Exhuming the Dead. 
124 
ship's long unsheathed swords seemed to instil so much respect, at least 
in the Indians, that they passively submitted to the order. Curiously 
enough Maicerwari here again made an exception, for hardly was he 
informed that he lnUst accompany Mr. King to the victim’s grave than, 
with eyes wildly flashing, he declared himself quite ready to do so. 
425. Several upstanding half-charred blackened posts and houses 
partially destroyed by fire, as well as bushes burnt and singed indicat- 
ed, at the end of half-an-hour's tramp, that we had reached the former 
tillage, the scene of the tragedy. With the most striking expression 
(Of extreme terror, William now pointed to a spot surrounded by six 
charred posts, telling Mr. King at the same time that this was the house 
he was looking for. No mound indicated the grave, the loose red earth 
alone betraying it, but none of the Indians could be prevailed upon to 
take a spade and start digging. Even our negroes declined with every 
sign of inward horror: “The dead man will follow me my whole life 
long, drive sleep away from my bed, hunt me out of the circle of the 
happy ones, and poison every drink for me” — such was the continual 
rejoinder to Mr. King's threats, entreaties and orders. Finally, the 
promise of a double ration of rum induced one of the coloured people to 
agree to do the work. He soon struck up against the body which, covered 
with palm-leaves, was rolled up in a hammock, and spread a most awful 
stench. As soon as this stink readied the Indians standing at a dis- 
tance, they ran off in the wildest terror, screaming with fright. The 
boy alone remained, as if rooted to the spot, while his truly awful wildly- 
flashing eyes and the powerful twHchinn- of his muscles as he held his 
breath, only too clearly betrayed that all the fury of his revenge was 
once more kindled. Every stroke of the spade, as the man went on dig- 
ging, only increased his unbridled passion, and, with half-bent body, he 
stared into the grave so as not to miss the instant when the hated 
body would again come into view: a tiger could not haw watched with 
more inward greed for the propitious moment to be assured of its prey. 
After the body had been quite uncovered and the hammock unfolded, 
there awaited us a more terrible sight before which everybody present, 
except Maicerwari alone, unconsciously rewiled. The blow had crushed 
the whole of the right side of the head, and the split bone had been 
forced inside so that the brain lay exposed. The boy remained standing 
there motionless, while his soul seemed desirous of grasping everv detail 
of the ghastlv picture, and figuring it out in all its closest particulars. 
After Mr. King had several times addressed him in vain, he at last 
caught hold of him and asked. “Have you done this?” With sparkling 
eyes the boy suddenly pulled his youthful figure to its full height, let 
his rough contemptuously exultant gaze rest for but an instant on each 
of us, closed his fist, convulsively and then raised his arm slowly on high 
with a powerful muscular effort to let it, fall again as quick as thought: 
all of a sudden the compressed chest heaved heavily while drops of 
sweat, rolled from every pore : he glanced again in triumph at the corpse, 
and with a piercing shriek turned away and hurried back to Curaaka. 
42G. We stood for a long while face to face without saying a word, 
no one venturing to break the silence. This method of satisfying the re- 
venge of a wild unbridled disposition had affected us very 7 strongly. I 
