their backs upon them they were at once surrounded by the whole band,
crying and gesticulating, and opposing their departure with a sort of
determined playfulness.

At the same time a word often repeated, the word _Huatinmio_, began to
enter largely into their conversation, and piqued the curiosity of
the historiographer. Marcoy begged the interpreter to procure him the
explanation of this perpetual shibboleth. Half by signs, half in the
polyglot jargon which he had been employing with the Siriniris, Garcia
managed to understand that the word in question was the name of their
village, situated at a small distance and in a direction which they
indicated. In this retreat, they said, no inhabitants remained but
women, children and old men, the rest of the braves being absent on
a chase. They proposed a visit to their capital, where the strangers,
they said, honored and cherished by the tribe, might pass many
enviable days.

The proposed excursion, which would cause a loss of considerable time
and a deflection from the intended route, was declined in courteous
terms by Marcoy through the interpretation of Pepe Garcia. Among
civilized folk this urbane refusal would have sufficed, but the
savages, taking such a reply as a challenge to verbal warfare,
returned to the charge with increased tenacity. It were hard to say
what natural logic they put in practice or what sylvan persuasions
they wrought by, but their peculiar mode of stroking the white men's
backs with their hands, and the softer and still softer inflections
which they introduced into their voices, would have melted hearts of
marble. In brief, the civilized portion adopted the more weakly part
and allowed themselves to be led by the savage portion.