it out of reach of the beast's claws.
But a single glance sufficed to show me that the unfortunate girl was
beyond the reach of further hurt. Yes, she was quite dead, this gentle,
faithful, savage girl who, in return for a comparatively slight service,
had unhesitatingly abandoned home, kindred, everything, to save me from
a cruel and lingering death; and now the only thing that I could do to
show my gratitude was to make sure that no further violence should be
offered to her remains.

My first impulse was to carry the body down to where the soil was
softer, and there dig a grave for it; but while I was considering this
plan, it occurred to me that, with no more efficient tool than a spear
to serve as a shovel, it would be practically impossible for me to bury
the body deep enough to protect it from the jackals and hyaenas; and I
therefore determined that, instead of burying it, I would burn it.
There was an abundance of fallen boughs and twigs in the adjacent jungle
to enable me to build a funeral pyre; and I should have the melancholy
satisfaction of actually watching the reduction of the body to
impalpable ashes. I therefore took all that remained of poor Ama in my
arms and carried it to the top of a bare rocky plateau close at hand,
upon which I intended to build my pyre, and then diligently set to work
to collect the necessary wood.

It took me the remainder of the day to collect as much dry and
combustible material as I considered would be needful to accomplish the
complete incineration of the body, and to build the pyre; but it was
done at last; and then, once more raising the corpse in my arms, I
gently placed it on the top. Then, making fire, as I had seen Ama do,
by rubbing two pieces of wood together, I ignited a torch and thrust it
deep into the heart of the pyre, through an opening which I had left for
the purpose. The dry leaves and grass which I had arranged as kindling
material instantly caught fire, and in a few minutes the flames were
darting fiercely upward through the interstices, and wreathing
themselves about the corpse. Then, placing myself to windward, clear of
the smoke, I knelt down on the hard rock and--I am not ashamed to admit
it--prayed earnestly that God would have mercy upon the soul of the
simple, unsophisticated, savage maiden who had lost her life while
helping me to save my own. I was doing a most imprudent thing to linger
by the side of the pyre, for the smoke, in the first pl