Akawaio people

Part one.

Within gun reach in front of me trudged my little Akawai Indian hunter.

He turned his head suddenly, his ears catching some sound which mine had missed, and I saw that his profile was rather like that of Dante.

Instantly the thought spread and the simile deepened.

But the clothes would cost five dollars, a month's wages, and he had promised to get married, white fashion, in another month, and that would consume several times five dollars.

I did not offer to help him decide.

His Akawai marriage ceremony seemed not without honor, and as for its sincerity, I had seen the two together, but my lips were sealed.

I could not tell him that a recementing of the ritual of his own tribe did not seem quite the equal of a five-dollar suit of clothes.

Part 1.

Within gun reach in front of me trudged my little Akawai Indian hunter.

He turned his head suddenly, his ears catching some sound which mine had missed, and I saw that his profile was rather like that of Dante.

Instantly the thought spread and the simile deepened.

But the clothes would cost five dollars, a month's wages, and he had promised to get married, white fashion, in another month, and that would consume several times five dollars.

I did not offer to help him decide.

His Akawai marriage ceremony seemed not without honor, and as for its sincerity, I had seen the two together.

But my lips were sealed.