The Bridge in the Jungle Read Free Page B

And if you ask me I am sure she is not a bit sad about it that this guy left her. It isn't that. It is only that she can't have the same fun every night that worries her.'
    We sat down and ate tortillas and frijoles while the girl was baking the few fish I had caught early that morning. She just laid them upon the open fire and all she did was to watch that they didn't get burned.
    The hearth was a simple affair. It consisted of an old wooden box, three feet by two, which had been filled with earth and put on four sticks.
    In the afternoon I rode with Sleigh over the prairie to look at the cattle. We also searched for fresh tracks of antelope. As I had expected, there were no such tracks.
    'They must have migrated,' Sleigh said. 'They sometimes do and then you can't possibly find any tracks.'
    Early in the evening when we were eating dinner I asked Sleigh whether only the people who lived in this settlement would be at the dance. He explained that at least eighty, even a hundred, other people would join the party. They would come from all directions, from settlements, hamlets, and huts hidden deep in the jungle, and they would come from little places along the river-banks and from ponds and creeks in the bush. Many would travel from five to eight miles on horseback, on mules or burros; some would come from even farther away.
    'How does the pump-master advertise this party?'
    'No difficulty at all,' Sleigh said. 'Whichever native comes this way is told that on this Saturday or that there will be a dance at the pump-station, and that music has been ordered already. So every passer-by takes the word wherever he goes and the people who receive the word repeat it to their neighbours and friends and whoever comes their way. It's remarkable, I tell you, how quickly such a notice reaches twenty miles in every direction.'

4
    Night had fallen and we were on our way to the pump-station on the other side of the river.
    While passing Sleigh's neighbours, I observed that one hut had a lantern tied by a string to a post in its portico. When I came closer I saw an Indian sitting on a bench and playing a fiddle. He seemed to be about forty-five years old. A few silky black hairs, so few that one could easily count them, framed his brown chin. I was sure that because of these few hairs his friends called him the one with a beard. He played pitifully badly, but he tried hard and with some success to keep time.
    'What's that?' I asked Sleigh. 'I thought you said the dance would be at the pump-station.'
    'Sure enough. Well, the fact is I don't know. Anyway, I don't think the dance will be here.'
    'Then why should these people here have cleaned up the whole front yard? And here's this elegant lantern. They don't look to me so fat that they'd use lanterns just for the fun of it.'
    'In a minute we'll know all about it. The pump-master will tell us. Anyway, why shouldn't they have their own dance if they want to? There are always two or three parties going on around here. Perhaps he has had a row with the pump-master and wants to have his own party.'
    We had reached the opposite bank. On one post of the portico of the pump-master's hut there also was a lantern hung up. The light it gave was less bright than the one we had just seen at the fiddler's. This lantern was smoking and the glass was not cleaned. But the square in front of the pump-master's hut was well swept.
    Six Indian girls who were constantly giggling about nothing in particular tried to sit on a rough bench which wasn't long enough for three. They were already made up for the dance. Their beautiful thick black hair was carefully combed and brushed. They wore it hanging down their backs, reaching almost to their hips. On their heads, fastened to their hair, they had crowns made of fiery-red wild flowers. Their brightly coloured muslin dresses were clean and neatly ironed. A heavy odour of cheap, strongly perfumed soap surrounded them. When they saw us coming, they stuck their heads