Song of the Sakiwenki

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 264, 6 November 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

Song of the Sakiwenki

8y... Jack Mosher

J WAS on the monkey's side from th« very l>oginning because the first thing I noticed h 1 iotll the animal trainer wns his sneer. At first [ thought this was only .% mannerism of Simon 1 jrloosh do\eloped during many years spent in 111«* twilight world of that Brazilian juriglo. Hut boforo I had lieen in his presence an hour I found that the .moor was »im[ily tho man turned inside out. "I toll yon, Carruthers," he said to mo, ns wo sat over to.i, shortly after the river boat had left ino on liis l»,i|atnwood landing, 11)0 miles up river from llio. "I toll you, there's nothing to this l)Uf<ino«s of handling wild animals, really. The stories yon print in your [in[mm- s nrn a lot of hunk!" It slriiok me then that ho had jrrown just, a little too sure of himself, "No! I jfiios-s not," I agrevd, ''if you know how I'' Th.it. made him angry. I <lidn't moan to Ihi sarcastic, nnd I tossed off the remark with a laugh, if 1 ronw iiilkt correctly. Hut ho pot sore, just the pnmo. Already, [ knew quite a hit about H-iinon Dolyleosh, from what people had told mo down around Hio. His bisr face had swollen so,meliow, turning deep boot red, a colour flint did nothing to lessen the effect of that sneer, lie put down his tea cup with a force that loft the liundle of it free in his big hand. "Lfsten," lie said tensely, "there's only one wny t.o tarn© a wild boast. That s to put the fear of the Almighty into him, see?'' "Rut it seems to me," I argued,, egging him on by this time, "that there nre two schools of thought on the matter." And knowing already that I wasn't going to like this conqueror of wild beasts. T didn't, spare him. "In fear enough?'* I demanded. "Enough T Why, of course it's enough. Do you mean to come along and tell me — -

.... Loo]<, you comc on around to the cages, smart Aleck .... and I'll show you!" Now, T thought, we're going to get places. We pushed back our chairs, and Delgleesh, with an impatient gesture to follow him, stamped oil" around the corner of his ntucco bungalow. The cages were behind the house, arranged in two long rows along each side of the clearing, and set back in the shade of stumpy cocorite palms so abundant in that part of Brazil. As we approached this enclosure, which was heavily wired on all sides and above, a spotted beast lying in one corner raised its head, and its amberyellow eyes looked us over warily. Then it got to its feet, and crawled to,ward the wire fence. At a word from Delgleesh, the jaguar flung itself against tho wires. It lnmg there, for all the world like an enlargement of a house cut caught in the chicken pen. "A beginner T" I suggested. "Yes! A beginner," Delgleesh said, turning on mo. The sneer on his face was more pronounced, out there in the blading afternoon sun of that jrtngle clearing. "But he'll learn to mind," he went on. "He's already learned quite a lot. Haven't you?" he snapped ut the dinging beast. The jaguar's opinion seemed to conflict. And since IX-1 glees h seemed to thrive on conflict of any kind, lie called loudly for (lie Brazilian cage boy. "Mere! Juan! Bring my automatic!" "Si, senhor!" a flat voice replied, from t h<! fur end of the clearing. 'Jliat end, from the sound of things, was tho monkey department.. Juan came running next, minute. TTe was \ cry Inown, with tlw dark eves "Hat, features of the half lilood. His '•lack hair hung down as far as his ! in front, and his f„ce was marked I Willi some form of small|Miv. r noticed ' "' ,ll •'nan's hand shook as h<> handed o\cr I he hig Browning automatic pistol. " Loaded '!" ''Si. senhor !'* "You're —going in there?'' T said. "Sure thing!" Delgleesh flung ofT my j rrsl rn in iny hurid. 110 was sneering more ] broadly than before. 1 sa.d nothing more as he puller! tindoor open. The jaguar had moved to! the far side bv this lime, and crouched, i all of <i\ feet in length, watching. Juan, ' I lie lira/.ilian ca-jc boy. stood In-side me. 1 both of us as i'liwe to the wires as either of us cared to go. "'I lien Senhor |>elglce-di," Juan muttered in II thick sort, of whisper, "he | is 100 daring. Ife is a. fool!" I f fell the "inn- way, watching the trainer cuter thai, e nil uosii r i-. | > i -1111 in' hand, lint I said nothing. The spotted

cat, still crouched, did not move so much as a whisker while Delgleesh crossed the floor of his prison. His big mouth hung partially open, revealing red lower gum, and fangs altogether top long and sharp. It began to be very quiet in that clearing, like the hush that comes before the curtuin goes up on the first act of a play. Delgleesh, I realised, was working some sort of miracle in there. I ' liegan to wonder if his eyes, that sneer- ' ing expression, really gave him some strange power over the beasts o.f the forest. "There now!" he exalted, glancing quickly around one shoulder at me.

"Nothing to It, as T said, except that he's afraid, aod I> not!" Which appeared to be the truth. The jaguar, 111 response to a power which seemed to emanate frojn the trainer, had relaxed a good deal. Some of the tension uwed out of the muscle* in the creatures legs, and it began to roll over and over on its back, exactly as a house cat will do when you tickle its stomach. "Remarkable, Delgleesh!" I said. "I I take it all back. All that about there being two—" A shrill cry, almost human, stopped my speech. The cry came from the far end of the clearing, where the monkey cages were placed high up among the fronds of the cocorite palms. The strange, piercing cry was repeated. Then things happened so quickly one had not time to think about them. The jaguar had stopped rolling, coming to his feet, listening with the rest of us. Now lie came at Delgleesh, head outthrust, jaws working savagely. The trainer had only time to fling to one side. He was back on his feet in an instant, his automatic blazing. But it was too late. Tlie jaguar had reached the door of the enclosure by this time. His weight carried it before him, and he was bounding toward the far side of the clearing, headed for his favourite piece of jungle. "It's that damned Sakiwenki!" Delgleesh swore, coming out of the enclosure, brushing duet from his white clothes, and for once that I remember not sneering. "Juan I" he ordered, "bring the little beast to me, up at the house! I'll fix him!" "You think," I said, "that • monkey caused that? That he—" Delgleesh turned on me, his eyes blitzing. "I know," he shouted. "They came in together, see* Jungle pahs! A bad combination, and one I'm going to break if it takes the last ounce of strength I've pot left." And he turned back toward the bungalow. That night is one which will live in my memory for ever. It was like the first night of the grimmest sort of drama one can imagine, and which repeat* i tsolf every now and then in my min<l. According to Juan, who was also very much on t.lio side of little Sakiwenki, the monkey had twice saved the big jaguar from entering the trap Delgleesh a nil his men had set, buck in the jungle a pice. " I lie mawnke," Juan explained, in his lisping, nasal sort of Portuguese, ''is one very clever fellah. lie warn el tiyreos uway when he come near the

trap. Twice, eenhor, he screech and carry t>u what you call the song and dance. Then they went off, together, through the forest. And Senhor l)elgleesli, he very angry at Juan for not catching his prize. But the third time, wo catch both el tig Tees and the sakiwenki. So everything is all right, until this afternoon." "Ff» t«l«t m» dinner the iacuar was I "I

"He told me at dinner the jaguar was very rare," I said. Juan shrugged shadowy shoulders. "Oh, so rare, senhor!" he said. "Mo — I live all my life in theese jungle, and only once before have. I seen the Tigrees of the Trumpet Bird." "Trumpet bird —what do you mean?" "Jus' that theese fellah who get away —he have those markings on his client. The form of the bird, senlior. It is very rare, and for him there is offer a Im-cj;— oh, many times beeg price, senlior!" "And the monkey really saved him from getting into the trap? Twice?" "Si, senor! And again this afternoon. They are aminos, surely, senlior! Those two are amigos—friend*, as you would say. Jus' as the macaw is the friend of the cam ud i—the beeg water snake, senlior. You know —what the otic has not. the other possesses. And so they worked together." Juan stopped, glancing quickly toward the bungalow, where the little monkey had Ijegun to scream. "lie is move into the punishment cage to-night, senhor," tho Brazilian said. "And now, I mils' go, or 1 too will be punished." His words trailed off, and he was gone, (swallowed up in the shadows beneath the palms. After he had gone, t turned back toward the bungalow. l)elgleesh was sitting on the front porch overlooking the black ribbon of the river, when I arrived there.. "How's the culprit?" I asked, by way of starting a conversation. Delgleesh chuckled abruptly. That same sound of files scraping together. "Oh. I've fixed him all right," ho s«id. "How's that?" "I gave him his bottle to play with." "His bottle?'' "\es. Just one of my pecrets," the animal trainer said. "Kspecinlly designed to look after incorrigible young monkeys." When I sought to learn more of this method of treatment, Delgleesh evaded the point, began a conversation on the bad habits on big snakes. It wasn't the best of bedtime topic*, and after a while I rose.

"I suppose," I said, "that you'll be after the runaway first thing in the morning?" "Yes." "I'd like to go with you," I said. "So I guess I'll turn in now and get rested, (inod-night!" I undressed in my room, and flung j myself on the bed. It was a Micky night, and it was a long while before I could sleep. Then, when I finally did. it seemed to be only for a moment. I woke suddenly, sweating with something more than the reeking damp of jungle night. That same screaming I had heard in the clearing that afternoon, when the jaguar broke loose, came to me now. Vet there was a difference in the sound This time, I decided, the poor little beast wan in pain. At times his slnieks were <|uite pronounced, at other; dwindling to a mere whisper. Then lie would be <|uiet for a long, tense sort, of moment, only to break out again. >o suddenly that his cries brought, me bolt upright on thr mattress. After live minutes of that I could stand it no longer. I leapt out on to the floor, and ~ot into my trousers and rdioes. ''If he's torturing that little beast." I said to myself, "I'll beat the tar out of him.'' The house was very <|uiet. a- f went down the hallway leading to l>e|ghesh's laboratory. The little Sakiwenki had ceased fretting for the moment.. 1 wished he would begin again, make some racket to cover the sound of myelotomy feet on the squeaky floor boards. Inside the laboratory I flashed my light around. The spear of light leapt along shelf after shelf of bottles, on the far wall of the room. On a table, at one end, were books and paper*, and— oddly enough—Delgleesh's big pistol. The same one he had used that afternoon, out in the enclosure. Then mv light fell on the Sakiwcnki's cage, and I forgot all tlieee other things. For it was crawling with red ants! For about a minute, maybe longer, I just stood there, paralysed, almost fascinated by the Might of such intense misery as appeared on the little monkey's face. He wriggled this way and

that, not having enough legs to attend to the hundred and one stinging insects that beset hrm. These were the red ant.'j I'd heard about down at ltio. The kind that drove men mad, back in this horrible jungle. Just as they were driving the poor little beast before me into the first stages of insanity.

It was only when I s'top|>od closer, however. that I fully appreciated the reason behind all this paiu, the significance of Delgleesh's statement out on the porch that evening. For there, in the centre of the cage, was a long glass jar, and not far away from it. a metal lid. The curious little monkey had screwed this lid off, thu 3 freeing his tormentors. "ihe liottle!" I muttered. "It's — the bottle!" It wan the work of only a moment to free the tortured little creature. But I had 110 sooner snapped back the fastener and pulled open the door than he flung "lit, shrieking more fiercely than ever. He seemed to fly across that room, taking the desk table in his stride, and next instant lie was among the bottles on I liose .shelves along the far wall. He began to fling (hem four ways at once, and, after one or two attempt* to catch him, I gave it up. There seemed no «»ood reason for remaining i" the room, now that the damage, so to speak wh* done, and I got out as fast as niv lc;_'s would take me. Hali way back along the corridor that led to my room, I heard the door of the laboratory slam shut again. And somewhere on the other side of the house a man got out of bed in a rush. Next moment, footsteps pattered along the hall from the direction of mv room, making for the scene of the Xakiwenki's revolt. You could hear the little animal screaming with glee now above the smashing of the bottles. A horrible fdench began to creep through the bungalow. Dclglecsh was coming toward me now, along that hallway, cutting off my return to my room. I flattened against the wall, stopped breathing. He rushed past me, so intent on reaching the scene of the trouble that he didn't even notice I was there.

He burst into the room. Then the door of the laboratory slammed shut behind him, and he was alone in the place with the outraged Sakiwenki. "Here —come down, will you?" he cried. The whole affair runheA quickly to a climax after that. The smashing sounds continued to come from the room. I could hear them as I ran past, and out on to the shadowy back porch. Delgleesh was shouting more and more vivid threats at the little monkey, and the maddened Sakiwenki was screaming back as fiercely, in his own tongue. Someone- came up behind me. and I turned to look down into the white face, the wide, horror-filled eyes of Juan. "Senhor," he whispered, hoarsely, "we must do something. We must try . . He was dragging me along the porch as he spoke, toward a high window which opened off one side of the laboratory. It was shuttered heavily, and beyond the shutters I heard Delgleesh scream, harshly, with pain this time. We tore the shutters open and pressed into the room. My light flashed quickly here and (here, picking up the details of what had happened during those last seconds of the little monkey's ra<*e. There was Delgleesh, lying sprawled on his back on the littered floor, hands held to his face, while the Sakiwenki ran up and down his long body. There were no more bottles left to throw, and when I rushed over to the spot where the animal trainer lay, the little monkey fled to the highest of the shelve* and squatted there. I could hear the outraged little beast whimpering to himself while we turned Delgleesh over. "It's some kind of acid," I said to Juan, drawing the trainer's hands from his face. "Must have hit him m the eyes—b hnded him. This i 8 too horrible. ■To think . . . "Si, senhor! But there is something J, r . ln ifc a 8 we H» I think!' ' "Yes! You're right—but why didn't he go a bit easy ? You'd think, knowing about the Sakiwenki and the jaguar— their friendship, I mean—he'd have need hi* head. Wouldn't you?" Juan sighed, shrugging his shoulders "But he did not know, senhor! He would not listen, when I sought to tell hirn about what happened at the trap. He only sneered. 'Aniigos, bah!' he said. Hut he little mawnkee!" Juan went on, raising his voice suddenly. "Look! It is his turn to sneer now, senhor;" 1 flashed my light in the direction of that top shelf, and to my amazement saw that what the Brazilian said was true. Ihe little Sakiwenki was sneering down at us. Then, oven while the light hold him, lie dropped what he wa« holding in his tiny paws—the animal trainers automatic, which I had seen lj ing on the table—and I>efore either Juan or I could lift a finger to stop him, the Sakiwenki swung down to the open window, ami made off, screeching madly toward (lie jungle. "He did lie was sneering," I whispered, looking down as I spoke into the face which had been almost obliterated by his outraged attack. "But Delgleesh he'll never sneer again as long as he lives." As long as he lives," said Juan, crossing himself quickly he dropped Delgleesh s hand. "Jle 110 longor lives, senhor!"' The acid. 1 thought, must have reached the trainer's choking the life out of him. Or perhaps the shock? He was apoplectic. 1 had felt from (he very firs( hour I d known (he man. The red face, sudden fits of temper—those were signs. But what s (ha(?'' T demanded, sitting bolt upright beside the dead man as shrill screaming swept towards us. Defiant, victorious sort of screaming, it was -coming from the direction of that jungle into which the little Sakiwenki had just fled. "Good heavens, Juan what - The Brazilian smiled. 11 ( is the 1 igress of the Trumpet Bird," he said.* "And if you listen, in a moment, senhor, you will hear the little Sakiwenki's reply." "Amigos!" I thought. "They are friends! And what, after all, is fear. ..."