Apache Devil Edgar Rice Burroughs - A sequel to The War Chief, Shoz-Dijiji, the Black Bear, has lost his love, Ish-kay-nay, to death, killed his mortal enemy, Juh, the Apache. He does not understand his attraction to the white woman, Wichita Billings, while he takes up the warpath as the Apache Devil.THE silver light of Klego-na-ay, the full moon, shone down from out the star-lit heavens of an Arizona night upon the camp of the Be-don-ko-he Apaches; shone upon sleek copper shoulders; shone upon high cheek bones; softened the cruel lines of swart, savage facesfaces as inscrutable as is the face of Klego-na-ay herself.Shone the silver moonlight upon Nan-ta-do-tash, the izze- nantan of his people, as he led them in the dance, as he prayed for rain to save their parched crops. As he danced, Nan-ta-do-tash twirled his. tzi-ditinidi about his head, twirled it rapidly from front to rear, producing the sound of a gust of rain-laden wind; and the warriors and the women, dancing with Nan-ta-do-tash, listened to the tzi- ditinidi, saw the medicine man cast hoddentin to the four winds, and knew that these things would compel the wind and the rain to come to the aid of their crops.

バローズが描いたのは、西部劇の枠を超えたアイデンティティの悲劇です。アパッチとして育った白人青年が、血脈と魂の狭間で揺れる様は、野性味溢れる文体と共に胸を打ちます。月光の下での祈祷シーンに漂う神話的抒情は、文明に抗う高潔な精神を象徴しており、著者の作家性が光る深淵な魅力に満ちています。 映像版では雄大な自然が視覚を圧倒しますが、原作が描く内面の葛藤は格別です。文字から立ち上る孤独と禁断の思慕。これが映像の迫力と響き合うことで、物語は真の叙事詩へと昇華されます。戦士の仮面に隠された切実な魂の叫びを、ぜひ活字の深みで味わってください。