Part 12 (1/2)
”Then perhaps it would be as well not to find her,” I answered, bethinking me of the fate which had overtaken sundry white women in the old days, who had escaped from shi+pwrecks on the coast and become the wives of Kaffirs
”Not so, Allan On that point I fear nothing If God has preserved my wife, He has also protected her from every harm And now,” he went on, ”you will understand why I wish to visit these Pongo-the Pongo orshi+p a white Goddess!”
”I understand,” I said and left hiht it best not to prolong a painful conversation To me it seemed incredible that this lady should still live, and I feared the effect upon him of the discovery that she was no more How full of romance is this poor little world of ours! Think of Brother John (Eversley was his real name as I discovered afterwards), and what his life had been A high- to serve his Faith in the dark places of the earth, and taking his young ith hi to do Neither tradition nor Holy Writ record that the Apostles dragged their wives and families into the heathen lands where they went to preach, although I believe that some of them were married But this is by the way
Then falls the blow; the mission house is sacked, the husband escapes by alady is torn away to be the prey of a vile slave-trader Lastly, according to the quite unreliable evidence of soe already in the shadow of death, she is seen in the charge of other unknown savages On the strength of this the husband, playing the part of aincredible hardshi+ps and yet buoyed up by a high and holy trust To my mind it was a beautiful and pathetic story Still, for reasons which I have suggested, I confess that I hoped that long ago she had returned into the hands of the Pohichwhite lady who for two decades had been at the mercy of these black brutes?
And yet, and yet, after my experience of Mavovo and his Snake, I did not feel inclined to dog Who and as I, that I should venture not only to form opinions, but to thrust them down the throats of others? After all, how narrow are the lireat sea of intuition that surrounds us is safer to float on than are these little islets of individual experience, whereon we are so wont to take our stand
Meanwhile my duty was not to speculate on the dreams and mental attitudes of others, but like a practical hunter and trader, to carry to a successful issue an expedition that I ell paid toup a certain rare flower root, if I could find it, in the marketable value of which I had an interest I have always prided ination and all such mental phantasies, and upon an aptitude for hard business and an appreciation of the facts of life, that after all are the things hich we have to do This is the truth; at least, I hope it is For if I were to be quite honest, which no one ever has been, except a gentlen of Charles II, and who, to judge from his memoirs, which I have read lately, did not write for publication, I should have to admit that there is another side to my nature I sternly suppress it, however, at any rate for the present
While ere at breakfast Hans who, still suffering froateway far fro and announced that Babe followed by a number of laden soldiers I was about to advance to receive hi to a queer native custom, such as that which caused Sir Theophilus Shepstone, whonised as the holder of the spirit of the great Chaka and therefore as the equal of the Zulu monarchs, Brother John was the really iave way and asked hih to take e life to which it had pleased God to call him
I a by nature and appearance a dignified oldhis coffee in a hurry, he took his place at a little distance from us, and stood there in a statuesque pose To hi on his hands and knees, and other native gentle, also the burdened soldiers in as obsequious an attitude as their loads would allow
”O King Dogeetah,” said Babeoods of the white ifts”
”Glad to hear it, General Babeh it would be better if he had never taken theet on to your feet I do not like to seeon their stomachs like uns and ammunition; also our revolvers and the other articles that had been taken away froed; and in addition there were four fine elephant's tusks, an offering to Stephen and myself, which, as a business man, I promptly accepted; some karosses and Mazitu weapons, presents to Mavovo and the hunters, a beautiful native bedstead with ivory legs and ift to Hans in testi circumstances (the Zulus roared when they heard this, and Hans vanished cursing behind the huts), and for Sammy a weird musical instrument with a request that in future he would use it in public instead of his voice
Sammy, I may add, did not see the joke any more than Hans had done, but the rest of us appreciated the Mazitu sense of humour very much
”It is very well, Mr Quaters to sit in the seat of the scornful On such an occasion silent prayers would have been of little use, but I a to Heaven delivered you all froeetah and white lords,” said Babeiveness for what has happened, and this ti arms, since henceforward no hurt can come to you from the Mazitu people”
So presently we set out once ifts that had been refused Our ress The people prostrated themselves and clapped their hands slowly in salutation as we passed, while the girls and children pelted us with flowers as though ere brides going to be married Our road ran by the place of execution where the stakes, at which I confess I looked with a shi+ver, were still standing, though the graves had been filled in
On our arrival Bausi and his councillors rose and bowed to us Indeed, the king didforward he seized Brother John by the hand, and insisted upon rubbing his ugly black nose against that of this revered guest This, it appeared, was the Mazitu , an honour which Brother John did not see speeches, washed doith draughts of thick native beer Bausi explained that his evil proceedings were entirely due to the wickedness of the deceased Iroaned for long, since the people believed them to speak ”with the voice of 'Heaven Above'”
Brother John, on our behalf, accepted the apology, and then read a lecture, or rather preached a sermon, that took exactly twenty-fivein the wind), in which he deher and a better path Bausi replied that he would like to hear more of that path another ti to spend the rest of our lives in his co when the crops had been sown and the people had leisure on their hands
After this we presented our gifts, which noere eagerly accepted Then I took upin Beza Town for the rest of our lives, ere anxious to press forward at once to Pongo-land The king's face fell, as did those of his councillors
”Listen, O lord Macuo are horrible wizards, a great and powerful people who live by theo catch Mazitu or folk of any other tribe, either they kill them or take them as prisoners to their own land where they enslave them, or sometimes sacrifice them to the devils they worshi+p”
”That is so,” broke in Babeo and doo from them that I lost this eye”
Needless to say, I h I did not think the moment opportune to follow the o-land, I reflected to ain or show us the way there
”And if we catch any of the Pongo,” went on Bausi, ”as sometimes we do when they come to hunt for slaves, we kill them Ever since the Mazitu have been in this place there has been hate and war between theo, and if I could wipe out those evil ones, then I should die happily”
”That you will never do, O King, while the White Devil lives,” said Babeo prophecy, that while the White Devil lives and the Holy Flower blooms, they will live But when the White Devil dies and the Holy Flower ceases to bloom, then their women will become barren and their end will be upon them”
”Well, I suppose that this White Devil will die some day,” I said
”Not so, Macumazana It will never die of itself Like its wicked Priest, it has been there fro and will always be there unless it is killed But who is there that can kill the White Devil?”
I thought to ain I did not pursue the point
”My brother Dogeetah and lords,” exclaimed Bausi, ”it is not possible that you should visit these wizards except at the head of an ar that the Mazitu are a land people and have no canoes in which to cross the great lake, and no trees whereof to make them?”
We answered that we did not know but would think the matter over, as we had come from our own place for this purpose and meant to carry it out
Then the audience caeetah to converse with his ”brother Bausi” on matters connected with the latter's health As I passed Babemba I told him that I should like to see hi after supper The rest of the day passed quietly, for we had asked that people ht be kept away from our enca a little shy of appearing in public just then, engaged in cleaning the rifles, and this reun of which I have spoken, I called Mavovo and handed it to hi: ”It is yours, O true prophet”
”Yes, my father,” he answered, ”it is ain”
The words struckSomehoanted to hear no more of Mavovo's prophecies
Then we dined, and for the rest of that afternoon slept, for all of us, including Brother John, needed rest badly In the evening Babemba came, and we three white o and this white devil they worshi+p,” I said
”Macuone by since I was in that land and I see things that happened to st the reeds when I was a boy of twelve, and tall men robed in white came in a canoe and seized me They led me to a tohere there wererew fat andI was taken away, and we reat cave In this cave sat a horrible oldthe rites of the White Devil
”The oldI was to be cooked and eaten, for which reason I had been made so fat There was a canoe at the mouth of the cave, beyond which lay water While all were asleep I crept to the canoe As I loosed the rope one of the priests woke up and ran at h only a boy I was bold and strong, and he fell into the water He cae of the canoe, but I struck his fingers with the paddle till he let go A great as blowing that night, tearing off boughs frorew upon the other shore of the water It whirled the canoe round and round and one of the boughs struck me in the eye I scarcely felt it at the time, but afterwards the eye withered Or perhaps it was a spear or a knife that struck me in the eye, I do not know I paddled till I lostthat I reale through reeds When I woke up again I found h the reat crocodiles But this must have been some days later, for noas quite thin I fell down upon the shore, and there some of our people found me and nursed h too,” I said ”Noer me How far was the town from the place where you were captured in Mazitu-land?”
”A whole day's journey in the canoe, Macu early and we reached the harbour in the evening at a place where many canoes were tied up, perhaps fifty of them, some of which would hold forty men”
”And how far was the town from this harbour?”
”Quite close, Macumazana”
Now Brother John asked a question
”Did you hear anything about the land beyond the water by the cave?”
”Yes, Dogeetah I heard then, or afterwards-for froo-that it is an island where grows the Holy Flower, of which you know, for when last you were here you had one of its blooms I heard, too, that this Holy Floas tended by a priestess named Mother of the Flower, and her servants, all of ere virgins”
”Who was the priestess?”
”I do not know, but I heave heard that she was one of those people who, although their parents are black, are born white, and that if any feo are born white, or with pink eyes, or deaf and dumb, they are set apart to be the servants of the priestess But this priestessthat when I was a boy she was already old, very, very old, and the Pongo were much concerned because there was no one of white skin who could be appointed to succeed her Indeed she is dead, since o-land and numbers of slaves were eaten, because the priests had found a beautiful new princess hite with yellow hair and had finger-nails of the right shape”
Now I bethoughtof the priestess nauished by certain personal peculiarities, rese of the Apis bull-God, which also yptians, as narrated by Herodotus However, I said nothing about it at the time, because Brother John asked sharply: ”And is this priestess also dead?”
”I do not know, Dogeetah, but I think not If she were dead I think that we should have heard so of the dead Mother”