Part 24 (1/2)
Under a brilliant noonday sun the open country spread wide before us, a beautiful plain, covered with gra.s.s of freshest green, and stretching away into the far-off horizon, where a range of mountains rose blue, misty and indistinct.
”Behold!” shouted Yakul, pointing with his spear to the distant serrated line a moment later. ”Behold, yonder peak that standeth higher than the rest, and is shaped like the prow of a canoe, is the spot which thou seekest. Lo! it is the Rock of the Great Sin!”
My eyes, strained in the direction indicated, could just distinguish the point where one mountain rose higher than its neighbours, its summit apparently obscured by the vapours that hung about it.
”Art thou certain that yonder crest is actually the rock we seek?” I asked, shading my eyes with my hands, and eagerly gazing away to the blue haze that enshrouded a mystery upon the elucidation of which my whole future depended.
”Of a verity the gra.s.sland beneath thy feet is the same field whereon my people gained the signal victory over their enemies. Behold! their whitening bones remain as relics of that fight; and yonder, afar, lieth the forbidden Land of the Myriad Mysteries.”
”Let us hasten thither, O master,” urged Tiamo, who had been standing agape in amazement, eagerly drinking in every word uttered by the sable chieftain.
”In short s.p.a.ce shall we reach the sh.o.r.e of the wondrous Lake of the Accursed,” Yakul exclaimed. ”By to-morrow's noon our faces shall be mirrored in its waters.”
”Let us speed on the wings of haste,” I said; and then, remembering Yakul's confidence in the non-success of my strange mission, I added, ”Each hour is of serious moment. Already have I tarried too great a s.p.a.ce on my way hither, and must return more quickly than I came. How I shall journey back to Kano I know not.”
”Thou needest not retrace thy footsteps along the route thou hast traversed,” answered the chief. ”Due north of yonder rock there runneth a track which leadeth through the Great Forest to Ipoto. Thence, crossing the Ihourou river, the way leadeth on through the desolate country of the Mbelia unto the mountain called Nai, whence thou canst journey in six marches to Niam-Niam, and onward unto thine own desert land.”
Our friends, the dwarfs, had grouped themselves under the shadow of the trees on the edge of the forest, conversing seriously. None summoned sufficient courage to wander forth upon the verdant land, where flowers grew in wild abundance, and where herds of buffalo grazed undisturbed.
This strange land, unknown to all except themselves, they held in utmost awe. They dared not approach it more closely, lest the dreaded pestilence that had been prophesied should fall and sweep them from the face of the earth.
Yakul approached their headman, urging him to accompany us and explore the mysterious rock, but the tiny man only shook his head, and drawing himself up, answered,--
”Verily, we are thy friends, O friend, but seek not to cause us to invoke the wrath of the Destroyer, lest the pestilence should fall upon us. He who resteth his eyes on yonder rock will a.s.suredly be smitten, and his entrails withered by the breath of the Evil Spirit of the Forest that scorcheth like the flame of a burning brand. To pa.s.s over yonder gra.s.sland is forbidden.”
”We go forward in search of the Land of the Myriad Mysteries,” the chief of the Avejeli explained.
”Then a.s.suredly thou goest unto certain death,” the dwarfs replied, almost with one accord, shaking their heads and shrugging their narrow shoulders.
”Be warned,” their headman added. ”The Destroyer is mighty; he ruleth the Great Forest and its people. a.s.suredly he is swift to punis.h.!.+”
”He who will bear us company unto the Lake of the Accursed, let him stand forth, or if he dare not venture, then let him hold his peace,”
said Yakul, standing erect, spear in hand.
But not a dwarf advanced. All feared to pa.s.s across the fertile plain, and investigate the mysterious country beyond.
Then, after much parleying and many solemnly-uttered warnings on the part of the pigmies, my two companions and myself left them, setting our faces resolutely towards the sacred lake, the approach to which was prohibited to all.
The gra.s.s was soft beneath our feet after the difficult march through the untrodden forest; the sight of flowers, of animals and of birds refreshed our eyes after the eternal silence and appalling gloom in which we had existed through so many weary days; and as the sun sank in a sea of crimson behind us, and our shadows lengthened across the gra.s.s, I halted for a few moments to repeat the sunset prayer, remembering that there was one afar off who had opened her lattice and breathed upon the hot, stifling desert wind a fervent message of love.
Within sight of the entrance to the mysterious Land of the No Return I wondered, as I strode forward, what the result of my mission would be; whether, by good fortune, I should be enabled to reach the Rock of the Great Sin in safety; whether the explanation of the mysterious Mark of the Asps upon my breast would ever be revealed; whether the true-hearted woman I loved so dearly still stood in peril of the vile intrigues around her; whether the Khalifa's plot had been frustrated, and whether, by Allah's grace, my feet would ever again tread the well-remembered courts of the luxurious Fada at Kano.
The traditions of the sons of Al-Islam and those of the pagans were alike so ominous that, as the dark mountains gradually became misty and indistinct when the night clouds enveloped them, I became filled with gloomy apprehensions, fearing failure, and the fulfilment of the strange, terrifying prophecies of the dwarfs.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
THE GREAT SIN.
Hastily we sped forward early next morning, our eyes eagerly riveted upon our goal.
The saffron streak of dawn showed behind the great, gloomy range of blue and grey, and as the fleecy clouds lifted, we saw that the higher peaks beyond were tipped with snow. The lofty crests were tinted with an unusual blood-red light. Truly the country beyond had been justly named by the pagans the Land of the Myriad Mysteries.
Soon we ascended a knoll, and at its summit were enabled to distinguish, straight in front of us, a pool of dark water which, at that distance, seemed only a leopard's leap in width, lying immediately beneath the Rock of the Great Sin.