Part 20 (1/2)
Immediately the badly-wounded gorilla fled, leaving the old gorilla master of the field; but then the victor was also covered with blood. My father still trembled, for he was afraid of being discovered. After a time, when all was silent, he looked round, and saw that the victorious gorilla had also gone off.”
By this time Minsho was covered with perspiration; he fancied, I suppose, that he had seen the fight himself. He concluded by saying, ”I have no doubt the gorilla we killed this morning lost one of his big tusks in a great fight with another gorilla,” in which opinion we all coincided.
After this story we lay down on our beds of leaves, and, surrounded by blazing fires, all went to sleep, hoping to rest well, for we had a hard day's work before us on the morrow.
In the morning the songs of birds awoke us from our sleep. After roasting a ripe plantain and eating it, I started once more, following a path by which we traveled all day. Again no game was seen; we did not even meet the footsteps of an elephant; and a little before sunset we came to a bando or olako, built by the As.h.i.+ra and Apingi people especially for the convenience of travelers.
The bando was roofed with peculiar and very large leaves, here called the shayshayray and the quaygayray. Here we concluded to stop for the night. Not even the cry of an owl or of a hyena disturbed the stillness; no elephant's footstep came to awake us from our slumber; the howls of the leopard were not to be heard.
Several days had been thus spent in the jungle, but we were now compelled to hurry along, for we had no food. In the mean time we had a view of some small prairies, and in one of them had seen villages, which the As.h.i.+ras said were those of the Bakalai; but as Minsho and the rest of the As.h.i.+ras did not want to go near them, we reentered the forest.
”The Bakalai here,” said Minsho, who I could see was not gifted with any great amount of bravery, ”always stop and fight people.” So we managed to pa.s.s their villages unseen.
Minsho said we were approaching the country of the Apingi. He was not mistaken. In the afternoon, while we were pa.s.sing through dense woods, we heard people talking not far from us, and I came suddenly on a man who turned out to be Remandji, king of the Apingi.
At the sight of me he and his company stood silent and amazed for a few minutes, when he began to dance about me in a most unroyal and crazy manner, shouting again and again, ”The spirit has come to see me! the spirit has come to see my country!” He kept looking at me steadfastly, and for a while I thought his majesty had gone out of his mind.
King Remandji looked like a very fine old negro. The question that arose in my mind was, ”How did the king happen to be in the woods?” His majesty had come to fish in a neighboring creek, for kings here are modest in their tastes, and was on his way to meet his wives, who had been sent on before him. He knew Olenda's sons, and directed them to a certain spot, and said he would be back that evening and bring his wives with him.
We parted with the king, rejoicing in the prospect of having fish and plantain for dinner. Meantime we went on, and when the evening came we all began to feel somewhat anxious about our quarters. Game was said to be plentiful in the forest, so I pushed a little out of the path, and, thinking I had seen something like a gazelle, I stepped forward toward it, when down into an elephant-trap I went, feeling quite astonished at finding myself at the bottom of it. It was a wonder my gun did not go off.
This trap I had fallen into was about ten feet deep, eight feet long, and six feet wide. As soon as I recovered sufficiently to comprehend my position, I began to holla and shout for help. No one answered me. I shouted and shouted, but no reply came. I was in a pretty fix.
”Suppose,” said I to myself, ”that a huge snake, as it crawls about, should not see this hole, and tumble down on top of me.” The very thought made me shout louder and louder. At times I would call, ”Ayagui! Ayagui! Minsho! Minsho!” Finally I fired a gun, and then another, and soon I heard the voices of my men shouting ”Moguizi, where are you? Moguizi, where are you?” ”Here I am!” I cried. ”Where?” I heard Minsho repeat. ”Close by--here, Minsho, in a big elephant-pit; look out, lest you fall into it yourself.” Mins...o...b.. this time knew where I was, and called all the men. They immediately cut a creeper and let it down.
I fired off my gun, and sent it up first, and then, holding fast to the creeper, I was lifted out of the pit, and very glad I was too, I a.s.sure you. The wonder to me was that I did not break my neck in getting into it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ELEPHANT TRAP.]
Finally we reached the place where Remandji had directed Minsho to go.
We lighted our fires, and soon after Remandji made his appearance. He looked again and again at me. His women were frightened, and did not show themselves. Happily, his majesty brought some plantains and fish with him.
I thought I had before known what musquitoes were, but I never saw the like of those we had in this spot. They certainly must have been a new kind, for their sting was like that of a bee, and very painful. Hundreds of them were buzzing around each one of us. My eyes, hands, and legs were swollen. I had a musquito-net with me, but inside of it they would get, how I could not tell. Several times I got out of the net, and when I thought I had shaken it well, and driven every one of them off, I would get under it again in the twinkle of an eye; but the musquitoes, which seemed perfectly famished, were like vultures, and would get in at the same time that I did. The As.h.i.+ras declared that they had never before seen such a place for musquitoes. Smoke and fire seemed to have no effect upon them. I never suffered such torture in my life. They beat all I had ever seen in the shape of musquitoes. The next morning I was so terribly bitten that I looked as if I had the measles or the chicken-pox.
Remandji, who had built his camp next to ours, came declaring that the people must have bewitched the place where we had slept, and off he took us to his village. After a three hours' march, we came at last, through a sudden opening in the forest, to a magnificent stream, the Rembo Apingi or Ngouyai. I stood in amazement and delight, looking at the beautiful and large river I had just discovered, and the waters of which were gliding toward the big sea, when a tremendous cheer from the As.h.i.+ras announced to the Apingi, Remandji's subjects, who had made their appearance on the opposite bank, that a spirit had come to visit them.
The latter responded to the cheering, and presently a great number of exceedingly frail flat canoes and several rafts were pushed across, and soon reached our side of the river; they had come to ferry us over. The Apingi people live only on the right bank of this n.o.ble river.
I got into a very small canoe, which was managed with great skill by the Apingi boatman. I did not see how he could keep his equilibrium in the frail-looking sh.e.l.l.
The shouting on the Apingi side was becoming louder and louder, and when I landed the excitement was intense. ”Look at the spirit!” shouted the mult.i.tude. ”Look at his feet! look at his hair! look at his nose!” etc., etc.
They followed me till I was safely housed in one of the largest huts in the town, which was about twelve feet long and seven feet broad, with a piazza in front. When all my luggage was stored there was hardly room to move. I had indeed reached a strange country.
Presently Remandji came to me, followed by all the old men of his town and several chiefs of the neighboring villages. Twenty-four fowls were laid at my feet; bunches of plantains, with baskets of ca.s.sava. And Remandji, turning toward the old men, said, ”I have beheld what our fathers never saw--what you and I never saw before. I bid thee welcome, O spirit! I thank your father, King Olenda,” said he, turning to Minsho, ”for sending this spirit to me.” Then he added, ”Be glad, O spirit, and eat of the things we give thee.”
Whereupon, to my great astonishment, a slave was handed over to me, bound, and Remandji said, ”Kill him; he is tender and fat, and you must be hungry.”
I was not prepared for such a present. They thought I was a cannibal--an eater of human flesh--and there stood before me a fat negro, who during the night had been caught, for Remandji had sent word to the people of my coming, and in his forethought determined that I must have a good meal on my arrival.