White Ann and Poche bore their riders slowly along the backbone1 of the ridge2 that upreared itself between Clinker Creek3 Cañon and the American. Occasionally they came upon groups of red and roan and spotted4 longhorn steers5, each branded with the insignia of the Poison Oakers. Once a deer crashed away through thick chaparral. Young jackrabbits went leaping over the grassy6 knolls7 at their approach. Down the timbered hillsides grey squirrels scolded in lofty pines and spruces. Next day would mark the beginning of the full-moon period for the month of June.
Jessamy Selden was in a thoughtful mood this morning. Her hat lay over her saddle horn. Her black hair now was parted from forehead to the nape of her neck, and twisted into two huge rosettes, one over each ear, after the constant fashion of the Indian girls. So far Oliver Drew had not discovered that he disliked any of the many ways in which she did her hair.
"What are your views on religion?" was her sudden and unexpected question.
"So we're going to be heavy this morning, eh?"
"Oh, no—not particularly. There's usually a smattering of method in my madness. You haven't answered."
"Seems to me you've given me a pretty big contract all in one question. If you could narrow down a bit—be more specific—"
"Well, then, do you believe in that?" She raised her arm sharply and pointed8 down the precipitous slopes to the green American rushing pell-mell down its rugged9 cañon.
They had just come in sight of the gold dredger, whose great shovels10 were tearing down the banks, leaving a long serpentine11 line of débris behind the craft in the middle of the river.
"That dredge?" he asked. "What's it to do with religion?"
"To me it personifies the greed of all mankind," she replied. "It makes me wild to think that a great, lumbering14, manmade toy should come up that river and destroy its natural beauty for the sake of the tiny particles of gold in the earth and rocks. Ugh! I detest15 the sight of the thing. The gold they get will buy diamond necklaces for fat, foolish old women, and not a stone among them can compare with the dewdrop flashing there in that filaree blossom! It will buy silk gowns, and any spider can weave a fabric16 with which they can't begin to compete. It will build tall skyscrapers17, and which of them will be as imposing18 as one of these majestic19 oaks which that machine may uproot20? Bah, I hate the sight of the thing!"
"Gold also buys food and simple clothing," he reminded her.
"I suppose so," she sighed. "We've gotten to a point where gold is necessary. But, oh, how unnecessary it is, after all, if we were only as God intended us to be! I detest anything utilitarian21. I hate orchards22 because they supplant23 the trees and chaparral that Nature has planted. I hate the irrigating24 systems, because the dams and reservoirs that they demand ruin rugged cañons and valleys. I hate railroads, because their hideous25 old trains go screeching26 through God's peaceful solitudes27. I hate automobiles28, because they bring irreverent unbelievers into God's chapels29."
"But they also take cramped-up city folks out into the country," he said. "And all of them are not irreverent."
"Oh, yes—I know. I'm selfish there. And I'm not at all practical. But I do hate 'em!"
"And what do you like in life?" he asked amusedly.
"Well, I have no particular objection to horned toads30, for one thing," she laughed. "But I'm only halfway31 approaching my subject. Do you like missionaries32?"
"I think I've never eaten any," he told her gravely.
But she would not laugh. "I don't like 'em," she claimed. "I don't believe in the practice of sending apostles into other countries to force—if necessary—the believers in other religions to trample33 under foot their ancient teachings, and espouse34 ours. All peoples, it seems to me, believe in a creator. That's enough. Let 'em alone in their various creeds35 and doctrines36 and methods of expressing their faith and devotion. Are you with me there?"
"I think so. Only extreme bigotry37 and egotism can be responsible for the zeal38 that sends a believer in one faith to the believers in another to try and bend them to his way of thinking."
"I respect all religions—all beliefs," she said. "But those who go preaching into other lands can have no respect at all for the other fellow's faith. And that's not Christlike in the first place."
He knew that she had something on her mind that she would in good time disclose, but he wondered not a little at her trend of thought this morning.
"The Showut Poche-dakas are deeply religious," she declared suddenly. "Long years ago they inhabited the coast country, but were gradually pushed back up here. Down there, though, they came under the influence of the old Spanish padres; and today their religion is a mixture of Catholicism and ancient tribal39 teachings. They are sincere and devout40. I have as much reverence41 for a bareheaded Indian girl on her knees to the Sun God as I have for a hooded42 nun43 counting her beads44. They believe in a supreme45 being; that's enough for me. You'll be interested at the fiesta tomorrow night. I rode up there the other day. Everything is in readiness. The ramadas are all built, and the dance floor is up, and Indians are drifting in from other reservations a hundred miles away."
"Will you ride up with me tomorrow afternoon?" he asked.
"Yes, I think so—that is, since I heard what Old Man Selden had to say about you the day after he called. I'll tell you about that later. Yes, all the whites attend the fiestas. The California Indian is crude and not very picturesque46, compared with other Indians, but the fiestas are fascinating. Especially the dances. They defy interpretation47; but they're interesting, even if they don't show a great deal of imagination. By the way, I bought you a present at Halfmoon Flat the other day."
She unbuttoned the flap on a pocket of her chaparejos, and handed him a small parcel wrapped in sky-blue paper.
"Am I to open it now or wait till Christmas?" he asked.
"Now," she said.
The paper contained a half-dozen small bottles of liquid courtplaster.
"Tomorrow," she went on, "you are to smear50 yourself with that liquid courtplaster, from the soles of your feet to your knees. When one coat dries, apply another; and continue doing so until the supply is exhausted51."
She threw back her head and her whole-souled laughter awoke the echoes.
"It's merely a crazy idea of mine," she explained. "I had a bottle of the stuff and was reading the printed directions that came with it. It seems to be good for anything, from gluing the straps52 of a décolletté ballgown to a woman's shoulders to the protection of stenographer's fingers and harvesters' hands at husking time. It's almost invisible when it has dried on one's skin; and I thought it might be of benefit to you in the fire dance."
"Say," he said, "you're in up to your neck, while I've barely got my feet wet. Come across!"
"Well, I'm not positive," she told him, "but I'm strongly of the opinion that you're going to dance the fire dance at the Fiesta de Santa Maria de Refugio tomorrow night."
"I? I dance the fire dance? Oh, no, Miss—you have the wrong number. I don't dance the fire dance at all."
"I think you will tomorrow night, and I thought that liquid courtplaster might help protect your feet and legs. I put some on my second finger and let it dry, then put my finger on the cookstove."
"Yes?"
"Well, I took it off again. But, honestly, the finger that had none on at all felt a little hotter, I imagined. I'm sure it did, and I only had two coats on. I know you'll be glad you tried it, and the Indians will never know it's there."
"I'm getting just a bit interested," he remarked.
"Well," she said, "after what passed between you and Chupurosa Hatchinguish that day, I'm almost positive that tomorrow night you are to be extended the honour of becoming a member of the tribe. And I know the fire dance is a ceremony connected with admitting an outsider to membership. White men who have married Indian women are about the only ones that are ever made tribal brothers by the Showut Poche-dakas; so in your case it is a distinct honour.
"I have seen this fire dance. While a white person cannot accurately54 interpret its significance, it seems that the fire is emblematical55 of all the forces which naturally would be pitted against you in your endeavour to ally yourself with the Showut Poche-dakas.
"For instance, there's your white skin and your love for your own people, the difference in the life you have led as compared with theirs, what you have been taught—and, oh, everything that might be against the alliance. All this, I say, is represented by the fire. And in the fire dance, my dear friend, you must stamp out these objections with your bare feet if you would become brother to the Showut Poche-dakas."
"With my bare feet? Stamp out these objections?"
"Yes—as represented by the fire."
"You mean I must stamp out a fire with my bare feet? Actually?"
"Actually—literally—honest-to-goodnessly!"
"And never learn the question that puzzled your idealistic father for thirty years? Nor whether the correct answer is Yes or No?"
"But, heavens, I don't put out a fire that way!"
"It's not so dreadful as it sounds," she consoled. "You join the tribe, and you all go marching and stamping about a big bonfire for hours and hours and hours, till the fire is conveniently low. Then the one who is to be admitted to brotherhood57 and a chosen member of the tribe—the champion fire-dancer, in short—jump on what is left of the fire and stamp it out. Of course there are objections to you from the view-point of the Showut Poche-dakas, and they must be overcome by a representative of them. If the fire proves too much for your bare feet the objections are too strong to be overcome, and you never will be an honourary Showut Poche-daka. But if the two of you conquer the fire with your bare feet the ceremony is over, and you're It. And when the other Indians see that you two Indians"—her eyes twinkled—"are getting the better of the fire, they'll jump in and help you."
"A very entertaining ceremony—for the grandstand," was Oliver's dry opinion.
"Of course the Indian's feet are tough as leather, and they have it on you there. Hence this liquid courtplaster. It's worth a trial. Honestly, I held my finger on the stove—oh, ever so long! A full second, I'd say."
Back went her glorious head, and her teeth flashed in the sunlight as, drunk with the wine of youth and health, she sent her rollicking laughter out over the hills and cañons.
"I'll be there watching and rooting for you," she assured him at last. "I can do so openly now—since you've won the heart of Adam Selden. What do you think? He told me to invite you over sometime! But all this doesn't fit in quite logically with the ivory-handled Colt I see on your hip53 today for the first time. Explain both, please."
"Well," he said, "Selden seemed ready to cut my throat till he examined Poche's bridle58 and saw the B on the back of a concha."
"Ah!" she breathed, drawing in her lips.
"And then he grew nice as pie—and that's all there is to that."
"And the six?"
"I went down to Sulphur Spring after the Poison Oakers left me, and as I was examining the water a bullet plunked into it from the hills and I got my eyebrows61 wet. As I don't like to have anybody but myself wet my eyebrows, I'm totin' a six. And I rather like the weight of it against my leg again. It reminds me!"
"Who shot at you?"
"At you, do you think?—or into the water to frighten you?"
"Whoever fired could not see me, but knew I was in the bushes about the spring. Took a rather long chance, if he merely wished to give me a touch of highlife, don't you think?"
"I wonder if the bullet is still in the basin."
"I never thought of that. I ducked for cover at once, of course, and, as nobody showed up, rode back home."
She lifted White Ann to her hind12 legs and spun63 her about in her tracks. "We'll ride to Sulphur Spring and look for that bullet," she announced.
"And be ambushed," he added, as Poche followed White Ann's lead.
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1
backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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knolls
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| n.小圆丘，小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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9
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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10
shovels
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| n.铲子( shovel的名词复数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份v.铲子( shovel的第三人称单数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份 | |
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serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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13
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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14
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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15
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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16
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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skyscrapers
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| n.摩天大楼 | |
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18
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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20
uproot
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| v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开 | |
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21
utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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23
supplant
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| vt.排挤；取代 | |
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24
irrigating
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| 灌溉( irrigate的现在分词 )； 冲洗（伤口） | |
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25
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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27
solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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28
automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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29
chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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30
toads
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 ) | |
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31
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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32
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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33
trample
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| vt.踩，践踏；无视，伤害，侵犯 | |
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34
espouse
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| v.支持，赞成，嫁娶 | |
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creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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37
bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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38
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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39
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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40
devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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41
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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42
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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43
nun
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| n.修女，尼姑 | |
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44
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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45
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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46
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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47
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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48
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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49
sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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50
smear
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| v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑 | |
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51
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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52
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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53
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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54
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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55
emblematical
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| adj.标志的，象征的，典型的 | |
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56
cleave
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| v．(clave；cleaved)粘着，粘住；坚持；依恋 | |
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57
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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58
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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59
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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60
amend
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| vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿 | |
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61
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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62
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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63
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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