The Sky And The Forest Read Online Free PDF Page A

grey.”
    Loa shook his head in admission that this was more than he could understand.
    “What did these men do?” he asked.
    “They tied the people together. With poles. They tied one end of a pole to someone's neck, and the other end of the pole to someone else's neck.”
    Loa had never heard of such a thing being done. The whole story was of something beyond his experience, beyond his scanty traditions.
    “What did they do next?” he asked.
    “They came to the banana groves to cut fruit. And in the old clearings there were many people hidden besides me, people who had run into the clearings when the town burned. They saw us, and they came after us. They had axes and swords, and I think they caught all the other people.”
    That was quite probable; a man with a sword to cut a path for himself would easily overtake an unarmed fugitive trying to make his way through the tangled undergrowth of an overgrown clearing.
    “And you?”
    “I went right through the clearing. A man was chasing me but he did not catch me. I came into the forest and I ran from him and then he did not chase me any more. But still I ran, and when I stopped I did not know where I was.”
    This was something everyone could understand; there was a murmur of agreement in the listening throng. To lose one's way in the forest was very easy indeed; to be fifty yards from the nearest known landmark was the same as being fifty miles from it if once the sense of direction was lost. Loa knew now the explanation of Delli's network of old scars. Plunging through an abandoned clearing to escape pursuit would tear her skin to ribbons. She must have been streaming with blood by the time she reached the forest. The newer scratches must have been acquired in the ordinary course of life in the forest, searching for food.
    “Where was your town?” he asked.
    Bewilderment showed itself in Delli's face again.
    “Many days. Many days away. I do not know. I looked for it.”
    There was a puzzled murmur from the crowd. It was hard enough for anyone there to realize even that other towns existed. But everyone in the crowd knew his town so intimately and well. Despite their knowledge of the ease with which one could lose oneself in the forest, it was impossible for them to sympathize with someone who simply could not say where her town was. They could not put themselves in her mental situation; a woman might as well say she did not know where her own body was. Delli's face did not lose its look of bewilderment; her expression was fixed and she was staring at something far away.
    “I cannot stand,” she said faintly, and with that she abruptly sat down.
    Still bewildered in appearance, puzzled by the strange new feelings within her, she swayed for a moment, and then her head came forward to her knees, and next she toppled over on one side and lay limp and unconscious. Musini came forward and knelt over her, and prodded the bony back and the skinny loins. She raised one of the skeleton arms and shook her head over it with distaste.
    “Nothing there now,” she said, letting the limp arm drop to the ground. “She has long been hungry.”
    “In a pen she will grow fat,” said Loa, looking round at Vira, who nodded. It was Vira who attended to the temporal business of Loa's rule, as Indeharu attended to the spiritual. Loa had to say nothing more about the pen; Vira would attend to that. Loa looked down at the skinny limbs; plenty of food, and some days of idleness in a pen, would fill them out again. Even a healthy well fed human was all the better for three or four days in a pen; idleness improved the quality of the meat. Moreover this stranger with the queer speech and the odd experiences might be a more welcome visitor to his father Nasa than some ordinary man or woman of the town -- Musini for instance -- as she would bring with her an element of novelty. She might amuse Nasa while she served him.
    “See that she has food, plenty of food,” said Loa to Musini.
    It