He did not like it when I laughed at all this, and went on with great seriousness to speak of the unmade blowpipe that would be mine--speaking of it as if it had been something very great, equal to the gift of a large tract of land, or the governorship of a province, north of the Orinoco.

And by and by he spoke of something else more wonderful even than the promise of a blow-pipe, with arrows galore, and this was that young sister of his, whose name was Oalava, a maid of about sixteen, shy and silent and mild-eyed, rather lean and dirty; not ugly, nor yet prepossessing.

And this copper-coloured little drab of the wilderness he proposed to bestow in marriage on me! Anxious to pump him, I managed to control my muscles and asked him what authority he--a young nobody, who had not yet risen to the dignity of buying a wife for himself--could have to dispose of a sister in this offhand way?
He replied that there would be no difficulty: that Runi would give his consent, as would also Otawinki, Piake, and other relations; and last, and LEAST, according to the matrimonial customs of these latitudes, Oalava herself would be ready to bestow her person--queyou, worn figleaf-wise, necklace of accouri teeth, and all--on so worthy a suitor as myself.

Finally, to make the prospect still more inviting, he added that it would not be necessary for me to subject myself to any voluntary tortures to prove myself a man and fitted to enter into the purgatorial state of matrimony.

He was a great deal too considerate, I said, and, with all the gravity I could command, asked him what kind of torture he would recommend.