CHAPTER 12
To follow impetuous, bird-like Rima in her descent
of the hill would have been impossible, nor had I any desire to be a witness of
old Nuflo's discomfiture at the finish. It was better to leave them to settle
their quarrel themselves, while I occupied myself in turning over these fresh
facts in my mind to find out how they fitted into the speculative structure I
had been building during the last two or three weeks. But it soon struck me
that it was getting late, that the sun would be gone in a couple of hours; and
at once I began the descent. It was not accomplished without some bruises and a
good many scratches.
After a cold draught, obtained by putting my lips
to a black rock from which the water was trickling, I set out on my walk home,
keeping near the western border of the forest for fear of losing myself. I had
covered about half the distance from the foot of the hill to Nuflo's lodge when
the sun went down. Away on my left the evening uproar of the howling monkeys
burst out, and after three or four minutes ceased; the after silence was
pierced at intervals by screams of birds going to roost among the trees in the
distance, and by many minor sounds close at hand, of small bird, frog, and
insect. The western sky was now like amber-colored flame, and against that
immeasurably distant luminous background the near branches and clustered
foliage looked black; but on my left hand the vegetation still appeared of a
uniform dusky green. In a little while night would drown all color, and there
would be no light but that of the wandering lantern-fly, always unwelcome to
the belated walker in a lonely place, since, like the ignis fatuus, it is
confusing to the sight and sense of direction.
With increasing anxiety I hastened on, when all at
once a low growl issuing from the bushes some yards ahead of me brought me to a
stop. In a moment the dogs, Susio and Goloso, rushed out from some hiding place
furiously barking; but they quickly recognized me and slunk back again.
Relieved from fear, I walked on for a short distance; then it struck me that
the old man must be about somewhere, as the dogs scarcely ever stirred from his
side. Turning back, I went to the spot where they had appeared to me; and
there, after a while, I caught sight of a dim, yellow form as one of the brutes
rose up to look at me. He had been lying on the ground by the side of a
wide-spreading bush, dead and dry, but overgrown by a creeping plant which had
completely covered its broad, flat top like a piece of tapestry thrown over a
table, its slender terminal stems and leaves hanging over the edge like a deep
fringe. But the fringe did not reach to the ground and under the bush. in its
dark interior. I caught sight of the other dog; and after gazing in for some
time, I also discovered a black, recumbent form, which I took to be Nuflo.
"What are you doing there, old man?" I
cried. "Where is Rima—have you not seen her? Come out."
Then he stirred himself, slowly creeping out on
all fours; and finally, getting free of the dead twigs and leaves, he stood up
and faced me. He had a strange, wild look, his white beard all disordered, moss
and dead leaves clinging to it, his eyes staring like an owl's, while his mouth
opened and shut, the teeth striking together audibly, like an angry peccary's.
After silently glaring at me in this mad way for some moments, he burst out:
"Cursed be the day when I first saw you, man of Caracas! Cursed be the
serpent that bit you and had not sufficient power in its venom to kill! Ha! you
come from Ytaioa, where you talked with Rima? And you have now returned to the
tiger's den to mock that dangerous animal with the loss of its whelp. Fool, if
you did not wish the dogs to feed on your flesh, it would have been better if
you had taken your evening walk in some other direction."
These raging words did not have the effect of
alarming me in the least, nor even of astonishing me very much, albeit up till
now the old man tract always shown himself suave and respectful. His attack did
not seem quite spontaneous. In spite of the wildness of his manner and the
violence of his speech, he appeared to be acting a part, which he had rehearsed
beforehand. I was only angry, and stepping forward, I dealt him a very sharp
rap with my knuckles on his chest.
"Moderate your language, old man," I
said; "remember that you are addressing a superior."
"What do you say to me?" he screamed in
a shrill, broken voice, accompanying his words with emphatic gestures. "Do
you think you are on the pavement of Caracas? Here are no police to protect
you—here we are alone in the desert where names and titles are nothing,
standing man to man."
"An old man to a young one," I returned.
"And in virtue of my youth I am your superior. Do you wish me to take you
by the throat and shake your insolence out of you?"
"What, do you threaten me with
violence?" he exclaimed, throwing himself into a hostile attitude.
"You, the man I saved, and sheltered, and fed, and treated like a son! Destroyer
of my peace, have you not injured me enough? You have stolen my grandchild's
heart from me; with a thousand inventions you have driven her mad! My child, my
angel, Rima, my savior! With your lying tongue you have changed her into a
demon to persecute me! And you are not satisfied, but must finish your evil
work by inflicting blows on my worn body! All, all is lost to me! Take my life
if you wish it, for now it is worth nothing and I desire not to keep it!" And
here he threw himself on his knees and, tearing open his old, ragged mantle,
presented his naked breast to me.
"Shoot! Shoot!" he screeched. "And
if you have no weapon take my knife and plunge it into this sad heart, and let
me die!" And drawing his knife from its sheath, he flung it down at my
feet.
All this performance only served to increase my
anger and contempt; but before I could make any reply I caught sight of a
shadowy object at some distance moving towards us—something gray and formless,
gliding swift and noiseless, like some great low-flying owl among the trees. It
was Rima, and hardly had I seen her before she was with us, facing old Nuflo,
her whole frame quivering with passion, her wide-open eyes appearing luminous
in that dim light.
"You are here!" she cried in that quick,
ringing tone that was almost painful to the sense. "You thought to escape
me! To hide yourself from my eyes in the wood! Miserable! Do you not know that
I have need of you—that I have not finished with you yet? Do you, then, wish to
be scourged to Riolama with thorny twigs—to be dragged thither by the
beard?"
He had been staring open-mouthed at her, still on
his knees, and holding his mantle open with his skinny hands. "Rima! Rima!
have mercy on me!" he cried out piteously. "I cannot go to Riolama,
it is so far—so far. And I am old and should meet my death. Oh, Rima, child of
the woman I saved from death, have you no compassion? I shall die, I shall
die!"
"Shall you die? Not until you have shown me
the way to Riolama. And when I have seen Riolama with my eyes, then you may
die, and I shall be glad at your death; and the children and the grandchildren
and cousins and friends of all the animals you have slain and fed on shall know
that you are dead and be glad at your death. For you have deceived me with lies
all these years even me—and are not fit to live! Come now to Riolama; rise
instantly, I command you!"
Instead of rising he suddenly put out his hand and
snatched up the knife from the ground. "Do you then wish me to die?" he
cried. "Shall you be glad at my death? Behold, then I shall slay myself
before your eyes. By my own hand, Rima, I am now about to perish, striking the
knife into my heart!"
While speaking he waved the knife in a tragic
manner over his head, but I made no movement; I was convinced that he had no
intention of taking his own life—that he was still acting. Rima, incapable of
understanding such a thing, took it differently.
"Oh, you are going to kill yourself." she
cried. "Oh, wicked man, wait until you know what will happen to you after
death. All shall now be told to my mother. Hear my words, then kill
yourself."
She also now dropped on to her knees and, lifting
her clasped hands and fixing her resentful sparkling eyes on the dim blue patch
of heaven visible beyond the treetops, began to speak rapidly in clear,
vibrating tones. She was praying to her mother in heaven; and while Nuflo
listened absorbed, his mouth open, his eyes fixed on her, the hand that
clutched the knife dropped to his side. I also heard with the greatest wonder
and admiration. For she had been shy and reticent with me, and now, as if
oblivious of my presence, she was telling aloud the secrets of her inmost
heart.
"O mother, mother, listen to me, to Rima,
your beloved child!" she began. "All these years I have been wickedly
deceived by grandfather—Nuflo—the old man that found you. Often have I spoken
to him of Riolama, where you once were, and your people are, and he denied all
knowledge of such a place. Sometimes he said that it was at an immense
distance, in a great wilderness full of serpents larger than the trunks of
great trees, and of evil spirits and savage men, slayers of all strangers. At
other times he affirmed that no such place existed; that it was a tale told by
the Indians; such false things did he say to me—to Rima, your child. O mother,
can you believe such wickedness?
"Then a stranger, a white man from Venezuela,
came into our woods: this is the man that was bitten by a serpent, and his name
is Abel; only I do not call him by that name, but by other names which I have
told you. But perhaps you did not listen, or did not hear, for I spoke softly
and not as now, on my knees, solemnly. For I must tell you, O mother, that
after you died the priest at Voa told me repeatedly that when I prayed, whether
to you or to any of the saints, or to the Mother of Heaven, I must speak as he
had taught me if I wished to be heard and understood. And that was most
strange, since you had taught me differently; but you were living then, at Voa,
and now that you are in heaven, perhaps you know better. Therefore listen to me
now, O mother, and let nothing I say escape you.
"When this white man had been for some days
with us, a strange thing happened to me, which made me different, so that I was
no longer Rima, although Rima still—so strange was this thing; and I often went
to the pool to look at myself and see the change in me, but nothing different
could I see. In the first place it came from his eyes passing into mine, and
filling me just as the lightning fills a cloud at sunset: afterwards it was no
longer from his eyes only, but it came into me whenever I saw him, even at a
distance, when I heard his voice, and most of all when he touched me with his
hand. When he is out of my sight I cannot rest until I see him again; and when
I see him, then I am glad, yet in such fear and trouble that I hide myself from
him. O mother, it could not be told; for once when he caught me in his arms and
compelled me to speak of it, he did not understand; yet there was need to tell
it; then it came to me that only to our people could it be told, for they would
understand, and reply to me, and tell me what to do in such a case.
"And now, O mother, this is what happened
next. I went to grandfather and first begged and then commanded him to take me
to Riolama; but he would not obey, nor give attention to what I said, but
whenever I spoke to him of it he rose up and hurried from me; and when I
followed he flung back a confused and angry reply, saying in the same breath
that it was so long since he had been to Riolama that he had forgotten where it
was, and that no such place existed. And which of his words were true and which
false I knew not; so that it would have been better if he had returned no
answer at all; and there was no help to be got from him. And having thus
failed, and there being no other person to speak to except this stranger, I
determined to go to him, and in his company seek through the whole world for my
people. This will surprise you, O mother, because of that fear which came on me
in his presence, causing me to hide from his sight; but my wish was so great
that for a time it overcame my fear; so that I went to him as he sat alone in
the wood, sad because he could not see me, and spoke to him, and led him to the
summit of Ytaioa to show me all the countries of the world from the summit. And
you must also know that I tremble in his presence, not because I fear him as I
fear Indians and cruel men; for he has no evil in him, and is beautiful to look
at, and his words are gentle, and his desire is to be always with me, so that
he differs from all other men I have seen, just as I differ from all women,
except from you only, O sweet mother.
"On the mountain-top he marked out and named
all the countries of the world, the great mountains, the rivers, the plains,
the forests, the cities; and told me also of the peoples, whites and savages,
but of our people nothing. And beyond where the world ends there is water,
water, water. And when he spoke of that unknown part on the borders of Guyana,
on the side of the Cordilleras, he named the mountains of Riolama, and in that
way I first found out where my people are. I then left him on Ytaioa, he
refusing to follow me, and ran to grandfather and taxed him with his
falsehoods; and he, finding I knew all, escaped from me into the woods, where I
have now found him once more, talking with the stranger. And now, O mother,
seeing himself caught and unable to escape a second time, he has taken up a
knife to kill himself, so as not to take me to Riolama; and he is only waiting
until I finish speaking to you, for I wish him to know what will happen to him
after death. Therefore, O mother, listen well and do what I tell you. When he
has killed himself, and has come into that place where you are, see that he
does not escape the punishment he merits.Watch well for his coming, for he is
full of cunning and deceit, and will endeavor to hide himself from your eyes.
When you have recognized him—an old man, brown as an Indian, with a white
beard—point him out to the angels, and say:
'This is Nuflo, the bad man that lied to Rima.'
Let them take him and singe his wings with fire, so that he may not escape by
flying; and afterwards thrust him into some dark cavern under a mountain, and
place a great stone that a hundred men could not remove over its mouth, and
leave him there alone and in the dark for ever!"
Having ended, she rose quickly from her knees, and
at the same moment Nuflo, dropping the knife, cast himself prostrate at her
feet.
"Rima—my child, my child, not that!" he
cried out in a voice that was broken with terror. He tried to take hold of her feet
with his hands, but she shrank from him with aversion; still he kept on
crawling after her like a disabled lizard, abjectly imploring her to forgive
him, reminding her that he had saved from death the woman whose enmity had now
been enlisted against him, and declaring that he would do anything she commanded
him, and gladly perish in her service.
It was a pitiable sight, and moving quickly to her
side I touched her on the shoulder and asked her to forgive him.
The response came quickly enough. Turning to him
once more, she said: "I forgive you, grandfather. And now get up and take
me to Riolama."
He rose, but only to his knees. "But you have
not told her!" he said, recovering his natural voice, although still anxious,
and jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Consider, my child, that I am old
and shall doubtless perish on the way. What would become of my soul in such a
case? For now you have told her everything, and it will not be forgotten."
She regarded him in silence for a few moments;
then, moving a little way apart, dropped on to her knees again, and with raised
hands and eyes fixed on the blue space above, already sprinkled with stars,
prayed again.
"O mother, listen to me, for I have something
fresh to say to you. Grandfather has not killed himself, but has asked my forgiveness
and has promised to obey me. O mother, I have forgiven him, and he will now
take me to Riolama, to our people. Therefore, O mother, if he dies on the way
to Riolama let nothing be done against him, but remember only that I forgave him
at the last; and when he comes into that place where you are, let him be well
received, for that is the wish of Rima, your child."
As soon as this second petition was ended she was
up again and engaged in an animated discussion with him, urging him to take her
without further delay to Riolama; while he, now recovered from his fear, urged
that so important an undertaking required a great deal of thought and
preparation; that the journey would occupy about twenty days, and unless he set
out well provided with food he would starve before accomplishing half the
distance, and his death would leave her worse off than before. He concluded by
affirming that he could not start in less time than seven or eight days.
For a while I listened with keen interest to this
dispute, and at length interposed once more on the old man's side. The poor
girl in her petition had unwittingly revealed to me the power I possessed, and
it was a pleasing experience to exercise it. Touching her shoulder again, I
assured her that seven or eight days was only a reasonable time in which to
prepare for so long a journey. She instantly yielded, and after one glance at my
face, she moved swiftly away into the darker shadows, leaving me alone with the
old man.
As we returned together through the now profoundly
dark wood, I explained to him how the subject of Riolama had first come up
during my conversation with Rima, and he then apologized for the violent
language he had used to me. This personal question disposed of, he spoke of the
pilgrimage before him, and informed me in confidence that he intended preparing
a quantity of smoke-dried meat and packing it in a bag, with a layer of cassava
bread, dried pumpkin slips, and such innocent trifles to conceal it from Rima's
keen sight and delicate nostrils. Finally he made a long rambling statement
which, I vainly imagined, was intended to lead up to an account of Rima's origin,
with something about her people at Riolama; but it led to nothing except an
expression of opinion that the girl was afflicted with a maggot in the brain,
but that as she had interest with the powers above, especially with her mother,
who was now a very important person among the celestials, it was good policy to
submit to her wishes.
Turning to me, doubtless to wink (only I missed
the sign owing to the darkness), he added that it was a fine thing to have a
friend at court. With a little gratulatory chuckle he went on to say that for
others it was necessary to obey all the ordinances of the Church, to contribute
to its support, hear mass, confess from time to time, and receive absolution; consequently
those who went out into the wilderness, where there were no churches and no
priests to absolve them, did so at the risk of losing their souls. But with him
it was different: he expected in the end to escape the fires of purgatory and
go directly in all his uncleanness to heaven—a thing, he remarked, which
happened to very few; and he, Nuflo, was no saint, and had first become a
dweller in the desert, as a very young man, in order to escape the penalty of
his misdeeds.
I could not resist the temptation of remarking
here that to an unregenerate man the celestial country might turn out a somewhat
uncongenial place for a residence. He replied airily that he had considered the
point and had no fear about the future; that he was old, and from all he had
observed of the methods of government followed by those who ruled over earthly affairs
from the sky, he had formed a clear idea of that place, and believed that even
among so many glorified beings he would be able to meet with those who would
prove companionable enough and would think no worse of him on account of his
little blemishes.
How he had first got this idea into his brain
about Rima's ability to make things smooth for him after death I cannot say; probably
it was the effect of the girl's powerful personality and vivid faith acting on
an ignorant and extremely; superstitious mind. While she was making that
petition to her mother in heaven, it did not seem in the least ridiculous to
me: I had felt no inclination to smile, even when hearing all that about the
old man's wings being singed to prevent his escape by flying. Her rapt look;
the intense conviction that vibrated in her ringing, passionate tones; the
brilliant scorn with which she, a hater of bloodshed, one so tender towards all
living things, even the meanest, bade him kill himself, and only hear first how
her vengeance would pursue his deceitful soul into other worlds; the clearness
with which she had related the facts of the case, disclosing the inmost secrets
of her heart—all this had had a strange, convincing effect on me.
Listening to her I was no longer the enlightened,
the creedless man. She herself was so near to the supernatural that it seemed
brought near me; indefinable feelings, which had been latent in me, stirred
into life, and following the direction of her divine, lustrous eyes, fixed on
the blue sky above, I seemed to see there another being like herself, a Rima
glorified, leaning her pale, spiritual face to catch the winged words uttered
by her child on earth. And even now, while hearing the old man's talk, showing
as it did a mind darkened with such gross delusions, I was not yet altogether
free from the strange effect of that prayer. Doubtless it was a delusion; her
mother was not really there above listening to the girl's voice. Still, in some
mysterious way, Rima had become to me, even as to superstitious old Nuflo, a
being apart and sacred, and this feeling seemed to mix with my passion, to
purify and exalt it and make it infinitely sweet and precious.
After we had been silent for some time, I said:
"Old man, the result of the grand discussion you have had with Rima is that
you have agreed to take her to Riolama, but about my accompanying you not one
word has been spoken by either of you."
He stopped short to stare at me, and although it
was too dark to see his face, I felt his astonishment. "Senior!" he exclaimed,
"we cannot go without you. Have you not heard my granddaughter's
words—that it is only because of you that she is about to undertake this crazy
journey? If you are not with us in this thing, then, senior, here we must
remain. But what will Rima say to that?"
"Very well, I will go, but only on one
condition."
"What is it?" he asked, with a sudden
change of tone, which warned me that he was becoming cautious again.
"That you tell me the whole story of Rima's
origin, and how you came to be now living with her in this solitary place, and
who these people are she wishes to visit at Riolama."
"Ah, senior, it is a long story, and sad. But
you shall hear it all. You must hear it, senior, since you are now one of us;
and when I am no longer here to protect her, then she will be yours. And
although you will never be able to do more than old Nuflo for her, perhaps she
will be better pleased; and you, senior, better able to exist innocently by her
side, without eating flesh, since you will always have that rare flower to delight
you. But the story would take long to tell. You shall hear it all as we journey
to Riolama. What else will there be to talk about when we are walking that long
distance, and when we sit at night by the fire?"
"No, no, old man, I am not to be put off in
that way. I must hear it before I start."
But he was determined to reserve the narrative
until the journey, and after some further argument I yielded the point.
