not, they will be punished, severly, or, if the master wishes, slain.
'Perhaps I am too pretty to whip,' said Winyela.
'I would not count on it,' said Wasnapohdi, irritatedly.
'At any rate,' said Winyela, 'Canka, I think, likes me. He will never beat me.'
'Say that again,' said Wasnapohdi, pausing in her work, breathing heavily, 'when you find yourself on your knees, stripped, your wrists bound before you, to the whipping stake, every inch of your body bared to the stroke of his quirt.'
'You are so silly!' laughed Winyela.
'Help me put the meat I am cutting on the travois,' said Wasnapohdi.
'Must I touch it?' asked Winyela.
'Yes,' said Wasnaphdi.
'I do not really wish to do so,' said Winyela.
'Maybe Canka will not beat you,' said Wasnapohdi, 'but I assure you that I would have no compunction in doing so. Hurry now! Get busy, or I will take a bone and lash the hide off your pretty rump.'
'Sometimes,' said Winyela to me, getting to her feet, 'Wasnapohdi is vulgar.'
'Do you obey?' inquired Wasnapohdi.
'I obey,' said Winyela, loftily, tossing her head.
'Put your head down, and say that, humbly,' said Wasnapohdi.
'I obey,' said Winyela, her head down.
'More humbly,' said Wasnapohdi.
'I obey,' said Winyela, more humbly, half sobbing, putting her head down further.
'Good,' said Wasnapohdi. 'Now, come here.'
Wasnapohdi thrust eight or ten pounds of bloody meat into the willing hands of Winyela.
'Later,' said Wasnapohdi, 'you will cut up that cow over there. I will show you how.'
'That will not be necessary,' said Winyela. 'I have seen how it is done.'
Winyela then turned about and carried the meat to the travois. I took some from Wasnapohdi and carried it, too, to their travois.
'Do not be a little fool,' I said to her, at the travois. 'Let Wasnapohdi help you. She is your friend.'
'I can do it myself,' said Winyela. 'And if I do not do it will, it does not matter.'
'Do not be too sure of that,' I said.
'Canka would never strike me,' she said. 'Too, he will do whatever I want.'
'Do not forget,' I said, 'who is the master, and who is the slave.'
'In the lodge of Canka,' she said, 'I can do whatever I please.'
'Perhaps he will find it necessary to remind you that you are a slave,' I said, 'that you must obey, and be pleasing perfectly, in all respects.'
'Perhaps,' she laughed.
'Perhaps you wish to be reminded that you are a slave,' I said.
'That is absure,' she said.
'Do you know that you are a slave?' I asked.
'I know it,' she said, 'of course.'
'but do you know it in the heart, and in the heat and humility of you?' I asked.
She looked at me, puzzled.
'Do you know it in the deepest love of you?' I asked.
'I do not understand,' she said.
'That is where you want to know it,' I told her.
'I do not understand,' she said, angrily.
'Beware,' I said, 'lest your secret dream come true.'
'Canka will never beat me,' she said. Then she drew the hide cover over the meat, to protect it from the flies.
I looked about. From where we stood I could see at least a dozen fallen animals, their bulk, like dark mounds, dotting the plains. Too, here and there, we could see women, with their kaiila and travois, working, or moving about.
'Cuwignaka and I must get back to work,' I said.
'I wish you well, Slave,' said she.
'I wish you well, too, Slave,' I said. I then went to join Cuwignaka.
'Canka will never beat me,' she called after me.
'Perhaps not,' I said.
'Come, Winyela,' called Wasnapohdi. 'There is meat to put on the travois.'
'I am coming,' responded Winyela.
'My, there is a pretty girl,' said Bloketu, the daughter of Watonka, the chief of the Isanna Kaiila. 'but why is she wearing the dress of a white woman?'
'Perhaps she is a white female slave,' said Iwoso.
'Greetings, Bloketu. Greetings, Iwoso,' said Cuwignaka, grinning.
'You have cut a great deal of meat,' said Bloketu, honestly observing this.
'We have already made four trips back to the village,' said Cuwignaka.
I noted that both Bloketu and Iwoso were suitably impressed with this.
'How many trips have you made?' asked Cuwignaka.
'One,' said Bloketu.
I was not surprised. We had seen more than one hunter, later in the afternoon, drift back to visit with her. Bloketu was a beauty, and the daughter of a chieftain.
'Iwoso is slow,' said Bloketu.
'I am not slow,' protested Iwoso.
'It is you who are lazy and slow, Bloketu,' said Cuwignaka. 'It is well known. You would rather primp, and pose and smile for the hunters than do your work.'
'Oh!' cried Bloketu. Iwoso, he rhead down, smiled.
'It is not enough to be merely beautiful,' said Cuwignaka.
'At least you think I am beautiful,' said Bloketu, somewhat mollified.
'That is not enough,' said Cuwignaka. 'If you were my woman, you would be worked well. If you did not work well I would beat you.'
'I suppose,' she said, 'you think you could work me well.'
'Yes,' said Cuwignaka. 'I would work you well, both outside the lodge and, even better, within it.'
'Oh!' said Bloketu, angrily.
'Yes,' said Cuwignaka.
'I am the daughter of a chieftain,' she said.
'You are only a female,' he said.
'Come, Iwoso, my dear maiden,' said Bloketu, 'let us go. We do not need to stay here, to listen to the prattle of this silly girl in the dress of a white woman.'
'You might make an excellent slave, Bloketu,' said Cuwignaka. 'It might be pleasant to put you in a collar.'
Iwoso looked up, suddenly, her eyes blazing. Then she put her head down. I did not understand this reaction on her part.
'Oh, oh!' said Bloketu, speachless with rage.
'Hold,' I said to Cuwignaka. 'It is Hci.'
Riding up, now, coming through the tall grass, was the young Sleen Soldier, the son of Mahpiyasapa, the chieftain of the Isbu. 'You are too close to the herd,' said Hci. I doubted that this was true, from the tremors in the earth, the dust and the direction of the tracks.
'I have been insulted, Hci,' said Bloketu, complaining to the young man. She pointed to Cuwignaka. 'Punish him!'
'Her?' asked Hci.
