"On your hands and knees," said Grunt. He then, as she shuddered, felt her, sherecently impressed with the might of men over her, she freshly lashed.
"Good," said Grunt.
She became Grunt's for three hatchets. She was, after all, only a white femaleslave and they were fine hatchets.
"Ieska! Wopeton!" called the fellow by the kailiauk hide.
We left the dark-haired girl on the grass, where she had been lashed, and thenpurchased.
The Dust Leg requested that the kailiauk hide be thrown aside. Grunt, a shrewdfellow, appeared to demur, and, indeed, even invited the fellow to examine theother girls on the coffle. The fellow, however, scarcely cast a glance at them,but they shrank back, under even so cursory an examination, fearing to belong toa red master. He did look for a longer moment at the red-haired girl but Gruntsaid something to him, and he turned from her again to speculate on what mightlie concealed beneath the kailiauk hide. Grunt apparently did not wish torelease the red-haired girl in a common sale. He had, it seemed, anotherdisposition in mind for her. I remembered he had speculated that he would getfive hides of the yellow kailiauk for her. No, she had not been brought along,marched into the Barrens, as a mere beast of burden. He had something else inmind for her.
One or two of the other Dust Legs now came over to where lay the kailiauk hide,concealing Margaret, the stripped English girl. The first Dust Leg was nowshowing signs of impatience. He was no fool. It was clear to him that Grunt, ifhe truly, seriously, wished to hide a girl, would presumably cache her, boundand gagged, out of sight, perhaps in a slit trench a pasang or so away. As itwas, the kailiauk hide was presumably a device to arouse the interest of apossible buyer. The Dust Leg doubtless realized this. Further, he doubtlessrealized that his interest, in spite of the obviousness of this stratagem, waspiqued. I could not blame him, accordingly, for feeling some irritation orresentment. I hoped Grunt knew what be was doing. He had already, in his trickwith Ulla and Lenna, in my opinion, been treading on dangerous ground. Suddenlythe Dust Leg, Grunt speaking to him, broke out in laughter. It took me a momentor so to understand what was happening, but, in an Ehn, it became quite clear.
The Dust Leg, if interested, was to bid, sight unseen, on what lay beneath thekailiauk hide. The whole thing was, in effect, a joke and a gamble. The matternow put in a clearer light, the Dust Leg, and his fellows, were delighted. Hetried to walk about and peep beneath the hide and Grunt, with great apparentearnestness and seriousness, hurried about, tugging down the hide at the edges.
Red savages, on whole, are fond of jokes and gambles. Their jokes, to be sure,might sometimes seem a bit eccentric or rude to more civilized folk. A favoritejoke, for example, is to tell a young man that his kaiila offer to the parentsof his prospective woman has been refused, thus plunging him into despair, untilwith roars of laughter, he is informed that it has been accepted. This type ofthing, incidentally, does not count, culturally, as a violation of truthtelling, a practice which the red savages take with great seriousness. Gambling,too, is of interest to the savages. Common games are lots, dice and stoneguessing. Betting, too, may take place in connection with such things as thefall of arrows, and the appearance and movements of animals, particularly birds.
Kaiila races, perhaps needless to say, are very popular. An entire village islikely to turn out to watch such a race. What was going on, further, could notbe clearly understood unless it is understood that the Dust Legs knew andrespected, and liked, Grunt. Such a game they would not have played with astranger. Theoretically, one supposes, a high bid might be made on what layconcealed beneath the hide and then the hide, the bid accepted, might bewithdrawn to reveal a wench as ugly as a tharlarion, but the Dust Legs knew, inthe practical context, that Grunt would not do this to them. They understood, inthe context, that he would be sure to put something not only good, but verygood, beneath that hide. Similarly, since bids are almost always lower on anunseen commodity, he would be, in effect, making them a gift. The Dust Legrefused, with great drama, to go higher than two hides for what lay beneath thehide. Grunt, he made it clear, must now either accept or reject that offer. Itwas, of course, accepted, and Grunt, with some flair, threw off the hide.
Margaret, suddenly exposed, cried out with fear. She blinked against the lightand made herself, lying on her side, as small as possible. Curled naked on thegrass, revealed, terrified, owned, she was exquisite. The two friends of theDust Leg shouted out with pleasure and, striking him about the shoulders andback, congratulated him on his good fortune. Margaret cringed at their feet. TheDust Leg, more than pleased, tried to get Grunt to accept at least one extrahide for the girl, but this, of course, Grunt magnanimously refused to do. Abargain struck was, after all, a bargain to be adhered to. He was, after all,was he not, a merchant? Margaret was jerked to her knees and the Dust Leg tiedhis beaded collar on her throat. He then bound her small wrists tightly beforeher body with a long thong and, pulling her to her feet, led her away, by thefree end of the thong, followed by his friends, to his kaiila.
"They are very pleased," I said to Grunt.
"I think so," he said.
We watched the Dust Legs mounting up now, most of them, both men and women,preparing to take their leave. Ulla and Lenna were now on their feet, theirhands still tied behind their backs, their neck thongs tied to the high,decorative pommels of their masters' saddles. Their masters regarded them. Theythen slapped the girls' naked flanks with possessive pleasure, as though theymight have been kaiila. They then climbed to theft saddles, leaving the girlsafoot, naked, neck-thonged, near theft stirrups. The girls looked up at theirmasters with fear and then, as the kaiila moved, hurried along beside the loftyanimals, the grass to their thighs. I had little doubt but what they would soonbe taught their duties, both those outside the lodge and those within it. I thensaw Margaret, looking wildly over her shoulder, being drawn along, by the thongon her wrists, at the side of her own master's beast. She, too, would doubtlesssoon receive instruction on the modalities of pleasure and service to be exactedby a red master of a female slave, and one who was merely white.
We watched the Dust Legs moving away, across the grasses.
"It was a good trading," I said.
"I think so," said Grunt. "We were all, I think, well satisfied."
"Do you think the two fellows with Ulla and Lenna are sufficiently pleased?" Iasked. "You did, it seems, maneuver them to some extent."
"I do not think they minded being maneuvered," he said. "Did you not see howthey struck the girls on their flanks, so possessively, so pride fully, sogood-naturedly? They are more than enough pleased to have such girls on theirtethers, to lead them home, to add them in with their kaiila and other stock."
"You are right," I said.
"Take this one to the stream," he said, indicating the dark-haired girl we hadacquired for the three hatchets, she lying on the grass near us, "and see thatshe has a bath."
"I will," I said. "What are you going to do?"
"We will make camp here," he said.
"Here?" I asked.
"There is water nearby," he said, "and wood."
"You are going to stay for a time at the trading point?" I asked. This puzzledme. This was the last trading point in the territory of the Dust Legs. It didnot seem to me likely that more Dust Legs were to be expected, certainly not forsome time. I myself was anxious to move eastward.
"For tonight," he said.
"We could make five pasangs before dark," I said.
"We will camp here tonight," he said.
"Very well," I said.
He went over to the girl lying in the grass. "Womnaka, Amomona," he said.
"Womnaka, Wicincala."
"Ho, Itancanka. Ho, Wicayuhe," she said.
"She speaks Dust Leg," he said. "She then will also be conversant with Kaiila.
These are two closely related languages, or, better, two dialects of a singlelanguage. Fleer is also related to them, but more remotely."