Black Friars

“ These men believed in and taught the blessedness of poverty.
Many of them came over from the Continent and settled in various parts of the city. If you pick up a map of London, even one of to-day, you will see such names as Blackfriars, Whitefriars, Crutched Friars, Austin Friars—showing where they made their homes. Some, the Black Friars, took up a position and eventually built for themselves a fine monastery and church just outside the city walls at the mouth of the Fleet River. Others, the White Friars or Car [198] melite Monks, made themselves secure just to the west of the Fleet. ”

“ The "Hole of the Black Boar" is to be seen still. The piper and the tinkers went to the public house, and they were drinking till they were drunk, then they began fighting, and you may be certain that the piper did not come out of Urlaur with a whole skin.
The friars built up the walls and the roof of the house and passed prosperous years in it, until the accursed foreigners came who banished the friars and threw down the greater part of the house to the ground. ”

“ III, m. 6: ‘ccc ulnas panni grisei’ for Minorites; and m. 3: ‘Lij ulnas Russetti ad tunicas faciendas ad opus xiij fratrum Minorum de Rading’, scilicet ulnam de precio xi denariorum ad plus.’ Four ells went to make a habit. The quality was not the best, the ordinary price for russet—i.e. undyed cloth of black wool—was 1s. 4d. an ell; Rogers, ‘Hist. of Prices,’ II, 536-7. At the end of the fourteenth century Friar W. Woodford says that the friars were better clothed in England than elsewhere owing to the abundance of wool in this country; Twyne, MS. XXI, 501. ”

“ Were the people of Caño Cerbatana sick? No, they were very well.
“Then why do they have black skins?” I demanded. “If they have no sickness, why are their skins not clean like those of other Maquiritares?”
There was a long pause. The Indians looked at one another, but said nothing. Then I thought perhaps these men had painted themselves dark in order to hunt better, just as they all paint their legs with wavy red stripes of onorte to keep snakes from biting them. I asked if that was it.
“No,” one answered slowly. “It is not paint.” ”

“ There have been cases which I could name, where friars, coveting the wife or sister of a man, have procured his banishment or even secured for him an appointment at a distance, so that they might have the way open to accomplish their purposes. There was a fear which beset every man, even those who through fear were nearest to the friars, that if his eyes should light upon his wife or daughter in an envious way, if he did not give them up he was lost. ”

“ I sat him down in his hammock and stood looking at him. In a dazed way I felt that this was why he had itched so badly last night; it was the change in his skin. And faintly I seemed to hear again the words spoken at the camp where we met the black Indians:
“In one day they had fever. In three days they turned black. They never can turn light again.”
I remembered, too, the things of which I had thought that night when I puzzled about the changed skins. And now, some how, I knew why this had been done to those men, and why it now was done to White ”

“ He was a striking man; tall, and strongly shaped; with curly dark hair, big blue eyes with long lashes, and splendid white teeth which gleamed now and then as if he were thinking of a joke. The dark hair and blue eyes seemed odd together, but yet they made him all the better looking. His jaw was well set and his lips full and good-humored, making him look much more manly than the eyes. But the most handsome thing about him, I think, was his skin.
It was as clear and clean a skin as that of a baby—a girl baby. ”

“ Because of that black brand, he now roams like a caged tigre from end to end and from side to side of that Parima upland which has become his prison, and in which walks no other white man except, at times, Loco León. It is a huge outdoor prison, to be sure—hundreds of miles long and wide—but still a prison; for that blackened skin and the cancered mind it has given him will hold him there forever.
How he lives, what he does, where he goes, are questions which white men may ask but which receive no answer; for the mouths of the Maquiritares, who alone know, are shut. ”

“ The people are poor, living for the most part in grass houses, while the friars are rich and live in luxury; and this has been going on for centuries.”
“Bad, very bad; the morals of the tropics and the Orient.”
“This is not all. The friars exercised the power of secret investigation, and one never knew when he was safe. A friar might report a man as a conspirator against Spain, and, [19] while meeting him and showing friendship for him in public, secretly secure his banishment. ”

“ Those who were there were nursing very young babies or cooking food in clay vessels over tiny fires. They paid no attention to us, at least while we were looking their way; and we gave very little attention to them. In fact, we looked less at the women than at the dogs we found lying here and there—the usual small black-haired, cruel-eyed hunting-dogs of the Maquiritares—and the setting hens crouching against the walls. In one little “apartment,” as White called it, we found also a tame pauji which, our guide said, had been caught when a very young bird, and which followed us a few steps. ”

“ Neither White nor Juana was with them.
They told their tale briefly to Juancito, who sat for a time looking solemnly at the edge of the forest. Then he spoke a few words. The five went to the house and put away their weapons, and the chief walked slowly away by himself, his face giving no sign of his thoughts.
“They have followed Juana and found her,” one of the men with me explained in Spanish. “She was with el blanco. The white man who now is black takes no rest by day. He goes on and on and does not stop. He seems not to know or care where he goes. She walks behind him. ”

“ One of the small boys who had been standing about and watching everything decided to leave us, and did so by disappearing through the bark wall. White, who seemed to have recovered his temper, saw him go and spoke.
“Just how do these people arrange the family quarters?” he asked. “I’ve been in these houses of theirs before, down on the Caura, but only in the men’s room, like this. I know the married folks live between the walls—there’s no other place for them—but how do they arrange things?” ”

“ As on my first visit here, I found no other men on the caño or at the port. And, as then, I let the two Maquiritares go up the hill path first, though I did not wait this time for them to announce my coming—I followed close behind. We had almost reached the paragua when one of my men saw something which I had not noticed. Pointing, he spoke to me.
“El blanco est’ aquí,” he said. “The white is here.”
He was pointing at the open shelter where White and I had slept. There, true enough, still hung a hammock. ”

“ You may judge for yourselves, señores, whether a man who never has lied to save himself or his money would tell false tales about matters that profit him nothing.
Now you were speaking of that tale which most men here have heard, but which is new to you strangers—that of El Blanco Negro, or Black White; the man of mystery who roams like a lost soul through the Guayana mountains south of here, and who never is seen by any man except the Indians who live there. ”

“ And of the Friaries once flourishing in Hull nought remains but their mere names.
‘Even where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, even there shall the dogs lick thy blood also, O King.’ Such was the text which a certain Grey Friar used when he had occasion to preach before King Henry. A bold man he must 202have been thus to take his fate into his hands. What the fate of Friar Peto actually was is not recorded, but we know that the Grey Friars and the Carthusian Monks were treated with particular brutality. ”

“ She's after you hard. First thing you know she'll feed you some of that red yucut' 'sehi that turns you black. You'll be a nigger-white like me. A dead man, like me! Dead! Dead! Dead like El Blanco Negro! A dead man walking in the night! ”

“ You put into the red yucut’ ’sehi the black blood—you poisoned me—like the men of Caño Cerbatana—you made me——”
He choked and clawed at his throat. And though he spoke English, she understood what he meant. And in her short Spanish she answered, her eyes never wavering.
“Si. You took me. Then you would go. My father knows. A week he has known. He would kill. But I would not have it. You are my man. You will stay with me. You are no blanco. You are negro. You can not live with blancos. You will live with Maquiritares. ”

“ They looked at my big black gun-muzzle, at the man gasping and writhing on the ground—some one had kicked him in the stomach, and he was struggling for breath—and broke away. I stood over him and roared at them.
“Mad!” I repeated. “You made him so. Now you try to kill him because he is what you made him. You are snakes! You are poisoners! Are you murderers too?” ”

“ However, they had some consideration for her and waited for her to give birth to a child before whipping her. You know that the friars spread the belief that the only way to deal with the natives is with the whip. ”

“ He struck her in the face. She fell senseless, six feet away.
With a wild laugh he jumped at Juancito. His fist cracked under the chief’s ear, and the capitán dropped as if shot.
In another instant he was among the Indians, kicking, striking, attacking the whole tribe of Uaunana with his knotted black hands and laughing like a fiend from hell.
Men threw themselves at him, their faces flaming. None had a weapon, but none ran to get one. With hands curved like talons they leaped to claw him, to choke him, to throw and break him. ”

“ I lay awhile thinking, and wondering how Juana had succeeded in fooling her father. But while men are men and girls are girls, there will always be ways for them to meet while older people sleep. White still lived, showing that no trouble had broken out. And now that he was going, all would be well. So I turned over and slept. The last thing I heard was White scratching.
A sudden startled curse roused me. Day had come again. White was sitting up in his hammock, staring at his hands. ”

“ We men laughed a little, and White swung toward the Indians inside the hut, who had stopped working and were closely watching their capitán. Now their grave faces relaxed and they resumed work—they were hollowing out a log trough.
“And that’s the way it goes,” said White. “A chap stops on the corner—a shed-corner, this time—to watch some fellows work, and along comes the female of the species and tells him it’s tag-day. And what can the poor boob do? ”

“ White suddenly turned his back to them.
“Savages!” he said. “Absolute savages. Imagine these men deliberately making themselves hideous for life like that! All for some fool Carib idea, of course. Think they’re making themselves invisible to enemies, maybe, or something of the sort. I’d rather die by slow torture than do such a thing to myself. I don’t want to look at ’em any more. Br-r-r! Good night!”
“Buen’ noche’,” I answered. And no more was said.
For a time I lay wondering about those blackened skins, and I thought of a number of things which later were to come back to me. ”

“ While I waited for this drink to be made I talked lazily to all the men around me, giving them such news of matters outside the hills as would interest them. Knowing that they wished also to hear something from me about White, although they asked no questions, I said he was a Norte Americano who had traveled on the Caura and now was returning to that river, and that we were going together to the Maquiritare settlement highest up on the Ventuari, from which the two Maquiritares now with us had come. ”

“ Pedro demanded, his finger still on the trigger.
“River-traders, amigo. What news of Black Hawk? How come you to be alive in his land? And—Nossa Senhora! A woman! A white woman! What does this mean?”
“It means that Black Hawk is dead,” I answered. ”

“ Thinking of all this, I decided that later on I would ask the Maquiritares for their side of the story. And that night I did so.
We thumped steadily on down the stream, and for a long time I stood where I was. White remained in the cabin—there was nothing else for him to do—and after awhile I looked in to find him asleep.
We reached the Ventuari even sooner than I expected, and at dark we were camping in a snug little port three miles up on the south side. Not once had I seen or heard anything more of the Yabaranos. Except myself, every man was very tired. ”

“ We Maquiritares slept in the big house, with the unmarried men. The blanco slept outside, in a little house made for him. Last night the moon was bright. It was late. The dogs barked loud. Men went to look. They saw the tall woman leave the house of the blanco and run to her little window. She crept in. It became quiet.
“The Yabaranos do not like such things. The men talked. When day came we told the blanco we all must go. We made ready. Men came and told us we must stay. The blanco must stay until the man of the tall woman came in. Then the two should settle about whose woman she was. ”

“ One change in the life of the friars—their gradual approximation to the seclusion of the older Orders, may be illustrated by two passages from Matthew Paris and Wiclif (allowance being made for the prejudices of the writers) . The friars, says the Benedictine historian, ‘wandered through cities and villages,’ and ‘had the ocean for their cloister’ (Chron. Majora, V, 529) . Wiclif attacks them for living ‘closed in a cloister,’ instead of going about among the people, ‘to whom thy maie most profite ghostlie ... ”