VI.
THE ABDUCTION.
Like nomads the priests wandered into the forest, subsisting on berries and wild game. One day Omo, the voluptuary, came into camp with what for him was unusual speed. The men loafing around the camp began to jeer at him.
"I have seen such a sight—" he began.
"You must have seen something to make you run. He has seen such a sight—"
"As you would all break your necks to see."
"What have you seen?"
"Women."
"Women!" they muttered.
"Girls—young, beautiful, graceful as gazelles."
"He has been seeing visions."
"Listen. As I lay under a willow, that I might digest my dinner out of the heat of the sun, I did hear singing and laughter—"
"He was asleep and dreamed it."
"Very cautiously did I crawl out, and there I beheld fifty Lamanitish maidens—"
"Lamanites! Huh!"
"Fifty Lamanitish damsels, as I did start to say, wreathed with garlands and bedecked with golden circlets on their arms and ankles, making merry in the woods. Then they ceased from their sports and sat them down to picnic out of great hampers. They took out such viands! Ah me, I have not tasted cooked food in a twelve month! Who knows? I might have made myself known and been made much of among so many maidens; but I forebore, and came here to acquaint you with the fact."
A shout of laughter arose. "Come on, boys," volunteered one.
"But Lamanites!"
"I care not," decided Omner. "We are outcasts among our own people, and we dare not return to Lehi-Nephi. For my part, a Lamanite maid is good enough to cook my food and live in my tepee."
"Mine, too, if she be good looking. Omner, lead out."
As gaily as a crowd of school boys on a lark, they hurried through the woods. Others joined them on their way.
After the order of primitive man did they lie in wait for, and carry off, their mates. After the first panic, the girls, when they found the white-skinned men were inclined to be wooers, were nothing loth. So the camp was doubled that night, for the fifty of Omo's imagination had dwindled to twenty-four.
Also like primitive man, they fought for their mates. A dispute arose as to who should have a tall, slender girl who wore great golden ornaments in her black hair. She was well worth fighting for, as most of the men seemed to think, for the riot soon developed into a free-for-all fight. It threatened to turn the camp into a hospital, when Amulon, returning from the hunt, strode in and threw a buck from his shoulders.
Without more ado he threw himself into the midst of the melee and separated the opponents. As soon as the combatants saw who it was they decided to leave the decision with him.
Amulon listened to the story of the day's conquest, and patiently heard each claim. In the meantime he had casually looked the girl over. She stood with heaving bosom and scornful lips while the parley went on. She narrowed her eyes, however, and paid attention when this big, powerful man, so evidently the master, took a hand.
Finally he announced his decision, "I shall keep her myself."
An ominous murmur arose.
"He struck not a blow, but he seizes the plunder."
Not a man there but knew Amulon would make his claim good, but where he was sure of his ground he could afford to be politic.
He had exchanged a meaning look with the dark-eyed beauty, so he said magnanimously, "Come, we will let the girl herself make the choice."
As soon as she understood the import of his words, she went over and stood up straight and tall by his side.
As with primitive man, the strongest had won out. So Amulon, garbed in a leopard's skin was wed to the Indian girl in the forest. He did not know until afterwards that she was Lamona, the daughter of the king of the Lamanites.