"Five," I suggested to the Dust-Leg woman. I recalled that Grunt had, two daysago, at another trading point, received five such rectangles for a similarmirror. I smiled when I made this suggestion to the Dust-Leg woman. In suchtrading, it is a good idea, on both sides, to smile, a great deal. This makesthe entire exchange, if one takes place, a good deal more pleasant for bothparties. Not only are tensions eased but vanities are less likely to becomeinvolved in the trading. It is easier, if one is smiling, to get a little lessthan one would like, or to give a bit more than one might otherwise choose to.
Concessions, thus, for both sides, are less like defeats and more like favorsbestowed on friends. In the long run, this increases the percentage of mutuallysatisfactory bargains, and the individual who has found dealing with yousatisfactory, of course, is more likely to deal with you again. He becomes, ineffect, a customer. It is better to make less profit on a customer and have himcome back than make a higher profit and not see him again. These, at any rate,were the sentiments of Grunt, who seemed popular with the Dust Legs, and, as faras I can tell, they are substantially sound.
I glanced again to the white female slave of the Dust Legs, kneeling, eyes down,in her beaded collar, by the kaiila. I thought if she were washed and combed shemight not be unattractive. It was easy to see why Dust-Leg men might find suchgoods of interest. It might be pleasant to have such a lovely animal about, tocook one's meat, to keep one's lodge and please one, humbly and obediently, inthe furs. I could also see why Dust-Leg women could view such a commodity withdistaste and contempt. How could they, free, begin I compete with a slave? Howcould they even begin to do it unless they, themselves, also became slaves?
"Two," said the Dust-Leg woman.
"Five," I said. My interest in the Barrens, of course, was not in trading. Asfar as I was concerned I might have give the woman the mirror. On the otherhand, I realized, and Grunt had made it clear to me, too, that one must notinsult the red savages nor deal with them unrealistically, particularly in thelight of other traders and merchants who might follow me. If I gave away goods,or traded them too cheap this would suggest that I was delivering cheap orinferior merchandise, an inference it would not be in our interest for redsavages to draw. Too, if they thought the goods sound, they might think they hadbeen paying too highly for them in the past, or expect that future dealers woulddeal with them similarly, which, of course, they not be likely to do, nor beable, realistically, to afford to do.
One of the Dust-Leg men was examining, with great care the hatchet which Grunthad shown him. Grunt excused himself and rose to his feet. One does not hurryred savages in their perusals of products.
Grunt went again to his stores and brought forth some packages, wrapped in waxedpaper. "Canhanpisasa," said Grunt. "Canhanpitasaka. Canhanpitiktica." He thenbegan pass out, to the Dust-Leg men and women about, pieces candy, lumps of cakesugar and flakes of dried molasses. The woman with whom I was dealing, too,received a palmful of molasses flakes. She smacked her lips. Grunt and she thenexchanged what I took to be appropriate civilities and compliments.
She pointed to Grunt. "Wopeton," she said. "Akihoka, Zontaheca."
I looked at Grunt. I knew one of his names among red savages was Wopeton, whichmeans Trader, or Merchant.
"She says I am a skillful and honest fellow," he said.
"Hopa! Wihopawin!" he said to her.
The plump woman doubled over, laughing. "Hopa', I knew meant "pretty' or" attractive'.
"Wawihaka! Wayaiha!" she laughed.
"I told her she was a pretty woman," said Grunt, "and now she is teasing me. Shesays I am a joker, one who makes others laugh."
"Two," said the Dust-Leg woman to me.
"Five," I said to her.
Grunt looked about, the sweets in his hand. He saw a red youth near the men,sitting together. He motioned him to come closer. The lad wore a shirt, leggingsand a breechclout, so much perhaps because he was visiting at a trading point.
Grunt offered him some of the sweets. The young man shook his head, negatively.
He was eyeing the red-haired girl.
"Ah!" said Grunt. Then he turned to the red-haired girl "Strip," he told her.
Swiftly, unhesitantly, a slave, frightened, she did so. "Be flattered," saidGrunt to her. "Our young visitor finds you of greater interest than some bits ofmolasses." He then put his boot squarely in her back and thrust her forward, onher belly, before the young man. "Please him," he said.
"Master?" she asked.
"Rise to your knees before him," he said. "Remove his breechclout with yourteeth. Attempt to interest him in you."
"Yes, Master," she wept. But it would not be the first time she had pleased oneof Grunt's visitors.
Grunt watched the girl struggle to her knees. He replaced the sweets, wrappingthem, carefully in his pouch.
The girl looked up, frightened, at the red youth.
"Four," I said to the Dust-Leg woman. I supposed I should have actually set myoriginal price higher. Already I would obtain less for the small mirror thanGrunt had for a comparable item the day before yesterday.
"Winyela," said the Dust-Leg woman, in disgust, glancing behind me to thered-haired girl.
I glanced back. Frightened, and humbly, and delicately she was pleasing theyouth. I had little doubt but what he would find her of interest.
"Winyela," said the Dust-Leg woman, and spat into the grass, A few yards away, near the kaiila, the white slave girl of the Dust Legs kepther head down, not daring to raise it.
Grunt had now gone back to the coffle, where most of his girls huddled together,the chain on their necks, and removed Ginger, and Ulla and Lenna, the twoSwedish girls, from the chain. All of the girls in the camp, with the exceptionof the red-haired girl, had now been named. In each case their former Earth namehad been put on them, but now, like a brand, by their master's decision, as aslave name. The two Americans, beside the red-haired girl, were Lois and Inez;the French girl was Corinne; the two English girls were Priscilla and Margaret.
That the red-haired girl had not been named as yet was not a function of thefact that either Grunt or myself saw any difficulty with Millicent as a slavename. The former debutante's name seemed to us quite suitable for a slave'sname. It was rather that he did not yet wish her to be named. She was tocontinue, for the time, as a nameless slave. The object of this was to lower herstanding in the camp, and to assist in her training. Granting her in hospitalityto various of his guests had a similar object. Grunt now came forward, Ulla andLenna bent over, one on each side of him, their hair in his hands. Gingerfollowed, a pace or two behind. Five of his girls were, now, not in the coffle,four of these being the red-haired girl, and Ginger, and Ulla and Lenna. Theother was the English girl, Margaret, whom he had put naked, her legs pulled up,under a kailiauk hide, on the grass.
Grunt threw both of the girls to their knees near the sitting men. He thenjerked their tunics from them. "Bring your hair forward, over your breasts," hesaid. "Cover yourselves, as best you can." His commands were translated, rapidlyand expertly, by Ginger. The two girls complied immediately. They coveredthemselves, as they could, with their hair. They crossed their hands and coveredtheir breasts. They clenched their knees together. They put their heads down.
The seated men laughed. It amused them to see slaves in such postures. Did theythink they were free women, before captors? Yet, too, I think there were fewthere who were not aroused seeing the women in this position. Such a position,in its pathetic pretense to modesty, begs to be rudely terminated; it taunts themaster, in effect, to the ensuing and uncompromising exposure of the slave. Sucha position, if prolonged more than a few moments, can become a nuisance orinconvenience to the master. It is, thus, seldom lengthily tolerated. Itsprimary value, and there is little other reason for permitting the slave toassume it, is to lead her to believe, and hope, that she may be accorded sometiny particle of dignity or respect, an illusion which then, to her shame andhumiliation, may be totally shattered by the master.