"Yoyo is undoubtedly the chief magician or medicine-man of the forest. He's the man who taught me a thing or two! He has a cure for everything. He can drive away evil spirits. . . . And he gave me the antidote for the stings of snakes. I'll introduce you to him in three or four days' march from her. He's an Indian who comes from the Emmerillons, and he and his family just managed to escape being eaten by a savage tribe—the Roncouyennes."
"Even though he's a magician?"
"Oh, in those days he was only an apprentice magician. He hadn't passed his examinations!"
"Do magicians have to pass examinations?"
"The Indians about here call their medicine-men piayes. A goodly number of them claim to be piayes, but if they are not the real article they do not impose on anyone. There are certain recognized tests by which it is impossible to mistake a genuine piaye. Such a man knows how at a given time to make a tiger or jaguar obey him. You must understand that these men are familiar with every scent and plant, and the peculiar detritus with which they have to sow the track of these animals in order to make them come to the place to which they wish them to come."
"Is Yoyo a friend?"
"A very great friend. It was I who saved him from death. And ever since then he and his brothers have worked for me in a secret place in the forest. A great quantity of gold is stored in that place; more gold, perhaps, than you would be able to carry away with you."
Chéri-Bibi mounted guard during the night and looked after the Nut as though he were a child. He managed to rig him up a crude sort of hammock by twisting together a number of creepers and suspending them to a tree. It served to protect the Nut from the excruciating stings of the innumerable ants which constitute the mortal plague of Guiana at night time. Next morning the Nut could not be sufficiently grateful, nor did he know how to express the feelings of friendship with which his heart was overflowing. He was quite at a loss.
"Never mind about that," said Chéri-Bibi, as they broke camp. "That's a matter between me and the good Lord. He has been rather hard upon me, and we have not always got on well together. But the good Lord allowed you to cross my path, and I am thankful for it. You know that in my particular sphere of life, one doesn't come across a mug like yours every day. Yours is not the mug of a bad lot. That's all. I like you because I've often seen you grieving and calling out for your mother like a kid, and because you're a white man, with the soul of a priest. You give me peace, in fact. Enough, we'll say no more about it. . . . And then you must know one thing, old man—everything that I have is yours. My life, my gold—everything. My life will be useful to you here, and my gold will be useful to you in Europe. I have a fair quantity of it. . . .
"Yoyo alone knows where I keep it. We must continue our way day and night. I shan't be easy in my mind until we meet Yoyo. The other medicine-men are afraid of him, and the redskins from Taheca to Paramacuas obey him. Yoloch, the native devil, and Goudon, the native god, are devoted to him. He rules the forest."