Part 21 (1/2)
In the evening there was a grand ball. The noise was horrible, the dancing was grand, the gesticulations and contortions were funny, the tam-tams sounded strangely, the singing was powerful, and I, of course, enjoyed the affair amazingly. I staid out all night to please them, and they were glad to see me look at them and laugh.
After a few days I became the great friend of a good many. I gave them beads, especially the women. I handled their little babies, and never got angry, though sometimes their curiosity annoyed me very much indeed.
Remandji and I became great friends. He was a real nice king, and we spent hours together. I was obliged to use Minsho as an interpreter, for I do not understand the Apingi tongue very well. It seems to me like the language of the Mbinga, a tribe which I have spoken of in ”Stories of the Gorilla Country.”
One day a great crowd came and asked me to take my shoes off. When I asked them why, they said they wanted to know if I had toes like they had. ”You have ears like we have,” said they, ”and we want to see if you have cloven feet like an antelope. We want to see if your feet are like those of a people who live far away from here, of whom we have heard, and who are called _Sapadi_. Yes,” they exclaimed, with one voice, ”far away in the mountains there are Sapadi; they do not have feet like other people; they have feet like antelopes; they have cloven feet.”
I told them that there were no such people. Remandji immediately called one of his slaves, a man to whose country none of the Apingi had ever been (the s.h.i.+mba country), and he declared positively, with a look of great truthfulness, that he had seen Sapadi. Another man also came forward and declared the same thing--they were people like the Apingi, only their feet were like those of antelopes.
To please them, I took off my boots. This was done in the midst of most vociferous cheers. They took my socks to be my skin. After my socks were taken off, and my naked feet burst upon their sight, the excitement became intense. The idol was brought out, the drums began to beat, and they sang songs to me, shouting and hollaing in the most approved African manner. Remandji took one of my feet in his lap and touched it, declaring that it was softer than the skin of a leopard. When his people saw this they became frantic. ”The great spirit has come! the great spirit has come!” they shouted; ”the king holds one of his feet!”
Remandji rose, and, in a half-squatting position, danced and sang before me, the drums in the mean time beating furiously. The noise was deafening. They took me for a G.o.d.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MUSIC-BOX.]
When they had calmed down a little I went into my hut, wound up my large music-box, and, coming out, set it on an Apingi stool in the midst of the crowd, who immediately retreated farther off. I then let the spring go, and at once the music began to play. A dead silence followed the tumult; the drums dropped down from between the drummers' legs; a leaf falling on the ground could have been heard; they were perfectly mute.
Remandji and the people looked at me in affright. I went away, but of course the music continued to go on. They looked from me to the box, and back again, and finally exclaimed, ”Lo! the devil speaks to him.” I disappeared into the woods, and the music continued--the devil continued to speak.
The town is filled once more with strangers from the countries round, who have come to see the spirit that is stopping with Remandji. The forests are full of olakos in which these people sleep. The women appear hideously ugly; every one of them seems to have three or four children, and they are tattooed all over. On the bodies of many of them one could not find a spot as big as a pea that was free from this tattooing. They think that cutting their bodies in this way is beautifying. It is simply hideous. They file their teeth sharp to a point, which gives their faces a frightfully savage appearance; but, with all their ugliness, the Apingi were kind-hearted, always treated me well, and loved me. I always tried to do what was right by them.
One day they saw me writing my journal, and they said I was making print and cloth to give them. During the nights they all believed I did not sleep, but that I was at work making beads and all the things I gave them, whereupon ensued a great council of above thirty Apingi chiefs, who, after due deliberation with Remandji, who was at their head, came to me, surrounded by thousands of their people, and then their king delivered the following speech: ”Spirit, you are our king; you have come to our country to do us good.” The people, with one accord, repeated what Remandji had said--”You can do every thing.” I wondered what was coming next. Then, in a loud voice, he added, ”Proceed now to make for us a pile of beads, for we love the beads you make and give us. Make a pile of them as high as the tallest tree in the village,” and he pointed to a giant tree which could not have been less than two hundred feet in height, ”so that our women and children may go and take as many beads as they wish. You must give us cloth, bra.s.s kettles, copper rods, guns, and powder.”
The people liked the speech of Remandji, and shouted ”Yo! yo!” a sign of approval.
He continued: ”The people will come to see you after you have gone; and when we shall say to them, 'The spirit who came has gone,' they will say, 'It is a lie! it is a lie! no spirit ever came to visit Remandji.'
But when the whole country shall be filled with the things which we ask you to make, then, though they do not see you, they will say, 'Truly a spirit has visited the land of the Apingi, and lived in Remandji's village.'”
The faces of the crowd were beaming with satisfaction, for they approved of Remandji's speech. Then there was a dead silence again. I did not know what to say. I did not want to tell them I was a spirit, nor did I wish to tell them I was not one, for prestige is a great thing in a savage country.
They felt grieved when I told them I brought them things, and did not make them. They did not believe me, and said, ”Thy spirit does not wish to do what we ask of it. Why, spirit, will you not do what we ask you!”
and then the whole crowd began to dance and sing before me, saying, ”Moguizi, do not be angry with us. Moguizi, we love you. Moguizi, you are good. Moguizi, stay with us.”
On my continued refusal they scattered, and I went among them.
CHAPTER x.x.x.
A LARGE FLEET OF CANOES.--WE ASCEND THE RIVER.--THE KING PADDLES MY CANOE.--AGOBI'S VILLAGE.--WE UPSET.--THE KING IS FURIOUS.--OKABI, THE CHARMER.--I READ THE BIBLE.--THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID.
Remandji and I had been talking of traveling together, and I had told him that I wished to ascend the river. He promised to have a fleet of canoes prepared, and that his people would turn out _en ma.s.se_.
He was as good as his word. The appointed day came. Quite a little fleet had been brought together. But what canoes! my goodness! what a difference between them and the canoes of the Commi country! They were very small--mere nut-sh.e.l.ls. Remandji proudly pointed to the fleet he had collected to take me up. While he was talking to me I was thinking seriously of the great probability of capsizing, and the prospect was not exactly cheering, for the current of the river was strong. Though sometimes I have no objection to a ducking, I had strong objections to getting it in that manner, with all my clothes on.
Then the order for departure was given by the king. There was no help for it. I had asked canoes to go up. Remandji had done the thing in great style. I could not back out.
I was led in front of the royal canoe. Half a dozen of these could have been easily put inside of one of Quengueza's canoes. The royal canoe was not much better than any other canoe, though the largest one had been chosen for me.
I made my preparations against accident--that is to say, ready in case we capsized. I tied my compa.s.s to a cord about my neck; then I tied my gun fast by a long rope to the canoe, which would float at any rate; and I had a small box of clothes, a s.h.i.+rt, and two pairs of shoes, which I tied also. I tied a handkerchief round my head, and put my watch inside on the top, so that it would not get wet.
There was not a host of people to go in the royal canoe--Remandji, a paddler, and myself--that was all. No more could get in with safety.