seen nothing strange; your eyes are not good enough yet."

I laughed contemptuously and answered that I had seen everything
strange the wood contained, including a strange young girl; and I
went on to describe her appearance, and finished by asking if he
thought a white man was frightened at the sight of a young girl.

What I said astonished him; then he seemed greatly pleased, and,
growing still more confidential and generous than on the previous
day, he said that I would soon be a most important personage
among them, and greatly distinguish myself. He did not like it
when I laughed at all this, and went on with great seriousness to
speak of the unmade blowpipe that would be mine--speaking of it
as if it had been something very great, equal to the gift of a
large tract of land, or the governorship of a province, north of
the Orinoco. And by and by he spoke of something else more
wonderful even than the promise of a blow-pipe, with arrows
galore, and this was that young sister of his, whose name was
Oalava, a maid of about sixteen, shy and silent and mild-eyed,
rather lean and dirty; not ugly, nor yet prepossessing. And this
copper-coloured little drab of the wilderness he proposed to
bestow in marriage on me! Anxious to pump him, I managed to
control my muscles and asked him what authority he--a young
nobody, who had not yet risen to the dignity of buying a wife for
himself--could have to dispose of a sister in this offhand way?
He replied that there would be no difficulty: that Runi would
give his consent, as would also Otawinki, Piake, and other
relations; and last, and LEAST, according to the matrimonial
customs of these latitudes, Oalava herself would be ready to
bestow her person--queyou, worn figleaf-wise, necklace of accouri