Explain the following sentences in your own words, bringing out any implied meanings.

1. The Kiowas reckoned their stature by the distance they could see, and they were bent and blind in the wilderness.

Answer: Their stature was measured by the distance they could see. Yet, because of the dense forests, they could not see very far, and they could hardly stand straight.

2. Clusters of trees, and animals grazing far in the distance, cause the vision to reach away and wonder to build upon the mind.

Answer: The earth unfolds and the limit of the land is far in the distance, where there are clusters of trees and animals eating grass. This landscape makes one see far and broadens one’s horizon.

3. Not yet would they veer southward to the caldron of the land that lay below; they must wean their blood from the northern winter and hold the mountains a while longer in their view.

Answer: They would not yet change the direction southward to the land lying below which was like a large kettle. First, they must give their bodies some time to get used to the plains. Secondly, they didn’t want to lose sight of the mountains so soon.

4. I was never sure that I had the right to hear, so exclusive were they of all mere custom and company.

Answer: I was not sure that I had any right to overhear her praying, which did not follow any customary way of praying, and which I guess she did not want anyone else to hear.

5. Transported so in the dancing light among the shadows of her room, she seemed beyond the reach of time. But that was illusion; I think I knew then that I should not see her again.

Answer: In this way she was entranced in the dancing light among the shadows of her room, and she seemed to be timeless what she represented would last for ever.