"You wear the dress of a woman." said Hci. "YOu do the work of a woman. I think I will give you the name of a woman. I think I will call you Sipotopto."
Cuwignaka's fists clenched on the reins of his kaiila. The expression 'Siptopto' is a common expression for beads.
"You should please warriors," said Hci.
"I had not quarrel with Fleer," said Cuwignaka.
"You are not welcome among the Isbu," said Hci. "You shame them. You cannot mate among us. Why do you not go away?"
"I am Isbu," said Cuwignaka. "I am Isbu Kaiila!"
My hand on his arm restrained Cuwignala from charging Hci. Had he attempted to do so he would have been, without a saddle, dragged literally from the back of the kaiila.
"You should have been left staked out," said Hci. "It would have been better for the Kaiila."
Cuwignaka shrugged. "Perhaps," he said. "I do not know."
Cuwignaka, on the back of his kaiila, wore the remains of a white dress, a portion of the loot of a destroyed wagon train. He had been a slave of soldiers traveling with the train. Originally he had been Isbu Kaiila. He had twice refused to go on the warpath against the Fleer, hereditary enemies of the Kaiila. The first time he had been put in a dress of a woman and forced to live as a woman, perfoming the work of a woman and being referred to in the feminine gender. It was from that time that he had been called Cuwignaka, which means "Woman's Dress." It is, moreover, the word for the dress of a white woman and, in this, given the contempt in which the proud red savages hold white females, commonly reducing them to fearful, groveling slaves, utilizing them as little more than beasts of burden and ministrants to their will, in all respects, it possesses to the Kailla an additional subtle and delicious irony.
The second time Cuwignaka had refused to go on the warpath he had been bound in his dress and traded to Dust Legs, from whom, eventually, he was purchased as a slave by whites, in the vicinity of the Ihanke, the border between they lands of farmers and rancers and the lands of the red savages. Near the perimeter, as a slave, he had learned to speak Gorean. Later he was acquired by soldiers and brought again into the Barrens, thier intention being to use him as an interpreter. When the wagon train had been destroyed, that with which the soldiers were then traveling, he had fallen into the hands of the victors. He had returned to the Barrens. He had been the slave of the hated enemy. He was staked out, to die. A lance, unbroken, had been placed by him, butt down, in the earth, in token of respect, at least, by Canka, Fire-Steel, his brother. Canak had also taken the dress which Hci had thrown contemptuously beside him, taken from the loot of one of the wagons, and wrapped it about the lance. In this fashion Canka had conspicuously marked the place, as though with a flag.
It has been my considered judgment that Canka, in doing this, had hoped to draw attention to the location, that he hoped by this device to attract others to the spot, who might free the lad, or perhaps to mark it for himself, that he might later, accepting exile and outlawry at the hands of the Isbu, free his brother. As it turned out Grunt and I, traversing the Barrens, had come on the lad and freed him. Shortly thereafter we were apprehended by a mixed group of unlikely allies, representatives of Sleen, Yellow Knives and Kaiila, who in virtue of the Memory, as it is called, had joined forces to attack the wagon train and soldiers.
Grung had brought a coffle of white slave girls into the Barrens with him, as pack animals and trade goods. He had also acquired two prisoners, two former enemies of his, Max and Kyle Hobart, in effect as gifts from Dust Legs. The Sleen took two of his girls, Ginger and Evelyn, former tavern girls from the town of Kailiauk, near the Ihanke, and the Hobarts, from him. Four other girls were led away from him naked and bound, their necks in tethers, by a Yellow-Knife warrior.
These were two American girls, Lois and Inez, an English girl, named Priscilla, and a short, dark-haired French girl, named Corinne.
The Kaiila wre mostly members of the All Comrades, a warrior society, like the Sleen Soldiers, of the Isbu Kaiila. They were under the command of Canka, Cuwignaka's brother. One other was with the party, too, an older, warrior, Kahintokapa, One-Who-Walks-Before, of the prestigious Yellow-Kaiila Riders. He was of the Casmu, or Sand, band.
Grunt's prize on the coffle, a beautiful red-haired girl, a former debutante from Pennsylvania, once Miss Millicent Aubry-Wells, was selected out by Canka as personal slave, one to run at the left flank of his own kaiila and wear her leather, beaded collar, placed on her by his command, for him alone. Grunt's last slave, the dark-haired beauty, Wasnapohdi, or Pimples, whome he had acquired in trade for three hatchets from Dust Legs, he was permitted to keep. This is probably because Canka truly bore us no ill will. Indeed, he was probably pleased, as I now understand, that we had freed Cuwignaka. He may also have permitted Grunt to keep Wasnapohdi, of course, because she was conversant in Kaiila. He would have respected her for that.
"Slave," said Hci, regarding me, scornfully.
I did not meet his eyes. It was I, of course, who had actually freed Cuwignaka. It had been my knife which had cut the thongs. This was something which Canka, as Blotanhunka, or war-party leader, of the All Comrades, had, of course, not been able to overlook. Regardless of is own feelings in the matter or even, possibly, of his own intentions with respect to the future, such an act could not be allowed to pass unnoticed. A prisoner of the Kaiila, one duly dealt with, so to speak, had been freed. There was a payment to be made. I, on foot, had looked at the mounted warriors, the Kaiila left then in place. There were some seventeen of them, including Canka. Each was an All Comrade; each was skilled; all had counted coup.
"I am ready to fight," I had said.
"Do not be a fool," had said Grunt.
"I am read," I had said to Canka.
"There is an alternative," had said Grunt. "Can't you see? He is waiting."
"What?" I asked.
"The collar," said Grunt.
"Never," I said.
"Please, Tatnkasa," had said Canka. This was what he had called me, when he had learned that I was willing to fight with his men, no quarter given or taken. It means, in effect, "Red Bull." 'Tatanka' designates the kiliauk bull, and the suffix 'sa' means red. In Kaiila, as in most of the languages of the Barrens, the adjective commonly succeeds the noun. The name was one in which respect was conveyed.
"Please," had said Cuwignaka.
"Please," had said Grunt.
Numbly I had unbuckled my sword belt. I had wrapped the belt about the sword and knife sheath, and had given the belt, and these objects, to Grunt. I had disarmed myself. In moments Canka's beaded collar had been tied on my neck. I had become his slave.
"Slave," sneered Hci.
I did not respond to him.
"White men," said Hci, scornfully, gesturing to myself and Grunt.
"Yes," said Grunt, pleasantly.
"How is it that a slave," asked Hci of Cuwignaka, "wears moccasins and rides a kaiila?"
"It is permitted by Canka," said Cuwignaka.
"Dismount," said Hci to me. "Remove your moccasins and your garments, completely."
"He is not your slave," said Cuwignaka.
"Nor is he yours," said Hci.
I dismounted and stripped, removing also the moccasins which Canka had given me. I haded the clothing, and the moccasins, to Grunt. I then stood before Hci's kaiila. I wore now only the beaded leather collar which had been placed on me some two weeks ago. It was about an inch and a half high. It had a distinctive pattern of beading. The colors and design of the beading marked it as Canka's. It is common among red savages to use such designs, such devices, to mark their possessions. A collar of identical designs, back in the village, was worn by the lovely, red-haired girl, the former Miss Millicent Aubrey-Wells, who had so taken the fancy of the ount warrior. Both of our collars were tied shut. The knots on them had been retied personally by Canka after our arrival at his camp. This is done, in effect, with a signature knot, in a given tribal style, known only to the tier. This gives him a way of telling if the knot has been untied and retied in his absence. It is death, incidentally, for a slave to remove such a collar without permission. It can be understood then that slaves of the red savages do not tamper with their collars. They keep them on.