head the blow-pipe I was carrying in my hand, but his astonished
look as he turned to face me made me pause and prevented me from
committing so fatal an indiscretion. I could only grind my teeth
and struggle to overcome an almost overpowering hatred and wrath.
Finally I flung the tube down and bade him take it, telling him
that I would not touch it again if he offered me all the sisters
of all the savages in Guayana for wives.

He continued gazing at me mute with astonishment, and prudence
suggested that it would be best to conceal as far as possible the
violent animosity I had conceived against him. I asked him
somewhat scornfully if he believed that I should ever be able to
hit anything--bird or human being--with an arrow. "No," I almost
shouted, so as to give vent to my feelings in some way, and
drawing my revolver, "this is the white man's weapon; but he
kills men with it--men who attempt to kill or injure him--but
neither with this nor any other weapon does he murder innocent
young girls treacherously." After that we went on in silence for
some time; at length he said that the being I had seen in the
wood and was not afraid of was no innocent young girl, but a
daughter of the Didi, an evil being; and that so long as she
continued to inhabit the wood they could not go there to hunt,
and even in other woods they constantly went in fear of meeting
her. Too much disgusted to talk with him, I went on in silence;
and when we reached the stream near the village, I threw off my
clothes and plunged into the water to cool my anger before going
in to the others.