'I fear them terribly,' she said, 'particularly since I became a slave.'
'Interesting,' said Iwoso.
Bloketu trembled.
'I have seen men looking at you,' said Iwoso. 'Do you know that sometimes they are looking at you?'
'Sometimes, Mistress,' she said.
'Your body is nicely curved,' said Iwoso. 'Doubtless some of these men, doubtless low men, might find you of intrest.'
'Of intrest, Mistress?' asked Bloketu, frightened.
'Yes,' said Iwoso, '-sexually.'
'Perhaps, Mistress,' said Bloketu, frightened.
'Perhaps I shall have you thrown to them,' she said.
'Please, no, Mistress,' begged Bloketu.
'I own you,' she said. 'I will do with you whatever I want.'
'Yes, Mistress,' sobbed Bloketu.
'Your father was a traitor,' said Iwoso. 'And you, too, were a traitor. Sometimes I think the best thing to do with you would be to bind you and have you turned over to the remnants of your people, for their judgment. Doubtless they have ways of dealing with traitors.'
'Do not give me for judgment to my people,' begged Bloketu.
'Do you beg, rather, to remain my maiden?' asked Iwoso, amused.
'Yes! Yes!' said Bloketu.
'Beg properly,' said Iwoso.
'Bloketu, your maiden, begs mercy of her Mistress,' said Bloketu. 'She begs to be permitted to remain the maiden of her mistress.'
'Perhaps,' said Iwoso. 'We shall see.'
'Yes, Mistress,' said Bloketu.
'Continue combing,' said Iwoso.
'Yes, Mistress,' said Bloketu.
With one long, even, swift stroke of the knife I opened the back of the lodge. Cuwignaka and Hci, swiftly, before the girls could react, had pressed into the lodge and seized them, throwing them to their backs and holding their mouths shut.
I followed them into the lodge. I handed each a rolled ball of hide and fur. Thses were thrust, loosening and opening, into the mouths of the girls, expanding immediately to fill their oral cavities. I then handed Cuwignaka and Hci two long, flat strips of leather. With these, looped about and then drawn back tightly between the teeth, and then looped about again, and again drawn back tightly between the teeth, and then tied behind the neck, the packing of hide and fur was inflexibly, unexpellably, fixed in place. The girls looked up at us, terrified, gagged.
We then, with thongs, Cuwignaka working with Bloketu and Hci with Iwoso, tied each girl's hands together before her body. Cuwignaka then removed the pieces of hide, tied on with strings, which had served Bloketu as a subsitute for moccasins, from her feet. Hci removed Iwoso's moccasins. He then, too, drew from her legs the soft, almost white, tabaukhide knee-length leggings which she had worn. Cuwignaka then, with another thong, tied together Bloketu's ankles and Hci, working swiftly, served Iwoso in the same fashion. Quickly then, with knives, their clothing was cut from them. Only the collar was left on Bloketu's neck, Iwoso's collar.
We looked down upon our handiwork. We were pleased.
I then produced two long, specially prepared leather sacks. Iwoso shook her head wildly.
We then slipped each girl, feet first, into a sack. These sacks, by design, are a relatively close fit for a girl. In them she can do little more than squirm. Each sack, further, has two sturdy leather handles which come up, high, quite high, one on either side of the occupnat's head; if these handles are held together, or tied together, the closure between them will usually be twleve to eighteen inches over the girl's head. By means of these handles, of course, the sack may be provided with a variety of means of transport.
We then, by means of eyelets at the top of the sack, and thongs, and looping the tongs about the necks of the girls and tying them through the eyelets, fastened each girl in her sack. It was now impossible for them to inch or squirm their way free. Hci, with evident pleasure, tied the thongs under Iwoso's chin. there is also an interior edge, some twelve to eighteen inches in height, on each sack. This edge, however, we left folded in. By means of this edge, and its own eyelets, which are aligned with the lower eyelets, to make lacing in the lower position convenient, the sack may be, if one wishes, brought out to its full length and closed completely over the head of the girl. This, too, of course, makes it impossible for the occupant, then totally inclosed, to free herself.
Iwoso made angry noises, almost inaudibly, muffled in her gagging.
'Would you like to tell us that we will not be able to get away with this?' asked Hci.
Iwoso nodded vigorously, and Hci smiled. She then, in fury, in frustration, was silent, her words having been so easily anticipated.
'You look well tied in a slave sack,' said Hci to Iwoso.
Iwoso's fury was but inadequately expressed because of her bonds, the sack and the gag.
'I am sorry, Lady Iwoso,' I said, 'but we did not have any sacks on hand which were appropriate for a free woman, sacks compatible with their dignity. We had to make do with what we had.'
Iwoso regarded me with fury, and then looked away.
Bloketu made piteous, tiny noises, trying to attract the attention of Cuwignaka.
At last he looked at her.
She whimpered piteously.
'Be siletn, slave and traitress,' he said to her.
She put her head back, moaning. Tears ran from her eyes. She trembled. She had hoped to trade on te affection which she knew he had once held for her. Surely he would let her go! Surely he would show her mercy! But her pleas had gone unheeded. She shuddered, helpless in the confining leather. Her eyes were wild. Her worst fears, it seemed, might now be realized, that she be returned to the Kaiila nation, there to face the stern justice of her people.
'go to your stations,' I said to Cuwignaka and Hci. 'Leave the kaiila hobbled outside. I will meet you at the prearranged rendezvous.'
'The Kaiila will rise again,' said Hci.
'Our plans proceed apace,' said Cuwignaka.
'Yes,' I said. 'The council of all the bands of the Kaiila, of the Isbu, the Casmu, the Isanna, the Napoktan and the Wismahi, of all the remnants of the Kaiila people, will take place at Council Rock at the end of Canwapegiwi.'
Cuwignaka, Hci and I clasped hands. Then Cuwignaka and Hci, as silent as shadows, moving through the cut I had made in the back, left the lodge.
I looked at the fair captives, helpless in their sacks, and then built up the fire a bit. I must wait for a time.
Iwoso uttered tiny, desperate, entreating noises. 'Please be siletn, Lady Iwoso,' I said to her, putting my finger gently across my lips.
She was then silent.
The fire, then, after a time, suitably subsided.
It had served as a clock. Factors such as impatience can occasionally distort one's subjective estimations of the length of various temproal intervals. These confusions and distortions, of course, are eliminated, at least to a large extent, by having recourse to various stages in some presumably continuous,
objective process. It this not the sort of thing which is involved in the ringed candles, in the tiny stream of water in the clepsydra, in the falling sand in the Ahn glass, in the alternation of day and night, and in the calendar of the stars? I stirred up the fire again, so that I might better see what I was doing. By now Cuwignaka and Hci should be in place.
I stood up.
The girls looked at me in fear.
Their fears were not allayed in the least when I, having fetched a stout rawhide rope, crouched down next to them and tied one end of this rope about the handles of Bloketu's sack and the other end about the handles of
