While she wondered thus, one of the dreadful-looking little creatures
advanced to the fire, and taking from it a burning bough, held it over
the thing that lay upon the ground, to give light to a companion who
was about to do something to it with the stone knife. Next instant Nanea
drew back her head from the hole, a stifled shriek upon her lips. She
saw what it was now--it was the body of a man. Yes, and these were no
ghosts; they were cannibals of whom when she was little, her mother had
told her tales to keep her from wandering away from home.
But who was the man they were about to eat? It could not be one of
themselves, for his stature was much greater. Oh! now she knew; it must
be Nahoon, who had been killed up yonder, and whose dead body the waters
had brought down to the haunted forest as they had brought her alive.
Yes, it must be Nahoon, and she would be forced to see her husband
devoured before her eyes. The thought of it overwhelmed her. That he
should die by order of the king was natural, but that he should be
buried thus! Yet what could she do to prevent it? Well, if it cost her
her life, it should be prevented.
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