The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1894-08-25
CHAPTER NIN.-ContInue

II
cry of surprise. You know it is in
the tree" he cred. You know my
soul is kept there, Why, Tia, who
tod you that: ana you woman. Bal
medicine, indeed. Some man has been
b abiding wha1 he lea med in the mys-
teries. If this should reach the ears
of the King of the Rain" ne paused
mys eriOusiy.
What WHAT Tia cried, Selling
his hand in hers, and pressing it hard
TO her bosom in her anxiety aud eager
ness. Tell me the secret. Tell me-
With sudden sharp howl of darting
pain. Tu-kila-kiIa withdrew her hand.
she had squeezed the finger the par
rot had bitten, and blood began once
more 10 flow from it freely.
\ wild impulse Of rcveng" came over
the savage He caught her by the
neck with his other hand. pressed her
throat hard till she was black in the
face, kicked her several times with
ferOcious rage and then flung her
away from him to the other side ofthc
hut with . fierce and untranSla tabic
native imprecation.
la. shaken and hurt. darted away
toward the door, with IA of ab Get
terror. For every reason on earth she
was intensely alarmed. Were it
merely as a matter of purely earthly
tear, she had ground enough for fright
in having so reused the nasty anger Of
that powerful and implacable creature
He would kill her and eat her with far
/ less Compunction than an English
farmer would kill and eat one OF his
own barn-yard chickens. But besides
that, it terrified her not a little in
{ >
of good falling upon the earth so
freely. She knew not what awful re-
suits to herself and her race might fol
low from so terrible desecration
But to her utter aStunishmcnt, the
great god himself, mad with rage a,
| he was, seemed none the less almost
as profoundly frightened and surprised
a. she herself was. What did YOU 90
/ that for he cried, now sufficiently re-
covered for thought and speech
wringing his hand with pain, and then
popping his finger hastily in his mouth
to ease It. You are clumsy thing.
And you want to destroy me, too, with
your foolish clumsiness
He looked at her and sCOwlcd lie
was very angry. But the savage
woman is nothing if not quick-witrcd
and polite. In flash Of intuition,
Cla saw at once he wa, more fright
ened than hurt: he was afraid of the
effect OF this strange revelation upon
his own reputation for supreme god
ship. With every mark and gesture
of depreCatOrv servility the woman
sided back to his side like a whipped
dog. For a second She looked down
on the floor at the drops Of blood; then,
without one word of warning or one
instant's hest ton, she bit her own
finger hard till bloc flowed from it
freely. II vii show this TO Fire and
Water, she said; holding it up before
his eyes, all red and bleeding. II will
say you We're angry with me and bit
me for punishment, as you often do.
They will never nnd out it was The
blood of goi. Have no fear for their
eyes. Let me look at your finger"
Tu-klla-kIla, half aFpeased by her
clever quickness, he'd his hand out
sulkily. like dIsobed.cnt Child. Tia
examined it close "A bite she sand,
shortly. "A bite from bird, a peek
from a parrot
Tu-Kila .Kila ierked out a surly as
sent.
Yes, the Soul OF all dead parrots.
he answered. with an angry glare.
1t bit me this morning at the King
of the Birds. F" 4 vicious brute. But
no one saw it. >
Tia put the finger up to her own
mouth. and sucked the wound gently.
Her medicine stanched it. Then she
took thin leaf of the paper mulberry.
soft, cool, and soothing, and bound il
round the place with strip Of the
Iace-like inner bark, as deity as any
hospital nurse in London would have
done II. These savage women are cap
ltal hands in sickness. Tu-Ki a-kila
sat and sulked meanw lille, like a dis
appointed child. When Tia had
finished, she nodded her head and
gtided softly away. She knew her
chance Of learning the secret was gone
for the moment, and she had too much
Of the gile of the savage woman TO
unnecessarily while her lord wa.in his
present ungraCioIs humur.
As she stole from the hut. Tu-kila-
klla, looking rucfully at his wounded
hand, and then at that light and supple
retrcatlng figure, muttCrel sulkjlv to
himself, with very bad grace. 1.-The
woman knows too much. She knows
that Tu-kiIa-hila' life ana soul are
bound M in the tree. She knows that
bled, and that the parrot bit me- II
she blabs, as woman Will do, mischief
may come of 1t. | am a great god, a
very great god keen, blOodthIrSty.
cruel And l like that woman. But
II would be wiser and safer. perhaps.
after all, to fOregO my affection and TO
make great feast Of her"
And la, looking back with a smile
and nod, and holding up her own bit
ten and bleeding hand with a farewell
shake, as if 10 remind her divine hu.-
band OF her promise to show il to Fire
and Water. murmured low To herself
as she went, He is very great god:
very great Eoi, no doubt: but | hate
him. He would eat me tomorrow if
didn't coax him and wheedle him and
Keep HIM In good temper. Eou want
TO he sharp, indeed, to he the wife OF a
god. ] got OF to-day with the skin of
my teeth. He might nave turned and
killed me. II only could find odt the
Great Taboo. | would tell il 10 the
stranger, the King o. the Rain. and
then, perhaps. Tu-ktla- kila would die.
And the stranger wOuld become tn
kila-hila in turn, and would be one
OF his wives: and Toxic, who is his
Shadow, would return again to the
service Of Tu-kila-Kila's temple
But Fire. as she passed, was saving
TO water. We are getting tired in
Boupiri Of Lavity, the ION OF Salni. If
the ac6 Of the island is not 10 change,
II Is high time. Think, We should have
a new Tu-kila -kita
CHAPTER ny.
COUNCIL. OF VAR.