SUKIA OF SANDY BAY.
During the whole of the evening I found myself closely watched by a hideous old woman, who moved around among the revelers like a ghoul. Everybody made way for her when she approached, and none ventured to speak with her. There was something almost fascinating in her repulsiveness. Her hair was long and matted, and her shriveled skin appeared to adhere like that of a mummy to her bones; for she was emaciated to the last degree. The nails of her fingers were long and black, and caused her hands to look like the claws of some unclean bird. Her eyes were bloodshot, but bright and intense, and were constantly fixed upon me, like those of some wild beast on its prey. Wherever I moved she followed, even behind the screen concealing the masked dancers, where no other woman was admitted.
I lingered among the revelers until their antics ceased to be amusing, and became simply brutal. Both sexes finally gave themselves up to the grossest and most shameless debauchery, such as I have never heard ascribed to the most bestial of savages.
Disgusted and sickened, I turned away, and went down to the shore, preferring, after what had occurred at Slam’s house, to sleep in my boat, to trusting myself in the power of the wounded trader. So we pushed off a few hundred feet from the shore, and anchored for the night. I wrapped myself in my blanket, and, notwithstanding the noisy revels in the village, savage laughter and angry shouts, the beating of drums and firing of guns, I was soon asleep.
It was past midnight; the moon had gone down, the fires of the village were burning low, and the dancers, stupified and exhausted, only broke out in occasional spasmodic shrieks, when I was awakened by Antonio, who placed his finger on my lips in token of silence. I nevertheless started up in something of alarm, for the image of the skinny old hag, who had tracked me with her snaky eyes all the evening, had disturbed my dreams. To my surprise I found the Indian, whom I had rescued from the drunken violence of the trader, crouching in the bottom of the boat. He had already explained to Antonio, through the Poyer, that we were in great danger; that the old woman who had haunted me was a powerful Sukia, whose commands were always implicitly obeyed by the superstitious Sambos. Instigated by the discomfited trader, she had demanded our death, and even now her followers were planning the means to accomplish it. Our safety, he urged, depended upon our immediate departure, and then, as if relieved of a burden, he slipped quietly overboard, and swam toward the shore.
I was nothing loth to leave Sandy Bay, and we lost no time in getting up the large stone which served us for an anchor, and taking our departure. By morning we were clear of the lagoon, and in the channel leading from it to Wano Sound, lying about fifteen miles to the northward of Sandy Bay, and half that distance from Cape Gracias. We reached the sound about ten o’clock in the morning, and stopped for breakfast on a narrow sand-spit, where a few trees on the shore gave shade and fuel. The day was excessively hot, and we waited for the evening before pursuing our voyage. During the afternoon, however, we were joined by Mr. H., who had got wind of the designs of the trader, and attempted to warn us, but found that we had gone. Indignant at his treachery, he had abandoned the brutal captain, and determined to return to the Cape.
He explained to me that our danger had been greater than we had supposed. The old Sukia woman possessed more power over the Sambos than king or chief, and her commands were never disputed or neglected. The grandfather of the present king, he said, had been killed by her order, as had also his great aunt; and although the immediate perpetrators of the deed had been executed, yet the king had not dared to bring the dreaded Sukia to justice. She had, however, been obliged to leave Cape Gracias, lest, during the visit of some English vessel of war, she should be punished for complicity in the murder of a couple of Englishmen, named Collins and Pollard, who had been slaughtered some years before, while turtling on the cays off the coast. Another reason for her departure had been the advent of a more powerful and less malignant Sukia woman, who, he assured me, was gifted with prophecy, and a knowledge of things past and to come. He represented her as young, living in a very mysterious manner, far up the Cape River, among the mountains. None knew who she was, nor whence she came, nor had he seen her more than once, although he had consulted her by proxy on several occasions. I was amused at the gravity with which he recounted instances of her power over disease and her knowledge of events, and could not help thinking, that he had resided so long on the coast as to get infected with the superstitions of the people. There was, however, no mistaking his earnestness, and I consequently abstained from ridiculing his stories. “You shall see and hear for yourself,” he added, “and then you will be better able to judge if I am a child to be deceived by the silly juggles of an Indian woman. These people have inherited from their ancestors many mysterious and wonderful powers; and even the inferior order of Sukias can defy the poison of snakes, and the effects of fire. Flames and the bullets of guns are impotent against them.”
I found H. a man of no inconsiderable intelligence, and he gave me much information about the coast and its inhabitants, and, altogether, before embarking we had become fast friends, and I had accepted an invitation to make his house my home during my stay at the Cape.