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| Chapter I -- Gold || Chapter II -- Mestizos Terror swept throught the village when the three strange men appeared. At the first hut a woman dropped her cotton and spinning whorl. Another nervously untied the loom from around her waist, and, leaving the half-woven cloth, fled inside, slamming the door. The strangers, in the guise of traders searching for medicinal plants, are white men, or coyotl ['coyote' in Aztec], but in reality, they are searching for Teocuitatl* They believe the Indians know the location of the gold, but that they would rather die than reveal the secret. One of the strangers assaults a girl from the rancheria or village, when he finds her alone in the forest. The village men confront the stranger, who fires his gun, and he retreats to rejoin the other white men. While on the other side of the woods, the girl turned homeward with her face covered up by her hands. The men of her tribe followed, mute and somber. She had been rescued, but not avenged. * Teocuitatl: the Aztec word for gold, which means, literally 'god's dirt.' |
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