breechclout and be a man. Again he refused. We then boundhim in his women's dress and sold him to the Dust Legs.'
'I had no quarrel with the Fleer,' said Cuwignaka.
'The Kaiila have a quarrel with the Fleer, and you are Kaiila' said Canka.
'The Fleer have not injured me,' said Cuwignaka.
'Your grandfather was killed by Fleer,' said Canka.
'And we, too, killed Fleer,' said Cuwignaka.
'How is it that you have dared to return to the Barrens?' asked Canka.
'He was brought,' I said. 'The white soldiers brought him. He could not help it.
'They brought me,' said Cuwignaka, 'but I would have returned anyway.'
'Why?' demanded Canka.
'Because I am Kaiila,' said Cuwignaka, 'no less than you! ' 'Do you think you are a man?' asked Canka.
'I am a man,' said Cuwignaka.
'You do not wear the breechclout,' said Canka.
'It is not permitted to me,' said Cuwignaka.
'Because you are a woman,' said Canka.
'I am not a woman, ' said Cuwignaka.
'If you return to camp,' said Canka, 'you will live as woman. You will wear thedress of a woman and do the work of a woman. You will scrape hides and cook. Youwill gather kailiauk chips for the fires. You will tend lodges. You will pleasewarriors.'
'I will not please warriors,' said Cuwignaka.
'I think that I will give you as a female slave to Akihoka,' said Canka.
'I will not please warriors,' said Cuwignaka.
'That is the first duty of a woman,' said Canka, 'to obey men, and be pleasingto them.'
'I am not a woman,' said Cuwignaka.
'You do not wear the breechclout,' said Canka. 'And these others, too, do not,' he said, surveying Grunt and myself.
'A yard or two of cloth,' I said, 'does not determine manhood in my country.'
'In his country, and in mine,' said Grunt, 'one might wear the breechclout andnot be a man, and one might be a man and not wear it.'
'That is apparently not the way of the Barrens,' I said. 'Here, in your country,it seems all that matters is whether a certain garment is worn. If that is thecase, in your country, manhood is cheap, costing no more than the price of astrip of cloth.'
'That is not true! ' said Canka.
'Be careful,' said Grunt to me. 'Be careful, my friend.'
'The breechclout does not make manhood,' said Canka. 'It is only a sign ofmanhood. That is why we do not permit those to wear it who are not men.'
'Cuwignaka is a man,' I said, 'and you do not permit him to wear it.'
'It is fortunate for you that you are not a warrior,' said Canka.
'Akicita hemaca!' I said angrily, in his own language, striking myself on thechest. 'I am a warrior!'
'Be careful,' said Grunt. 'Do not put yourself within the coup system.'
Canka sat back on the kailla. 'I do not know if you are a warrior or not,' hesaid. 'But it is perhaps true. You did free Cuwignaka. You are thus, at least, abrave man.You have the respect of Canka'
I was puzzled. I had not expected this attitude on his part.
'Was it you,' I asked the young warrior, 'Who staked him out?'
'It was Kaiila,' said Canka, carefully.
'It was Hci, with his fellows of the Sleen Soldiers, of the Isbu, the son ofMahpiyasapa, civil chieftain of the Isbu, who did it,' said Cuwignaka.
'It was not Canka, then, and the All Comrades, who did it?' I said.
'No,' said Cuwignaka. 'But it was Canka, and Hci, with the Ali Comrades andSleen Soldiers, who first put me in the dress of a woman and later bound me inthat dress and took me to the country of the Dust Legs, there selling me as aslave. That was on the decision of the council of the Isbu, presided over byMahpiyasapa.'
'Canka,' I said to Cuwignaka, in Gorean, 'does not seem to be displeased thatyou have been freed.'
'No,' said Cuwignaka.
'You wear the dress of a woman,' said Canka to Cuwignaka, suddenly, angrily. Hesaid this, personally, emotionally. It was as though he, somehow, found thispersonally shameful.
'I am Cuwignaka,' said Cuwignaka, defiantly.
'You hold to a lance of the Kaiila,' said Canka. 'Surrender it'
'It was you yourself who, when you found me staked out, placed it unbrokenbeside me. It was you yourself who took the woman's dress which Hci had thrownbeside me and wrapped it about the shaft of the lance.'
Canka did not respond to this. Such an action, of course, had served to mark,and conspicuously, the place where the lad had been fastened down. The locationhad been marked, almost as though with a flag. Grunt and I had seen it almostimmediately upon coming to this portion of the field. And even had there beennone to see it, at least none of our common world, that marker, the unbrokenlance, the cloth wrapped about it, might have seemed to have served some purposeto he who had placed it there, perhaps standing for some measure of recollectionand respect. This it might have mutely symbolized, if only to the grass of theBarren, the winds and clouds, and perhaps to those of the Medicine World, shouldthey exist, who might have looked down upon it, and pondered it.
'Surrender the lance,' said Canka.
'No,' said Cuwignaka. 'You put it beside me, and it is unbroken.'
'Surrender it,' said Canka.
'I will not,' said Cuwignaka. 'If you want it, you must take it from me.'
'I will not do that,' said Canka. Then he said, 'You were freed. Someone mustpay.' He was looking at me.
'He is my friend,' said Cuwignaka.
'I am Blotanhunka,' said Canka. 'Someone must pay.'
'I will pay,' said Cuwignaka.
'What is owed here,' said Canka, 'it is not yours to pay.'
'I will pay,' said Cuwignaka.
'It is not you who must pay,' said Canka. 'It is another who must pay.'
'I am a warrior,' I said to Canka. 'I demand the right of combat.'
'I do not wish to kill you,' said Canka.
This startled me. It seemed to me that Canka had shown me unusual solicitude. Hehad protected me with Akihoka Keglezela, in the matter of the trade goods. Now,it seemed, he had no wish to enter into combat with me. He was not afraid of me,of that I was sure. I had little doubt but what he thought he could kill me, ifsuch a combat were joined. As a red savage I had little doubt but what heregarded himself as the superior or equal of any white man in single combat.
White men, on the whole, did not even count as being within the coup system.
Similarly, he had explicitly professed his respect for me. Thus it did not seemthat his disinclination to fight with me was motivated by any supposed indignityor shame in doing so. He was not refusing to fight with me as the larl mightrefuse to fight with the urt.
'I do not understand,' said Grunt to me, in Gorean.
'Nor do I,' I said.
'He does not seem to bear you any hostility,' said Grunt.
'No,' I said.
'Someone must pay,' said Canka.
'Then we must fight,' I said, stepping back.
'I cannot fight you, for a reason which you cannot understand,' said Canka, 'butthese others, my friends, the All Comrades, do not have this reason.' Several ofhis fellows, at these words, grasped their lances more tightly. Their kaiilamoved under them, sensing their excitement.
