In Far Bolivia: A Story of a Strange Wild Land

CHAPTER XIV-THE HOME OF THE CANNIBAL-BENEE'S ROMANCE

Like the bats and the night-birds Benee now creptinto concealment.

He sought once more the shelter of a tall pine-treeof the spruce species. Here he could be safe and herehe could sleep.

But after a hearty meal he took the precaution tolash himself to the stem, high, high up.

His descent from the last tree had been accomplishedwith safety certainly, but it was of rather apeculiar nature, and Benee had no desire to risk hisneck again.

The wind softly sighed in the branches.

A bird of the thrush species alighted about a yardabove him, and burst into shrill sweet melody towelcome the rising sun.

With half-closed eyes Benee could see from underthe branches a deep-orange horizon, fading into puresea-green zenithwards, then to deepest purple andblue where rested the crimson clouds.

And now there was a glare of brighter and moresilvery light, and the red streaks were turned intowreaths of snow.

The sun was up, and Benee slept. But he carriedthat sweet bird's song into dreamland.

—

About three days after this Benee was rejoiced tofind himself in a new land, but it was a land he knewwell-too well.

Though very high above the sea-level it was inreality a

"Land of the mountain and the flood".

Hills on hills rose on all sides of him. There werestraths or valleys of such exceeding beauty that theygladdened the eye to behold. The grass grew greenhere by the banks of many a brown roaring stream, and here, too, cattle roamed wild and free, knee-deepin flowery verdure, and many a beautiful guanacoand herds of llamas everywhere. The streams thatmeandered through these highland straths weresometimes very tortuous, but perhaps a mile distant theywould seem to lose all control of themselves and gomadly rushing over their pebbly beds, till they dashedover high cliffs at last, forming splendid cascades thatfell into deep, dark, agitated pools, the mist that roseabove forming rainbows which were never absentwhen the sun shone.

And the hillsides that bounded these valleys wereclad in Alpine verdure, with Alpine trees and flowers, strangely intermingled with beautiful heaths, and inthe open glades with gorgeous geraniums, and manya lovely flower never seen even in greenhouses in our"tame domestic England".

These were valleys, but there were glens and narrowgorges also, where dark beetling rocks frowned overthe brown waters of streams that rushed fiercelyonwards round rocks and boulders, against which theylashed themselves into foam.

On these rocks strange fantastic trees clung, sometimes attached but by the rootlets, sometimes withtheir heads hanging almost sheer downwards; treesthat the next storm of wind would hurl, with crashand roar, into the water far beneath.

Yet such rivers or big burns were the home parexcellence of fish of the salmon tribe, and gazing belowyou might see here and there some huge otter, warilywatching to spring on his finny prey.

Nor were the otters alone on the qui vive, for, strange as it may seem, even pumas and tiger-catsoften made a sullen dive into dark-brown pools, andemerged bearing on high some lordly red-bellied fish.With this they would "speel" the flowery, ferny rocks, and dart silently away into the depths of the forest.

And this wild and beautiful country, at presentinhabited by as wild a race of Indians as ever twangedthe bow, but bound at no very distant date to comeunder the influence of Christianity and civilization, was Benee's real home. 'Twas here he roamed whena boy, for he had been a wanderer all his life, a nomad, and an inhabitant of the woods and wilds.

Not a scene was unfamiliar to him. He couldname every mountain and hill he gazed upon in hisown strangely musical Indian tongue. Every bird, every creature that crept, or glided, or walked, allwere his old friends; yes, and every tree and everyflower, from the splendid parasitic plants that woundaround the trees wherever the sun shone the brightest, and draped them in such a wealth of beauty as wouldhave made all the richness and gaudiness of whitekings and queens seem but a caricature.

There was something of romance even in Benee.As he stood with folded arms on the brink of acliff, and gazed downward into a charming glen, something very like tears stood in his eyes.

He loved his country. It was his own, his nativeland. But the savages therein he had ceased to love.Because when but a boy-ah, how well he rememberedthat day, – he was sent one day by his fatherand mother to gather the berries of a deadly kind ofthorn-bush, with the juice of which the flints in thepoints of the arrows were poisoned. Coming backto his parents' hut in the evening, as happy as boysonly can be, he found the place in flames, and sawhis father, mother, and a sister whom he loved, beinghurried away by the savages, because the queen hadneed of them. The lot of death had fallen on them.Their flesh was wanted to make part of a great feasther majesty was about to give to a neighbouringpotentate. Benee, who had ever been used to huntfor his food as a boy, or fish in the lakes and thebrown roaring streams, that he and his parents mightlive, had always abhorred human sacrifice and humanflesh. The latter he had seldom been prevailed uponeven to taste.

So from that terrible day he resolved to be awanderer, and he registered a vow-if I may speak soconcerning the thoughts of a poor boy-Indian-to takerevenge when he became a man on this very tribethat had brought such grief and woe on him and his.

Benee was still a young man, but little overtwo-and-twenty, and as he stood there thoughts came intohis mind about a little sweetheart he had when a boy.

Wee Weenah was she called; only a child of six whenhe was good sixteen. But in all his adventures, inforest or by the streams, Weenah used to accompanyhim. They used to be away together all day long, and lived on the nuts and the wild fruit that greweverywhere so plentifully about them, on trees, onbushes, or on the flowery banks.

Where was Weenah now? Dead, perhaps, or takenaway to the queen's blood-stained court. As a childWeenah was very beautiful, for many of these Indiansare very far indeed from being repulsive.

And Benee used to delight to dress his tiny lady-lovein feathers of the wild birds, crimson and greenand blue, and weave her rude garlands of the gaudiestflowers, to hang around her neck, or entwine in herlong dark hair.

He had gone to see Weenah-though he was thenin grief and tears-after he had left his father's burntshealing. He had told her that he was going awayfar to the north, that he was to become a hunter ofthe wilds, that he might even visit the homes of thewhite men, but that some day he would return andWeenah should be his wife.

So they had parted thus, in childish grief and tears, and he had never seen her since.

He might see her nevermore.

While musing thus to himself, he stretched his wearylimbs and body on the sweet-scented mossy cliff-top.

It was day certainly, but was he not now at home,in his own, his native land?

He seemed to be afraid of nothing, therefore, andso-he fell asleep.

The bank on which he slept adjoined a darkling forest.

A forest of strange dark pines, with red-brownstems, which, owing to the absence of all undergrowthsave heather and moss and fern, looked like the pillarsof some vast cavern.

But there was bird music in this forest, and Beneehad gone to sleep with the flute-like and mellow notesof the soo-soo falling on his ear.

The soo-soo's song had accompanied him to the landof forgetfulness, and was mingling even now with hisdreams-happy dreams of long ago.

But list! Was that really the song of the bronze-neckedsoo-soo?

He was half-awake now, but apparently dreaming still.

He thought he was dreaming at all events, andwould not have opened his eyes and so dispelled thedream for all the world.

It was a sweet girlish voice that seemed to besinging-singing about him, about Benee thewanderer in sylvan wilds; the man who for long yearshad been alone because he loved being alone, whosehand-until he reached the white man's home-hadbeen against everyone, and against every beast as well.

And the song was a kind of sweet little ballad, which I should try in vain to translate.

But Benee opened his eyes at last, and his astonishmentknew no bounds as he saw, kneeling by hismossy couch, the self-same Weenah that he had beenthinking and dreaming about.

Though still a girl in years, being but thirteen, sheseemed a woman in all her sympathies.

Beautiful? Yes; scarcely changed as to face fromthe child of six he used to roam in the woods with inthe long, long ago. Her dark hair hung to her waistand farther in two broad plaits. Her black eyesbrimmed over with joy, and there was a flush ofexcitement on her sun-kissed cheeks.

"Weenah! Oh, Weenah! Can it be you?" heexclaimed in the Indian tongue.

"It is your own little child-love, your Weenah; andah! how I have longed for you, and searched for youfar and near. See, I am clad in the skins of thepuma and the otter; I have killed the jaguar, too, andI have been far north and fought with terrible men.They fell before the poison of my arrows. Theytried to catch me; but fleet of foot is Weenah, andthey never can see me when I fly. In trees I haveslept, on the open heather, in caves of rocks, and injungle. But never, never could I find my Benee.Ah! life of mine, you will never go and leave us again.

"Yes," she added, "Mother and Father live, and arewell. Our home have we enlarged. 'Tis big now, and there is room in it for Benee.

"Come; come-shall we go? But what strange, strange war-weapons you carry. Ah! they are thefire-spears of the white man."

"Yes, Weenah mine! and deadly are they as thelightning's bolt that flashes downward from thestorm-sky and lays dead the llama and the ox.

"See yonder eagle, Weenah? Benee's aim is unerring; his hand is the hand of the rock, his eye theeye of the kron-dah" (a kind of hawk), "yet his touchon the trigger light as the moss-flax. Behold!"

He raised the rifle as he spoke, and without evenappearing to take aim he fired.

Next moment the bird of Jove turned a somersault.It was a death-spasm. Down, down he fell earthwards, his breast-feathers following more slowly, likea shower of snow sparkling in the sunshine.

Weenah was almost paralysed with terror, butBenee took her gently in his arms, and, kissing herbrow and bonnie raven hair, soothed her and stilledher alarms.

Hand in hand now through the forest, as in thedays of yore! Both almost too happy to speak, Beneeand his little Indian maiden! Hand in hand overthe plain, through the crimson heath and the heather, heeding nothing, seeing nothing, knowing nothingsave their own great happiness! Hand in hand untilthey stood beside Weenah's mother's cottage; andher parents soon ran out to welcome and to bless them!

Theirs was no ordinary hut, for the father had beenfar to the east and had dwelt among white men onthe banks of the rapid-rolling Madeira.

When he had returned, slaves had come with him-youngmen whom he had bought, for the aboriginesbarter their children for cloth or schnapps. Andthese slaves brought with them tools of the whitemen-axes, saws, adzes, hammers, spades, and shovels.

Then Shooks-gee (swift of foot) had cut himselftimber from the forest, and, aided by his slaves, hadset to work; and lo! in three moons this cottage bythe wood arose, and the queen of the cannibalsherself had none better.

But Benee was welcomed and food set before him, milk of the llama, corn-cakes, and eggs of the heronand treel-ba (a kind of plover).

Then warm drinks of coca (not cocoa) were givenhim, and the child Weenah's eyes were never turnedaway while he ate and drank.

He smoked then, the girl sitting close by him onthe bench and watching the strange, curling rings ofreek rolling upwards towards the black and glitteringrafters.

"But," said Weenah's mother, "poor Benee haswalked far and is much tired. Would not Benee liketo cover his feet?"

"Yes, our mother, Benee would sleep."

"And I will watch and sing," said Weenah.

"Sing the song of the forest," murmured Benee.

Then Weenah sang low beside him while Benee slept.

CHAPTER XV-SHOOKS-GEE'S STORY-A CANNIBAL QUEEN

What is called "natural curiosity" in our country, where almost every man is a Paul Pry, is notrait of the Indian's character. Or if he ever does feelsuch an impulse, it is instantly checked. Curiosity isbut the attribute of a squaw, a savage would tell you, but even squaws will try to prevent such a weed fromflourishing in their hearts.

That was the reason why neither the father nor themother of Benee's little lady-love thought of askinghim a single question concerning his adventures untilhe had eaten a hearty meal and had enjoyed arefreshing sleep.

But when Benee sat up at last and quaffed the matéthat Weenah had made haste to get him, and just asthe day was beginning to merge into the twilight ofsummer, he began to tell his friends and his love someportion of his wonderful adventures, even from theday when he had bidden the child Weenah a tearfulfarewell and betaken himself to a wandering life inthe woods.

His young life's story was indeed a strange one,

 
"Wherein he spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;
… of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven.
 

—

The while Weenah

 
"… gave him for his pains a world of sighs.
'T was strange, 't was passing strange,
'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful:
She wished she had not heard it; yet she wished
That heaven had made her such a man."
 

Then when Benee came down to that portion of hislong story when first he found the children and theirmighty wolf-hound lost in the forest, Weenah and herparents listened with greater interest and intensitythan ever.

There was a fire on the rude, low hearth-a fire ofwood, of peat, and of moss; for at the great elevationat which this cannibal land is situated the nights arechilly.

It was a fire that gave fitful light as well asheat. It fell on the faces of Benee's listeners, andcast shadows grotesque behind them. It beautifiedWeenah's face till Benee thought she looked like oneof the angels that poor Peggy used to tell him about.

Then he related to them all his suspicions of Peter, but did not actually accuse him of bringing about theabduction of Peggy, to serve some vile and unknownpurpose of his own. Next he spoke, yet spoke butlightly, of his long, long march, and the incidents andadventures therewith connected.

There was much, therefore, that Benee had to tell, but there was also much that he had to learn or tobe told; and now that he had finished, it wasShooks-gee's turn to take up the story.

I wish I could do justice to this man's language, which was grandly figurative, or to his dramatic wayof talking, accompanied as it was with look and gesturethat would have elicited applause on any Europeanstage. I cannot do so, therefore shall not try; butthe following is the pith of his story.

This Indian's house was on the very outside andmost northerly end of the great wild plateau whichwas the home of these savages and cannibals.

The queen, a terrible monarch, and bloodthirsty inthe extreme, used to hold her court and lived on astrange mountain or hill, in the very centre of therough tree and bush clad plain.

For many, many a long year she had lived here, andto her court Indians came from afar to do her homage, bringing with them cloth of crimson, wine and oil, which they had stolen or captured in warfare fromthe white men of Madeira valley.

When these presents came, the coca which hercourtiers used to chew all day long, and the maté theydrank, were for a time-for weeks indeed-discardedfor the wine and fire-water of the pale-face.

Fearful were the revels then held on that lonemountain.

The queen was dainty, so too were her fierce courtiers.

When the revels first began she and they could eatthe raw or half-roasted flesh of calves and baby-llamas, but when their potations waxed deeper, and appetitebegan to fail, then the orgies commenced in earnest.Nothing would her majesty eat now-horrible to say-butchildren, and her courtiers, armed to the teeth, would be sent to scour the plains, to visit the mudhuts of her people, and drag therefrom the mostbeautiful and plump boys or girls procurable.

I will not tell of the fearful and awfully unnaturalhuman sacrifice-the murder of the innocents-thatnow took place.

Demons could not have been more revolting in theircruelties than were those savage courtiers as theyobeyed the queen's behests.

Let me drop the curtain over this portion of the tale.Well, this particular cottage or hut, being on theconfines of the country, had not been visited by thequeen's fearsome soldiers. But even had they comethey would have found that Weenah was far away inthe woods, for her father Shooks-gee loved her much.But one evening there came up out of the darkpinewood forest, that lay to the north, a great band ofwandering natives.

They were all armed and under the command of oneof her majesty's most bloodthirsty and daring chiefs.

Hand to claw this man had fought pumas andjaguars, and slain them, armed only with his two-edgedknife.

This savage Rob Roy M'Gregor despised both bow-and-arrowand sling. Only at close quarters would hefight with man or beast, and although he bore thescars and slashes of many a fearful encounter, he hadalways come off victorious.

Six feet four inches in height was this war-Indianif an inch, and his dress was a picturesque costume ofskins with the tails attached. A huge mat of hair, his own, with emu's feathers drooping therefrom, washis only head-gear, but round his neck he wore a chainof polished pebbles, with heavy gold rings, in many ofwhich rubies and diamonds sparkled and shone.

But, ghastly to relate, between each pebble andbetween the rings of gold and precious stones, wasthreaded a tanned human ear. More than twenty ofthese were there.

They had been cut from the heads of white menwhom this chief-Kaloomah was his name-hadslain, and the rings had been torn from their deadfingers.

This was the band then that had arrived as the sunwas going down at the hut of Shooks-gee, and thiswas their chief.

The latter demanded food for his men, and Shooks-gee, with his trembling wife-Weenah was hidden-madehaste to obey, and a great fire was lit out of doors, and flesh of the llama hung over it to roast.

But the strangest thing was this. Seated on ahardy little mule was a sad but beautiful girl-whiteshe was, and unmistakably English. Her eyes werevery large and wistful, and she looked at Kaloomahand his band in evident fear and dread, starting andshrinking from the chief whenever he came near heror spoke.

But the daintiest portion of the food was handedto her, and she ate in silence, as one will who eats infear.

The wild band slept in the bush, a special bed ofdry grass being made for the little white queen, asKaloomah called her, and a savage set to watch herwhile she slept.

Next morning, when the wild chief and his bravesstarted onwards, Shooks-gee was obliged to marchalong with them.

Kaloomah had need of him. That was all theexplanation vouchsafed.

But this visit to the queen's home had givenWeenah's father an insight into court life and usagesthat he could not otherwise have possessed.

Kaloomah's band bore along with them huge balesof cloth and large boxes of beads. How they hadbecome possessed of these Shooks-gee never knew, andcould not guess.

The grim and haughty queen, surrounded by herbody-guard of grotesque and hideous warriors withtheir slashed and fearful faces, and the peleles hangingin the lobes of their ears, was seated at the fartherend of a great wall, and on a throne covered with theskins of wild beasts.

All in front the floor was carpeted with crimson, and her majesty sparkled with gold ornaments. Atiara of jewels encircled her brow, and a living snakeof immense size, with gray eyes that never closed, formed a girdle round her waist.

In her hand she held a poisoned spear, and at herfeet crouched a huge jaguar.

She was a tyrant queen, reigning over a peoplewho, though savage, and cannibals to boot, had neverdared to gainsay a word or order she uttered.

Passionate in the extreme, too, she was, and if a slaveor subject dared to disobey, a prick from the poisonedspear was the reward, and he or she was dragged outinto the bush to writhe and die in terrible agony.

Probably a more frightful woman never reignedas queen, even in cannibal lands.

Kaloomah, on his arrival, bent himself down-nay, but threw himself on his knees and face abjectlybefore her, as if he were scarcely worthy to be herfootstool.

But she greeted his arrival with a smile, and badehim arise.

"Many presents have we brought," he said in thefigurative language of the Indian. "Many presentsto the beautiful mother of the sun. Cloth of scarlet,of blue, and of green, cloth of rainbow colours, jewelsand beads, and the fire-water of the pale-faces."

"Produce me the fire-water of the pale-faces," shereturned. "I would drink."

Her voice was husky, hoarse, and horrible.

Kaloomah beckoned to a slave, and in a few minutesa cocoa-nut shell, filled with rum, was held to herlips.

The queen drank, and seemed happier after this.Kaloomah thought he might now venture to broachanother subject.

"We have brought your majesty also a little daughterof the pale-faces!"

Then Peggy-for the reader will have guessed itwas she-was led trembling in before her, and madeto kneel.

But the queen's brows had lowered when she beheldthe child's great beauty. She made her advance, andseizing her by the hand, held her at arm's-length.

"Take her away!" she cried. "I can love hernot. Put her in prison below ground!"

And the beautiful girl was hurried away.

To be put in prison below the ground meant to beburied alive. But Kaloomah had no intention ofobeying the queen on this occasion, and the girlpale-face was conducted to a well-lighted bamboo hut andplaced in charge of a woman slave.

This slave looked a heart-broken creature, butseemed kind and good, and now made haste to spreadthe girl's bed of leaves on a bamboo bench, and toplace before her milk of the llama, with much lusciousfruit and nuts. She needed little pressing to eat, ordrink, or sleep. The poor child had almost ceased towonder, or even to be afraid of anything.

But now comes the last act in Shooks-gee's strangestory.

Two days after the arrival of the warlike bandfrom the far north, Kaloomah had once more presentedhimself before the queen. He came unannouncedthis time, and with him were seven fierce-lookingsoldiers, armed to the teeth with slings and stones, with bows and arrows, and with spears.

The conversation that had ensued was somewhatas follows, being interpreted into our plain andhumdrum English: -

The Queen. "Why advances my general and slaveexcept on his knees, even as come the frogs?"

Kaloomah. "My queen will pardon me. I will notso offend again. Your majesty has reigned long andhappily."

Q. "True, slave."

She seized the poisoned spear as she spoke, andwould have used it freely; but at a word fromKaloomah it was wrenched from her grasp.

K. "Your majesty's reign has ended! The oldqueen must make room for the beautiful daughterof the pale-faces. Yet will your beneficence live inthe person of the new queen, and in our hearts-thehearts of those who have fought for you. For weeach and all shall taste of your roasted flesh!"

Then, turning quickly to the soldiers, "Seize herand drag her forth!" he cried, "and do your dutyspeedily."

I must not be too graphic in my description of thescene that followed. But the ex-queen was led toa darksome hut, and there she was speedily despatched.

That night high revelry was held in the royal campof the cannibals. Many prisoners were killed androasted, and the feast was a fearful and awful one.

But not a chief was there in all that crowd who didnot partake of the flesh of his late queen, while horntrumpets blared and war tom-toms were wildly beaten.

A piece of the fearful flesh was even given to thepale-face girl's attendant, with orders that she mustmake her charge partake thereof.

The girl was spared this terrible ordeal, however.

But long after midnight the revelry and the wildmusic went on, then ceased, and all was still.

The unhappy prisoner lay listening till sleep stoledown on a star-ray and wafted her off to the landof sweet forgetfulness.

—

Next day, amidst wild unearthly clamour and music, she was led from the tent and seated on the throne.Garments of otter skins and crimson cloth werecast on the throne and draped over the beautifulchild. She was encircled with flowers of rarest hue, and emu's feathers were stuck, plume-like, in herbonnie hair.

Meanwhile the trumpets blared more loudly, andthe tom-toms were struck with treble force, then allceased at once, and there was a silence deep as death,as everyone prostrated himself or herself before thenewly-made young queen.

Kaloomah rose at last, and advanced with bendedback and head towards her, and with an intuitivesense of her new-born dignity she touched him gentlyon the shoulder and bade him stand erect.

He did so, and then placed in her hand the sceptreof the dead queen-the poison-tipped spear.

Whatever might happen now, the girl knew thatshe was safe for a time, and her spirits rose inconsequence.

This, then, was the story told by Shooks-gee, thefather of Benee's child-love.

—

Had Dick Temple himself been there he could nolonger have doubted the fidelity of poor Benee.

But there was much to be done, and it would needall the tact and skill of this wily Indian to carryout his plans.

He could trust his father and mother, as he calledWeenah's parents, and he now told them that he hadcome, if possible, to deliver Peggy, or if that wereimpossible, to hand her a letter that should give herboth comfort and hope.

Queen Peggy's apartments on the mountain werecannibalistically regal in their splendour. The principalentrance to her private room was approached by along avenue of bamboo rails, completely lined withskulls and bones, and the door thereof was alsosurrounded by the same kind of horrors.

But every one of her subjects was deferential toher, and appeared awe-struck with her beauty.

And now Benee consulted with his parents as towhat had best be done.