Wild Life in the Land of the Giants Part 34

The huge bird was speedily disembowelled. The entrails fell to the share of the mongrel greyhounds, or coa.r.s.e-built whippets, and a deal of quarrelling they had over them. The blood was drunk by the chief and his wives. It certainly did not improve their copper-coloured complexions. Meanwhile stones were heated and placed inside the bird, the whole being finally lifted on to the bright fire, and partly covered. In about an hour it was cooked.

We were all hungry, and glad to share with the Indians. I cannot say I relished it very much; but hunger is sweet sauce, and it is never half so sweet as when squatting gipsy-fas.h.i.+on round a meal spread in the open air.

After a few hours' rest we went on again, and so on and on day after day.

We seemed to be making forced marches, and seldom stayed to do much hunting, except simply for sake of fresh meat.

Unless one keeps a diary on the road--and that is what neither Jill nor I did--it is impossible to remember a t.i.the of the many little events that happen, or the character of the scenery. During the first six or eight days of this journey, however, there was but one character in the scenery, and that I have already noted; and great events were few and far between, so that only a few impressions remain recorded on the tablets of my memory.

I will never forget our quiet camp life of an evening, when the tents were raised, and we settled down for enjoyment. Sometimes even yet, when sleepless in bed of a night I allow my mind to revert to them, and they never fail to woo me to sweet and dreamless slumber.

The dinner was, of course, _the_ great event of the evening, and it was wonderful how well Pedro cooked that meal, considering the few things at his command. Lawlor and he were our servants in a manner of speaking, but immediately after dinner they joined the group around the camp fire, and there we sat chatting and telling stories till ten o'clock or past.

Every one had something to tell, and Castizo, though full of adventurous stories and reminiscences himself, never failed to draw "yarns," as sailors call them, from others.

Even Jill and I found our tongues, and told Castizo about the little escapades of our schoolboy days. He listened to these, I think, far more eagerly than he did to the wilder exploits of Ritchie, Lawlor, and Pedro.

He laughed heartily over our piratical experiences, running with, or being run away with by the hulk, and firing our pistols at the flag-s.h.i.+p.

"Your sister Mattie," I remember him saying one evening, "must be a darling child, and as full of spirit and fun as a young puma."

"She is all that," "She is all that," said Jill and I together.

It used to amuse Castizo to hear my brother and me, when mutually excited, speak thus together in one breath and in the same words. He would laugh, and then say--

"You boys seem to be animated with but one spirit between you."

"One spirit is quite enough for Jill and me," "One spirit is quite enough for Jack and me."--this would be our answers.

It was not very often that Castizo was in the humour to tell us a story; but when we did get him to consent, we had descriptions of the most thrilling adventures, both by sea and land, that it is possible to imagine.

"Do," I ventured to say once, "do the senora, your wife, and the senorita--"

"Dulzura," said Peter.

"Miss you greatly, when from home?"

A strange change came over his countenance. From happiness and mirth it suddenly changed to melancholy the most acute. I felt sorry immediately I had spoken, and hastened to say--

"My dear friend, I have hurt your feelings; pray pardon my thoughtlessness."

"Nay, nay," he made haste to reply; "it is nothing. But my wife is gone. If ever angel lived and breathed on earth, it was Magdalena. Her death was to me an abiding sorrow. But I seem to see her and feel her presence even yet, and she is often with me when I am alone."

This gave me the clue to what we had considered a mystery, namely, Castizo's great fondness for spending a portion of almost every night all alone out in the Pampas. Whether it rained or blew, in fact whatsoever the weather was like, Castizo always went out. This habit he commenced, as I have already shown, when we first started, when he rode two lonesome days and nights after us; and the habit he kept up till the last.

But Castizo was always willing to oblige us with a song. He had a splendid voice, and sang as well in English as in Spanish or Chilian.

Pedro's stories were also well worth listening to. His experiences had been many and varied; but, alas! many of them were, to say the least, very hazy, and there was a deal in the history of his life far too dark to tell. Yet he was a faithful fellow, and would any day go through fire and water to oblige us.

Peter never had a story to tell. When asked to "spin us a yarn" he would tap his clarionet, and say, with a smile--

"I tell all my stories, like the Arcadian shepherds, through my pipe."

"Well, then, play," Castizo would remark.

"Yes, play," Jill would add emphatically; "our cacique commands you."

"All right, Greenie dear," Peter would reply, and play forthwith.

I do not think I ever heard sweeter melody anywhere than that which Peter discoursed on his pipe, as he called it, around the camp fire on the lonely Pampas.

Some of the Indians would be sure to come from their toldos, and draw near our door, whenever Peter began to play, especially Prince Jeeka and his favourite wife, Nadi.

They were invariably asked in, and just as invariably did poor Nadi bring with her some sewing to do, generally in the shape of a few pieces of guanaco skin, which she was sewing together to make a roba or mantle for her husband or herself.

Very gentle, quiet, and amiable was Nadi, and bound up in her child and n.o.ble husband. I say "n.o.ble" advisedly; for all the time we knew him he was always the "prince," generous, kind to his wife and child, brave and unselfish in the extreme. And yet they told me that he had in his time done some terrible deeds, and had even with his own hand slain the cousin of his wife Nadi. When I looked at Jeeka, I could not find it in my heart to believe this.

Nadi used to sing. It was more a wail than anything else; though while doing so she used to nod her head, and smiles would steal over her dark but pretty face, while her eyes sparkled with excitement and fun. Her husband would join in the chorus, as if he, too, enjoyed it. Perhaps Castizo and Pedro knew what it was all about; I am sure none of the rest of us ever did.

Sometimes Jill, or Peter, and I used to go over to the toldos of the Indians. We always took with us a bit of tobacco, and sometimes a little bag of flour. We generally found them lazing in groups, smoking and playing cards or dice. But as soon as ever their own cacique, Jeeka, gave the word, all playing was almost instantly stopped, and soon after they had rolled their mantles more tightly round them, and gone off to sleep.

In the morning before the start, Jeeka invariably helped his wife into the saddle; then she, with her child and the other two women, rode leisurely on.

To be alone in the desert, is to be alone with G.o.d; and every one of us soon came to follow the habit of Castizo, and retire nightly a little way from the camp, there to commune with our Father above. Like as in the old, old times, Jill and I invariably went together, knelt together, and returned together.

Jeeka was a strange being. He was clever, for he could not only speak Spanish but tolerably good English, and he could think.

"What you go out for," he said to me one morning, "last night?"

"To speak with the Great Good Spirit," I replied. "He who made all things, and who keeps us in life and free from danger. Do you not speak with the Great Good Spirit?"

"Hum-m-m. Sometime. I think there is one, two, Great Spirit."

"Yes, a Spirit of Evil, and a Great Good Spirit."

"Hum-m-m. I sometime speak the one for good. Sometime I speak the other."

"That is not right, Jeeka. We are told only to pray to the Great Good Spirit."

"You told? Who tell you?"

I was getting out of my depth now, so I put him off for the present.

"Some day soon," I said, "Jill, my brother, and I, will tell you all the strange story of the world."

"You tell Nadi, my wife, too?"

"Yes, we will tell you both, and you shall tell your tribe."