The elation we had felt
earlier in the day was all gone. Now, the plaintive song, the
swaying figures, the red light beating against the trees, the
blackness of the enshrouding forest, the low, melancholy wind, -
all things seemed strange, and yet deadly old, as though we had
seen and heard them since the beginning of the world. All at once
a fear fell upon me, causeless and unreasonable, but weighing
upon my heart like a stone. She was in a palisaded town, under the
Governor's protection, with my friends about her and my enemy
lying sick, unable to harm her. It was I, not she, that was in danger.
I laughed at myself, but my heart was heavy, and I was in a fever
to be gone.
The Indian girls danced more and more swiftly, and their song
changed, becoming gay and shrill and sweet. Higher and higher
rang the notes, faster and faster moved the dark limbs; then, quite
suddenly, song and motion ceased together. They who had danced
with the abandonment of wild priestesses to some wild god were
again but shy brown Indian maids who went and set them meekly
down upon the grass beneath the trees. From the darkness now
came a burst of savage cries only less appalling than the war
whoop itself. In a moment the men of the village had rushed from
the shadow of the trees into the broad, firelit space before us. Now
they circled around us, now around the fire; now each man danced
and stamped and muttered to himself.
Pages:
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373