The Robber Bridegroom by Welty Eudora

Author:Welty,Eudora.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LANGUAGE. LINGUISTICS. LITERATURE, Literature, Literature
Publisher: Doubleday Doran And Company Inc.
Published: 1942-05-13T16:00:00+00:00

"What of the young girl with the golden hair?" said the Indians.

"She is dead!" cried Salome. Her voice rose to a great shout. "She is dead! I saw her die!"

Then a great groan went up from Clement, who heard her from where he was bound in his hut. For like Rosamond, he believed her at last, when the day came.

"Alas!" said the Indians, sad and cheated once more. "How did the beautiful girl meet this early death?"

160 THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM

"She ran from the hut, escaping in the night/' said Salome. "And a great spotted leopard came and carried her off between his teeth!"

So they went and looked, and sure enough, Rosamond was gone and there was no sign of her at all. "It must have been a leopard/* they said.

"Now, will you choose me?" Salome asked.

So the Indians led her out into their circle and stood her up before them.

But before they could say anything at all to her, Salome opened her mouth and gave them a terrible, long harangue that made them put their fingers in their ears. She told them all she knew.

"It is the command of our Chief," they told her, "that you be still."

"I won't be still!" said she, and told them everything over.

"It is the command of the sun itself," they told her, "that you be still." But though they approached her, they did not lay their hands upon her, for she seemed dangerous to them.

"No one is to have power over me!" Salome cried, shaking both her fists in the smoky air.

''No man, and none of the elements! I am by myself in the world/'

Then they looked at one another. And Clement, from where he was bound, saw the sad faces of the Indians, like the faces of feverish children, and said to himself, "The savages have only come the sooner to their end; we will come to ours too. Why have I built my house, and added to it? The planter will go after the hunter, and the merchant after the planter, all having their day."

"The sun will lay his hand upon you/' said the Indian Chief himself to Salome, speaking from the center of the circle. "The sun asks worship."

"The sun cannot punish me," cried Salome. "Punishment is always the proof. Why, I could punish the sun if I wished! For I have seen your sun with a shadow eating it, and I know it for a weak thing in the Winter, like all the rest of life!"

"She would throw mud on the face of the sun," said the Indians, drawing their circle in

162 THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM

upon Salome and their hands lifting with their

tomahawks, but not touching her.

Salome only laughed the more. "I can punish your sun if I wish!" she cried. "I will tell the sun now to stand still, and it will stand still!" And she threw back her head and called, "Sun! Stand where you are!"

Then anger came over all the faces of the Indians and dissolved the weariness

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.