Cuwignaka dismounted and began to gather in the rawhide bindings and pieces of harness from the shattered travios. They might be used again.
"I will help you," I said. I dismounted, and joined him. Our kaiila, not moving much, stayed close to us.
"The head is there," said Cuwignaka, indicating the head of the beast we had skinned, and had been fleshing.
"Yes" I said.
"When we are finished," said Cuwignaka, "we will take it out of the draw. We will take it up to the surface."
"All right," I said.
"Someone is coming," I said.
We looked down to the bend in the draw. About it, slowly, his kaiila walking, came a single rider.
"It is Hci," said Cuwignaka.
Hci halted his kaiila a few yards from us. He was naked save fr the breechclout and moccasisns. About his neck was the necklace of sleen claws. Across his thighs was a bow. At his left hip was his quiver. His arrows, extracted from their targets, the meat identified, at this time of day, would have been wiped clean of blood, even the lightning grooves inscribed in the long shafts. Stains would remain, of course, at the base of some of the feathers.
"Hou, Cuwignaka," said Hci.
"Hou, Hci," said Cuwignaka.
Hci looked about the draw. "You have lost the meat," he said.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"That is not good," said Hci.
"No," said Cuwignaka.
"Your travois, too, have been destroyed," said Hci.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"I told you the herd was too close," said Hci. "I told you to withdraw from this place."
Cuwignaka was furious, but did not speak. We knew that these words of Hci, to that extent, could be sworn to by Bloketu and Iwoso.
"But you did not listen," said Hci. "You chose, rather, to deliberately disobey a warden of the hung."
"Why did you do this?" asked Cuwignaka.
"Now you have lost the meat," said Hci.
"It is you who have destroyed the meat!" said Cuwignaka. "You have destroyed meat!"
Hci sat quietly on the kaiila. "I could kill you now, both of you," he said, "but I do not choose to do so."
I did not doubt but what Hci spoke the truth. We had only one knife with us, a cutting knife. Hci was mounted, and had his bow.
Hci then, quietly, rode towards us. When he reached our vicinty he stopped his kaiila. He indicated the head of the kailiauk. "That is to be taken out of the draw," he said. "Take it up to the surface."
"I will do so," said Cuwignaka.
Hci then, not hurrying, rode past us and made his way up the draw, some pebbles slipping back, on its slope, from the movement of his kaiila paws.
We finished our work, coiling the rent harness and bindings from the travois. We slung them about our shoulders.
"I must leave the Isbu," said Cuwignaka.
"Why?" I asked.
"I am a shame to my brother," said Cuwignaka.
"This head will be heavy," I said. "If we are going to get it out of the draw, let us do so now."
"Yes," said Cuwignaka. We then, between us, carried the head up, out of the draw, and, some fifty yards or so from the draw, placed it on the level.
"Why are we doing this?" I asked.
"The kailiauk is a noble animal," said Cuwignaka. "Let the sun shine upon it."
"This is interesting to me," I said.
"What?" asked Cuwignaka.
"This business," I said.
"What business?" he asked.
"This business about the head," I said. "This was important, apparently, to both you and Hci, that it should be brought up from the draw, that it should be placed on the level, that it should be put, I gather, in the sun."
"Of course," said Cuwignaka.
"IN this, do you not see," I asked, "you are both Kaiila, you not less than he. In the end, you are both of the Isbu."
"But I am a shame to the Isbu," said Cuwignaka.
"How is that?" I asked.
"I have lost meat," he said.
"You did not lose meat," I said. "Hci is the one who lost the meat."
"I guess you are right," said Cuwignaka. "No one, though, will believe it."
"Hci is well known in the camp," I said. "You may be surprised who might believe you, and not him."
"Maybe you are right," smiled Cuwignaka.
"You should not be distressed," I said. "You should be proud."
"Why is that?" asked Cuwignaka.
"You have brought four loads of meat back to the village. I doubt that anyone has done as well."
"That is pretty good, isnt it?" said Cuwignaka.
"It is marvelous," I said.
"But men are stronger then women," said Cuwignaka. "They can cut meat better."
"But the men are needed for the hunt," I said.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"And you are a man," I said.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka. "I am a man."
"Let us get the kaiila now," I said. "It is time to go back to the village."
"Four loads," said Cuwignaka. "That is pretty good, you know,"
"It is marvelous," I assured him.
"I am ready to go back to the camp now," said Cuwignaka.
"Good," I said.
Chapter 7
BLOKETU AND IWOSO COME VISITING
"He beat me," wailed Winyela, running up to me. "He beat me!"
"You are in the presence of a free man," I said, indicating Cuwignaka.
Swiftly she fell to her knees, and put her red hair to the dust. Her hair, sometimes braided, was now, as usual, unbraided. She, like most other girls, whether of the red savages or not, wore it long and loose. Among the red savages, of course, free women commonly braid their hair. The lack of braiding, thus, usually, draws an additional distraction between slaves and free women of the red savages. The most common distraction, of course, is skin color, the slaves almost always being white and the free persons almost invariably being red. "Forgive me, Master," she said to Cuwignaka.
"All right," he said.
She straightened her body, but remained on her knees, before us. "He beat me!" she said. She was naked, except for Canka's collar. Her small wrists were bound before her body, with several tight loops of a rawhide thong.
"Stand," I said, "and turn, slowly.
She did.
"Kneel," I said.
She knelt.
"Yes," I said. "There is little doubt about it. You have been beaten."
"It is not funny," she said.
"Apparently with a kaiila quirt," I said.
"Yes," she said. Some of the braiding marks were still visible in her flesh.
"I thought he liked me," she said.
"You are still alive," I pointed out.
"He took away my clothes, and tied me to a whipping stake, on my knees!" she said.
"That is not uncommon in camps of the red savages, for white female slaves," I said. "Besides you would not want you clothes bloodied."
She looked at me, angrily.
"Your hair was thrown forward," I said.
"Yes," she said.
"That is so it will not cushion the blows which might fall on your back," I said.
"Doubtless," she said.
"Too," I said, "you would not want to get blood on your hair."
"Of course not," she said.
"Do you think that you are the first girl who has ever been whipped?" I asked.
"No," she said.
"Apparently you did not spend all of your time on your knees, your hair thrown forward, your head and belly down."
"No," she said. "I was struck from my knees by almost the first stroke. I twisted and cried out. I must have supplied much amusement to the women of the red savages who were watching."