Fires of Scorpio

Chapter four

Chapter four

Ashti of the JungleThe folk who lived in their scattered villages along the brown rivers running through the jungle might not have advanced so far along the so-called road of civilization as many another peoples of Kregen; but they only tried to kill me once and then, when I’d explained, became very friendly.

Three villages along we ran into someone who knew my charge. The leaf-roofed, rush-walled houses were round like beehives in this village. The ground was packed hard by equally hard naked feet; to turn into a quagmire when the rains fell. The headman did not wear a bone through his nose; had he done so it would have suited his regal magnificence well.

A woman wearing a remarkable sarong-like garment of gemmed greeny-blue silk told us the child was probably from the nex