Part 9 (1/2)
IN WHICH THE TRAVELLERS ENJOY THEMSELVES EXTREMELY, AND DISCO LILLIHAMMER SEES SEVERAL ASTONIs.h.i.+NG SIGHTS.
Behold our travellers, then, fairly embarked on the waters of the great African river Zambesi, in two canoes, one of which is commanded by Harold Seadrift, the other by Disco Lillihammer.
Of course these enterprising chiefs were modest enough at first to allow two of the Makololo men, Jumbo and Zombo, to wield the steering-oars, but after a few days' practice they became sufficiently expert, as Disco said, to take the helm, except when strong currents rendered the navigation difficult, or when the weather became so ”piping hot” that none but men clad in black skins could work.
We must however guard the reader here from supposing that it is always piping hot in Africa. There are occasional days when the air may be styled lukewarm, when the sky is serene, and when all nature seems joyful and enjoyable,--days in which a man opens his mouth wide and swallows down the atmosphere; when he _feels_ his health and strength, and rejoices in them, and when, if he be not an infidel, he also feels a sensation of grat.i.tude to the Giver of all good.
On such a day, soon after entering the East Luavo mouth of the Zambesi, the explorers, for such we may almost venture to style them, ascended the smooth stream close to the left bank, Harold leading, Disco following closely in his wake.
The men rowed gently, as if they enjoyed the sweet calm of early morning, and were unwilling to disturb the innumerable flocks of wild-fowl that chuckled among the reeds and sedges everywhere. Harold sat in the stern, leaning back, and only dipping the steering-oar lazily now and then to keep the canoe from running on the bank, or plunging into a forest of gigantic rushes. Disco, having resolved to solace himself with a whiff of his darling pipe, had resigned ”the helm” to Jumbo, and laid himself in a position of comfort which admitted of his resting his head on the gunwale in such a manner that, out of the corners of his eyes, he could gaze down into the water.
The part of the river they had reached was so perfectly still that every cloud in the sky, every mangrove, root and spray, and every bending bulrush, was perfectly reproduced in the reflected world below.
Plaintive cries of wild-fowl formed appropriate melody, to which chattering groups of monkeys and croaking bull-frogs contributed a fine tenor and ba.s.s.
”Hallo, Disco!” exclaimed Harold in a subdued key, looking over his shoulder.
”Ay, ay, sir?” sighed the seaman, without moving his position.
”Range up alongside; I want to speak to you.”
”Ay, ay, sir.--Jumbo, you black-faced villain, d'ee hear that? give way and go 'longside.”
Good-humoured Jumbo _spoke_ very little English, but had come to understand a good deal during his travels with Dr Livingstone. He wrinkled his visage and showed his brilliant teeth on receiving the order. Muttering a word to the men, and giving a vigorous stroke, he shot up alongside of the leader's canoe.
”You seem comfortable,” said Harold, with a laugh, as Disco's vast visage appeared at his elbow.
”I is.”
”Isn't this jolly?” continued Harold.
”No, sir, 'taint.”
”Why, what d'you mean?”
”I means that jolly ain't the word, by a long way, for to express the natur' o' my feelin's. There ain't no word as I knows on as 'ud come up to it. If I wor a fylosipher, now, I'd coin a word for the occasion.
P'raps,” continued Disco, drawing an unusually long whiff from his pipe, ”p'raps, not bein' a fylosipher, I might nevertheless try to coin one.
Wot's the Latin, now, for heaven?”
”Caelum,” replied Harold.
”Sailum, eh? An' wot's the 'arth?”
”Terra.”
”Terra? well now, wot rediklous names to give to 'em,” said Disco, shaking his head gravely, ”I can't see why the ancients couldn't ha' bin satisfied with the names that _we'd_ given 'em. Hows'ever, that's neither here nor there. My notion o' the state o' things that we've got into here, as they now stand, is, that they are sailumterracious, which means heaven-upon-earth, d'ee see?”
As Disco p.r.o.nounced the word with a powerful emphasis on the _u-m_ part of it the sound was rather effective, and seemed to please him.
”Right; you're right, or nearly so,” replied Harold; ”but don't you think the word savours too much of perfection, seeing that breakfast would add to the pleasure of the present delightful state of things, and make them even more sailumterracious than they are?”