47. CHAPTER XLVII.
But time to tell, how Samoa and Jarl regarded this
mystical Yillah; and how Yillah regarded them.
As Beauty from the Beast, so at first shrank the damsel
from my one-armed companion. But seeing my confidence
in the savage, a reaction soon followed. And in accordance
with that curious law, by which, under certain conditions,
the ugliest mortals become only amiably hideous, Yillah at
length came to look upon Samoa as a sort of harmless and
good-natured goblin. Whence came he, she cared not; or
what was his history; or in what manner his fortunes were
united to mine.
May be, she held him a being of spontaneous origin.
Now, as every where women are the tamers of the menageries
of men; so Yillah in good time tamed down Samoa
to the relinquishment of that horrible thing in his ear, and
persuaded him to substitute a vacancy for the bauble in his
nose. On his part, however, all this was conditional. He
stipulated for the privilege of restoring both trinkets upon
suitable occasions.
But if thus gayly the damsel sported with Samoa; how
different his emotions toward her? The fate to which she
had been destined, and every nameless thing about her, appealed
to all his native superstitions, which ascribed to beings
of her complexion a more than terrestrial origin. When
permitted to approach her, he looked timid and awkwardly
strange; suggesting the likeness of some clumsy satyr,
drawing in his horns; slowly wagging his tail; crouching
abashed before some radiant spirit.
And this reverence of his was most pleasing to me.
Bravo! thought I; be a pagan forever. No more than
myself; for, after a different fashion, Yillah was an idol to
both.
But what of my Viking? Why, of good Jarl I grieve
to say, that the old-fashioned interest he took in my affairs
led him to look upon Yillah as a sort of intruder, an Ammonite
syren, who might lead me astray. This would now
and then provoke a phillipic; but he would only turn toward
my resentment his devotion; and then I was silent.
Unsophisticated as a wild flower in the germ, Yillah
seemed incapable of perceiving the contrasted lights in which
she was regarded by our companions. And like a true
beauty seemed to cherish the presumption, that it was quite
impossible for such a person as hers to prove otherwise than
irresistible to all.
She betrayed much surprise at my Viking's appearance.
But most of all was she struck by a characteristic device
upon the arm of the wonderful mariner—our Saviour on
the cross, in blue; with the crown of thorns, and three
drops of blood in vermilion, falling one by one from each
hand and foot.
Now, honest Jarl did vastly pride himself upon this ornament.
It was the only piece of vanity about him. And
like a lady keeping gloveless her hand to show off a fine
Turquoise ring, he invariably wore that sleeve of his frock
rolled up, the better to display the embellishment.
And round and round would Yillah turn Jarl's arm, till
Jarl was fain to stand firm, for fear of revolving all over.
How such untutored homage would have thrilled the heart
of the ingenious artist!
Eventually, through the Upoluan, she made overtures to
the Skyeman, concerning the possession of his picture in her
own proper right. In her very simplicity, little heeding,
that like a landscape in fresco, it could not be removed.
