When the fire was going, she came out of her shelter with one real desire left: for coffee. The men were warming more tortillas.
“Can we make coffee?” she asked.
The young man looked at her, and she imagined the same faint spark of derision in his eyes. He shook his head.
“We don’t take it,” he said. “There is no time.”
And the elder men, squatting2 on their haunches, looked up at her in the terrible paling dawn, and there was not even derision in their eyes. Only that intense, yet remote, inhuman3 glitter which was terrible to her. They were inaccessible4. They could not see her as a woman at all. As if she WERE not a woman. As if, perhaps, her whiteness took away all her womanhood, and left her as some giant, female white ant. That was all they could see in her.
Before the sun was up, she was in the saddle again, and they were climbing steeply, in the icy air. The sun came, and soon she was very hot, exposed to the glare in the bare places. It seemed to her they were climbing to the roof of the world. Beyond against heaven were slashes5 of snow.
During the course of the morning, they came to a place where the horse could not go farther. They rested for a time with a great slant7 of living rock in front of them, like the glossy8 breast of some earth-beast. Across this rock, along a wavering crack, they had to go. It seemed to her that for hours she went in torment9, on her hands and knees, from crack to crevice10, along the slanting11 face of this pure rock-mountain. An Indian in front and an Indian behind walked slowly erect12, shod with sandals of braided leather. But she in her riding-boots dared not stand erect.
Yet what she wondered, all the time, was why she persisted in clinging and crawling along these mile-long sheets of rock. Why she did not hurl13 herself down, and have done! The world was below her.
When they emerged at last on a stony14 slope, she looked back, and saw the third Indian coming carrying her saddle and saddle-bags on his back, the whole hung from a band across his forehead. And he had his hat in his hand, as he stepped slowly, with the slow, soft, heavy tread of the Indian, unwavering in the chinks of rock, as if along a scratch in the mountain’s iron shield.
The stony slope led downwards15. The Indians seemed to grow excited. One ran ahead at a slow trot16, disappearing round the curve of stones. And the track curved round and down, till at last in the full blaze of the mid-morning sun, they could see a valley below them, between walls of rock, as in a great wide chasm17 let in the mountains. A green valley, with a river, and trees, and clusters of low flat sparkling houses. It was all tiny and perfect, three thousand feet below. Even the flat bridge over the stream, and the square with the houses around it, the bigger buildings piled up at opposite ends of the square, the tall cotton-wood trees, the pastures and stretches of yellow-sere maize18, the patches of brown sheep or goats in the distance, on the slopes, the railed enclosures by the stream-side. There it was, all small and perfect, looking magical, as any place will look magical, seen from the mountains above. The unusual thing was that the low houses glittered white, whitewashed19, looking like crystals of salt, or silver. This frightened her.
They began the long, winding20 descent at the head of the barranca, following the stream that rushed and fell. At first it was all rocks: then the pine-trees began, and soon, the silver-limbed aspens. The flowers of autumn, big pink daisy-like flowers, and white ones, and many yellow flowers, were in profusion22. But she had to sit down and rest, she was so weary. And she saw the bright flowers shadowily, as pale shadows hovering23, as one who is dead must see them.
At length came grass and pasture-slopes between mingled24 aspen and pine-trees. A shepherd, naked in the sun save for his hat and his cotton loin-cloth, was driving his brown sheep away. In a grove25 of trees they sat and waited, she and the young Indian. The one with the saddle had also gone forward.
They heard a sound of someone coming. It was three men, in fine sarapes of red and orange and yellow and black, and with brilliant feather headdresses. The oldest had his grey hair braided with fur, and his red and orange-yellow sarape was covered with curious black markings, like a leopard-skin. The other two were not grey-haired, but they were elders too. Their blankets were in stripes, and their headdresses not so elaborate.
The young Indian addressed the elders in a few quiet words. They listened without answering or looking at him or at the woman, keeping their faces averted26 and their eyes turned to the ground, only listening. And at length they turned and looked at the woman.
The old chief, or medicine-man, whatever he was, had a deeply wrinkled and lined face of dark bronze, with a few sparse27 grey hairs round the mouth. Two long braids of grey hair, braided with fur and coloured feathers, hung on his shoulders. And yet, it was only his eyes that mattered. They were black and of extraordinary piercing strength, without a qualm of misgiving28 in their demonish, dauntless power. He looked into the eyes of the white woman with a long, piercing look, seeking she knew not what. She summoned all her strength to meet his eyes and keep up her guard. But it was no good. He was not looking at her as one human being looks at another. He never even perceived her resistance or her challenge, but looked past them both, into she knew not what.
She could see it was hopeless to expect any human communication with this old being.
He turned and said a few words to the young Indian.
“He asks what do you seek here?” said the young man in Spanish.
“I? Nothing! I only came to see what it was like.”
This was again translated, and the old man turned his eyes on her once more. Then he spoke29 again, in his low muttering tone, to the young Indian.
“He says, why does she leave her house with the white men? Does she want to bring the white man’s God to the Chilchui?”
“No,” she replied, foolhardy. “I came away from the white man’s God myself. I came to look for the God of Chilchui.”
Profound silence followed, when this was translated. Then the old man spoke again, in a small voice almost of weariness.
“Does the white woman seek the gods of the Chilchui because she is weary of her own God?” came the question.
“Yes, she does. She is tired of the white man’s God,” she replied, thinking that was what they wanted her to say. She would like to serve the gods of the Chilchui.
She was aware of an extraordinary thrill of triumph and exultance passing through the Indians, in the tense silence that followed when this was translated. Then they all looked at her with piercing black eyes, in which a steely covetous30 intent glittered incomprehensible. She was the more puzzled, as there was nothing sensual or sexual in the look. It had a terrible glittering purity that was beyond her. She was afraid, she would have been paralysed with fear, had not something died within her, leaving her with a cold, watchful31 wonder only.
The elders talked a little while, then the two went away, leaving her with the young man and the oldest chief. The old man now looked at her with a certain solicitude32.
“He says are you tired?” asked the young man.
“Very tired,” she said.
“The men will bring you a carriage,” said the young Indian.
The carriage, when it came, proved to be a litter consisting of a sort of hammock of dark woollen frieze33, slung34 on to a pole which was borne on the shoulders of two long-haired Indians. The woollen hammock was spread on the ground, she sat down on it, and the two men raised the pole to their shoulders. Swinging rather as if she were in a sack, she was carried out of the grove of trees, following the old chief, whose leopard-spotted35 blanket moved curiously36 in the sunlight.
They had emerged in the valley-head. Just in front were the maize fields, with ripe ears of maize. The corn was not very tall, in this high altitude. The well-worn path went between it, and all she could see was the erect form of the old chief, in the flame and black sarape, stepping soft and heavy and swift, his head forward, looking to neither to right nor left. Her bearers followed, stepping rhythmically37, the long blue-black hair glistening38 like a river down the naked shoulders of the man in front.
They passed the maize, and came to a big wall or earthwork made of earth and adobe39 bricks. The wooden doors were open. Passing on, they were in a network of small gardens, full of flowers and herbs and fruit trees, each garden watered by a tiny ditch of running water. Among each cluster of trees and flowers was a small, glittering white house, windowless, and with closed door. The place was a network of little paths, small streams, and little bridges among square, flowering gardens.
Following the broadest path — a soft narrow track between leaves and grass, a path worn smooth by centuries of human feet, no hoof40 of horse nor any wheel to disfigure it — they came to the little river of swift bright water, and crossed on a log bridge. Everything was silent — there was no human being anywhere. The road went on under magnificent cotton-wood trees. It emerged suddenly outside the central plaza41 or square of the village.
This was a long oblong of low white houses with flat roofs, and two bigger buildings, having as it were little square huts piled on top of bigger long huts, stood at either end of the oblong, facing each other rather askew42. Every little house was a dazzling white, save for the great round beam-ends which projected under the flat eaves, and for the flat roofs. Round each of the bigger buildings, on the outside of the square, was a stockyard fence, inside which was garden with trees and flowers, and various small houses.
Not a soul was in sight. They passed silently between the houses into the central square. This was quite bare and arid43, the earth trodden smooth by endless generations of passing feet, passing across from door to door. All the doors of the windowless houses gave on to this blank square, but all the doors were closed. The firewood lay near the threshold, a clay oven was still smoking, but there was no sign of moving life.
The old man walked straight across the square to the big house at the end, where the two upper storeys, as in a house of toy bricks, stood each one smaller than the lower one. A stone staircase, outside, led up to the roof of the first storey.
At the foot of this staircase the litter-bearers stood still, and lowered the woman to the ground.
“You will come up,” said the young Indian who spoke Spanish.
She mounted the stone stairs to the earthen roof of the first house, which formed a platform round the wall of the second storey. She followed around this platform to the back of the big house. There they descended44 again, into the garden at the rear.
So far they had seen no one. But now two men appeared, bare-headed, with long braided hair, and wearing a sort of white shirt gathered into a loin-cloth. These went along with the three newcomers, across the garden where red flowers and yellow flowers were blooming, to a long, low white house. There they entered without knocking.
It was dark inside. There was a low murmur45 of men’s voices. Several men were present, their white shirts showing in the gloom, their dark faces invisible. They were sitting on a great log of smooth old wood, that lay along the far wall. And save for this log, the room seemed empty. But no, in the dark at one end was a couch, a sort of bed, and someone lying there, covered with furs.
The old Indian in the spotted sarape, who had accompanied the woman, now took off his hat and his blanket and his sandals. Laying them aside, he approached the couch, and spoke in a low voice. For some moments there was no answer. Then an old man with the snow-white hair hanging round his darkly-visible face, roused himself like a vision, and leaned on one elbow, looking vaguely46 at the company, in tense silence.
The grey-haired Indian spoke again, and then the young Indian, taking the woman’s hand, led her forward. In her linen47 riding habit, and black boots and hat, and her pathetic bit of a red tie, she stood there beside the fur-covered bed of the old, old man, who sat reared up, leaning on one elbow, remote as a ghost, his white hair streaming in disorder48, his face almost black, yet with a far-off intentness, not of this world, leaning forward to look at her.
His face was so old, it was like dark glass, and the few curling hairs that sprang white from his lips and chin were quite incredible. The long white locks fell unbraided and disorderly on either side of the glassy dark face. And under a faint powder of white eyebrows49, the black eyes of the old chief looked at her as if from the far, far dead, seeing something that was never to be seen.
At last he spoke a few deep, hollow words, as if to the dark air.
“He says, do you bring your heart to the god of the Chilchui?” translated the young Indian.
“Tell him yes,” she said, automatically.
There was a pause. The old Indian spoke again, as if to the air. One of the men present went out. There was a silence as if of eternity50, in the dim room that was lighted only through the open door.
The woman looked round. Four old men with grey hair sat on the log by the wall facing the door. Two other men, powerful and impassive, stood near the door. They all had long hair, and wore white shirts gathered into a loin-cloth. Their powerful legs were naked and dark. There was a silence like eternity.
At length the man returned, with white and dark clothing on his arm. The young Indian took them, and holding them in front of the woman, said:
“You must take off your clothes, and put these on.”
“If all you men will go out,” she said.
“No one will hurt you,” he said quietly.
“Not while you men are here,” she said.
He looked at the two men by the door. They came quickly forward, and suddenly gripped her arms as she stood, without hurting her, but with great power. Then two of the old men came, and with curious skill slit51 her boots down with keen knives, and drew them off, and slit her clothing so that it came away from her. In a few moments she stood there white and uncovered. The old man on the bed spoke, and they turned her round for him to see. He spoke again, and the young Indian deftly52 took the pins and comb from her fair hair, so that it fell over her shoulders in a bunchy tangle53.
Then the old man spoke again. The Indian led her to the bedside. The white-haired, glassy-dark old man moistened his finger-tips at his mouth, and most delicately touched her on the breasts and on the body, then on the back. And she winced54 strangely each time, as the fingertips drew along her skin, as if Death itself were touching55 her.
And she wondered, almost sadly, why she did not feel shamed in her nakedness. She only felt sad and lost. Because nobody felt ashamed. The elder men were all dark and tense with some other deep, gloomy, incomprehensible emotion, which suspended all her agitation56, while the young Indian had a strange look of ecstasy57 on his face. And she, she was only utterly58 strange and beyond herself, as if her body were not her own.
They gave her the new clothing: a long white cotton shift, that came to her knees: then a tunic59 of thick blue woollen stuff, embroidered60 with scarlet61 and green flowers. It was fastened over one shoulder only, and belted with a braid sash of scarlet and black wool.
When she was thus dressed, they took her away, barefoot, to a little house in the stockaded garden. The young Indian told her she might have what she wanted. She asked for water to wash herself. He brought it in a jar, together with a long wooden bowl. Then he fastened the gate-door of her house, and left her a prisoner. She could see through the bars of the gate-door of her house, the red flowers of the garden, and a humming bird. Then from the roof of the big house she heard the long, heavy sound of a drum, unearthly to her in its summons, and an uplifted voice calling from the house-top in a strange language, with a far-away emotionless intonation62, delivering some speech or message. And she listened as if from the dead.
But she was very tired. She lay down on a couch of skins, pulling over her the blanket of dark wool, and she slept, giving up everything.
When she woke it was late afternoon, and the young Indian was entering with a basket-tray containing food, tortillas and corn-mush with bits of meat, probably mutton, and a drink made of honey, and some fresh plums. He brought her also a long garland of red and yellow flowers with knots of blue buds at the end. He sprinkled the garland with water from a jar, then offered it to her, with a smile. He seemed very gentle and thoughtful, and on his face and in his dark eyes was a curious look of triumph and ecstasy, that frightened her a little. The glitter had gone from the black eyes, with their curving dark lashes6, and he would look at her with this strange soft glow of ecstasy that was not quite human, and terribly impersonal63, and which made her uneasy.
“Is there anything you want?” he said, in his low, slow, melodious64 voice, that always seemed withheld65, as if he were speaking aside to somebody else, or as if he did not want to let the sound come out to her.
“Am I going to be kept a prisoner here?” she asked.
“No, you can walk in the garden tomorrow,” he said softly. Always this curious solicitude.
“Do you like that drink?” he said, offering her a little earthenware66 cup. “It is very refreshing67.”
She sipped68 the liquor curiously. It was made with herbs and sweetened with honey, and had a strange, lingering flavour. The young man watched her with gratification.
“It has a peculiar69 taste,” she said.
“It is very refreshing,” he replied, his black eyes resting on her always with that look of gratified ecstasy. Then he went away. And presently she began to be sick, and to vomit70 violently, as if she had no control over herself.
Afterwards she felt a great soothing71 languor72 steal over her, her limbs felt strong and loose and full of languor, and she lay on her couch listening to the sounds of the village, watching the yellowing sky, smelling the scent21 of burning cedar-wood, or pine-wood. So distinctly she heard the yapping of tiny dogs, the shuffle73 of far-off feet, the murmur of voices, so keenly she detected the smell of smoke, and flowers, and evening falling, so vividly74 she saw the one bright star infinitely75 remote, stirring above the sunset, that she felt as if all her senses were diffused76 on the air, that she could distinguish the sound of evening flowers unfolding, and the actual crystal sound of the heavens, as the vast belts of the world-atmosphere slid past one another, and as if the moisture ascending77 and the moisture descending78 in the air resounded79 like some harp80 in the cosmos81.
She was a prisoner in her house and in the stockaded garden, but she scarcely minded. And it was days before she realised that she never saw another woman. Only the men, the elderly men of the big house, that she imagined must be some sort of temple, and the men priests of some sort. For they always had the same colours, red, orange, yellow, and black, and the same grave, abstracted demeanour.
Sometimes an old man would come and sit in her room with her, in absolute silence. None spoke any language but Indian, save the one younger man. The older men would smile at her, and sit with her for an hour at a time, sometimes smiling at her when she spoke in Spanish, but never answering save with this slow, benevolent-seeming smile. And they gave off a feeling of almost fatherly solicitude. Yet their dark eyes, brooding over her, had something away in their depths that was awesomely82 ferocious83 and relentless84. They would cover it with a smile, at once, if they felt her looking. But she had seen it.
Always they treated her with this curious impersonal solicitude, this utterly impersonal gentleness, as an old man treats a child. But underneath85 it she felt there was something else, something terrible. When her old visitor had gone away, in his silent, insidious86, fatherly fashion, a shock of fear would come over her; though of what she knew not.
The young Indian would sit and talk with her freely, as if with great candour. But with him, too, she felt that everything real was unsaid. Perhaps it was unspeakable. His big dark eyes would rest on her almost cherishingly, touched with ecstasy, and his beautiful, slow, languorous87 voice would trail out its simple, ungrammatical Spanish. He told her he was the grandson of the old, old man, son of the man in the spotted sarape: and they were caciques, kings from the old, old days, before even the Spaniards came. But he himself had been in Mexico City, and also in the United States. He had worked as a labourer, building the roads in Los Angeles. He had travelled as far as Chicago.
“Don’t you speak English, then?” she asked.
His eyes rested on her with a curious look of duplicity and conflict, and he mutely shook his head.
“What did you do with your long hair, when you were in the United States?” she asked. “Did you cut it off?”
Again, with the look of torment in his eyes, he shook his head.
“No,” he said, in a low, subdued88 voice, “I wore a hat, and a handkerchief tied round my head.”
And he relapsed into silence, as if of tormented89 memories.
“Are you the only man of your people who has been to the United States?” she asked him.
“Yes. I am the only one who has been away from here for a long time. The others come back soon, in one week. They don’t stay away. The old men don’t let them.”
“And why did you go?”
“The old men want me to go — because I shall be the Cacique —”
He talked always with the same na?veté, an almost childish candour. But she felt that this was perhaps just the effect of his Spanish. Or perhaps speech altogether was unreal to him. Anyhow, she felt that all the real things were kept back.
He came and sat with her a good deal — sometimes more than she wished — as if he wanted to be near her. She asked him if he was married. He said he was — with two children.
“I should like to see your children,” she said.
But he answered only with that smile, a sweet, almost ecstatic smile above which the dark eyes hardly changed from their enigmatic abstraction.
It was curious, he would sit with her by the hour, without even making her self-conscious, or sex-conscious. He seemed to have no sex, as he sat there so still and gentle and apparently90 submissive, with his head bent91 a little forward, and the river of glistening black hair streaming maidenly92 over his shoulders.
Yet when she looked again, she saw his shoulders broad and powerful, his eyebrows black and level, the short, curved, obstinate93 black lashes over his lowered eyes, the small, fur-like line of moustache above his blackish, heavy lips, and the strong chin, and she knew that in some other mysterious way he was darkly and powerfully male. And he, feeling her watching him, would glance up at her swiftly with a dark, lurking94 look in his eyes, which immediately he veiled with that half-sad smile.
The days and the weeks went by, in a vague kind of contentment. She was uneasy sometimes, feeling she had lost the power over herself. She was not in her own power, she was under the spell of some other control. And at times she had moments of terror and horror. But then these Indians would come and sit with her, casting their insidious spell over her by their very silent presence, their silent, sexless, powerful physical presence. As they sat they seemed to take her will away, leaving her will-less and victim to her own indifference95. And the young man would bring her sweetened drink, often the same emetic96 drink, but sometimes other kinds. And after drinking, the languor filled her heavy limbs, her senses seemed to float in the air, listening, hearing. They had brought her a little female dog, which she called Flora97. And once, in the trance of her senses, she felt she HEARD the little dog conceive, in her tiny womb, and begin to be complex, with young. And another day she could hear the vast sound of the earth going round, like some immense arrow-string booming.
But as the days grew shorter and colder, when she was cold, she would get a sudden revival98 of her will, and a desire to go out, to go away. And she insisted to the young man, she wanted to go out.
So one day, they let her climb to the topmost roof of the big house where she was, and look down the square. It was the day of the big dance, but not everybody was dancing. Women with babies in their arms stood in their doorways99, watching. Opposite, at the other end of the square, there was a throng100 before the other big house, and a small, brilliant group on the terrace-roof of the first storey, in front of wide open doors of the upper storey. Through these wide open doors she could see fire glinting in darkness and priests in headdresses of black and yellow and scarlet feathers, wearing robe-like blankets of black and red and yellow, with long green fringes, were moving about. A big drum was beating slowly and regularly, in the dense101, Indian silence. The crowd below waited —
Then a drum started on a high beat, and there came the deep, powerful burst of men singing a heavy, savage102 music, like a wind roaring in some timeless forest, many mature men singing in one breath, like the wind; and long lines of dancers walked out from under the big house. Men with naked, golden-bronze bodies and streaming black hair, tufts of red and yellow feathers on their arms, and kilts of white frieze with a bar of heavy red and black and green embroidery103 round their waists, bending slightly forward and stamping the earth in their absorbed, monotonous104 stamp of the dance, a fox-fur, hung by the nose from their belt behind, swaying with the sumptuous105 swaying of a beautiful fox-fur, the tip of the tail writhing106 above the dancer’s heels. And after each man, a woman with a strange elaborate headdress of feathers and seashells, and wearing a short black tunic, moving erect, holding up tufts of feathers in each hand, swaying her wrists rhythmically and subtly beating the earth with her bare feet.
So, the long line of the dance unfurling from the big house opposite. And from the big house beneath her, strange scent of incense107, strange tense silence, then the answering burst of inhuman male singing, and the long line of the dance unfurling.
It went on all day, the insistence108 of the drum, the cavernous, roaring, storm-like sound of male singing, the incessant109 swinging of the fox-skins behind the powerful, gold-bronze, stamping legs of the men, the autumn sun from a perfect blue heaven pouring on the rivers of black hair, men’s and women’s, the valley all still, the walls of rock beyond, the awful huge bulking of the mountain against the pure sky, its snow seething110 with sheer whiteness.
For hours and hours she watched, spell-bound, and as if drugged. And in all the terrible persistence111 of the drumming and the primeval, rushing deep singing, and the endless stamping of the dance of fox-tailed men, the tread of heavy, bird-erect women in their black tunics112, she seemed at last to feel her own death; her own obliteration113. As if she were to be obliterated114 from the field of life again. In the strange towering symbols on the heads of the changeless, absorbed women she seemed to read once more the Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin. Her kind of womanhood, intensely personal and individual, was to be obliterated again, and the great primeval symbols were to tower once more over the fallen individual independence of woman. The sharpness and the quivering nervous consciousness of the highly-bred white woman was to be destroyed again, womanhood was to be cast once more into the great stream of impersonal sex and impersonal passion. Strangely, as if clairvoyant115, she saw the immense sacrifice prepared. And she went back to her little house in a trance of agony.
After this, there was always a certain agony when she heard the drums at evening, and the strange uplifted savage sound of men singing round the drum, like wild creatures howling to the invisible gods of the moon and the vanished sun. Something of the chuckling116, sobbing-cry of the coyote, something of the exultant117 bark of the fox, the far-off wild melancholy118 exultance of the howling wolf, the torment of the puma119’s scream, and the insistence of the ancient fierce human male, with his lapses120 of tenderness and his abiding121 ferocity.
Sometimes she would climb the high roof after nightfall, and listen to the dim cluster of young men round the drum on the bridge just beyond the square, singing by the hour. Sometimes there would be a fire, and in the fire-glow, men in their white shirts or naked save for a loin-cloth, would be dancing and stamping like spectres, hour after hour in the dark cold air, within the fire-glow, forever dancing and stamping like turkeys, or dropping squatting by the fire to rest, throwing their blankets round them.
“Why do you all have the same colours?” she asked the young Indian. “Why do you all have red and yellow and black, over your white shirts? And the women have black tunics?”
He looked into her eyes, curiously, and the faint, evasive smile came on to his face. Behind the smile lay a soft, strange malignancy.
“Because our men are the fire and the daytime, and our women are the spaces between the stars at night,” he said.
“Aren’t the women even stars?” she said.
“No. We say they are the spaces between the stars, that keep the stars apart.”
He looked at her oddly, and again the touch of derision came into his eyes.
“White people,” he said, “they know nothing. They are like children, always with toys. We know the sun, and we know the moon. And we say, when a white woman sacrifice herself to our gods, then our gods will begin to make the world again, and the white man’s gods will fall to pieces.”
“How sacrifice herself?” she asked quickly.
And he, as quickly covered, covered himself with a subtle smile.
“She sacrifice her own gods and come to our gods, I mean that,” he said, soothingly122.
But she was not reassured123. An icy pang124 of fear and certainty was at her heart.
“The sun he is alive at one end of the sky,” he continued, “and the moon lives at the other end. And the man all the time have to keep the sun happy in his side of the sky, and the woman have to keep the moon quiet at her side of the sky. All the time she have to work at this. And the sun can’t ever go into the house of the moon, and the moon can’t ever go into the house of the sun, in the sky. So the woman, she asks the moon to come into her cave, inside her. And the man, he draws the sun down till he has the power of the sun. All the time he do this. Then when the man gets a woman, the sun goes into the cave of the moon, and that is how everything in the world starts.”
She listened, watching him closely, as one enemy watches another who is speaking with double meaning.
“Then,” she said, “why aren’t you Indians masters of the white men?”
“Because,” he said, “the Indian got weak, and lost his power with the sun, so the white men stole the sun. But they can’t keep him — they don’t know how. They got him, but they don’t know what to do with him, like a boy who catch a big grizzly125 bear, and can’t kill him, and can’t run away from him. The grizzly bear eats the boy that catch him, when he want to run away from him. White men don’t know what they are doing with the sun, and white women don’t know what they do with the moon. The moon she got angry with white women, like a puma when someone kills her little ones. The moon, she bites white women — here inside,” and he pressed his side. “The moon, she is angry in a white woman’s cave. The Indian, can see it — And soon,” he added, “the Indian women get the moon back and keep her quiet in their house. And the Indian men get the sun, and the power over all the world. White men don’t know what the sun is. They never know.”
He subsided126 into a curious exultant silence.
“But,” she faltered127, “why do you hate us so? Why do you hate me?”
He looked up suddenly with a light on his face, and a startling flame of a smile.
“No, we don’t hate,” he said softly, looking with a curious glitter into her face.
“You do,” she said, forlorn and hopeless.
And after a moment’s silence, he rose and went away.
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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slashes
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| n.（用刀等）砍( slash的名词复数 )；（长而窄的）伤口；斜杠；撒尿v.挥砍( slash的第三人称单数 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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17
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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18
maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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19
whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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21
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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22
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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23
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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24
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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29
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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covetous
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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frieze
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| n.(墙上的)横饰带，雕带 | |
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34
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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35
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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36
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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rhythmically
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| adv.有节奏地 | |
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38
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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39
adobe
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| n.泥砖，土坯，美国Adobe公司 | |
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40
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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41
plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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42
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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43
arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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44
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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45
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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46
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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47
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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48
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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49
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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50
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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51
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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52
deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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53
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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54
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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56
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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57
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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58
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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59
tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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60
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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61
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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62
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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63
impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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64
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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65
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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66
earthenware
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| n.土器，陶器 | |
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67
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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68
sipped
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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70
vomit
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| v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物 | |
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71
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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72
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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73
shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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74
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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75
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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76
diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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77
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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78
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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79
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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80
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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81
cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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82
awesomely
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| 赫然 | |
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83
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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84
relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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85
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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86
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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87
languorous
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| adj.怠惰的，没精打采的 | |
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88
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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89
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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90
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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91
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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92
maidenly
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| adj. 像处女的, 谨慎的, 稳静的 | |
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93
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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94
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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95
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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96
emetic
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| n.催吐剂；adj.催吐的 | |
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97
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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98
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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99
doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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100
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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101
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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102
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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103
embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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104
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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105
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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106
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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107
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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108
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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109
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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110
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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111
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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112
tunics
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| n.（动植物的）膜皮( tunic的名词复数 )；束腰宽松外衣；一套制服的短上衣；（天主教主教等穿的）短祭袍 | |
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113
obliteration
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| n.涂去，删除；管腔闭合 | |
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114
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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115
clairvoyant
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| adj.有预见的；n.有预见的人 | |
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116
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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117
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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118
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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119
puma
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| 美洲豹 | |
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120
lapses
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| n.失误，过失( lapse的名词复数 )；小毛病；行为失检；偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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121
abiding
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| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
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122
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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123
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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124
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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125
grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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126
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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127
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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