But the daintiest portion of the food was handed to her, and she ate in silence, as one will who eats in fear.
The wild band slept in the bush, a special bed of dry grass being made for the little white queen, as Kaloomah called her, and a savage set to watch her while she slept.
Next morning, when the wild chief and his braves started onwards, Shooks-gee was obliged to march along with them.
Kaloomah had need of him. That was all the explanation vouchsafed.
But this visit to the queen's home had given Weenah's father an insight into court life and usages that he could not otherwise have possessed.
Kaloomah's band bore along with them huge bales of cloth and large boxes of beads. How they had become possessed of these Shooks-gee never knew, and could not guess.
The grim and haughty queen, surrounded by her body-guard of grotesque and hideous warriors with their slashed and fearful faces, and the peleles hanging in the lobes of their ears, was seated at the farther end of a great wall, and on a throne covered with the skins of wild beasts.
All in front the floor was carpeted with crimson, and her majesty sparkled with gold ornaments. A tiara of jewels encircled her brow, and a living snake of immense size, with gray eyes that never closed, formed a girdle round her waist.
In her hand she held a poisoned spear, and at her feet crouched a huge jaguar.
She was a tyrant queen, reigning over a people who, though savage, and cannibals to boot, had never dared to gainsay a word or order she uttered.