CHAPTER XXII.
THE JAGOUAS OF THE HUILICHES.
In the sparkling beams of the sun which had risen radiant, the greatlandscape which Leon was passing through assumed a really enchantingappearance. Nature was, so to speak, animated, and a varied spectaclehad taken the place of the gloomy and solitary aspect which it hadoffered on the previous evening to the captain and his comrade.
From the gates of the city, which were now open, poured forth groupsof Indians, mounted and on foot, who scattered in all directions withshouts of joy and bursts of noisy laughter. Numerous canoes dashedabout the river, and the fields were peopled with flocks of llamas andvicunas, guided by Indians armed with long wands, who were proceedingto the city from their neighbouring farms.
Strangely-attired women, sturdily bearing on their heads long wickerbaskets filled with meat, fruit, or vegetables, walked along conversingtogether and accompanying each sentence with that continued sharpmetallic laugh of which the Indian tribes have the secret, and whosesound bears a near resemblance to that which the fall of a number ofpebbles on a copper dish would produce.
Leon, who, by the aid of his new exterior, could examine at his leisureall that was taking place around him, looked curiously at the animatedpicture which he had before his eyes; but what most fixed his attentionwas a troop of horsemen in their war paint, armed with the enormousMolucho lances, which they wield with such great dexterity, and whosewounds are so dangerous. All, also, carried a slung rifle, a lasso attheir girdle, and advanced at a trot in the direction of the city; theyseemed to have come from the opposite direction to the one by whichLeon was arriving.
The numerous persons scattered over the plain stopped to gaze at them;and Leon, taking advantage of this circumstance, hurried on so as tobe mixed up with the curious crowd. The horsemen still advanced at thesame pace, not noticing the attention which they excited, and arrivedwithin fifty yards of the principal gate, where they halted. At thesame moment three men quitted the city at a gallop, crossed in twobounds the bridge thrown across the moat, and came to join them.
Three warriors came out of the ranks of the troop to which we havealluded, and approached them. After a short conversation all sixhorsemen rejoined the squadron, which started once again, and enteredthe town with it. Leon, who followed them, reached the gate at themoment when the last men of the detachment disappeared within the city.Assuming the most careless air he could, although his heart beat as ifto break his chest, he presented himself in his turn to enter. Aftercrossing the wooden bridge with a firm step, he entered the gateway,where a lance was levelled at his breast and barred his passage.
An Indian of lofty stature, to whom his grey hair and the numerouswrinkles on his face imparted a certain character of gentleness,cleverness, and majesty, advanced with measured steps, and lookedattentively at him.
"My brother is welcome at Garakouaiti," he said to Leon. "What does mybrother desire?"
"Yourana," answered Leon, who, thanks to the life he had led in thePampas, talked Indian with as much facility as his mother tongue--"ismy father a chief?"
"I am a chief," the Indian answered.
"My father can question me," Leon said.
"My brother seems to have come a long distance?" the other went on,looking at the smuggler's worn boots.
"I left my tribe four moons back."
"Which is my brother's tribe?"
"I am a son of the Huiliches."
"Matai. My brother is not a warrior. I can see."
"My father is right; I am a Jagouas."
"Good! my brother is beloved by Chemiin."
Leon bowed, but said nothing.
"And where are the hunting grounds of my brother's tribe situated?"
"On the banks of the Great Salt Lake."
"And why has my brother left his tribe?"
"To come to Garakouaiti to exercise the skill with which Chemiin hasendowed me, and to adore Agriskoui in the magnificent temple which thepiety of the Indians has raised to him in the city of the sun."
"Very good! my brother is a wise man."
Leon bowed a second time to this compliment, although his anxiety wasextreme, and he knew not how the examination he was undergoing wouldterminate.
"What is my brother's name?" the Indian asked.
"Cari-Lemon," Leon at once answered.
"My brother is truly a man of peace," the other remarked, with a smile."I," he added, drawing himself up haughtily, "am called Meli-Antou."
"My father is a great chief."
It was Meli-Antou's turn to bow with superb modesty on receiving thisflattering qualification.
"My skill supports the world: I am a son of the sacred tribe of thegreat Chemiin."
"My father is blessed in his race."
"My brother will follow me, and my house will be his during the periodthat he sojourns in Garakouaiti."
"I am not worthy to shake the dust of my moccasins off on the thresholdof his door," Leon replied, modestly.
"Chemiin blesses those who practise hospitality. My brother Cari-Lemonis the guest of a chief; he will therefore follow me."
"I will follow my father, since such is his wish."
And he began walking behind the old Indian, delighted in his heartat having escaped so well from the first trial. Before starting,Meli-Antou entrusted to another Indian the post which he occupied atthe city gate, and then turned to Leon.
"Arami!" he said to him.
Both, without further remark, proceeded toward the house inhabitedby the chief, which was at the other extremity of Garakouaiti. TheEuropean, accustomed to the tumult, bustle, and confusion of thestreets of the old world, which are constantly encumbered with vehiclesof every description and busy passers-by, who run against each otherand jostle at every step, would be strangely surprised at the sight ofthe interior of an Indian city.
There are no noisy thoroughfares bordered by magnificent shops,offering to the curiosity and covetousness of buyers or rogues, superband dazzling specimens of European trade. There are no carriages--noteven carts; the silence is only troubled by the footfall of a fewpassers-by who are anxious to reach their homes, and walk with thegravity of savants or of magistrates in all countries. The houses,which are all hermetically closed, do not allow any sound from withinto be heard outside. Indian life is concentrated. The manners arepatriarchal, and the public way is never, as among us, the scene ofdisputes, quarrels, or fights.
The dealers assemble in immense bazaars until midday, and sell theirwares--that is to say, their fruit, vegetables, and quarters of meat,for any other trade is unknown among the Indians, as every familyweaves and manufactures its own clothing and the objects which itrequires. When the sun has attained one-half of its course, the bazaarsare closed, and the Indian traders, who all live in the country, quitthe city only to return on the morrow.
Everybody has by that time laid in the provisions for the day. Amongthe Indians the men never work: the women undertake the purchases,the household duties, and the preparation for everything that isindispensable for existence. The men hunt or make war. The payment forwhat is bought and sold is not effected as among us, by means of coins,which are only accepted by the Indians on the seaboard who traffic withEuropeans, but by means of a free exchange, which is carried on by allthe tribes residing in the interior of the country. This system isexceedingly simple: the buyer exchanges some object for the one whichhe wishes to acquire: and nothing more is said.
The two men, after walking right through Garakouaiti, at length reachedthe lodge of Meli-Antou, in which happened to be Mahiaa, his squaw,whom our readers know as the Indian woman whom the Sayotkatta hadplaced with General Soto-Mayor's daughters, in order to aid in theirconversion to the worship of the Sun. Since the illness of the youngladies she had suspended her visits to the Jouimion Fare, but intendedto renew them so soon as she received instructions to that effect.
She was a woman of about thirty years of age, though she looked atleast fifty. In these regions, where growth is so rap
id, a woman isgenerally married when she is twelve or thirteen. Continually forced toundertake rude tasks, which in other countries fall to the men, theirfreshness soon disappears, and on reaching the age of thirty, theyare attacked by a precocious decrepitude which, twenty years later,makes hideous and repulsive beings of women who, in their youth, weregenerally endowed with great beauty and exquisite grace, of which manyEuropean ladies might be fairly jealous.
Mahiaa, seated cross-legged on a mat of Indian corn straw, was grindingwheat between two stones. By her side stood two female slaves,belonging to that bastard race to which we have already referred, andto whom the title of savage is applicable. At the moment when Leonentered the lodge, Mahiaa and her women looked up curiously at him.
"Mahiaa," said Meli-Antou to his squaw, as he laid his hand on thecaptain's shoulder, "this is my brother Cari-Lemon, the great Jagouasof the Huiliches; he will dwell with us."
"My brother Cari-Lemon is welcome to the lodge of Meli-Antou," thesquaw replied, with a rather sweet smile. "Mahiaa is his slave."
"Will my mother permit me to kiss her feet?" said Leon.
"My brother will kiss my face!" the chiefs wife replied, as she offeredher cheek to Leon, who respectfully touched it with his lips.
"Will my son take mate?" Mahiaa continued. "Mate relieves thetraveller's parched throat."
The introduction was over. Meli-Antou sat down, while his wife orderedher slaves to unload the llama and lead it to the corral, after whichthe mate was served. Leon, while imbibing the favourite beverage of theSpaniards and Indians, looked at the house in which he now was. It wasa rather spacious square room, whose whitewashed walls were adornedwith human scalps, and a rack of weapons, kept remarkably clean. Foldedup puma skins and ponchos were piled up in a corner, until they werearranged as beds. Wooden chairs, excessively low and carved with somedegree of art, furnished this room, in the centre of which stood atable, only some fifteen inches above the ground.
This interior, which is very simple, as we see, is reproduced in allthe Indian lodges; which are composed of six rooms. The first of theseis the one which we have just described, and the one in which thefamily generally keep. The second is set aside for the children. Thethird is used as a bedroom. The fourth contains the looms, which aremade of bamboo, and display an admirable simplicity of mechanism. Thefifth contains provisions of every description; and lastly, the sixthis set apart for the slaves. As for the kitchen there is none, forthe food is prepared in the corral, that is to say, in the open air.Chimneys are equally unknown, and each room is warmed by means of anearthenware brasero.
The household duties are entrusted to the slaves, who work under theinspection of the mistress of the house. These slaves are not allsavages; many of them are unhappy Spaniards made prisoners of war, orwho have fallen into the ambushes which the Indians incessantly set forthem.
The lot of the latter is even more sad than that of their companionsin slavery, for they have not the prospect of being free some day,and must expect to perish sooner or later as victims to the spite oftheir cruel masters, who avenge themselves on them for the numberlessvexations which they suffer at the hands of the Spaniards. It is trulyin this harsh captivity that a man can apply to himself the words whichDante inscribed over the gates of the Inferno, "Lasciate ogni speranza."
Meli-Antou, to whom accident had led Leon, was one of the mostrespected chiefs among the warriors of Garakouaiti: he had lived amongEuropeans, and the experience which he had acquired by passing throughcountries remote from his home, had rendered him more polite andsociable than the majority of his countrymen.
He informed Leon that he was the father of four sons, who had joinedthe great Moluchos army, and were fighting against the Spaniards: hetold him of the journeys he had made, and seemed anxious to prove tothe medicine man, Cari-Lemon, that his great courage as a warrior, andhis military virtues, did not prevent him recognising all that therewas noble and respectable in science.
The captain seemed deeply touched by the consideration whichMeli-Antou paid to the character he was invested with, and resolvedto profit by his host's good temper to sound him cleverly as towhat he desired to know as to the presence of Diego, Tahi-Mari, andthe young ladies in the city. Still, in the fear of arousing theIndian's suspicions, he waited till the latter furnished him with theopportunity to question him.
An hour about had elapsed, and Leon had not yet been able to approachthe question without danger, when an Indian presented himself in thedoorway.
"Agriskoui rejoices," said the newcomer.
"My brother is welcome," said Meli-Antou; "my ears are open."
"The great council of the Ulmens is assembled," the Indian said, "andawaits my brother Meli-Antou."
"What is there new then?"
"Tcharanguii has just arrived with his warriors, his heart is full ofbitterness, and he wishes to speak to the council."
"Tcharanguii returned!" exclaimed Meli-Antou, in surprise; "that isstrange."
"He has just arrived in the city."
"Was he in command of the warriors who arrived about an hour ago?"
"Himself. My brother did not look in his face when he passed beforehim? What answer shall I give the chief?"
"That I am coming to the council."
The Indian bowed and departed, and the old chief rose, and, aftercourteously taking leave of Leon, went to the council. The captain tookadvantage of the freedom granted him to take a turn round the city, andtry to pick up the topographical information of which he stood in need.
Not knowing how his stay in the city would terminate, or how he shouldget out of it, he studied most carefully the formation of the streetsand the situation of the buildings, in the event of an attack or anescape. When he returned to Meli-Antou's lodge, the latter had got backand was awaiting him with a certain amount of impatience. On remarkingthe animation depicted on the Indian's features, Leon thought that hehad, perhaps, discovered something concerning him, and advanced with aconsiderable amount of suspicion.
"My brother is really a great Jagouas?" Meli-Antou asked, as he lookedsearchingly at him.
"Did I not tell my father so?" Leon answered, who began to believehimself seriously menaced.
"My brother will come with me, then, and bring the implements of hisart."
It would not have been prudent to refuse; besides, nothing as yetproved that Meli-Antou had any evil intentions; hence Leon accepted.
"My father can go on, and I will follow him," he contented himself withanswering.
"Does my brother speak the language of the Spanish barbarians?"
"I have lived for a long time on the banks of the Salt Lake, and Iunderstand the idiom which they employ."
"All the better."
"Have I to cure a Spaniard?" Leon asked, who wished to make sure ofwhat was expected of him.
"No," said Meli-Antou, "one of the great Moluchos chiefs brought heresome time back two paleface women; it is they who are ill; the evilspirit has seized on them, and they are at this moment in danger ofdeath."
Leon started at this unexpected revelation; his heart all but stoppedbeating, and an involuntary shudder agitated all his limbs. He wascompelled to make a superhuman effort to drive back the profoundemotion which he experienced, and to answer Meli-Antou in a calm voice:
"I am at my father's orders."
"Let us go, then," the Indian answered.
Leon took up his box of medicaments, followed the old man, and both,leaving the lodge, proceeded towards the Palace of the Vestals.
Les fils de la tortue. English Page 22
