Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

The Trail Smellers Indians tell miraculous tales of their prowess. Better than dogs, they say they are, having more intelligence; yet falling short of dogs on a faint trail by reason of the fact that they sniff the air rather than the ground, and the scent may thus be overlaid by the stronger scents of the jungle, such as the overpowering scent of certain orchids or the sweet-sickly smell of bee trees o¢ Jat strong sour-sweet smell of ants which zven we white men can detect. Much of these Indian tales can we over- look, of course; but, at that, what chance would a youth, even though he knew the jungles as well as this Joselito, have of winning through such a people. to the more friendly tribes still farther north on the Rio Yapura? So I advised him kindly. “Fool,” I said. “Go up-river to your own people of the Muniwas. Raise a war party of the young men and come down and kill this Zambo and be king in his place.” His long narrow eyes fired at the thought. But after thought he shook his head. “No,” he said. ‘“They are not my peo- ple. Iam a white man.” Entéo, bom. Ishrugged. What was I to do? The affair was, after all, not mine to embroil myself with a ruler who could cut me off from the upper head waters whence came the best feathers of the egret and where I was planning to go at that very time. wre VET that same night the spirit of the lad awoke in him. The neces- vais sary deeply stirring happening was apparently his sofoolish love for this woman. So he took his mate, as a true man should, and stole a canoe; and when morning came he was gone. But not up-river to the Muniwas, as I had counseled him. What youth of twenty- two or so ever takes good advice? Partic- ularly when his judgment has been un- balanced for love of a maid? When it was found that he was gone, and with him the woman whom the king had selected for his own, Gabriel o Angelo roared so that one of his disgruntled under- lings muttered in my hearing, “Gabriel o Burro.’ And indeed his gross, hair-cov- ered belly panted beneath his open pajama coat in keeping with his voice, like a wind- broken mule’s. Furious inquiry brought trembling Indians 109 of the little settlement which fringed the riverbank below the s#zo who said that they had seen him come softly by night with the woman and take an uba, a light dug-out, and paddle swiftly downstream. Then I knew what was in his mind. He was speeding to Andreas in the Putu- mayo, where there is a mission, in order to get married like a white man forsooth. But, tcha-tcha, what foolishness! I could. have told him what would happen. Gabriel roared and swelled at the neck, and gave orders for a-fast canoe with six paddlers to start immediately in pursuit; and to come back with both the fugitives; or it would be better for them not to come back at all. The result, of course, was inevitable. What chance has a two-paddle canoe, one of them a woman—even though she be a Huitoto—to outdistance six strong men born with paddles in their hands? They took but a hurried supply of farinha of the mandioca yam and sped from the bank, verily like an arrow, using the short choppy pulling stroke of all these Indians of the Iga. Not like my Huitotos, who use a long stroke, pushing from the shoulder, which is perhaps not quite so speedy, but which they can keep up for endless hours at a stretch while they take turns to maintain a hum- ming rhythm of mm-m—hmm mm-m—hé on two notes. The Huitoto method, I think, is better. Yet I knew that these pursuers would keep up the chase without a break for rest or food, resting in relays of two at a time and taking for nourishment only the farinha gulped down with river water dipped up in a gourd, on which fare they can subsist for a month if need be. My heart pained me for that young man; for I knew what the outcome would be. And Gabriel saw his canoe go off and shout- ed his last threats at the men, and then returned to pant in his chair after that ex-. ertion. And slowly, as his breath came back to him there came with it the smile, fat and oily and very evil. And he began to tell me with gusto what he would do to that couple who had so dared to flout his royal authority. But I had other business to attend to, and left him to his own enjoyment. I had a leak in one of my boats to stop, and I was in difficulty, for I had no calking material. But I overcame it after much thought by Comiclbool ) C© 5}