Evening Star Newspaper, September 27, 1925, Page 72

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., SEPTEMBER 27, 1925—PART 5. - Vengeful Indian Witch-Doctor Meets Defeat in Plotting Death White Explorer Turns the Tables by USB Of Compass an How American Base Ball Game Was Introduced in Jungle—Elected to Be Lashed to Tree as Victim of Ants. Foot ball t University ning at Purdue saved the life of Capt. Gow-Smith, as related by the author last week. Discover- ing the theft of a palr of binoc viars, he had pursued the thief Guariba. the medicine man of an Indian tribe—and, overtak ing him, brought him low with a flying tackle. Just as Capt Gow-Smith left his feet for the tackle she Indian hurled back wards a viciously-barbed spear which passed over his pursuer's head. Capt. Gow-Smith, accepted al- most as a tribal god by the un- tutored savages in the heart of the Brazillan jungle, had in- curred the enmity of Guariba by a display of greater magic powers than those possessed by the medicine Following the tackle. Guar arose and smashed the binoculars—all but a single lens, which plays an fmportant part in this article, the last of a series of four xlv‘l At BY FRANCIS GOW-SMITH WEIRD flash-back to another A cently at the Polo Grounds. the home of the New York Glants, as I watched the first in vears. Between my eyes and the sunlit diamond a shadowy Jjungl vision seemed to rise. The high fencs forest. Low, thatched wigwams sprang up around the diamond, turtle shells took v to the shrieking of monkey hile the uniformed nts and the Chicago naked savages, uttering guttural war and swinging blood-stained 1s they nd the bases. &tood midst of the fantastic up on the mound and b the functions of world unrolled before me re- big league base ball game I had seen blended into an encircling wall of the place of bases, the rooters’ cries melted into the dusky forms of attered American pitcher for buth umpire and and in the of New rd for viston snapped midst of a mmer's ¢row York base ball fans it was me to realize that only a few months before I had been the star in that wild jungle version of the great Amer. fean game After my triumph over Medicine Man Guariba, described in my last article, I tried to teach the Carafas to play base ball as a pl unter use for their ¢ than the cracking of heads. Our ball T patiently whittled out of crude rubber, and, having played on the Sao Paulo base ball team against Rio not so long before. 1 was in good trim. I have indicated abc how ludicrously the game turned out. ‘The Indians got ting stand base running. They would carry thefr clubs with them, and race sround the bags both wuys, whether they hit the ball or not. stopping the notion of hit some times to dance grotesquely be- | tween the bases while uttering a mo- | notonous chant. Most of them were gloriousiy drunk on caju; and I tried to make them believe that this was an elaborate ceremonfal in honor of my particular set of divinities. It turned out that they think there was witchcraft in if, for while I could easily land on their de. liverfes, I mystified their batters with my curves. Perceiving that I made the ball twist in the air, they lumped it with my other magic powers, and when one of them ducked fairly into a sharp in-shoot it ended the great Caraja base ball series once for all. For a time T feared the fellow I had hit might use his club on my head in 7 s “QUIVERING INTERNALLY WITH EXCITEMENT, FEI .\TA!\EZ l“STR()\E DE§PERATEL\ TO KEEPierY HAND STE. & private game of his own, but this whole affair w dramatic cire wana dance. mstances of the Ara- * ok % "THIS is the most important of the Caraja ceremontes, taking its name from the Arawana fish, or iraco, which seems to be worshiped as a sort of river divinity. The dance, to the chant of wild songs and the drum ming of sticks on hollow logs, is per formed by two chosen Indians garbed in fantastic costumes and representing the male and female fis From the first time I saw these cos- tumes I had my heart set on bringing them back to the United States with | me.. When worn they look like a rus- | tic Ku Klux Klan outfit—a skirt and | cape of bristling grass and palm strands conceal the dancer's body; the | forked headdress, ornamented with parrot feathers in beautifully woven designs. sticks up two feet above the head, while the face is hidden in a cascading grassy mask or hood. Women and children are allowed to | witness the dance, but not to know who wear the costumes, or even to see the costumes except.when worn. the ball, but couldn’t under- | veally did | s =oon forgotten in the | | with ape-like solemnity | sald, for looking upon the men's wig- | had spirited the precious costumes d With Aid of Sun. { club wigwam, where the costumes are | kept after the dance. It was on the night following the annual dance of last Winter that my | tenure of office as witcheraft doctor to the Carajas reached a crisis. 1 had been admitted to the men’s lodge, | where the sacred costumes lay on the | floor at the back next to the thatched | wall. Squatting on the ground around | the smoking fires, cutting out arrow | and spear points or weaving orna- | mental braids for their club handles, the men were drinking and muttering, i0 themselves. It was a ghostly scene, wreathed {n smoke from the fires and | from the warrlors' pipes. | Haring for days past begged and | bribed in vain for the sacred costumes, | 1 had this evening finally Instructed | my half-civilized guide, Joti (fox), to | make his way secretly in a canoe up the river inlet that came close to lh\-; back of the wigwam, and to call thrice | like a night bird when he was ready. | Then, while I created some sort of | | diversion, he was to reach through the thatched wall, pull out the costume: and slip off down the river with them, | hiding them where we could later pick | them up on our way out. | | " The diversion I had promised was | | opportunely created for me. Shorllyi |after I heard Joti's signal and while 1 | was stlll debating what to do next 8 not td attach suspicion to myself hen the theft was discovered, T heard | a guttural exclamation and wooall | | heads turn toward the milky biue | moonlight in the arched doorway. | There, silhouetted against the mystlc | light, was the naked figure of ing | woman, committing the unforgivable | sin of peeking into the ciubhouse | | where the sucred costumes lay | Instantly there was a concerted rush | for the door and I conspicuousty joined | it. The fleelng girl was captured, marched off to the pagi's wigwa nd ft imprisoned under guard, while the warrfors returned, muttering savagely 18 if something really sinister had happened. And when they got back the costumes were gone. | _Then pandemonium did Lreak loose discredited icine man was | s hich my s were not deemed adequate, | and in the solemn council that fol lowed he suw his chances to get even with me. He had come forth in ali weird glory of his magic working outfit, ad: vancing into the firdlight with a shu: filng dance step, to which the nodding | | of Lis headdress kept time. | | straight, black huir was pulled rd over his face und his eves | ed through it with & wild gleam. | All over his painted body were daubed | downy feathers mixed with crumbled | egg shells of many colors that glis- tened in the silvery moonlight Through his lower lips was stuck a | | carved bone und from each ear lobe | protruded a stick ornamented at the | end with feathers and a wild pig's| tooth. Around his wrists and ankles | he wore fuzzy bands of wild cotton, dyed red, and in his hand h rattled the long gourd, palnted and feathered, which served a8 his divining rod. The childish Indfan warriors seemed to be deeply impressed by his mum- bling buffoonery, but to me it was merely @ strange curosity, until I per- cefved what the old feliow was driv- ing at. Every now and then as he danced his gourd seemed to fly uncontrolia- bly out of his hand and it invariably landed rattling at my feet. Squatting on their haunches, with spears clutched upright in their hands, the Carajas took it all in with awe. Here was the good. old reliable brand of tribal maglc regaining its hold over them. as it had swayed their ancestors for generations | and allowed to r | wh * “ “HE PROCLAIMED WHAT THE GODS DECREED: THE GIRL MUST SURELY DIE, HE SAID; BUT THE EVIL. WHITE STRANGER WAS REALLY AUSE OF ALL THE DISASTERS flimsy costumes of grass had disap peared, the girl was (o be burned, and if this didn’t bring back the abjectly | venerated costumes, then I was to be knocked into the fire with a war club st at my leisure. And I didn’t know what to do about it. Nobody latd hands on me; there was no chance of an outright encoun- ter. The clouded, superstition-ridden primitive mind had pronounced sen in accord with its own sinister I couldn't use my gun without teeling @ murderer, and 1 already en- visioned myself being led up to the fire, baflled and feeling utterly foolish, and clouted over the head before I could really take the sudden crisis seriously But 1 wigwam watched was shepherded off to my unharmed for that night, slyly by restless sentinels ears gleamed in the moon- light. A sacred fire was to be kindled at high noon on the morrow, and then the double execution would take place. Inspiration came to me suddenly in the restless hours of the night, when as I tossed feverishly from side to side, I put my hand in my pocket and felt that unbroken lens from my shat- tered fleld glasses, mentioned in my last article. I wasn't sure in my own mind of the lens’ power, but I decided to stake all on & gamble that would meet the Indlans’ appetite for witcheraft half way. 1 felt sure that my only salva- tion would be to beat Guariba at his own preposterous game. When the excited crowd of painted warriors, tagged by their naked brown ELING THAT MY LIFE WAS NOW UTTERLY AT ADY.” There was something hypnotic n that nightmare spectacle, accom- panied by Guariba's droning incanta- | tion, while his eyes gleamed baleful through his hair in the orange glare | of the fire, and the shroud of jungle night wrapped us around and away from saner things. Sudden stopped, stiffened, and began to speak hoarsely through the foam that had gathered in his frenzy on his lips. He now kept rattling his gourd toward me, and he proclaimed what the gods de- creed. The girl must surely die, he wam and the sacred flsh-god costume: But the evil white stranger (meanin, ‘me) was really the cause of all the dis- asters that were overtaking the v lage. The tribal divinities were angry because an outsider had been allowed to frequent the sacred lodge, and they away as a warning of worse to come. They would not relent until I had been killed. Even in that uncanny setting under the cold, animal-like glances of the naked savages who had halled me as the.r protector so short a time before I could hardly credit this farrago of Death is the inexorable penaity for any woman who peeps into the men’s infantile nonsense. All because a girl had looked into a clubhouse and two women and children, gathered next day under the peaceful palms in front of the chief's hut, I strode through them and took up my position solemnly with my back to the royal dwelling. My guide had turned up from his down river excursion, and was min- gling with the throng. I called htm to my side and had hiin proclaim for me that old Guariba's magic was mere child’s play compared to mine. I de- clared that Guariba himself had spirit ed the sacred fish-zod costumes away, and I said that I had a magic finger superior to his gourd, that would prove it. I produced my compass, showed the needle (which T kept wob- bling), and said this mystic finger would point Infallibly to the gullty person. There are lodes of magnetic iron all through that country which, as I had already discovered. render a compass often useless to man lost in the jun- gle. T had experimented over much of this village area with my compass and consequently ‘T knew just where to lay it on the earth so that the nee- die would come to rest pointing squarely at Guariba. To heighten the hokum, I first tapped the compass three times with that little gold hand which the chefe politico in Registo had glven me. The stunt created some effect, but THE less than I had antfcipated. It wasn't enough their own kind of magic. But 1 had something else up my sleeve— that magnifying lens. In the hush of puzzled awe that fol- lowed, I had my gulde declare loudly that my friend the sun god would in fallibly burn up the chief's wigwam if Guariba undertook to indle his own sacred fire. juariba, still in his cast & contemptu- ous glance at me, and stooped at once over his two sticks, rubbing them to- gether and mumbling & weird {ncanta tion. IR HAD resumed my place by Rop Tuk's abode. Trying to simulate idleness while all eyes were on the medicine man, I managed to focus the Bun’s rays on a promising bit of tin in the dried-out, inflammable thatching of the hut's wall. Quivering with excitement, feeling y life was now utterly at stuke {in a gamble little better than child’ | play, I strove desperately to keep my | hand steady and the lens in focus | without constantly looking down at it. Soon I was aware that a leaf was beginning to char in a little round spot; it curled up a bit and a tiny wiap of smoke rose. Guariba was al- ready getting his fire going. But the breeze, fanning through the dried thatching of the hut, came to my res- cue. Shortly I stepped forward into the circle, and it was one of the na tives who first discovered with a wild shout that the whole side of the chiet's wigwam was bursting into flame. The motion of striking a match and its faintest scratch would have given me away to those alert eyes. The In- dians were familiar with my matches, {too, and would have seen no mystery in my use of one. But the burning glass effect was something new and utterly mysterious. Panic broke loose. The natives were too dazed to move, and the Summer-baked thatching be- came a raging furnace in the breeze, before any one tried to beat it out. Had Guariba stood his ground to bluff it out, he might still have saved himself. But after one glance at the roaring flames, he turned in precipi- tate flight, which seemed an admission of gullt. As dogs will edge respect- fully around a motionless cat, but give yelping chase if it flees, 80 the Cara- Jas dashed, shouting madly, after him and soon brought him back a captive. Thus it was that once again these unstable savages, as mercurial and im- pressionable as children, had been se- duced a second time from the maglc of their forefathers to reliance on my own modern brand. And Guariba was Eromvlly sentenced, according to the est traditions, to be lashed to the Pau das Santos, or Saint’'s Tree( on which many a Jesult of old had died under the swarms of red ants that infest its bark The punishment was so eruel and uncalled for that despite all my recent | hectic Introduction into the benighted workings of the savage mind. I could | hardly believe it would he executed. But the warriors were keyed up to a fanatical pitch by their drink and by the uncanny events of the past 24 hours, and apparently thought no fate too terrible for the native witch doc- tor who had apparently betrayed them, connived at the theft of those ridicu- lously cherished Arawana costumes and caused the flery destruction of his own chief's wigwam. Later in the day, having used my recaptured prestige to free the accused maiden, T followed the sound of moans and howling into the jungle, and there found Guariba in fact lashed hand and foot to a tree, his body literally allve | with hoats of tiny red ants. How long { he might have lived I don't know. I | freed him with my knife, and he scut- tled off into\ the jungla without a sign 1 of thanks, to become for a brief time \ah outea: ok ok % OON the old chief died. I sus- pected Guariba, who had already begun to work his way with sinister pertinacity back into the confidence of the malcontents, of poisoning Rop | Tuk, out of jealousy for the favoritism the latter had shown me. My failure j to save Rop Tuk, as I had saved the i Indian bitten by a rattler, was an- i other score against me. { But when, one afternoon, without ceremony, 1 packed up and left, five canoes of warrfors accompanied me down the river. Jabbering dissen- | sion filled those canoes. The new chief and Guariba, a relative and fa- vorite of his, were among the party: it seemed to be a question whether I would be allowed to go, and I expected any moment a farewell shower of arrows. Then nature took a hand again in the drama A tropleal deluge, out of season, caught S in midstream. The dense black clouds that had come up rapidly amid 2 rumbling of thunder and a gale of wind, unleashed a solid tor- rent of seathing rain. It poured into the canoes and nearly bore them under. Balling was futile; the gale made our crude craft unmanageable. It was all we could do to reach the AR e |invented a type of alumiothes OVERTAKING THE VILLAG left bank of the river before being | swamped. i And this was the side patrolled by the relentless Chervantes, whose poi- | soned arrows are dreaded as much by the Carajas as b Here. in the gathe lightning slashed sa vealing momentary e nd gleaming hite explorers. ng darkness, as agely around, re glimpses of wild | rain-sluiced bodies | s | whoops from the inland jungle. of my naked companions, another war council was held. Every nerve in the party was on edge. With the roaring rain above us the sodden fern fronds swishing in our faces like clammy hands, and cease- less pounding of the thunder, and the wind lashing the entire jungle into the fury of a gale-tossed night at sea, we feared any moment an attack from the Chervantes, of which no human sense in that fearful chaos could give warning until too late. Even the keen-eyed sentinels in the lashing trees, and the outposts crouching close to the ground were stationed there more from habit than from con- fidence in their powers. My peril was double, for the ma- jority of the Carajas by now were convinced that I was somehow re- sponsible for this perilous situation. And Guariba, with devilish ingrati- tude that seems amusing to me now in retrospect, was loudest {n prescrib- ing for me the very Saints’ Tree death from which I had rescued him. In this desperate situation I called agaln on my guide for help. I could speak to him in Portuguese, incom- prehensible to the others, and I pro- posed that he slip inland in the dense blackness between lightning flashes, and create a disturbance as if a band of Charvantes had come to the attack. I could then seize on this diversion to make my escape and would meet him farther down the river. Jotl vanished, and I waited a seem- ingly endless time while the squatting, rain-drenched Carajas continued ab- sorbed in their muttered conference. At last there was a succession of war | The Carajas leaped to thelr feet. The sentinels came tumbling down from the tdees. A moment’s nervous silence, and then two arrows hurtled through the ferns and fell at our feet. The next few lightning flashes revealed them to be the unmistakably characteristic polsoned arrows of the Chervantes' This was a mad complication of the plot that I had least expected; but | while I wondered what had happened to my guide, out. “The Carajas, now completely terror-stricken, forgot their vigllant watch over me and rushed to pro- tected vantage points behind the tree | trunks, dipping their own arrows in the gourds of poison that they car- ried. desperate courage. * K W ok JERE was my chance and I slipped off quickly to the canoes, which had been drawn up high on the beach. I found that the river had already risen high. One canoe was floating off, and mine was half awash and easily launched. Close to the shore, beneath the overhanging roof of branches and perfumed vines, washed by drooping petals strous orchids, I slid stealth stream, then out into the current, and £0 on to the rendezvous below the first bend where I had promised to wait for Jot I had no time to find | Cornered, they will fight with | the moon broke through the slow dispersing clouds, Joti sho 1 smiling proudly at this exp I learned from him ho self put the finishing ¢ on_my exit from Car: Before slipping into the had sneaked b found among my bund two of those Ch ntes & I had picked up during t trpi up the River of I fn my first article stralght into our bewildered had frightened me as much had the Carajas themselves. That morning, as we gathered up from Jotl's cache the two fish-dance costumes that had queer a role in this fantastic I couldn’t help wc the childish minds c whom I had left in dread bef imaginary enemy there in the s night on the left guaya, would be the ultimate e tlon of it all Doubtless 2 crude legend ready sprung up about me, and c} dren are being told of the strange white witch-doctor w the Carajas, bringin in puzzling proportions, finally carried off to the clap of thunder. I am planning to other visit this Fal possible; and if some Nover I do step into their midst from canoe dropping out of the I'm sure that the n h of my powers and supernatural be firmly establiche tiny corner of Brazil's v fastness. And a him- sk (Copyright. 1023 Curious Fish Nets. ] T, 2ppears that fish nets cost noth ing at all at Wal New Guinea. In the forests nearby epiders about the size of a small hazel nut weave them, and as soon a: the native fisherme go in and them away. The webs are as large as 6 feet in diameter and are woven in a mesh that varies from 1 inch squars | at the edges to an eighth of en inck at the center. The webs are exceed- ing strong and, moreover, are wi ¥ proot. At the place where they are most abundant the natives set up ior bamboos bent over into a loop end. In a short ti Weaves & web in & con and the na e has h! h ne He goes down to the stream and it with of about a pou water nor the mesh. The usual prac on a rock In ba wa' fish appears dip the bank. Not “'o.rlh Johnny—I Helen—I Two Cents. In time, as the storm p: were s0 qu John Hays Hamménd, Jr., Produces Revolution in Piano-Forte World OHN HAYS HAMMOND, Jr., has greatly interested the musical world recently with a revolu- tionary invention for the piano. | Mr Hammond has become e pecially distinguished as a radio ex pert, with a record of applications for some 350 patents both in this country and abroad, and during the war he mic in llies was | seems to discovery adventuring musician cendiary projectiles used by the His interest in music, however, not generally known. He have made this. musical more in the guise of an sclentist than as To quote the Boston Herald, which carrfed a lencthy article that Mr Hammond has acknowledged to be authentic in its details, the exact ure of his invention is as follows: Mr. Hammond's purpose has been to give the player control over the notes after the keye have been struck. By the use of reflectors set inside the instrument and controlled by & fourth pedal it has been possible to | build up tremendous sonority and tones may be allowed to escape with any degree of sublety. Unlike the notes of an ordinary plano, which | gradually fade after being struck, | those from an instrument fitted with | the Hammond pedal may be sustained | and even increased in volume. The | results are so astonishing experts | feel that the invention may result in a new type of musical composition. “In describing the genesis of his invention, Mr. Hammond said yester- day"” (August 21 at Gloucester, M: ), “that it gradually developed asthe sult of working more than six years | on the construction of a large pipe organ in his home. The main ele- | MR. HAMMOND'S NEW PIANO. | energy imparted to the s | set by the operator's control with re- | {turn of ene; “To overc Hamn; flector thi; Mr. ‘re- m: lim ond concei of shi the soundproof case. The ‘reflectors’ are, in non-technical lan ruage, parallel revolving slats which in be opened or closed at the will of | the player by the extra pedal, in much | the ¢ an old-fashioned slatted win- | dow shutter ince s case is soundproof. us the ed reflect the tone can uilt up within the piano-forte and allowed to escape a will. Further more, the reflectors can return to the sounding-board a large degree of the ings by the n the ides whi d cover tire top of n en- was manipulated musician the ang! the amount depending upon | at which the reflectors are | spect to the sounding-board. This re- | v to the sounding-board | was suggested to Mr. Hammond by the so-called regenerative action in tho ra- dio practice. In the Hammond device | it is a sort of acoustic regeneration, | malntaining the sounding-board of the | piano vibrating for extraordinary du- | rations of time. The device requires no change in the external appearance of the instrument, with the exception of a slightly deeper case. Nor does it require any difference in the nota- tion of the music which is played on | it, although the effects are radically different from those of the standard instrument.” A large group of famous musicians heard the first concert given on this piano, by Lester Donahue, late in Au- gust, and since then Mr. Hammond says that other great artists have lis- tened to it and investigated it. He writes Franklin Adams, counselor of ments of the plano-forte, he continued, have continued essentially unchanged since its invention by Christofori, in 1720. Its evolution has been in de- talls rather than in principle, and has been largely concerned with obtaining more sustained tone and power. This | has heretofore been achieved by greater rigidity of frame and higher tension of strings, which has been more than doubled in the last 100 years. During this period many at- tempts have been made to modulate and control the tone, but always un- successfully. In the ordinary piano once the keys are sttuck this energy cannot be controlled by the player. 1t is impossible for him to build up tone and then allow it to escape as he might desire. by the Pan-American Union here, that later in the season he will lend the instrument for a concert to be given under the union’s auspices. Mr. Dona- hue will probably come here to play it. The young pianist says that although any musician should be able to learn to use this pedal quite easily, it will probably require considerable prac- tice before he can achieve the maxi- mum musical effects. He himself worked with it since the first of the year—January until August—until now he feels that he can use it auto- matically. Among those who have heard the JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, JR. vitzky, Walter Damrosch, John Mec- Cormack and Olga Samaroff. The four principal points of value q | with this inven | one of the de: Ti tone color strument stead of average pia Music | program | search lahorat | ticularly ability to “swell single notes. mentioned ir tury scor mond, but impossible piano as he >reiude M ries in Glou in Dans Engloutie’ Var Bach-Li (Continued from First Page) might easily be combined to the end that the evolution of the rallroads through 100 years be better under stood. The story is one of sensa- tional growth, especially in America. where the transformation effected by railroads appeared to be more of a revolution than an evolution. That America has not always been united with bands of steel from coast to coast is scarcely conceivable to the present-day citizen, unless the scenes of frontier times are vividly recalled for him. But less than a century ago this country had but one horse-propelled railroad. It extended from the granite quarry at Quincy, Mass., to the coast. It was designed to carry stone for the Bunker Hill Monument, and was completed in 1826. The first steam locomotive in the United States was the Stourbridge Lion, which had been imported from England. Its run covered the 16-mile track of the Delaware and Fludson Co. from Honesdale to Carbondale, Pa. The Baltimore and Ohio was= the first railroad built in Ameri for the purpose of carrying hoth passengers and freight. Construction on this line began July 4, 1828, and the first sec- tion was opened two years later. For the first year or o after the road was opened horses were used as the com- pany’s motive power. The inevitable instrument used and expressed to Mr. Hammond their confidence in it are: Rachmaninoff, Josef Hofmann, Stra- vinsky, Leopold Stokowski, Kousse- ENGINE, “THE ROCKET,” t Rail Traffic a Century Old | steam locomotive replacad | course of time, and the |iron monsters was built ir whence it tired days were over, served in the cc In 183 | road, whi being the first to start, w The fa ton, the American senger tr i Hudson R Schenectad was suppe ton was only capabie of level, 0 {he rest of its train was | raised and lowered on inclined planes | by means of stationary er | terminals, | | ‘TER a period competition, began, the 1 ot in 1833, a that country series consolidations enabled them keep pace with { public d | The railroads were a bi { the settiement and developme the West e vear of the first cor solidation completion ¢ the Clevel sled: tablished through rail col between Chicago and seaboard. the ever-i the Atlanti BUILT BY STEPHENSON.