Panayota

“ Who comes here runs a greater danger than that of the knife."
"Yes, I know. Violence," whispered Panayota, turning her face toward the door and listening.
"Who would offer violence to a leper?"
If there is any horror in a Cretan girl's mind equal to that of dishonor it is the horror of leprosy—that hideous sore on the body of the loveliest siren isle that floats in any sea. Panayota, in her vigorous and life-giving mountain home, had heard leprosy spoken of as a curse of God. ”

“ In the midst of Panayota's new terror—that of betrayal—sounded the boom of another gun and the crash of near-by walls. Her tormentor screamed and clutched both hands into the back of a tall Turk, in whom fear had proved a stronger passion than lust or fanaticism, and who was fighting a way to safety through his weaker neighbors. Panayota, suddenly released, fell clear of the human stream against the corner of a hut that stood by the roadside. ”

“ Panayota, her glorious eyes streaming with tears, her white hands clasped to her bosom, was looking to heaven and silently praying. Curtis felt his soul uplifted. The narrow walls of the ravine changed to the dim aisle of a cathedral; he seemed to hear a grand organ pealing forth a funeral march.
"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
When he opened his eyes he found himself in hell. Two or three Turks, grinning with diabolical hate and derision, were spitting at the dead Cretans. ”

“ Bah! Kostakes is no good. He is only half a man—he is half Greek."
Hassan had grown suddenly voluble. Kostakes, with his incomprehensible doings, was evidently a thorn in his flesh. Rage, indignation, pity, swooped down upon Curtis like a flood, now hot, now cold, as he thought of Panayota, restrained in the house of that square-jawed, cruel, supercilious Turk, subject to his vile solicitations. ”

“ Panayota felt as though the very food were contaminated, but she managed to eat some of the bread, pulling morsels from the center of the loaf. Once again she heard voices from without, and started from her seat, whispering:
"The Turks are coming!"
"Fear nothing here," said Aglaia, in that calm, uncaring voice; "you are as safe here as if you were in your grave—safer, for the Turks sometimes exhume the bones of Christians, but they never disturb us. We are all dead in this village, dead to the hate of the world, to its love, to its friendship." ”

“ She could not shut the door, as two or three of the lepers had crowded into the opening.
"Doesn't like our looks, eh?" said another. "Never mind, brothers; she'll look like the rest of us soon enough—and you, too, for that matter, Madam Aglaia. There's nothing in the world like leprosy as a cure for pride."
Thanks to Panayota's sobs, she did not hear the remark, but Aglaia did, and felt all of its cruel force. ”

“ Panayota could make no reply. Human sympathy seemed a mockery in the face of such sorrow as this. She stepped to the door and looked out. All was silent in the narrow street. The lepers are not a gay folk, and sleep is to them God's greatest boon.
"They do not even fear the Turks!" she muttered. "My God! Suppose I should catch it! I must get away from here."
Turning, she looked keenly at Aglaia, who sat with hands clasped in her lap, rocking gently forward and back.
"But you do not seem to be sick, my sister. Why do you think you have leprosy? You look as well as I do." ”

“ Take them away!" moaned Panayota, covering her face with her hands and retreating behind Aglaia. And suddenly her overwrought nerves found vent in tears, and she began to sob violently. Aglaia, but little better accustomed to the horrid spectacle than her guest, found her voice with difficulty.
"Go away," she said, "for your souls' sakes! Do you not see that you are frightening the poor thing to death?"
"Perhaps she doesn't think I am beautiful," said the Face, with a laugh. "I had come to ask her to marry me."
"Are you Christians or Turks?" ”

“ I never pray for myself. I am past all help. But I pray, pray night and day for my children."
"But there is another world," said Panayota, solemnly. "Do you never ask for happiness in that?"
Aglaia laughed bitterly.
"Listen," she replied. "My children never come here. I would not allow it. But sometimes I go down to the bank by the roadside, where the other lepers go to beg, and my husband brings them, and stands afar off, and I look at them and stretch my arms toward them. Is there any greater hell than that? When you're a mother you will know." ”

“ Panayota turned her eyes toward the smoky and cobwebbed rafters and crossed herself. The steel cross in the door leaped to a parallel of presented muskets, and Kostakes Effendi reappeared. Twirling his mustache, he gazed perplexedly at the group within the café, but recovered himself in a moment and advanced smiling.
"So his reverence is quite well again! I am glad to see it, very glad. I feared that his skull was fractured. A musket butt is no plaything."
The Turk assisted Curtis to the door, and into a cavalry saddle on the back of a respectable looking horse. ”

“ The speaker's voice was drowned in a pandemonium of shrieks and sobs.
But again the priest was heard, reverently, distinctly, firmly, like the voice of Christ calming the waters.
"They are with Christ in paradise. Still I say unto you, courage. Since God is with us who shall stand against us?"
"Panayota was with them, but her dress caught in a thorn bush, and before she could tear herself loose the Turks had her."
Every eye in the church was riveted upon the priest. The cross rattled to the floor, and his arm dropped to his side. ”

“ The demarch came in again, accompanied by Lindbohm and a stalwart mountaineer. The Swede had a gun in his left hand. In the grime of his powder-blackened face his eyes looked unnaturally blue. But they were no longer childlike. It was rather the blue of an angry sea.
"Panayota's taken," he said to Curtis.
"I know it."
"There's nothing to be done now except to rally the men and rescue her." The Swede did not talk like a man in despair. He seemed, on the contrary, exalted by a great resolve.
"We will get together and fall upon Kostakes like a thunderbolt. We'll not let him go far. ”

“ Let the heavens fall and the earth yawn, so she escape from Kostakes and his kin! The ever-increasing stream of humanity ran, scrambled, and, as it grew denser, fought its way on to the city gate, through which it poured into the dusty road beyond. Once outside the city a momentary feeling of relief possessed the throng, as though they had arrived at a place of safety. They did not cease to run, but there was a lull in the frightened chatter. A woman seized Panayota by the arm and addressed to her a voluble question in Turkish, between gasps for breath and hysteric sobs. ”

“ Curtis felt a great spasm of rage contract his heart, and a queer sickness swoop down upon him. He wanted to kill Kostakes, he did not know exactly why. The man certainly had a right to love the girl; it is any man's inalienable right, established from the beginning of the world, to love any girl; and the protestations of protection were exactly what Curtis wanted, but somehow they made him sick and mad. In the midst of all this killing, why couldn't he do a little for himself? Then Kostakes bent lower, and attempted to lift Panayota's hands to his lips. ”

“ About the middle of the sixteenth century the isthmus of Darien had become the gate-way between the two seas, and Panamá the most important city of America. Situated upon the world's highway and in the very centre of the Spanish colonial possessions, through its portals must flow the treasures of Peru from the south, the products of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Guatemala from the north, and the trans-oceanic traffic of the Spice Islands from the west. Thus Panamá became not only the metropolis of the two Americas, but the half-way house and toll-gate between western Europe and eastern Asia. ”

“ If the wind wanted to blow his new panama into some lower treetop, compelling him to throw stones, perhaps to its permanent damage, in order to dislodge it, why, that was just one more cause of offense to pin to his indictment of irritation against the great island republic of Caracuña. Such is the temper one gets into after a year in the tropics.
Like as peas are panama hats to the eyes of the inexpert; far more like than men who live under them. ”

“ The island of Panay has twenty-five thousand Indians as tributarios, or about one hundred thousand souls, rather more than less. It is one hundred leguas in circumference, and has sixteen encomenderos, and fourteen religious of the order of St. Augustine, in six monasteries founded there—one on the river of Panay, which is in the royal crown lands of your Highness, and the other five monasteries in villages of the encomenderos. All the other villages of this island, which is the best in that land, after Luzon, are without ministers. ”

“ The boundaries of the municipality extended about forty-five leagues in every direction from the three leagues of city lands in the centre.
The natives of the New World, and they alone, were expected to support the new city, and through Panamá to send great wealth to Spain. The object of the Spaniards was not agriculture, except to save themselves from hunger; nor even mining, except as they could force the natives to dig; it was unadulterated robbery, with only the lame excuses of civilization and Christianity, and Panamá was but a pirates' nest. ”

“ The Indians with whom the visitor to Panama most frequently comes into contact are those of the San Blas or Manzanillo country. These Indians hover curiously about the bounds of civilization, and approach without actually crossing them. They are fishermen and sailors, and many of their young men ship on the vessels touching at Colon, and, after visiting the chief seaports of the United States, and even of France and England, are swallowed up again in their tribe without affecting its customs to any appreciable degree. ”

“ In 1873, a law was enacted to compel the wild Indians to adopt the usages of civilized life, and prompt action was recommended by the executive of Panamá in 1874, but nothing came of it. [XXVII-69]
There are but few families of the higher class in Panamá, and time is required to establish a footing of intimacy with them. Considerable has been said in Europe against the character of the women of Panamá, which is not borne out by fact. Much real worth exists among them. Indeed, the native women of the Isthmus generally, possess the best qualifications. ”

“ The Isthmian Indians are very skilful boatmen and fishermen. Their canoes are often seen in Colon harbor, where they come to sell their catch. These Indians belong to the Tule or San Blas tribe, that occupy and rule the Atlantic side of the Isthmus, from about forty miles east of Colon to South America. The Pacific side of this part of Panama is held by another tribe of Indians, the Chucunaques. Both pride themselves on keeping their race pure, despise the mongrel, half-breed Panamanians, and forbid white men to settle in their country. ”

“ This island possesses neither mines nor gold-placers; the only cloth it produces is medriñaque, which, as I have said before, resembles calico, and is made from a kind of wild banana.
Island of Panaon. Between this island and that of Mindanao, which lies north and south, is the island of Panaon. It is about eight leagues in circumference, and three leagues wide. The population is poor, and numbers only about one hundred men, who belong to one encomendero. ”

“ Though it has an area as big as the State of New York, with its twelve million inhabitants, the Republic of Panama has a population of only three hundred and fifty thousand. Most of these are negroes, with a slight admixture of Indian blood, being the descendants of the Spanish slaves or workmen on the railroad or the Canal. Nearly all the white blood, as well as most of the wealth and business of the country, is concentrated in a small aristocracy, sometimes called the "Ten Families." ”

“ Under the red lights at midnight Panama shows its worst. Men of varied voyages, familiar with the slums of Singapore and the purlieus of Paris declare that this little city of a hybrid civilization outdoes them in all that makes up the fevered life of the underworld. Scarcely a minute’s walk away is the American town, quiet and restful under the tropic moon, its winding streets well guarded by the Zone police, its houses wrapped in vines and fragrant with flowers all dark in the hours of repose. ”

“ In view of the fact that the Isthmus of Panamá may before many years become much more than it has heretofore been, a great highway of nations, and that the great interests which will be constantly at stake on the route will demand an effectual protection, it is self-evident that measures of a permanent character must in time be adopted to secure that end. Panamá, as an appendage of Colombia, and at the mercy of an irresponsible population, cannot afford that protection ”

“ Since the establishment of the constitution of 1863, 557 Panamá has been considered a good field by men aspiring to political and social position without risking their persons and fortunes. They have ever found unpatriotic Panameños ready to aid them in maintaining the quondam colonial dependence, and investing them with power, that they might grow fat together on the spoils. ”