United States or Zambia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was by means of this second sight that the "Golden Seahorse" had been located, and that I had been selected from among the crew to carry out a project which the wise men had in view, and the particulars of which I was about to learn. The chief of the wise-ones, who acted as spokesman, now informed me of the reason I had been brought to the island.
Those who, like Sylvia, have red hair, are mostly freckled and rosy, which, so far from detracting from their beauty, rather adds to their charms. The dark-haired ones are burnt brown by the sun. I was now taken by Sylvia to be presented to the wise-ones, at whose instigation I had been brought to the island.
The king took to him all the men in both islands, giving up to the queen the women, to become her subjects. Since then the Male and Female Islands had been managed as separate communities. There was no king or queen now, the people of both islands being ruled by the wise-ones, who lived on the mountain tops in the Female Island.
"None could make their way back through the tunnel against the stream." "At least, tell me then," I continued, "your name, for what purpose I am brought here, and whither you are taking me." "My name is Sylvia Cervantes," replied my captor, proudly. "As to why you are brought here, ask the wise-ones whom you shall presently see. Yonder islands are the Islands of Engano."
Sylvia now summoned the islanders to see my work. They came from all parts, and raised so great a shout when they saw their enemy dead that the sound of it reached the wise-ones on the mountain-tops, who peered down at the beast where he lay in a morass of blood which deluged the sand so that it ran into the stream, dyeing the water a deep red.
That evening a feast was held in my honour; some of the men from the Male Island came over, by special permission of the wise-ones, in order to be present, and to see the man who had slain the monster against which they had been unable to prevail. The men from the Male Island I found to be as free from ill-will toward one another as were the women on the Female Island.
The justice of my claim was not to be denied, and with the dawn of the morrow the wise-ones undertook to ascertain the direction in which the ship lay and to send me aboard her.
We have no room on the Islands of Engano for strangers." I now bethought me of how I might best set about the task of vanquishing the monster which held the Female Island in terror, and which, from the description given me by the wise-ones, I judged to be a crocodile.
If any happened, the wise-ones interposed, and soon put an end to the difference. In all my travels I never met with happier or more gently disposed persons than the people of the Male and Female Islands of Engano.
Next morning the wise-ones, according to promise, informed me, by means of their power of second sight, that my ship was in the place where I had left her, which seemed probable, as it would no doubt be on land that Hartog and my friends would be looking for me.
Word Of The Day