12 I Learn Why We Are No Longer Being Followed; We Add Two Members to our Party

We saw a small gray sleen, some seven or eight feet in length, lift up its head.

We urged our kaiila down the slope, into the shallow declivity between two lowhills.

My stomach twisted. We had smelled this before we had come upon it.

The sleen permitted us to approach rather closely. It was reluctant to leave itslocation. There were insects on its brown snout, and about its eyes. Its lowerjaw was wet.

"Hei!" cried Grunt, slapping the side of his thigh.

The beast seized another bite and, whipping about, on its six legs, with itsalmost serpentine motion, withdrew.

"It is clean work," said Grunt, "the work of Dust Legs." This tribe I knew, inits various bands, was regarded as the most civilized of the tribes of theBarrens. In the eyes of some of the other tribes they were regarded as littlebetter than white men.

"This is clean work?" I asked.

"Relatively," said Grunt.

I sat astride the kaiila, surveying the scene. I counted some twenty-one bodies.

They were stripped. There were no kaiila. Insects swam in the air above severalof the bodies. One could hear their humming. Two jards, fluttering, fought in atopened abdominal cavity. Several yellow fleer stalked about and some perched onmotionless limbs. Saddles and clothing cut to pieces, lay strewn about.

I moved the kaiila slowly among some of the bodies threading a path betweenthem. It stepped daintily. It hissed and whined, uneasily. I did not think itwas at ease in this place.

"I see no kaiila," I said to Grunt, "no weapons. I see little of value."

"It was taken," said Grunt.

I looked down at the slashed bodies. Arrows, had apparently been pried loosefrom the flesh, that they might be used again.

"Are things usually done in this fashion?" I asked Grunt.

"This is not bad," said Grunt. "This is the work of Dust Legs."

"They are the friendly fellows," I said, "the congenial, pleasant ones."

"Yes," said Grunt.

The tops of the skulls, and parts of the tops of the skulls, in the back, ofseveral of the bodies were exposed. It was here that the scalp and hair, in suchplaces, had been cut away. These things could be mounted on hoops, attached topoles, and used in dances. They could be hung, too from fringes, lodge poles,and parts of them, in twisted or dangling I could decorate numerous articles,such as shields and war shirts.

"I do not understand all the cutting," I said, "the slashing, the mutilation."

"That sort of thing," said Grunt, "is cultural, with almost all of the tribes.

The tradition is an ancient one, and is largely unquestioned. Its origins aredoubtless lost in antiquity."

"Why do you think it is done?" I asked.

"There are various theories," said Grunt. "One is that it serves as a warning topossible enemies, an attestation of the terribleness of the victors as foes.

Another is that the practice is connected with beliefs about the medicine world,that this is a way of precluding such individuals from seeking vengeance later,either because of inflicted impairments or because of terrorizing them against asecond meeting."

"Surely leaving a litter behind like this," I said, "Might serve as a warning."

"True," said Grunt, "but, too, I think it is generally under stood that thissort of thing produces fear not so much as a desire for revenge, at least amongthe savages themselves."

"Your second theory you take most seriously, then?" I asked.

"Not really," said he. "If ones objective was really to terrorize or to inflictvengeance-precluding injuries, then it seems that the corpses, regularly, wouldbe blinded, or have the hands and feet cut off. On the other hand, thoseparticular injuries are very seldom inflicted."

"Why, then, do you think it is done?" I asked.

"I think," said Grunt, "that it is done in the joy and lust of victory, that itventilates powerful emotion, that it expresses vengeance and hatred, and,indeed, pleasure and life, and that it is done, too, to show contempt for theenemy and to humiliate him, thereby demonstrating one's own superiority."

I regarded Grunt "In short," said Grunt, "it is done because it elates them and fills them withpower and joy"

"I see," I said.

"Surely you are familiar, as I suspect you are, with such carnage, with suchpractices? ' he smiled.

"Yes," I said, "I am." I was a warrior.

"I thought so," said he.

I turned my kaiila to face Grunt.

"Let us not, then, feel so superior to these gentle and kindly folk," he said.

"Very well," I said.

Grunt laughed.

I looked about. "It is a good thing we did not bring the girls", I said.

"It was for this reason," said Grunt, "that I left them in the camp!

I nodded. They, beautiful, frightened, half-naked slaves shackled by the neck inthe Barrens, did not need to see this. Let them not be concerned, at least asyet, with what might be the fate of an enslaved white female in such a world.

"There is not enough wood about to bum these bodies," I said. "We shall have tobury them.

"They are to be left as they are*" said Grunt. "It is the usual way of theBarrens."

We turned our kaiila about to leave this place.

"Help," we heard. "Please, help.

Grunt and I looked at one another.

"Over here," said Grunt. He moved his kaiila to our left, and turned it.

He looked down, from the lofty saddle. He smote his thigh, and laughed. I urgedmy kaiila to his side.

Below us, half concealed in the tall grass, on their backs, lay the two fellowsI recognized as the brothers, Max and Kyle Hobart. They were stripped and theirhands were thonged behind their backs. They could not rise to their feet. Eachwore a crude, single-position, greenwood leg-spreader.

"It is a present to me, from my friends, the Dust Legs," laughed Grunt, "theleaders of those who followed us."

"A thoughtful present," I said. "Now they are yours."

"And a rich joke it is, too," laughed Grunt. "See?"

"Yes," I said. Max and Kyle Hobart wore leg-spreaders. These are commonlyreserved by the red savages for their white female slaves. They woresingle-position leg-spreaders. One ankle, by thongs threaded through a piercedend, is fastened tightly to one end of the sturdy spreader. The other ankle isthen pulled to a corresponding position at the other end of the pole where, bymeans of another thong passed through another hole, drilled at that point in thespreader, it is fastened securely in place. More sophisticated spreaders haveseveral positions. In the simplest case a series of holes is drilled in the poleand the girl's ankles are merely fastened on the pole at whatever separation themaster desires. In more sophisticated devices, two, or even three, poles orboards are used, which can slide apart, and are fastened at given points by pegsor thongs. In this latter sort of device the girl's ankles, fastened at the farends of the pole or board, need not be untied and retied. One may then, inaccordance with one's moods, and at one's convenience, regulate the distancebetween them.

These spreaders may be used in a variety of ways, of course. Sometimes they areused for the wrists, the pole or board then usually behind the girl's back. Too,they may be used in concert with other devices. In the lodges of WarriorSocieties, for example, as a portion of the amusements accompanying a feast, agirl may be richly used in one, her hands tied behind the back of her neck, inthe draw cords, looped once or twice about her neck, of the sack drawn over herhead. In this way she fears all the men of the society for she does not know whoit was who was the most cruel to her. Too, she regards all the men of thesociety with mixed feelings of sensual uneasiness, for she does not know whichone among them it was who made her yield most ecstatically, most abjectly, as aslave. This is thought good by the men for the camaraderie of the society. To besure, eventually she is usually awarded to one or another of the societymembers. This will usually be either to he who was most cruel to her or to hewho made her yield most abjectly, most rapturously. She will learn which it iswhen she, in the privacy of his ownlodge, after her labors, is ordered to his furs. Not unoften, incidentally, itturns out that these two fellows are the same that he who most cruelly andeffectively dominated her as a master is also he to whom she yielded mostabjectly as a slave.