Adventure, December 3, 1920 — page 85: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Tucandeira that all ants hate, and she thought of smuggling me some to smear on myself so that they wouldn’t bite. Then she changed her mind because she wanted to find out whether I was a sure enough he-man. She never realized that the ants might kill me. “But now everybody’s satisfied, and the next thing is a huge wedding. You jiggers can get howling drunk and stay that way for the next three days. Everybody else will.” “That will be very sad,” grinned Pedro. “But what will you do after that, senhor? I do not believe the chief will let her go out with 3) you. “Won't he?” The other’s eyes narrowed. “He’d better! If he cuts up rough all bets are off, and he’ll find some lead pills in his gizzard. I reckon I’ve got something to say about where my own wife lives. What’s more, she’s keen to go out, and now that I’ve won her I’m betting the chief will come through like a man.” HE SEEMED to be right. At least, | Mi the chief made no [objection to the NF f marriage celebration. For the next three days, as the senhor had said, there was much feasting and drinking, dancing and games. We did not become “howling drunk,’ for we knew better than to take too much of the strong liquor brought out by the barbaros—it is easy to start a deadly fight between different races when all are drinking. Yet none of the Indians became quarrelsome from their liquor. It made them like happy children. Some put on huge masks of cloth made from the inner bark of trees, painted red and yellow and black and shaped like heads of beasts or birds. The chief himself donned a great head- dress of bright parrot and toucan feathers, painted his face and chest, and changed the two blue feathers in his nose for flaming red ones. These slipped out of place after he had taken a number of drinks and made him look ‘very funny, one pointing at his left eye and the other drooping toward his mouth. Googoo became very drunk indeed, so that his big eyes bulged like those of a tipsy owl, and he reeled around with Pedro and me all the time, hiccoughing and blabbing many things which we did not understand at all. The men masked as animals pranced around on all fours and tripped other men so that they flopped on their faces, The joke which every one enjoyed most, however, was Pedro’s idea. Through Senhor Locke, who did not know why he wanted it, he obtained the fiber rope which had been looped around the American’s body while we were prisoners. Then, catching the senhor and the Golden One standing side by side, he threw the noose over both of them, yanked it tight, 75 and gave the end of the rope to Googoo. At once the rest of the gang which had brought us there came staggering forward and grabbed the rope also. Then, yelping like a flock of crazy toucans and falling over one another’s feet, they drove the pair around the village while every one screeched with laughter. The Golden One and her black-bearded mate enjoyed this as much as we. When the loop was loosened Senhor Locke laughed: “l’m going to keep this rope. It’s a queer wedding ring, but it’s the only one we'll have until we get out to where I can buy one of gold | and have our knot tied according to white man’s law.” And he did keep it. When we all went out together he wore it coiled over one shoulder and across his chest. Yes, senhores, we all went out. After the festa ended and every one at last was sober, the Tucandeira and the Golden One talked long with the chief. Finding that she was eager to go out into the great world with her man, the ruler of the tribe slowly nodded and gave orders to Googoo. And the next day_at dawn we left the town. The chief himself led the long file of men who went with us. Every man in the village, except the pajé and a few others who were old or not strong, swung away through the bush to the place where they were to say farewell to their Golden One. Some carried the few things Pedro and I had had when caught; others bore the larger packages belonging to Senhor Locke; and still others conveyed much food for us to eat after we should leave them. It seemed that every one in the band carried something except the chief, the girl, and we three men. We traveled at a steady jog through the cool jungle shade, and it was not late in the day when we reached the spot where our canoe had been left. There our weapons were given back to us and the boats were loaded again. When all was ready Pedro and I pushed out and hung to an overhanging limb. The Golden One took a place in the middle of ~ her man’s big canoe. He stepped aboard, lifted his paddle, and nodded to the men holding it to the bank. But the chief spoke, and they kept their grip on the boat. Then the chief took from a man beside him a bundle, which he gave to the girl. He spoke again, slowly and gravely, pointing once to the thing he had giver her. Then the men holding the boat shoved it away. We sunk our paddles in the water and moved out into the river. Silent, motionless, with arms folded and head high, the chief watched us go. The men around him all stood still as the trees. Only when the Golden One called to them and waved-a hand in farewell did they move. Then their hands rose together, a shrill yell broke from them, and the (C@ NOOKS (E@