THE CACIQUE'S SCHEME.
Shortly before sunset we arrived at our halting-place for the night and
point of departure for the morrow--a hollow in the hills, hemmed in by
high rocks, almost circular in shape and about a quarter of a mile in
diameter. The air was motionless and the temperature mild, the ground
covered with grass and shrubs and flowers, over which hovered clouds of
bright-winged butterflies. Low down in the hollow was a still and silent
pool, and though, so far as I could make out, it had no exit, two large
flat-bottomed boats and a couple of canoes were made fast to the side.
Hard by was a hut of sun-dried bricks, in which were slung three or four
grass hammocks.
There was also fuel, so we were able to make a fire and have a good
warming, of which we stood greatly in need. But as nothing in the shape of
food could be found, either on the premises or in the neighborhood, we had
to go supperless to bed.
Before we turned in Gondocori let us into the secret of the scheme which
was to propitiate Queen Mamcuna, and bring us honor and renown, instead of
blame and (possibly) death.
"I shall tell her," said the cacique, "that though I have lost my braves
and brought no maidens, I have brought two famous medicine-men, who come
from over the seas."
"Very good. But how are we to keep up the character?"
"You must profess your ability to heal the sick and read the stars."
"Nothing easier. But suppose we are put to the test? Are there any sick in
your country?"
"A few; Mamcuna herself is sick; you have only to cure her and all will be
well."
"Very likely; but how if I fail?"
"Then she would make it unpleasant for all of us."
"You mean she would roast us by a slow fire?"
"Probably. There is no telling, though. Our Great Mother is very ingenious
in inventing new punishments, and to those who deceive her she shows no
mercy."
"I understand. It is a case of kill or cure."
"Exactly. If you don't cure her she will kill you."
"I will do my best, and as I have seen a good deal of practical surgery,
helped to dress wounds and set broken limbs, and can let blood, you may
truthfully say that I have some slight knowledge of the healing art. But
as for treating a sick woman--However, I leave it to you, Gondocori. If
you choose to introduce me to her Majesty as a medicine-man I will act the
part to the best of my ability."
"I ask no more, señor; and if you are fortunate enough to cure Mamcuna of
her sickness--"
"Or make her believe that I have cured her."
"That would do quite as well; you will thank me for bringing you to
Pachatupec, for although the queen can make things very unpleasant for
those who offend her, she can also make them very pleasant for those whom
she likes. And now, señores, as we must to-morrow travel a long way
fasting, let us turn into our hammocks and compose ourselves to sleep."
Excellent advice, which I was only too glad to follow. But we were awake
long before daylight--for albeit fatigue often acts as an anodyne, hunger
is the enemy of repose--and at the first streak of dawn wended to the
silent pool.
As we stepped into the canoe selected by Gondocori (the boats were
intended for the transport of mules and horses) I found that the water was
warm, and, on tasting it, I perceived a strong mineral flavor. The pool
was a thermal spring, and its high temperature fully accounted for the
fertility of the hollow and the mildness of the air. But how were we to
get out of it? For look as I might, I could see no signs either of an
outlet or a current. Gondocori, who acted as pilot, quickly solved the
mystery. A buttress of rock, which in the distance looked like a part of
the mass, screened the entrance to a narrow waterway. Down this waterway
the cacique navigated the canoe. It ran in tortuous course between rocks
so high that at times we could see nothing save a strip of purple sky,
studded with stars. Here and there the channel widened out, and we caught
a glimpse of the sun; and at an immeasurable height above us towered the
_nevados_ (snowy slopes) of the Cordillera.
The stream, if that can be called a stream which does not move, had many
branches, and we could well believe, as Gondocori told us, that it was as
easy to lose one's self in this watery labyrinth as in a tropical forest.
In all Pachatupec there were not ten men besides himself who could pilot a
boat through its windings. He told us, also, that this was the only pass
between the eastern and western Cordillera in that part of the Andes, that
the journey from San Andrea to Pachatupec by any other route would be an
affair not of days but of weeks. The water was always warm and never
froze. Whence it came nobody could tell. Not from the melting of the snow,
for snow-water was cold, and this was always warm, winter and summer. For
his own part he thought its source was a spring, heated by volcanic fires,
and many others thought the same. Its depth was unknown; he himself had
tried to fathom it with the longest line he could find, yet had never
succeeded in touching ground.
Meanwhile we were making good progress, sometimes paddling, sometimes
poling (where the channel was narrow) and toward evening when, as I
reckoned, we had travelled about sixty miles, we shot suddenly into a
charming little lake with sylvan banks and a sandy beach.
Gondocori made fast the canoe to a tree, and we stepped ashore.
We are on the summit of a spur which stands out like a bastion from the
imposing mass of the Cordillera, through the very heart of which runs the
mysterious waterway we have just traversed. Two thousand feet or more
below is a broad plain, bounded on the west by a range of gaunt and
treeless hills ribbed with contorted rocks, which stretch north and south
farther than the eye can reach. The plain is cultivated and inhabited.
There are huts, fields, orchards, and streams, and about a league from the
foot of the bastion is a large village.
"Pachatupec?" I asked.
"_Si, señor_, that is Pachatupec, a very fair land, as you see, and yonder
is Pachacamac, where dwells our queen," said Gondocori, pointing to the
village; and then he fell into a brown study, as if he was not quite sure
what to do next.
The sight of his home did not seem to rejoice the cacique as much as might
be supposed. The approaching interview with Mamcuna was obviously weighing
heavily on his soul, and, to tell the truth, I rather shared his
apprehensions. A savage queen with a sharp temper who occasionally roasted
people alive was not to be trifled with. But as delay was not likely to
help us, and I detest suspense, and, moreover, felt very hungry, I
suggested that we had better go on to Pachacamac forthwith.
"Perhaps we had. Yes, let us get it over," he said, with a sigh.
After descending the bastion by a steep zigzag we turned into a pleasant
foot-path, shaded by trees, and as we neared our destination we met (among
other people) two tall Indians, whose condor-skull helmets denoted their
lordly rank. On recognizing Gondocori (who had lost his helmet in the
snow-storm and looked otherwise much dilapidated) their surprise was
literally unspeakable. They first stared and then gesticulated. When at
length they found their tongues they overwhelmed him with questions, eying
Gahra and me the while as if we were wild animals. After a short
conversation, of which, being in their own language, I could only guess
the purport, the two caciques turned back and accompanied us to the
village. Save that there was no sign of a church, it differed little from
many other villages which I had met with in my travels. There were huts,
mere roofs on stilts, cottages of wattle and dab, and flat-roofed houses
built of sun-dried bricks. Streets, there were none, the buildings being
all over the place, as if they dropped from the sky or sprung up
hap-hazard from the ground.
About midway in the village one of the caciques left us to inform the
queen of our arrival and to ask her pleasure as to my reception. The other
cacique asked us into his house, and offered us refreshments. Of what the
dishes set before us were composed I had only the vaguest idea, but hunger
is not fastidious and we ate with a will.
We had hardly finished when cacique number one, entering in breathless
haste, announced that Queen Mumcuna desired to see us immediately,
whereupon I suggested to Gondocori the expediency of donning more courtly
attire, if there was any to be got.
"What, keep the queen waiting!" he exclaimed, aghast. "She would go mad.
Impossible! We must go as we are."
Not wanting her majesty to go mad, I made no further demur, and we went.
The palace was a large adobe building within a walled inclosure, guarded
by a company of braves with long spears. We were ushered into the royal
presence without either ceremony or delay. The queen was sitting in a
hammock with her feet resting on the ground. She wore a bright-colored,
loosely-fitting bodice, a skirt to match, and sandals. Her long black hair
was arranged in tails, of which there were seven on each side of her face.
She was short and stout, and perhaps thirty years old, and though in early
youth she might have been well favored, her countenance now bore the
impress of evil passions, and the sodden look of it, as also the
blood-streaks in her eyes, showed that her drink was not always water. At
the same time, it was a powerful face, indicative of a strong character
and a resolute will. Her complexion was bright cinnamon, and the three or
four women by whom she was attended were costumed like herself.
On entering the room the three caciques went on their knees, and after a
moment's hesitation Gahra followed their example. I thought it quite
enough to make my best bow. Mamcuna then motioned us to draw nearer, and
when we were within easy speaking distance she said something to Gondocori
that sounded like a question or a command, on which he made a long and, as
I judged from the vigor of his gesture and the earnestness of his manner,
an eloquent speech. I watched her closely and was glad to see that though
she frowned once or twice during its delivery, she did not seem very
angry. I also observed that she looked at me much more than at the
cacique, which I took to be a favorable sign. The speech was followed by a
lively dialogue between Mamcuna and the cacique, after which the latter
turned to me and said, as coolly as if he were asking me to be seated:
"The queen commands you to strip."
"Commands me to strip! What do you mean?"
"What I say; you have to strip--undress, take off your clothes."
"You are joking."
"Joking! I should like to see the man who would dare to take such a
liberty in the audience-chamber of our Great Mother. Pray don't make words
about it, señor. Take off your clothes without any more bother, or she
will be getting angry."
"Let her get angry. I shall do nothing of the sort--No, don't say that;
say that English gentlemen--I mean pale-face medicine-men from over the
seas, never undress in the presence of ladies; their religion forbids it."
Gondocori was about to remonstrate again when the queen interposed and
insisted on knowing what I said. When she heard that I refused to obey her
behest she turned purple with rage, and looked as if she would annihilate
me. Then her mood, or her mind, changing, she laughed loudly, at the same
time pointing to the door and making an observation to the cacique.
Having meanwhile reflected that I was not in an English drawing-room, that
this wretched woman could have me stripped whether I would or no, and that
refusal to comply with her wishes might cost me my life, I asked Gondocori
why the queen wanted me to undress.
"She wants to see whether your body is as hairy as your face (I had not
shaved since I left Naperima), and your face as fair as your body."
"Will it satisfy her if I meet her half-way--strip to the waist? You can
say that I never did as much for any woman before, and that I would not do
it for the queen of my own country, whatever might be the consequence."
The cacique interpreted my proposal, and Mamcuna smiled assent. "The queen
says, 'let it be as you say;' and she charges me to tell you that she is
very much pleased to know that you will do for her what you would not do
for any other woman."
On that I took off my upper garments and Mamcuna, rising from her hammock,
examined me as closely as a military surgeon examines a freshly caught
recruit. She felt the muscles of my arms, thumped my chest, took note of
the width of my back, punched my ribs, and finally pulled a few hairs out
of my beard. Then, smiling approval, she retired to her chinchura.
"You may put on your clothes; the inspection is over," said Gondocori. "I
am glad it has passed off so well. I was rather afraid, though, when she
began to pinch you."
"Afraid of what?"
"Well, the queen is rather curious about skin and color and that, and does
curious things sometimes. She once had a strip of skin cut out of a
mestiza maiden's back, to see whether it was the same color on both sides.
But she seems to have taken quite a liking for you; says you are the
prettiest man she ever saw; and if you cure her of her illness I have no
doubt she will give you a condor's skull helmet and make you a cacique."
"I am greatly obliged to her Majesty, I am sure, and very thankful she did
not take a fancy to cut a piece out of my back. As for curing her, I must
first of all know what is the matter."
"Shall I ask her to describe her symptoms?"
"If you please." In reply to the questions which I put, through Gondocori,
the queen said that she suffered from headache, nausea, and sleeplessness,
and that, whereas only a few years ago she was lithe, active, and gay, she
was now heavy, indolent, and melancholy, adding that she had suffered much
at the hands of the late court medicine-man, who did not understand her
case at all, and that to punish him for his ignorance and presumption she
made him swallow a jarful of his own physic, from the effects of which he
shortly afterward expired in great agony. The place was now vacant, and if
I succeeded in restoring her to health she would make me his successor and
always have me near her person.
I cannot say that I regarded this prospect as particularly encouraging;
nevertheless, I tried to look pleased and told Gondocori to assure the
queen of my gratitude and devotion and ask her to show me her tongue. He
put this request with evident reluctance, and Mamcuna made an angry reply.
"I knew how it would be," said the cacique. "You have put her in a rage.
She thinks you want to insult her, and absolutely refuses to make herself
hideous by sticking out her tongue."
"She will of course do as she pleases. But unless she shows me her tongue
I cannot cure her. I shall not even try. Tell her so."
To tell the truth I had really no great desire to look at the woman's
tongue, but having made the request I meant to stand to my guns.
After some further parley she yielded, first of all making the three
caciques and Gahra look the other way. The appearance of her tongue
confirmed the theory I had already formed that she was suffering from
dyspepsia, brought on by overeating and a too free indulgence in the wine
of the country (a sort of cider) and indolent habits.
I said that if she would follow my instructions I had no doubt that I
could not only cure her but make her as lithe and active as ever she was.
Remembering, however, that as even the highly civilized people object to
be made whole without physic and fuss, and that the queen would certainly
not be satisfied with a simple recommendation to take less food and more
exercise, I observed that before I could say anything further I must
gather plants, make decoctions, and consult the stars, and that my black
colleague should prepare a charm which would greatly increase the potency
of my remedies and the chances of her recovery.
Mamcuna answered that I talked like a medicine-man who understood his
business and her case, that she would strictly obey my orders, and so soon
as she felt better give me a condor's skull helmet. Meanwhile, I was to
take up my quarters in her own house, and she ordered the caciques to send
me forthwith three suits of clothes, my own, as she rightly remarked, not
being suitable for a man of my position.
"Now, did not I tell you?" said Gondocori, as we left the room. "Oh, we
are going on swimmingly; and it is all my doing. I do believe that if I
had not protested that you were the greatest medicine-man in the world,
and had come expressly to cure her, she would have had you roasted or
ripped up by the man-killer or turned adrift in the desert, or something
equally diabolical. Your fate is in your own hands now. If you fail to
make good your promises, it will be out of my power to help you. You heard
how she treated your predecessor."