Part 12 (2/2)
”Faith!” said Joe, as the Victoria skiround, at scarcely the elevation of one hundred feet, and ie, ”I'll throw them an empty bottle, with your leave, doctor, and if it reaches them safe and sound, they'll worshi+p it; if it breaks, they'llout a bottle, which, of course, was broken into a thousand fragroes sca shrill cries
A little farther on, Kennedy called out: ”Look at that strange tree! The upper part is of one kind and the lower part of another!”
”Well!” said Joe, ”here's a country where the trees grow on top of each other”
”It's si-tree,” replied the doctor, ”on which there is a little vegetating earth Some fine day, the wind left the seed of a palh it were on the plain ground”
”A fine new style of gardening,” said Joe, ”and I'll i in the London parks; without counting that it would be another way to increase the nuardens up in the air; and the small house-owners would like that!”
At this moment, they had to raise the balloon so as to pass over a forest of trees that were ht-a kind of ancient banyan
”Whatso fine as the appearance of these venerable forests Look, doctor!”
”The height of these banyans is really re astonishi+ng in the New World”
”Why, are there still loftier trees in existence?”
”Undoubtedly; a the 'mammoth trees' of California, there is a cedar four hundred and eighty feet in height It would overtop the Houses of Parliaypt The trunk at the surface of the ground was one hundred and twenty feet in circumference, and the concentric layers of the wood disclosed an age of more than four thousand years”
”But then, sir, there was nothing wonderful in it! When one has lived four thousand years, one ought to be pretty tall!” was Joe's re the doctor's recital and Joe's response, the forest had given place to a large collection of huts surrounding an open space In the rew a solitary tree, and Joe exclaiht of it: ”Well! if that tree has produced such flowers as those, for the last four thousand years, I have to offer it antic sycamore, whose whole trunk was covered with human bones The flowers of which Joe spoke were heads freshly severed froers thrust into the bark of the tree
”The war-tree of these cannibals!” said the doctor; ”the Indians roes take the whole head”
”A mere e and the bleeding heads were disappearing on the horizon Another place offered a stillspectacle-half-devoured corpses; skeletonsto dust; human limbs scattered here and there, and left to feed the jackals and hyenas
”No doubt, these are the bodies of cri to the custom in Abyssinia, these people have left them a prey to the wild beasts, who kill them with their terrible teeth and claws, and then devour the!” said the Scot; ”filthier, that's all!”
”In the southern regions of Africa, they content the up the criminal in his own hut with his cattle, and sometimes with his family They then set fire to the hut, and the whole party are burned together I call that cruel; but, like friend Kennedy, I think that the gallows is quite as cruel, quite as barbarous”
Joe, by the aid of his keen sight, which he did not fail to use continually, noticed so about the horizon
”They are eagles!” exclailass, ”ht is as rapid as ours”
”Heaven preserve us from their attacks!” said the doctor, ”they are e tribes”
”Bah!” said the hunter, ”we can drive them off with a few rifle-shots”
”Nevertheless, I would prefer, dear dick, not having to rely upon your skill, this time, for the silk of our balloon could not resist their sharp beaks; fortunately, the huge birds will, I believe, be htened than attracted by our machine”
”Yes! but a new idea, and I have dozens of thee to capture a teales, we could hitch theh the air!”
”The thing has been seriously proposed,” replied the doctor, ”but I think it hardly practicable with creatures naturally so restive”
”Oh! we'd ta them with bits, we'd do it with eye-blinkers that would cover their eyes Half blinded in that way, they'd go to the right or to the left, as we desired; when blinded completely, they would stop”
”Allow les It costs less for fodder, and is more reliable”
”Well, you may have your choice, master, but I stick toat a more moderate speed for soer flew
Suddenly, shouts and whistlings were heard by our aeronauts, and, leaning over the edge of the car, they saw on the open plain below thehting furiously, and the air was dotted with volleys of arrows The combatants were so intent upon their murderous work that they did not notice the arrival of the balloon; there were about three hundred le: most of them, red with the blood of the wounded, in which they fairly ere horrible to behold
As they at last caught sight of the balloon, there was a momentary pause; but their yells redoubled, and so close enough for Joe to catch it with his hand
”Let us rise out of range,” exclaimed the doctor; ”there must be no rashness! We are forbidden any risk”
Meanwhile, the massacre continued on both sides, with battle-axes and war-clubs; as quickly as one of the combatants fell, a hostile warrior ran up to cut off his head, while the woathered up these bloody trophies, and piled theether at either extreht for these hideous spoils
”What a frightful scene!” said Kennedy, with profound disgust
”They're ugly acquaintances!” added Joe; ”but then, if they had uniforhters of all the rest of the world!”
”I have a keen hankering to take a hand in at that fight,” said the hunter, brandishi+ng his rifle
”No! no!” objected the doctor, vehemently; ”no, let us not ht or which is wrong, that you would assuhty? Let us, rather, hurry away froreat captains of the world float thus above the scenes of their exploits, they would at last, perhaps, conceive a disgust for blood and conquest”
The chieftain of one of the contending parties was reht, and herculean strength With one hand he plunged his spear into the coe spaces in the away his war-club, red with blood, rushed upon a wounded warrior, and, chopping off his arle stroke, carried the dissevered ain
”Ah!” ejaculated Kennedy, ”the horrible brute! I can hold back no longer,” and, as he spoke, the huge savage, struck full in the forehead with a rifle-ball, fell headlong to the ground
Upon this sudden mishap of their leader, his warriors seemed struck dumb with amazement; his supernatural death awed thee and ardor of their adversaries, and, in a twinkling, the field was abandoned by half the coher up for a current to bear us away I am sick of this spectacle,” said the doctor
But they could not get away so rapidly as to avoid the sight of the victorious tribe rushi+ng upon the dead and the wounded, scra flesh, and eagerly devouring it
”Faugh!” uttered Joe, ”it's sickening”
The balloon rose as it expanded; the howlings of the brutal horde, in the deliriuth, borne away toward the south, they were carried out of sight and hearing of this horrible spectacle of cannibalism