United States or Guam ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When they returned, long after, the creatures, their feet bound together, were heaped on the fire to which the women had added bundles of driftwood. And as the struggling turtles slowly expired the men danced about the fire to the sounds of hissing flesh and crackling embers. "Now go!" Choflo commanded after the flames had spent their fury. "Go to your shelters.
Did Choflo hope that the quarry would kill him, or at least elude him? In either event he would be out of the way. The whole thing seemed very mysterious but he had no alternative but to obey. Oomah was young, tall and strong. As he walked there was the rippling play of well-formed muscle under his brown skin.
I alone will remain to study the heavens and read the pleasure of the god." But no sooner had the dancers departed than Choflo too entered his hut to sleep. The path was now open to Warruk. He had watched the fire and the dancing but there was no longer awe in his heart for the man-creatures. A savage rage and the desire for revenge had taken its place.
A cap of a joint of slender bamboo was fitted over the end of the missile to prevent the rain from washing away the supposed poison, and it was ready to be delivered to Oomah. Choflo had been guilty of treachery of the vilest kind.
"And my arrows bounded off his neck and shoulders as from the horny back of a turtle," another added. "The phantom bears a charmed life. Our weapons cannot harm this monster from the other world that has come to destroy us." "Listen!" Choflo commanded. "Thus have I solved the mystery. Tumwah is not angry with us. He is angry with this evil spirit which is usurping his power on earth.
From our places of concealment we will watch them but they shall not see us." "What would Choflo say?" one of the more timid ones asked. "We will not ask Choflo," another promptly replied. "He says too many things and always makes us do the things we hate to do." "You forget," Oomah advised them, "that Choflo is leader of the tribe. So long as he lives he must be obeyed."
And the children, with tear-stained faces, gathered wood that had been stranded along the edge of the sandbar. But the youth wandered about listlessly, barely conscious of the activities that were going on all around him. Choflo had gone to the forest early in the forenoon. At mid-day he returned, carrying a bundle of slender stems in his hand.
Therefore the spirit of vengeance will be cheated for there is no one to slay. There is no other man in the tribe without family upon which revenge could fall." "As I said before," Yaro admitted, "Choflo knows all things. He speaks truly and wisely." Then turning, he muttered to himself, "But he is determined to be rid of Oomah so that Wana, son of his sister may become leader of the people."
"Speak, Agoo, are these tidings true?" Oomah asked. "There is even more. Scarcely had Choflo died than a blanket of dark clouds rolled across the heavens and rain fell throughout the night. Tumwah had been appeased. We are saved. The earth is saved. And you, Oomah, shall be rewarded and honored above all men." The Patocos stood about in a spell-bound group.
But the honor that shall fall upon the slayer will be great for, even as he sends the charmed arrow crashing on its mission of beneficent destruction knowing that in so doing he is sacrificing the life of his most beloved, he shall also know that he is the savior of the race." Choflo paused so that his words might have their full effect. Then he continued. "Now go!" he commanded, rising.
Word Of The Day