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Green Mansions-Part5_W.H.Hudson(1841-1922)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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true that these exhibitions were always witnessed by the adults

with a profoundgravity, which would have disheartened a stranger



to their ways. They were a set of hollow bronze statues that

looked at me, but I knew that the living animals inside of them



were tickled at my singing, strumming, and pirouetting. Cla-cla

was, however, an exception, and encouraged me not infrequently by



emitting a sound, half cackle and half screech, by way of

laughter; for she had come to her second childhood, or, at all



events, had dropped the stolid mask which the young Guayana

savage, in imitation of his elders, adjusts to his face at about



the age of twelve, to wear it thereafter all his life long, or

only to drop it occasionally when very drunk. The youngsters also



openly manifested their pleasure, although, as a rule, they try

to restrain their feelings in the presence of grown-up people,



and with them I became a greet favourite.

By and by I returned to my foil-making, and gave them fencing



lessons, and sometimes invited two or three of the biggest boys

to attack me simultaneously, just to show how easily I could



disarm and kill them. This practice excited some interest in

Kua-ko, who had a little more of curiosity and geniality and less



of the put-on dignity of the others, and with him I became most

intimate. Fencing with Kua-ko was highly amusing: no sooner was



he in position, foil in hand, than all my instructions were

thrown to the winds, and he would charge and attack me in his own



barbarous manner, with the result that I would send his foil

spinning a dozen yards away, while he, struck motionless, would



gaze after it in open-mouthed astonishment.

Three weeks had passed by not unpleasantly when, one morning, I



took it into my head to walk by myself across that somewhat

sterile savannah west of the village and stream, which ended, as



I have said, in a long, low, stony ridge. From the village there

was nothing to attract the eye in that direction; but I wished to



get a better view of that great solitary hill or mountain of

Ytaioa, and of the cloud-like summits beyond it in the distance.



From the stream the ground rose in a gradual slope, and the

highest part of the ridge for which I made was about two miles



from the starting-point--a parched brown plain, with nothing

growing on it but scattered tussocks of sere hair-like grass.



When I reached the top and could see the country beyond, I was

agreeably disappointed at the discovery that the sterile ground



extended only about a mile and a quarter on the further side, and

was succeeded by a forest--a very inviting patch of woodland



covering five or six square miles, occupying a kind of oblong

basin, extending from the foot of Ytaioa on the north to a low



range of rocky hills on the south. From the wooded basin long

narrow strips of forest ran out in various directions like the



arms of an octopus, one pair embracing the slopes of Ytaioa,

another much broader belt extending along a valley which cut



through the ridge of hills on the south side at right angles and

was lost to sight beyond; far away in the west and south and



north distant mountains appeared, not in regular ranges, but in

groups or singly, or looking like blue banked-up clouds on the



horizon.

Glad at having discovered the existence of this forest so near



home, and wondering why my Indian friends had never taken me to

it nor ever went out on that side, I set forth with a light heart



to explore it for myself, regretting only that I was without a

proper weapon for procuring game. The walk from the ridge over



the savannah was easy, as the barren, stony ground sloped

downwards the whole way. The outer part of the wood on my side



was very open, composed in most part of dwarf trees that grow on

stony soil, and scattered thorny bushes bearing a yellow



pea-shaped blossom. Presently I came to thicker wood, where the

trees were much taller and in greater variety; and after this



came another sterile strip, like that on the edge of the wood

where stone cropped out from the ground and nothing grew except



the yellow-flowered thorn bushes. Passing this sterile ribbon,

which seemed to extend to a considerable distance north and






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