Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/278

 liberty from the minds of the harassed jungle-folk. In their own primitive way these two wild creatures loved one another with something more than mere animal passion. Laish was more fearful on the girl's account than even on his own, and she looked to him for protection and felt certain that he would fight in her defence. For the moment, however, the girl's heart was really more occupied with her old grand- mother than with her lover; and it never occurred to Laish to relieve her of any part of her burden, nor did she expect such service from him.

The long procession wound its way in single file up the bed of the tributary stream until the midday sun showed clearly over their heads through the network of vegetation. The Sâkai all walked in precisely the same manner, each foot being placed exactly in front of its fellow, and cach individual treading as nearly as possible in the footsteps of the man in front of him. Experience must, in some remote and forgotten past, have taught the forest-dwellers that this is the best and quickest way of threading a path through dense jungle, and in the course of time ex- perience has become crystalized into an instinct, so that to-day, even when walking along a broad high- way, the Sâkai still adopt this peculiar gait. You may mark a similar trick of successively placing the feet one exactly in front of the other in many wild animals whose lives have been passed in heavy forest.

At last old Ka', who was leading, halted, and his followers stood still in their tracks while he grunted out his orders. A steep hill, some five hundred feet