Arthur O. Friel

“ When at length they stopped they stood looking silently at each other for a long minute before she turned away and sank into a hammock.
Then I looked around and found the Indians gaping in vast astonishment. And up rose the voice of the Bat, who had been peering like a real bat let loose in sunlight.
“Tupahn is too gentle with his woman. Why does he not strike her or kick her? To twirl her around the fire will do no good.” ”

“ So the time passed until the feast, which the older women tended, was ready for eating. We four squatted on the chief's mats and ate our fill. After a rest, the festa started up once more.
Tiring of the scene, Pedro and I went strolling around the place, looking at the great jars, some of which would hold twenty gallons each; at big bags knitted from fiber-twine, hides of jungle beasts, blow-guns and spears and arrows, and anything else that happened to catch our eyes. Nobody paid the least attention to us now, and we examined every sort of thing the tribe owned. ”

“ The right kind of a pal, mind you, will meet you half-way, and no bossing is needed. That's the sort of partner I've wanted—and never found. So when it's come to a question of whether I was to boss or be bossed—as it always has—why, I made it clear that I wasn't going to be the under dog in the combination. ”

“ The old man's tone showed disbelief. “To clutch a woman about the middle and drag her around the floor? Truly the white men and women are a queer race. Let them learn to dance from the people of the Bat.” ”

“ Most of 'em were salaried men, chained to their jobs for life—and some of the women acted as if they were afraid I'd contaminate their precious hubbies by my yarns about the jungle. They were getting smaller and narrower every day of their lives ”

“ Up home it's different, of course. There the big idea is that a man must not only bring home the aforesaid bacon but serve it on platinum plates to some pampered doll who spends her life powdering her nose. ”

“ We're all animals, more or less—we've got to eat, and we kill weaker animals to feed us. We prowl around and fight to get things away from other man-animals, and the weak get crushed and mauled and maimed by the strong, as they do in the animal world. And real animals are a lot more respectable than a good many humans; they're not hypocrites. In the animal world you never find a skunk pretending to be a lamb, but you sure do find that very thing in the highest circles of human society.
“Same way with Indians, mostly. The more uncivilized they are, the more honest and straightforward ”

“ One chap told me right out that I'd better get back to the wilds—that I didn't fit any more in the States, but maybe I'd 'make good' down here if I worked hard enough. 'Making good,' of course, meant making money. ”

“ When they once start in they'll show you some endurance that'll make your eyes pop.”
She smiled, but frowned too.
“They're just animals, aren't they? They think only of their appetites—hunting and drinking. The women do all the work.” ”

“ Gets as full as any of them, or fuller. I've seen a couple of these masked parties in other Tucuna malocas, and the Jurupari got spifflicated along with the rest of the gang. He's not such a bad demon, you know—just a mischievous rascal who gets blamed for all the little accidents that happen; they think all their mischances are caused by his playing tricks on them. ”

“ And as for women working, why not? Maybe you think these fellows haven't done anything today. Believe me, they've worked hard to find and kill this meat, and the women haven't done a thing while they were gone but hang around the house and talk. ”

“ The women worked with unhurried steadiness, some who had nothing to cook rolling up heavy jars which the men eyed thirstily. By the time we four had eaten a hearty morning meal the house was well filled with toiling women and lolling men. ”