Kaluna beats him the whole time with a heavy
stick; but except when he strikes him most barbarously about his
eyes and nose he only cringes, without quickening his pace. When I
rode him mercifully the true hound nature came out. The sufferings
of this wretched animal have been the great drawback on this
journey. I have now bribed Kaluna with as much as the horse is
worth to give him a month's rest, and long before that time I hope
the owl-hawks will be picking his bones.
The horse has come before the rider, but Kaluna is no nonentity. He
is a very handsome youth of sixteen, with eyes which are remarkable,
even in this land of splendid eyes, a straight nose, a very fine
mouth, and beautiful teeth, a mass of wavy, almost curly hair, and a
complexion not so brown as to conceal the mantling of the bright
southern blood in his cheeks. His figure is lithe, athletic, and as
pliable as if he were an invertebrate animal, capable of unlimited
doublings up and contortions, to which his thin white shirt and blue
cotton trousers are no impediment. He is almost a complete savage;
his movements are impulsive and uncontrolled, and his handsome face
looks as if it belonged to a half-tamed creature out of the woods.
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