For a long time all was silent except for the singing of the birds.
She finished combing her hair, and was just about to go down into the
lodge when suddenly a great noise arose, a crashing of underbrush and
thundering of hoofs. The herd of buffaloes, with the king at their
head, was charging down upon the hut. Iola had no time to move before
she felt the logs breaking away beneath her. They were scattered
this way and that like straws. In another moment Iola found herself
seated on the back of the king of buffaloes. She was being carried
swiftly away through the forest, while the lodge lay in ruins behind
them.
On and on went the buffalo, until at last, in the deepest and darkest
part of the forest, he paused and allowed Iola to slip from his back.
This was the spot where he and his followers had their camp, and it was
here he intended to keep Iola until she consented to become his wife.
He spoke to her in the softest voice he could manage, telling her that
this was to be her home, but Iola would not look at him, nor answer.
She only turned away, wringing her hands and weeping bitterly.
But the buffalo king was not discouraged. He had the power to take the
shape of a man when he chose, and it was in this shape that he meant to
woo her and win her to be his wife. And this he had no doubt of being
able to do before long.
Meanwhile Agodaguada had been trying to fish, but he found his enemies
more tormenting than ever. Their hoarse voices sang after him wherever
he went:
“You lame mannikin,
Don’t you think it a sin
To shut up your daughter?
—Say, Agodaguada—
To shut up your daughter?
Do you think she is in?
Are you sure she is in?”
As Agodaguada listened, he became thoughtful. He rolled up his line
and started back through the forest toward the lodge. As he came near
his home he quickened his steps. He noticed that the small trees and
underbrush had been trampled down as though a great herd had passed
that way. Presently he began to run, and he was still running when he
broke into the open where his lodge had stood. But the lodge was there
no longer. Instead, he saw only the ruins that the buffaloes had left
behind them. Iola was gone.
Agodaguada did not at once follow the enemy, however. He ran to the
ruins and began tearing the logs aside and burrowing under them.
Presently he gave a cry of joy and drew out from beneath them an old
worn pouch of deerskin. From this pouch he took a pair of moccasins and
put them on his feet. They were magic moccasins and were Agodaguada’s
greatest treasure. And now he was ready to follow Iola and save her
from the buffaloes.
It was not hard to trace the way they had gone. The herd had left a
broad track of broken trees and branches through the dark forest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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