CHAPTER XII
To follow impetuous, bird-like Rima in her descent of the hill wouldhave been impossible, nor had I any desire to be a witness of oldNuflo's discomfiture at the finish. It was better to leave them tosettle their quarrel themselves, while I occupied myself in turningover these fresh facts in my mind to find out how they fitted into thespeculative structure I had been building during the last two or threeweeks. But it soon struck me that it was getting late, that the sunwould 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 fromwhich the water was trickling, I set out on my walk home, keepingnear the western border of the forest for fear of losing myself. I hadcovered about half the distance from the foot of the hill to Nuflo'slodge when the sun went down. Away on my left the evening uproar of thehowling monkeys burst out, and after three or four minutes ceased; theafter silence was pierced at intervals by screams of birds going toroost among the trees in the distance, and by many minor sounds closeat hand, of small bird, frog, and insect. The western sky was now likeamber-coloured flame, and against that immeasurably distant luminousbackground the near branches and clustered foliage looked black; but onmy left hand the vegetation still appeared of a uniform dusky green. Ina little while night would drown all colour, and there would be no lightbut that of the wandering lantern-fly, always unwelcome to the belatedwalker in a lonely place, since, like the ignis fatuus, it is confusingto the sight and sense of direction.
With increasing anxiety I hastened on, when all at once a low growlissuing from the bushes some yards ahead of me brought me to a stop. Ina moment the dogs, Susio and Goloso, rushed out from some hiding placefuriously barking; but they quickly recognized me and slunk back again.Relieved from fear, I walked on for a short distance; then it struckme that the old man must be about somewhere, as the dogs scarcely everstirred from his side. Turning back, I went to the spot where theyhad 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 beenlying on the ground by the side of a wide-spreading bush, dead anddry, but overgrown by a creeping plant which had completely coveredits broad, flat top like a piece of tapestry thrown over a table, itsslender terminal stems and leaves hanging over the edge like a deepfringe. 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 gazingin for some time, I also discovered a black, recumbent form, which Itook to be Nuflo.
"What are you doing there, old man?" I cried. "Where is Rima--have younot 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. Hehad a strange, wild look, his white beard all disordered, moss and deadleaves clinging to it, his eyes staring like an owl's, while his mouthopened and shut, the teeth striking together audibly, like an angrypeccary's. After silently glaring at me in this mad way for somemoments, he burst out: "Cursed be the day when I first saw you, man ofCaracas! Cursed be the serpent that bit you and had not sufficient powerin its venom to kill! Ha! you come from Ytaioa, where you talkedwith Rima? And you have now returned to the tiger's den to mock thatdangerous animal with the loss of its whelp. Fool, if you did not wishthe dogs to feed on your flesh, it would have been better if you hadtaken 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 hadalways shown himself suave and respectful. His attack did not seem quitespontaneous. In spite of the wildness of his manner and the violenceof his speech, he appeared to be acting a part which he had rehearsedbeforehand. I was only angry, and stepping forward, I dealt him a verysharp rap with my knuckles on his chest. "Moderate your language, oldman," 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 onthe pavement of Caracas? Here are no police to protect you--here we arealone in the desert where names and titles are nothing, standing man toman."
"An old man to a young one," I returned. "And in virtue of my youth I amyour superior. Do you wish me to take you by the throat and shake yourinsolence out of you?"
"What, do you threaten me with violence?" he exclaimed, throwing himselfinto 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 meenough? You have stolen my grandchild's heart from me; with a thousandinventions you have driven her mad! My child, my angel, Rima, mysaviour! With your lying tongue you have changed her into a demon topersecute me! And you are not satisfied, but must finish your evil workby inflicting blows on my worn body! All, all is lost to me! Take mylife if you wish it, for now it is worth nothing and I desire not tokeep it!" And here he threw himself on his knees and, tearing open hisold, ragged mantle, presented his naked breast to me. "Shoot! Shoot!" hescreeched. "And if you have no weapon take my knife and plunge it intothis 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; butbefore I could make any reply I caught sight of a shadowy object at somedistance moving towards us--something grey and formless, gliding swiftand noiseless, like some great low-flying owl among the trees. It wasRima, and hardly had I seen her before she was with us, facing oldNuflo, her whole frame quivering with passion, her wide-open eyesappearing luminous in that dim light.
"You are here!" she cried in that quick, ringing tone that was almostpainful to the sense. "You thought to escape me! To hide yourself frommy eyes in the wood! Miserable! Do you not know that I have need ofyou--that I have not finished with you yet? Do you, then, wish to bescourged to Riolama with thorny twigs--to be dragged thither by thebeard?"
He had been staring open-mouthed at her, still on his knees, and holdinghis 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 Isaved 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 whenI have seen Riolama with my eyes, then you may die, and I shall be gladat your death; and the children and the grandchildren and cousins andfriends of all the animals you have slain and fed on shall know that youare dead and be glad at your death. For you have deceived me with liesall 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 knifefrom the ground. "Do you then wish me to die?" he cried. "Shall you beglad at my death? Behold, then I shall slay myself before your eyes. Bymy own hand, Rima, I am now about to perish, striking the knife into myheart!"
While speaking he waved the knife in a tragic manner over his head, butI made no movement; I was convinced that he had no intention of takinghis own life--that he was still acting. Rima, incapable of understandingsuch a thing, took it differently.
"Oh, you are going to kill yourself." she cried. "Oh, wicked man, waituntil you know what will happen to you after death. All shall now betold to my mother. Hear my words, then kill yourself."
She also now dropped on to her knees and, lifting her clasped handsand fixing her resentful sparkling eyes on the dim blue patch of heavenvisible beyond the treetops, began to speak rapidly in clear, vibratingtones. She was praying to her mother in heaven; and while Nuflo listenedabsorbed, his mouth open, his eyes fixed on her, the hand that clutchedthe knife dropped to his side. I also heard with the greatest wonder andadmiration. For she had been shy and reticent with me, and now, asif oblivious of my presence, she was telling aloud the secrets of herinmost heart.
"O mother, mother, li
sten to me, to Rima, your beloved child!"she began. "All these years I have been wickedly deceived bygrandfather--Nuflo--the old man that found you. Often have I spoken tohim of Riolama, where you once were, and your people are, and he deniedall knowledge of such a place. Sometimes he said that it was at animmense distance, in a great wilderness full of serpents larger than thetrunks of great trees, and of evil spirits and savage men, slayers ofall 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 tome--to Rima, your child. O mother, can you believe such wickedness?
"Then a stranger, a white man from Venezuela, came into our woods: thisis the man that was bitten by a serpent, and his name is Abel; only I donot call him by that name, but by other names which I have told you. Butperhaps you did not listen, or did not hear, for I spoke softly and notas now, on my knees, solemnly. For I must tell you, O mother, thatafter 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, Imust 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 youwere living then, at Voa, and now that you are in heaven, perhaps youknow better. Therefore listen to me now, O mother, and let nothing I sayescape you.
"When this white man had been for some days with us, a strange thinghappened 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 thepool to look at myself and see the change in me, but nothing differentcould 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: afterwardsit was no longer from his eyes only, but it came into me whenever I sawhim, even at a distance, when I heard his voice, and most of all when hetouched me with his hand. When he is out of my sight I cannot rest untilI see him again; and when I see him, then I am glad, yet in such fearand 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 methat only to our people could it be told, for they would understand, andreply to me, and tell me what to do in such a case.
"And now, O mother, this is what happened next. I went to grandfatherand first begged and then commanded him to take me to Riolama; but hewould not obey, nor give attention to what I said, but whenever I spoketo him of it he rose up and hurried from me; and when I followed heflung back a confused and angry reply, saying in the same breath that itwas so long since he had been to Riolama that he had forgotten where itwas, and that no such place existed. And which of his words were trueand which false I knew not; so that it would have been better if he hadreturned no answer at all; and there was no help to be got from him. Andhaving thus failed, and there being no other person to speak to exceptthis stranger, I determined to go to him, and in his company seekthrough the whole world for my people. This will surprise you, O mother,because of that fear which came on me in his presence, causing meto hide from his sight; but my wish was so great that for a time itovercame my fear; so that I went to him as he sat alone in the wood, sadbecause he could not see me, and spoke to him, and led him to the summitof Ytaioa to show me all the countries of the world from the summit. Andyou must also know that I tremble in his presence, not because I fearhim as I fear Indians and cruel men; for he has no evil in him, and isbeautiful to look at, and his words are gentle, and his desire is to bealways with me, so that he differs from all other men I have seen, justas 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 theworld, the great mountains, the rivers, the plains, the forests, thecities; and told me also of the peoples, whites and savages, but of ourpeople nothing. And beyond where the world ends there is water, water,water. And when he spoke of that unknown part on the borders of Guayana,on the side of the Cordilleras, he named the mountains of Riolama, andin that way I first found out where my people are. I then left him onYtaioa, he refusing to follow me, and ran to grandfather and taxed himwith his falsehoods; and he, finding I knew all, escaped from me intothe woods, where I have now found him once more, talking with thestranger. And now, O mother, seeing himself caught and unable to escapea second time, he has taken up a knife to kill himself, so as not totake me to Riolama; and he is only waiting until I finish speakingto 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 haskilled himself, and has come into that place where you are, see that hedoes not escape the punishment he merits. Watch well for his coming, forhe is full of cunning and deceit, and will endeavor to hide himself fromyour 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 isNuflo, the bad man that lied to Rima.' Let them take him and singe hiswings with fire, so that he may not escape by flying; and afterwardsthrust him into some dark cavern under a mountain, and place a greatstone that a hundred men could not remove over its mouth, and leave himthere alone and in the dark for ever!"
Having ended, she rose quickly from her knees, and at the same momentNuflo, dropping the knife, cast himself prostrate at her feet.
"Rima--my child, my child, not that!" he cried out in a voice that wasbroken 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 afterher like a disabled lizard, abjectly imploring her to forgive him,reminding her that he had saved from death the woman whose enmity hadnow been enlisted against him, and declaring that he would do anythingshe commanded him, and gladly perish in her service.
It was a pitiable sight, and moving quickly to her side I touched her onthe shoulder and asked her to forgive him.
The response came quickly enough. Turning to him once more, she said: "Iforgive 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 athumb over his shoulder. "Consider, my child, that I am old and shalldoubtless perish on the way. What would become of my soul in sucha case? For now you have told her everything, and it will not beforgotten."
She regarded him in silence for a few moments; then, moving a littleway apart, dropped on to her knees again, and with raised hands andeyes fixed on the blue space above, already sprinkled with stars, prayedagain.
"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 haspromised to obey me. O mother, I have forgiven him, and he will now takeme to Riolama, to our people. Therefore, O mother, if he dies on theway to Riolama let nothing be done against him, but remember only thatI forgave him at the last; and when he comes into that place whereyou are, let him be well received, for that is the wish of Rima, yourchild."
As soon as this second petition was ended she was up again and engagedin an animated discussion with him, urging him to take her withoutfurther delay to Riolama; while he, now recovered from his fear, urgedthat so important an undertaking required a great deal of thought andpreparation that the journey would occupy about twenty days, and unlesshe set out well provided with food he would starve before accomplishinghalf the distance, and his death would leave her worse off than before.He concluded by affirming that he could not start in less time thanseven or eight days.
For a while I listened with keen interest to this dispute, and atlength interposed once more on the old man's side. The poor girl in herpetition had unwittingly revealed to me the power I possessed, and itwas a pleasing experience to exercise it. Touching her shoulder again, Iassured her that seven or eight days was only a reasonable time in whichto prepare for so long a journey. She instantly yielded, and afterone glance at my face, she moved swiftly away into the darker shadows,leaving me alone with the old man.
As we return
ed together through the now profoundly dark wood, Iexplained to him how the subject of Riolama had first come up during myconversation with Rima, and he then apologized for the violent languagehe had used to me. This personal question disposed of, he spoke of thepilgrimage before him, and informed me in confidence that he intendedpreparing a quantity of smoke-dried meat and packing it in a bag, witha layer of cassava bread, dried pumpkin slips, and such innocent triflesto conceal it from Rima's keen sight and delicate nostrils. Finally hemade a long rambling statement which, I vainly imagined, was intended tolead up to an account of Rima's origin, with something about her peopleat Riolama; but it led to nothing except an expression of opinion thatthe girl was afflicted with a maggot in the brain, but that as she hadinterest with the powers above, especially with her mother, who wasnow a very important person among the celestials, it was good policy tosubmit to her wishes. Turning to me, doubtless to wink (only I missedthe sign owing to the darkness), he added that it was a fine thing tohave a friend at court. With a little gratulatory chuckle he went on tosay that for others it was necessary to obey all the ordinances of theChurch, to contribute to its support, hear mass, confess from time totime, and receive absolution consequently those who went out into thewilderness, 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 directlyin all his uncleanness to heaven--a thing, he remarked, which happenedto very few; and he, Nuflo, was no saint, and had first become a dwellerin the desert, as a very young man, in order to escape the penalty ofhis misdeeds.
I could not resist the temptation of remarking here that to anunregenerate man the celestial country might turn out a somewhatuncongenial place for a residence. He replied airily that he hadconsidered 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 bythose who ruled over earthly affairs from the sky, he had formed aclear idea of that place, and believed that even among so many glorifiedbeings he would be able to meet with those who would prove companionableenough and would think no worse of him on account of his littleblemishes.
How he had first got this idea into his brain about Rima's ability tomake things smooth for him after death I cannot say; probably it was theeffect of the girl's powerful personality and vivid faith acting on anignorant and extremely superstitious mind. While she was makingthat petition to her mother in heaven, it did not seem in the leastridiculous to me: I had felt no inclination to smile, even when hearingall that about the old man's wings being singed to prevent his escapeby flying. Her rapt look; the intense conviction that vibrated in herringing, passionate tones; the brilliant scorn with which she, a haterof bloodshed, one so tender towards all living things, even the meanest,bade him kill himself, and only hear first how her vengeance wouldpursue his deceitful soul into other worlds; the clearness with whichshe had related the facts of the case, disclosing the inmost secretsof her heart--all this had had a strange, convincing effect on me.Listening to her I was no longer the enlightened, the creedless man. Sheherself 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 theblue sky above, I seemed to see there another being like herself, a Rimaglorified, leaning her pale, spiritual face to catch the winged wordsuttered by her child on earth. And even now, while hearing the old man'stalk, showing as it did a mind darkened with such gross delusions, Iwas not yet altogether free from the strange effect of that prayer.Doubtless it was a delusion her mother was not really there abovelistening to the girl's voice. Still, in some mysterious way, Rima hadbecome to me, even as to superstitious old Nuflo, a being apart andsacred, and this feeling seemed to mix with my passion, to purify andexalt it and make it infinitely sweet and precious.
After we had been silent for some time, I said: "Old man, the result ofthe grand discussion you have had with Rima is that you have agreed totake her to Riolama, but about my accompanying you not one word has beenspoken by either of you."
He stopped short to stare at me, and although it was too dark to seehis face, I felt his astonishment. "Senor!" he exclaimed, "we cannotgo without you. Have you not heard my granddaughter's words--that it isonly because of you that she is about to undertake this crazy journey?If you are not with us in this thing, then, senor, 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 methat he was becoming cautious again.
"That you tell me the whole story of Rima's origin, and how you came tobe now living with her in this solitary place, and who these people areshe wishes to visit at Riolama."
"Ah, senor, it is a long story, and sad. But you shall hear it all.You must hear it, senor, since you are now one of us; and when I am nolonger here to protect her, then she will be yours. And although youwill never be able to do more than old Nuflo for her, perhaps she willbe better pleased; and you, senor, better able to exist innocently byher side, without eating flesh, since you will always have that rareflower to delight you. But the story would take long to tell. You shallhear it all as we journey to Riolama. What else will there be to talkabout when we are walking that long distance, and when we sit at nightby the fire?"
"No, no, old man, I am not to be put off in that way. I must hear itbefore I start."
But he was determined to reserve the narrative until the journey, andafter some further argument I yielded the point.