Part 5

Act 3, Scene 1

(Male Ship Captain, Mistress, Toy)

Male Ship Captain:

My esteemed Mistress, praiseworthy and prosperous,

whom I faithfully serve as the captain

of one of your merchant ships, well built

and kept in good repair, so that it may safely carry

the goods that you trade with, to increase your wealth

and to provide our island with all that we need.

On our way back to our harbor, with a precious cargo

of spices, rare stones, pearls and slaves,

sailing not far past a Cannibal island,

we scanned the waters, ready to fend off any attack

which those savages might attempt with their canoes,

despite the defeat that we've recently dealt them,

when we spied on the waves an unexpected sight.

On top of a wooden board, to which she was tied,

lay a naked girl, paddling the board with her hands,

on a course towards our island, which, however,

the wind and the currents would have kept out of her reach,

especially as we could see she was wounded and weak.

I brought the ship about and after a short deliberation

decided she did not pose any danger,

so we took her aboard as shippers should do

with all who are at sea and in peril.

We tended her wounds as well as we could,

and then, to our surprise, while she would not speak,

nor would she eat, she asked with gestures

for papyrus, ink and a brush, and wrote a long letter,

which she rolled into a scroll, indicating that its words

were meant to be private, but on the outside, to our

even greater surprise, she wrote your name.

Then she fell into a deep sleep, but she is still alive,

kept under guard in one of your store-houses,

until you decide what we should do with her,

since, saved by your ship, she is now rightfully yours.

Here is her letter. A sense of foreboding

fills me when I touch it. With your permission

I now return to the ship, to unload the cargo,

and await your orders regarding the girl.

May my Mistress prosper, as she deserves.

Mistress:

The foreboding is mine now. With shaking fingers

I open this scroll. I know from whom it is,

though I hadn't even been aware she could write,

when I bought her to serve for my pleasure,

and so knows the Captain, though he has the kindness

of pretending he doesn't. But things like these

can never stay secrets, the whole island will know.

My body feels cold, shivers run down my spine,

but I must know what happened, what she has to report.

So, here it is...

Toy:

My venerated Mistress,

I have no tongue left

with which to give you the direful news,

so I write with my hand,

to tell you that I have failed,

that I have brought you disgrace,

instead of bringing you joy,

and that the pain that I suffer

from wounds all over my body

can never relieve me

of my sorrow and shame

of still being alive,

when only my death

would have brought you your wish.

Let me tell from the beginning.

The Princess received me,

as you had wisely envisaged,

and I courted for you,

praising your person,

and as instructed I told her

about your generous offer

to take her as your slave,

and always staying with the truth

I explained how her life

would become so much better,

if she accepted your courtship,

and, having been told

of all that awaited her,

your love and your presence,

and splendor and comfort,

how could she possibly not?

After she had listened,

and I had given her pleasure,

I spent some days in a bamboo cage,

with two other captives, a girl and a man,

from one of their protected tribes,

giving pleasure to the villagers,

as they demanded,

through the gaps between the bars.

Then we were marched to the beach

on which I had landed,

where they hold their feasts,

which begin when the sun sets,

and last through the night.

Fires were burning, and there was a huge crowd,

singing and dancing and beating their drums,

eager for our tortures to begin,

our agonies, as I was told, improving

the flavor and tenderness of our meat,

but also, I think, increasing their appetite.

The girl was first, but before she was tortured

they gave her a wooden pole, eight feet long,

entirely straight, with a pointed tip,

and she took it and danced, in beautiful motion

to the rhythm of the drums and the singing,

an enticing dance, captivating and sensual,

as the drums beat faster and the singing got louder,

until, exhausted, she collapsed on the sand.

What they did to her then, I cannot say,

because she was hidden by those around her,

but I heard her screams,

knowing she had to strike a difficult balance

between screaming too much,

which would be to her shame and thus

dishonor her captors, and not screaming at all,

which would make her seem contemptuous

of her captors, and thus dishonor them too.

She seemed to do well, for I heard laughter

that sounded content, and those who used me,

while I lay spread on the ground,

seemed pleased with the feast, as it unfolded.

Finally she was taken by four men who held her

stretched out between them, by her legs and arms,

while two more supported her back and her shoulders,

and a seventh took the pole, to spit her

through her vagina, slowly and carefully,

pushing the spit lengthwise through her body,

while she kept screaming,

until it emerged through her mouth,

her head bent backwards,

ending her screams, but not yet her life.

Thus spitted, they turned her

over the fire, where her life then soon ceased.

The man was next, and this time

I could see more of his tortures.

He, too, screamed, and his screams

mingled with his torturers' laughter,

the merriest laughter being that of the girls,

who had their fun with his penis and testicles,

using their teeth and sharp pieces of shells.

To prepare his meat they wrapped him

in succulent leaves, and then dug a pit

into which they threw stones, hot from the fires,

and then, still living, they lowered him down,

and covered the pit with pebbles and sand,

his screams finally dying away, as his meat

slowly started to cook in the underground heat.

Then it was my turn. The flickering fires,

the torches, and the half moon in the sky,

threw their light on the faces and the naked bodies

of the men and the women who gathered around me,

some covered in blood, all showing their arousal,

penises erect, labia open and glistening with moisture,

and unexpectedly I felt a strange excitement

to be at the center of their attention,

to be the object of the desire

of all those people, savages,

but beautiful, noble and strong,

and to be deemed worthy to give them

from my own body, that which is most precious,

that which sustains the circle of life,

food. That was what I now was becoming,

and a deep satisfaction filled my mind and my body

so that I neither feared death nor pain.

Up to this moment, after first I had met her

I had not seen the Princess, but now

she stood before me, naked as the others,

looking at me with an expression

which I could not read.

She did not speak to me, but to those around her,

she said, pointing at me,

this had been given to her, so only her dagger

should cut it, and with these words

she passed around the dagger she held, made of obsidian,

both hilt and sharp blade, of one perfect piece,

intricately carved, a tool of rare royal splendor,

and one by one, with this blade they cut

into my body, first removing a breast,

then cutting slices of meat from my thighs

and from my ankles and buttocks,

the first one cut by the warrior to whom

the Princess had promised my tastiest part,

then others followed, and with sticks

they held my meat over the fires, where soon

it became ready to eat, and they ate it,

letting me see through the haze of my agony

and of my arousal, how much they relished

what I had to give. The wounds

they cauterized with their torches.

Fire singed me between my thighs, and a girl

sliced off my labia, and then

the Princess herself, who had so far not touched me,

made me open my mouth, cut out my tongue,

and rubbed it between her legs against her clitoris

until she was pleased, then she held it, using a stick,

over the fire, and when it was done,

chewing with relish, and further pleasing herself

with her hand, she ate it. And finally

she spoke to me, saying, this

was what my tongue was best for,

and now