The boat’s bow was run gently on the sand, and Mr. Jenkins stepped softly over the side to hold her while the boys got out, after which she was carried a full length up on the shore.
“I’ll go ahead,” the mate whispered, “and you take good care to keep close to me, for it would make a bad mess if we should get separated in the darkness.”
“Go on; we’ll take care of that part,” Gil whispered, and the advance was begun slowly, for it was no easy matter to make one’s way among the dense foliage with the necessary degree of silence.
As the party advanced the sound of voices became more distinct, and finally it became positive that some odd sort of a performance was being given in this wild place.
When about three hundred yards had been traversed the mate came to a sudden halt, and, as he pulled aside a cluster of saw palmettos the boys had a full view.
Instinctively they had crouched to the ground when Mr. Jenkins’ movements told that the journey was ended, and, screened by the underbrush, it seemed positive they were hidden from that strange party.
The fire had been built in a small cleared space at the foot of a huge palm tree, and over the flames was suspended an iron pot, from which a most disagreeable odor arose.
For the time being, however, the spectators had no thought for anything save the actors in this strange spectacle.
No less than twenty coal-black men, naked, save for a cloth about the loins were dancing to and fro near the blaze, bending their bodies in every possible position, and making the hideous noise with greatest energy. Now and then one would circle around the pot several times in succession, howling yet louder, while his companions remained silent, and at the end of the dismal song would throw something into the boiling mass, after which the uproar increased until another member of the party performed the same ceremony.
Gil was very positive he saw first a snake and then a toad thrown into the pot, and it hardly seemed possible the cooking would be followed by eating.
The faces of the dancers were painted with vivid red lines, as if the coloring matter was blood, and two of the eldest members had the same kind of ornamentation covering their entire bodies.