CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
DEALS WITH SPOTTED TIGER'S HOME, AND A HUNTING EXPEDITION.
In spite of howling jaguars, and snarling pumas, and buzzing mosquitoes,and the whole host of nocturnal abominations peculiar to those regions,our weary travellers lay peacefully in their hammocks, and slept likehumming-tops. In regard to Quashy, we might more appropriately say likea buzzing-top.
Once or twice during the night Quashy rose to replenish the fires, forthe jaguars kept up a concert that rendered attention to this protectionadvisable; but he did it with half-closed eyes, and a sort ofsemi-wakefulness which changed into profound repose the instant hetumbled back into his hammock. Lawrence, not being so well accustomedto the situation, lay awake a short time at first, having his loadedpistols under his pillow; but, as we have said, he soon slumbered, andit is probable that all the jaguars, pumas, peccaries, tapirs,alligators, and wild cats in that district might have walked inprocession under his hammock without disturbing him in the least, hadthey been so minded. As for Manuela, with that quiet indifference tomere prospective danger that usually characterises her race, she laidher head on her tiger-skin pillow, and slept the sleep of innocence--having absolute faith, no doubt, in the vigilance and care of herprotectors.
It might have been observed, however, that before lying down the Indianmaiden knelt beside her hammock and hid her face in her hands. Indeedfrom the first it had been seen by her fellow-travellers that Manuelathus communed with her God, and on one occasion Lawrence, remarking onthe fact, had asked Pedro if she were a Christian.
"She is a Christian," was Pedro's reply, but as he manifested an evidentintention not to be communicative on the subject, Lawrence forbore toput further questions, although he felt his interest in the girl as wellas his curiosity increasing, and he longed to know how and when she hadbeen turned from heathen worship to the knowledge of Christ.
When daylight began to glimmer in the east, the bird, beast, and insectworlds began to stir. And a wonderful stir do these worlds make at thathour in the grand regions of Central South America; for althoughnocturnal birds and beasts retire and, at least partially, hide theirdiminished heads at daylight, the myriad denizens of the forests boundforth with renewed life and vigour to sing a morning hymn of praise totheir Maker--involuntarily or voluntarily, who can tell which, and whatright has man to say dogmatically that it cannot be the latter?Thousands of cooing doves, legions of chattering parrots, made the airvocal; millions of little birds of every size and hue twittered anaccompaniment, and myriads of mosquitoes and other insects filled up theorchestra with a high pitched drone, while alligators and other aquaticmonsters beat time with flipper, fin, and tail.
Breakfast, consisting of excellent fish, eggs, maize, jaguar-steak,roast duck, alligator-ragout, and chocolate, was prepared outside theIndian hut. The hut itself was unusually clean, Tiger being a peculiarand eccentric savage, who seemed to have been born, as the saying is, inadvance of his generation. He was a noted man among his brethren, notonly for strength and prowess, but for strange ideas and practices,especially for his total disregard of public opinion.
In respect of cleanliness, his hut differed from the huts of all othermen of his tribe. It was built of sun-dried mud. The furnitureconsisted of two beds, or heaps of leaves and skins, and several rudevessels of clay. The walls were decorated with bows, arrows,blow-pipes, lances, game-bags, fishing-lines, and other articles of thechase, as well as with miniature weapons and appliances of a similarkind, varying its size according to the ages of the little Tigers.Besides these, there hung from the rafters--if we may so name the sticksthat stretched overhead--several network hammocks and unfinishedgarments, the handiwork of Mrs Tiger.
That lady herself was a fat and by no means uncomely young woman, simplyclothed in a white tunic, fastened at the waist with a belt--the armsand neck being bare. Her black hair was cut straight across theforehead, an extremely ugly but simple mode of freeing the face frominterference, which we might say is peculiar to all savage nations hadnot the highly civilised English of the present day adopted it, thusproving the truth of the proverb that "extremes meet"! The rest of herhair was gathered into one long heavy plait, which hung down behind.Altogether, Madame Tiger was clean and pleasant looking--for a savage.This is more than could be said of her progeny, which swarmed about theplace in undisguised contempt of cleanliness or propriety.
Stepping into the hut after kindling the fire outside, Quashy proceededto make himself at home by sitting down on a bundle.
The bundle spurted out a yell, wriggled violently, and proved itself tobe a boy!
Jumping up in haste, Quashy discommoded a tame parrot on the rafters,which, with a horrible shriek in the Indian tongue, descended on hishead and grasped his hair, while a tame monkey made faces at him and atame turtle waddled out of his way.
Having thus as it were established his footing in the family, the negroremoved the parrot to his perch, receiving a powerful bite of gratitudein the act, and invited the wife of Spotted Tiger to join thebreakfast-party. This he did by the express order of Lawrence, for hewould not himself have originated such a piece of condescension. Notknowing the dialect of that region, however, he failed to convey hismeaning by words and resorted to pantomime. Rubbing his stomach gentlywith one hand, he opened his mouth wide, pointed down his throat withthe forefinger of the other hand, and made a jerky reference with histhumb to the scene of preparations outside.
Madame Tiger declined, however, and pointed to a dark corner, where asick child claimed her attention.
"O poor t'ing! what's de matter wid it?" asked Quashy, going forward andtaking one of the child's thin hands in his enormous paw.
The little girl must have been rather pretty when in health, but therewas not much of good looks left at that time, save the splendid blackeyes, the lustre of which seemed rather to have improved with sickness.The poor thing appeared to know that she had found in the negro asympathetic soul, for she not only suffered her hand to remain in his,but gave vent to a little squeak of contentment.
"Stop! You hold on a bit, Poppity," said Quashy, whose inventivecapacity in the way of endearing terms was great, "I'll fetch dedoctor."
He ran out and presently returned with Lawrence, who shook his head themoment he set eyes on the child.
"No hope?" inquired Quashy, with solemnity unspeakable on hiscountenance.
"Well, I won't say that. While there is life there is hope, but itwould have been more hopeful if I had seen the child a week or twosooner."
After a careful examination, during which the father, who had come in,and the mother looked on with quiet patience, and Manuela with someanxiety, he found that there was still room for hope, but, he said,turning to Quashy, "she will require the most careful and constantnursing, and as neither Tiger nor his wife understands what we say, andPedro may not be back for some days, it will be difficult to explain tothem what should be done. Can you not speak their dialect even alittle?" he added in Spanish to Manuela.
She shook her head, but said quietly--
"Me will nurse."
"That's very kind of you, and it will really be a charity, for the childis seriously ill. She is a strangely attractive little thing," hecontinued, bending over her couch and stroking her hair gently. "I feelquite as if I had known her a long time. Now, I will give youinstructions as well as I can as to what you have to do. Shall I givethem in Spanish or English?"
Quite gravely the Indian girl replied, "Angleesh."
"Very well," said he, and proceeded to tell Manuela how to act assick-nurse. When he had finished, the girl at once stepped up toTiger's wife with a winning smile, patted her shoulder, kissed herforehead, and then, pointing to the little invalid with a look ofprofound intelligence, went out of the hut. Presently she returned withsome of the gravy of the alligator-ragout, sat down beside the littleone, and began to administer it in small quantities. Evidently thechild was pleased both with the food and the angel of mercy who hadfound her,
for she nestled in a comfortable way close to Manuela's side.Lawrence observed, when the latter looked round for something shewanted, that her eyes were full of tears.
"I knew I was right," he muttered to himself as he returned to the fire,where Quashy had already spread out the breakfast, "she certainly _must_be a princess of the Incas. They were notoriously celebrated for theirgentle and amiable qualities, even at the time of Pizarro's conquest."
What more passed in his mind we cannot tell, for he ceased to mutter,and never revealed his subsequent thoughts to any one.
"Now, Quashy," said Lawrence, when breakfast was over, "we are left herein what we may style difficulties. The Indians don't understand Spanishor English, so until Pedro returns we shall have to get along as best wecan by signs."
"Bery well, massa, I hope you knows how to talk by signs, for its moredan dis nigger do."
As he spoke he threw an ear of maize at a monkey which sat on a branchoverhead gazing at the party with an expression of the most woebegoneresignation. He missed his aim, but none the less did that monkeychange its look into a glare of intense indignation, after which it fledshrieking, with hurt feelings, into the woods.
"I'm not much up in the language of signs," said Lawrence, "but we musttry our best."
Saying which he arose, and, touching Tiger on the shoulder, beckoned himto follow.
With the lithe, easy motions of the animal after which he was named, theIndian rose. Lawrence led him a few paces from the fire, and then,putting himself in the attitude of a man discharging an arrow from abow, suddenly let the imaginary arrow fly, looked at the savage, touchedhis own breast, and smiled.
So did Quashy, with compound interest. Spotted Tiger looked puzzled,shook his head, and also smiled.
"He t'ink you wants him to shoot you," said Quashy.
"No, no, that's not it," said Lawrence, with a somewhat abashed look atthe Indian. "I want you to take us out shooting--hunting, youknow--_hunting_."
As Tiger did _not_ know the word "hunting" he continued to shake hishead with a puzzled air.
Every one who has tried it knows what a silly, almost imbecile, feelingcomes over one when one attempts the communication of ideas in dumbshow. Feelings of this sort affected our hero very keenly. Hetherefore, while continuing the pantomime, kept up a running orinterjectional accompaniment in the English language.
"Look here, Tiger," he said, impressively, taking up two sticks which hemade to represent a bow and arrow, and placing them in position, "I wantto go hunting with you--hunting--shooting the jaguar."
"Yes, de jaguar--tiger, you know," said Quashy, who, in his anxiety toget the savage to understand, imitated his master's actions, and couldnot refrain from occasionally supplementing his speech.
As a tiger-skin chanced to be hanging on a bush near to the fire,Lawrence completed his pantomime by throwing his mimic arrow againstthat.
A gleam of intelligence suffused the face of the savage. Stalking intohis hut, he returned with a bow considerably longer than himself, and anarrow, also of great length. Retiring to a distance from thejaguar-skin above referred to, he bent his bow quickly, and sent anarrow straight through the middle of it, thereafter raising himself witha look of pride.
"Why, the fellow thinks I want him to show off his powers of shooting,"said Lawrence.
"So he do--de idjit!" said Quashy.
With much anxiety of expression, great demonstration of vigorous action,and many painful efforts of inventive genius, the two men tried toconvey their wishes to that son of the soil, but all in vain. At lastin desperation Quashy suddenly seized the jaguar-skin, threw it over hisown shoulders, placed a long pole in Lawrence's hands, and said--
"Now, massa, you look out, I's agwine to spring at you, and you stickme."
He uttered a mighty roar as he spoke, and bounded towards his master,who, entering at once into the spirit of the play, received him on thepoint of his spear, whereupon the human jaguar instantly fell andrevelled for a few seconds in the agonies of death. Then he calmlyrose.
"Now," said he, with a look of contempt, "if he no understan' dat, it's'cause he hain't got no brains."
At first the Indian had gazed at this little scene with a look ofintense astonishment. When it was finished he burst into a fit ofhearty laughter. Evidently it was the best piece of acting he had seensince he was born, and if he had been other than a savage, he mustcertainly have shouted "bravo!" perhaps "encore!" and clapped his hands.
"Boh! he's a born idjit!" cried Quashy, turning away in disgust, but anew idea seemed to flash into his fertile brain.
"Stop a bit!" he suddenly exclaimed, seizing a piece of flat bark thatlay at his feet. On this, with the point of a charred stick, he drew atriangular form, with three dots in it for two eyes and a nose. An ovalattached to this represented a body; at the other end a long waving lineserved for a tail; four short lines below indicated legs. This creaturehe covered all over with spots.
"There," he cried, sticking it into a bush, and glaring at the Indian,"jaguar!--jaguar!"
Catching up the pole which Lawrence had thrown down, he rushed at thisjaguar, and pierced it through the heart. Thereafter, in hot haste, hepicked up Tiger's bow and arrows, ran down to the river, put them into asmall canoe, and thrust it into the water. Holding on with one hand, hewaved with the other.
"Ho! hi! come along, you stuppid idjit!"
The "stuppid idjit" was enlightened at last. With a dignified smile,which would probably have been a frown if he had understood Quashy'swords, he went up to his hut, and selected a lance and a bow, withwhich, and a quiver of arrows, he returned to the little hunting canoe.
Seeing that they were now understood, Lawrence took his shot-gun andpistols; the negro also armed himself, and in a few minutes more theyfound themselves paddling gently down the sluggish current of the river.
The scenery through which those curiously assorted hunters passed thatday in their light canoe was singularly beautiful; and when, turning upone of the narrow streams that fed the main river, they came into aregion of sweet, mellow twilight, caused by the over-arching trees,where the very aspect of nature suggested, though it could not create,coolness, Lawrence felt as if he had been at last transported into thosefamous regions of fairyland which, if they really existed, and we werein very deed to get into them, would, perchance, not equal, andcertainly could not excel, our own actual world!
Gigantic trees towered upwards till their heads were lost in theumbrageous canopy, while their stems were clasped by powerful snake-likecreepers, or adorned with flowering parasites. The bushes grew so thickand tangled that it seemed as if neither man nor beast could penetratethem--which indeed was the case, as regards man, in many places; yethere and there unexpected openings permitted the charmed eyes to restupon romantic vistas where creepers, convolvuli, and other flowers, ofevery shape, hue, and size, hung in festoons and clusters, or carpetedthe ground. Fruit, too, was there in abundance. Everything seemed tobear fruit. The refreshing and not too luscious prickly pear; theoukli, an enormous cactus, not unlike the prickly pear but with largerfruit, whose delightful pulp was of a blood-red colour; the ancoche,with sweet-tasted pearl-like drops, and many others.
There was plenty of animal life, also, in and around this stream, tointerest the hunters, who were now obliged to exert themselves a littleto make head against the sluggish current. Water-hens were innumerable,and other wild-fowl flew or paddled about, enjoying, apparently, a mostluxuriant existence, while brown ant-hills were suggestive ofexceedingly busy life below as well as above ground. There are manykinds of ants out there, some of them very large, others not quite solarge, which, however, make up in vicious wickedness what they lack insize.
At one bend in the stream they came suddenly on a boa-constrictor whichwas swimming across; at another turn they discovered a sight whichcaused Lawrence to exclaim--
"There's a breakfast for you, Quashy. What would you say to that?"
"I'd like to hab 'im coo
ked, massa."
The reference was to an alligator which was crossing the stream a fewyards ahead of them, with a live boa in his jaws. The huge serpent wasabout twelve feet long, and wriggled horribly to escape, but the monsterhad it fast by the middle. Evidently its doom was fixed.
Several tapirs and a band of grunting peccaries were also seen, but allthese were passed without molestation, for the ambitions of our huntersthat day soared to nothing less than the tiger of the American jungles--the sneaking, lithe, strong, and much-dreaded jaguar.
Spotted Tiger seemed to have at last become fully aware of the spirit ofhis companions, for he took no apparent note of the various animals seenas they passed along, and evidently was on the outlook for the monarchof the jungle. Having been told by Pedro that he was a celebratedhunter, Lawrence felt sure that he would lead them to success.
"Why you no shoot de deer an' pepper de alligators, massa?" asked Quashyat last, after several of the creatures mentioned had been seen andpassed.
"Because I don't want them," returned Lawrence, "and I have no pleasurein useless destruction of life. Besides, I am anxious to shoot ajaguar, having a strong wish to take home the claws and skull of one--the first for my friends, the last for a museum. When we want food Iwill shoot deer, or anything else that's eatable."
Quashy remained silent. He seemed to be revolving his master's reply ina philosophical way, when something between a snarl and a growl turnedhis thoughts sharply into another channel.
Tiger quietly prepared his bow and arrows and laid his spears so thatthey should be handy. Lawrence and the negro also got ready theirweapons, and then they advanced with caution, dipping their paddleslightly, and gazing earnestly into the jungle on the right bank of thestream.