Part 20 (1/2)

If the s.h.i.+ps of Magellan were to find a new way to the East, and were to sail around the world, what surprising events might follow!

So, night after night, Mesquita could but hope and ask:

”Where is the lantern of Magellan now?”

Seville was full of maritime prosperity. The tuneful bells in her many churches had frequent occasions to ring out for national festivals. The sailors loved these services, and especially those that celebrated the triumphs of the Virgin whose dominion had become, as was supposed, the sea, and who was hailed as the ”Star of the Deep.”

The happy crowds on their way to the rejoicing churches must have pa.s.sed the prison walls where Mesquita was detained. Life indeed must have been mysterious to him. The world in which he deserved so much honor and happiness was shut out from him--even the sun and stars.

CHAPTER XXIII.

STRANGE STORIES.--THE WISE OLD WOMEN.--THE WALKING LEAVES.--THE HAUNTED SANDALWOOD TREES.--THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.--THE LITTLE BOY AND THE GIANT BIRD.

Pigafetta was no Munchausen, but he had a love of marvelous stories, and there never was a voyage that offered to a European a greater number of curious events and superst.i.tions. Some of the incidents that excited our Chevalier's wonder were natural events which have been since explained.

The superst.i.tious legends of the people were, however, for the most part but the growth of folklore through the imagination.

One of these accounts relates to the wise old women who prepared the sacrifices of the wild boar as offerings to the sun. It shows how small may be the real meaning of pompous and pretentious ceremonies. The rites took place in the Philippines.

Says Pigafetta in his narrative prepared for the Grand Master of the Knight of Rhodes:

”Since I have spoken of the idols, it may please your ill.u.s.trious Highness to have an account of the ceremony with which, in this island, they bless the pig. They begin by sounding some great drums (tamburi); they then bring three large dishes; two are filled with cakes of rice and cooked millet rolled up in leaves, with roast fish; in the third are Cambay cloths and two strips of palm cloth. A cloth of Cambay is spread out on the ground; then two old women come, each of whom has in her hand a reed trumpet. They step upon the cloth and make an obeisance to the sun; they then clothe themselves with the above-mentioned cloths. The first of these puts on her head a handkerchief which she ties on her forehead so as to make two horns, and taking another handkerchief in her hand, dances and sounds her trumpet and invokes the sun.

”The second old woman takes one of the strips of palm cloth and dances, and also sounds her trumpet; thus they dance and sound their trumpets for a short s.p.a.ce of time, saying several things to the sun. The first old woman then drops the handkerchief she has in her hand and takes the other strip of cloth, and both together sounding their trumpets, dance for a long time round the pig which is bound on the ground. The first one always speaks in a low tone to the sun, and the second answers her.

So the sun and the two old women had a luminous partners.h.i.+p.

”The second old woman then presents a cup of wine to the first, who, while they both continue their address to the sun, brings the cup four or five times near the mouth as though going to drink, and meanwhile sprinkles the wine on the heart of the pig. She then gives up the cup, and receives a lance which she brandishes, while still dancing and reciting, and four or five times directs the lance at the pig's heart; at last, with a sudden and well-aimed blow, she pierces it through and through. She withdraws the lance from the wound, which is then closed and dressed with herbs.

”During the ceremony a torch is always burning, and the old woman who pierced the pig takes and puts it out with her mouth; the other old woman dips the end of her trumpet in the pig's blood, and with it marks with blood the forehead of her husband and of her companion, and then of the rest of the people. But they did not come and do this to us.

”That done the old women took off their robes and ate what was in the two dishes, inviting only women to join them. After that they get the hair off the pig with fire. Only old women are able to consecrate the boar, and this animal is never eaten unless it is killed in this manner.”

Pigafetta saw wonderful things in Borneo, among them a wild boar whose head was two and a half spans long, and oysters as large as turtles. He says that the flesh of one of these oysters weighed forty-five pounds.

But the thing there which probably must have most greatly excited his curiosity was the _walking leaves_. There were certain trees on the islands that had very animated leaves. When one of these leaves fell from the tree, it did not lie where it fell, to rot or to be shuffled by the winds, but it lifted itself up and walked away.

Here was a sight indeed to make the young Italian fly to his memoranda book, which he did.

Other travelers later saw the same curious thing, but they examined the miracle more closely than the credulous Chevalier. They found that the leaves were moved by an insect that lived inside of them, like the Mexican bean, which is used as a toy, and will jump about a table.

The islands of the Indian Ocean abound in sandalwood. Of the sandal trees Pigafetta heard other curious legends. One of them tells us that when the people of the Timor went out to cut sandalwood, the devil appeared to them, and demanded them to bargain with him for the wood.

This they did, for those who cut the wood are otherwise likely to fall sick; a poisonous miasma is exhaled from the wounded wood.

Pigafetta heard also marvelous tales of the Emperor of China, who seemed to live amid human walls. There may be some truths in these incidents; if so, what a remarkable condition must have been that of the Chinese court four hundred years ago!

He says:

”The kingdom of Cocchi lies next; its sovereign is named Raja Seri b.u.mmipala. After that follows Great China, the king of which is the greatest sovereign of the world, and is called Santoa Raja. He has seventy crowned kings under his dependence; and some of these kings have ten or fifteen lesser kings dependent on them. The port of this kingdom is named Guantan, and among the many cities of this Empire, two are the most important, namely, Nankin and Comlaha, where the King usually resides.