Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest

open daylight, where things seem what they are, and imagination, like a juggler detected and laughed at, hastily takes itself out of the way. As I walked home

l fables ancient and modern, and all tragedies-to end at last in a concert of howling monkeys! Certainly the conce

leaves, and the higher part of the foliage was of a luminous green, like green flame, thro

y were savages, with ways that were not mine; and however friendly they might be towards one of a superior race, there was always in their relations with him a low cunning, prompted partly by suspicion, underlying their words and actions. For the white man to put himself mentally on their level is not more impossible than for these aborigines to be perfectly open, as children are, towards the white. Whatever subject the stranger within their gates exhibits an interest in, that they will be reticent about; and their reticence, which conceals itself under easily invented lies or an affected stupidity, invariably increases with his desire for information. It was plain to them that some very unusual interest took me to the wood; consequently I could not expect that they would tell me anything they might know to en

r's roof and sat down among my friends to refresh myself with stewed fowl and fish from th

iumphantly, his joy overcoming the habitual stolid look; while all the others gathered about him, each trying to get the box into his own hands to admire it again, notwithstanding that they had all seen it a dozen times before. But it was Kua-ko's now and not the stranger's, and therefore more nearly their own than formerly, and must look different, more beautiful, with a brighter polish on the metal. And that wonderful enamelled cock on the lid-figured in Paris probably, but just like a cock in Guayana, the pet bird which they no more think of killing and eating than we do our purring pussies and lemon-coloured canaries-must now l

ting an account of what I had seen and heard in the forest of evil fame. I replied carelessly that I had seen a great many birds and monkey

I, the stranger not to the manner born-not naked, brown-skinned, lynx-eyed, and noiseless as an owl in his movements-had yet been able to look

I took up a little white wood-ash in my hand and blew it away with my breath. "And against other enemies I have this," I add

against some enemies; also-truly enough-that it w

was to be my reward for giving him the box! I readily consented, and with the long weapon, awkward to carry, in my hand, and imitating the noiseless movements and cautious, watchful manner of my companion, I tried to imagine myself a simple Guayana savage, with no knowledge of that artificial social state to which I had been born, dependent on my skill and little roll of poison-darts for a livelihood. By an effort of the will I emptied myself of my life experience and knowledge-or as much of it as possible-and thought only of the generations of my dead imaginary progenitors, who had ranged these woods back to the dim forgotten years before Columbus; and if the pleasure I had in the fancy was childish, it made the d

not poisoned, and it therefore mattered little whether they were wasted or not. I believe that on this day I made some little progress; at all events, my teacher remarked that before long

laughter, which was no bad imitation of the howling monkey's performance, and smote his naked thighs with tremendous energy. At length recovering himself,

r it amused me to see him acting in this unusual way. But they all failed of their effect-there was no hitting the bull's-eye a second time; he would only stare vacantly at me, then grunt like a

eet with larger game, I left him and returned to the village. The blow-pipe practice had lost its novelty, and I did not care to go on all day and every day with it; more than that, I was anxious af