108 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
like a savage, a wife was bestowed on him, and she 
bore him several children. Those he had first 
known as grown up or old men gradually died off, 
were killed, or drifted away; children who had 
always known Damian as one of the tribe grew to 
manhood, and it was forgotten that he had ever 
been a Christian and a captive. Yet still, with 
his helpmate by his side, weaving rugs and raiment 
for him or ministering to his wants—for the 
Indian wife is always industrious and the patient, 
willing, affectionate slave of her lord—and with 
all his young barbarians at play on the grass 
before his hut, he would sit in the waning sun- 
light oppressed with sorrow, dreaming the old 
dreams he could not banish from his heart. And 
at last, when his wife began to grow wrinkled and 
dark-skinned, as a middle-aged Indian mother in- 
variably does, and when his children were becoming 
meu, the gnawing discontent at his breast made 
him resolve to leave the tribe and the life he 
secretly hated. He joined a hunting-party going 
towards the Atlantic coast, and after travelling 
for some days with them his opportunity came, 
when he secretly left them and made his way alone 
to the Carmen. 
** And there he is,’’ concluded Ventura, when he 
had told the story, with undisguised contempt for 
Damian in his tone, ‘‘ an Indian and nothing less ! 
Does he imagine he can ever be like one of us after 
living that life for thirty years? If Marcos were 
alive, how he would laugh to see Damian back 
