to
describe her appearance, and finished by asking if he thought a white
man was frightened at the sight of a young girl.
What I said astonished him; then he seemed greatly pleased, and, growing
still more confidential and generous than on the previous day, he said
that I would soon be a most important personage among them, and greatly
distinguish myself. He did not like it when I laughed at all this, and
went on with great seriousness to speak of the unmade blowpipe that
would be mine--speaking of it as if it had been something very great,
equal to the gift of a large tract of land, or the governorship of a
province, north of the Orinoco. And by and by he spoke of something else
more wonderful even than the promise of a blow-pipe, with arrows galore,
and this was that young sister of his, whose name was Oalava, a maid of
about sixteen, shy and silent and mild-eyed, rather lean and dirty; not
ugly, nor yet prepossessing. And this copper-coloured little drab of the
wilderness he proposed to bestow in marriage on me! Anxious to pump him,
I managed to control my muscles and asked him what authority he--a
young nobody, who had not yet risen to the dignity of buying a wife
for himself--could have to dispose of a sister in this offhand way?
He replied that there would be no difficulty: that Runi would give his
consent, as would also Otawinki, Piake, and other relations; and last,
and LEAST, according to the matrimonial customs of these latitudes,
Oalava herself would be ready to bestow her person--queyou, worn
figleaf-wise, necklace of accouri teeth, and all--on so worthy a suitor
as myself. Finally, to make the prospect still more inviting, he added
that it would not be necessary for me to subject myself to any voluntary
tortures to prove myself a man and fitted to enter into the purgatorial
state of matrimony. He was a great deal too considerate, I said, and,
with all the gravity I could command, asked him what kind of torture he
would recommend. For me--so valorous a person--“no torture,” he answered
magnanimously. But he--Kua-ko--had made up his mind as to the form of
torture he meant to inflict some day on his own person. He would prepare
a large sack and into it put fire-ants--“As many as that!” he exclaimed
triumphantly, stooping and filling his two hands with loose sand. He
would put them in the sack, and then get into it himself naked, and
tie it tightly round his neck, so as to show to all spectators that
the hellish pain of innumerable venomous stings in his flesh could be
endured without a groan and with an unmoved countenance. The poor youth
had not an original mind, since this was one of the commonest forms
of self-torture among the Guayana tribes. But the sudden wonderful
animation with which he spoke of it, the fiendish joy that illumined his
usually stolid countenance, sent a sudden disgust and horror through me.
But what a strange inverted kind of fiendishness is this, which delights
at the anticipation of torture inflicted on oneself and not on an enemy!
And towards others these savages are mild and peaceable! No, I could not
believe in their mildness; that was only on the surface, when nothing
occurred to rouse their savage, cruel instincts. I could have laughed at
the whole matter, but the exulting look on my companion’s face had made
me sick of the subject, and I wished not to talk any more about it.
But he would talk still--this fellow whose words, as a rule, I had to
take out of his mouth with a fork, as we say; and still on the same
subject, he said that not one person in the village would expect to
see me torture myself; that after what I would do for them all--after
delivering them from a great evil--nothing further would be expected of
me.
I asked him to explain his meaning; for it now began to appear plain
that in everything he had said he had been leading up to some very
important matter. It would, of course, have been a great mistake to
suppose that my savage was offering me a blow-pipe and a marketable
virgin sister from purely disinterested motives.
In reply he went back to that still unforgotten joke about my being able
eventually to hit a bird as big as a small woman with an arrow. Out of
it all came, when he went on to ask me if that mysterious girl I had
seen in the wood was not of a size to suit me as a target when I had got
my hand in with a little more practice. That was the great work I was
asked to do for them--that shy, mysterious girl with the melodious
wild-bird voice was the evil being I was asked to slay with poisoned
arrows! This was why he now wished me to go often to the wood, to become
more and more familiar with her haunts and habits, to overcome all
shyness and suspicion in her; and at the proper moment, when it would be
impossible to miss my mark, to plant the fatal arrow! The disgust he had
inspired in me before, when gloating over anticipated tortures, was a
weak and transient feeling to what I now experienced. I turned on him in
a sudden transport of rage, and in a moment would have shattered on his
head the blow-pipe I was carrying in my hand, but his astonished look as
he turned to face me made me pause and prevented me from committing
so fatal an indiscretion. I could only grind my teeth and struggle to
overcome an almost overpowering hatred and wrath. Finally I flung the
tube down and bade him take it, telling him that I would not touch it
again if he offered me all the sisters of all the savages in Guayana for
wives.
He continued gazing at me mute with astonishment, and prudence suggested
that it would be best to conceal as far as possible the violent
animosity I had conceived against him. I asked him somewhat scornfully
if he believed that I should ever be able to hit anything--bird or human
being--with an arrow. “No,” I almost shouted, so as to give vent to my
feelings in some way, and drawing my revolver, “this is the white man’s
weapon; but he kills men with it--men who attempt to kill or injure
him--but neither with this nor any other weapon does he murder innocent
young girls treacherously.” After that we went on in silence for some
time; at length he said that the being I had seen in the wood and was
not afraid of was no innocent young girl, but a daughter of the Didi, an
evil being; and that so long as she continued to inhabit the wood they
could not go there to hunt, and even in other woods they constantly went
in fear of meeting her. Too much disgusted to talk with him, I went on
in silence; and when we reached the stream near the village, I threw off
my clothes and plunged into the water to cool my anger before going in
to the others.