He followed my example, and, after seating himself in a
comfortable position, deliberately drew out his tobacco-pouch and began
making a cigarette. I could not quarrel with him for this further
delay, for without the soothing, stimulating cigarette an Oriental
finds it difficult to collect his thoughts. Leaving him to carry out
his instructions in his own laborious fashion, I vented my irritation
on the grass, plucking it up by handfuls.
"Why do you do that?" he asked, with a grin.
"Pluck grass? What a question! When a person sits down on the grass,
what is the first thing he does?"
"Makes a cigarette," he returned.
"In my country he begins plucking up the grass," I said.
"In the Banda Oriental we leave the grass for the cattle to eat," said
he.
I at once gave up pulling the grass, for it evidently distracted his
mind, and, lighting a cigarette, began smoking as placidly as I could.
At length he began: "There is not in all the Banda Oriental a worse
person to express things than myself."
"You are speaking the truth," I said.
"But what is to be done?" he continued, staring straight before him
and giving as little heed to my interruption as a hunter riding at a
stiff fence would pay to a remark about the weather. "When a man cannot
get a knife, he breaks in two an old pair of sheep-shears, and with
one of the blades makes himself an implement which has to serve him
for a knife.
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