Part 3 (1/2)
By the ti as heartily as our swollen lips would allow, it was daylight, and thelanes through the dense reat balls of fleecy vapour So we set our sail, and having first taken a look at the two dead lions and the alligator, which ere of course unable to skin, being destitute of h the lagoon, followed the course of the river on the farther side At h to find a convenient piece of dry land on which to caht a fire, and here we cooked tild-ducks and so way, it is true, but still sufficiently The rest of the buck's flesh we cut into strips and hung in the sun to dry into ”biltong,” as, I believe, the South African Dutch call flesh thus prepared On this welco dawn, and, as before, spent the night in warfare with the mosquitoes, but without other troubles The next day or two passed in similar fashi+on, and without noticeable adventures, except that we shot a speciraceful hornless buck, and saw many varieties of water-lily in full blooh few of the floere perfect, owing to the prevalence of a white water-reen head that fed upon them
It was on the fifth day of our journey, e had travelled, so far as we could reckon, about one hundred and thirty-five to a hundred and forty miles ards from the coast, that the first event of any real i the usual wind failed us about eleven o'clock, and after pulling a little ere forced to halt, more or less exhausted, at what appeared to be the junction of our stream with another of a uniforrew near at hand--the only trees in all this country were along the banks of the river, and under these we rested, and then, the land being fairly dry just here, walked a little way along the edge of the river to prospect, and shoot a featerfowl for food Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over the back, alked so the banks of the other river, and soon came to the conclusion, from various indications, that it was not a river at all, but an ancient canal, like the one which is to be seen above Mo the Tana River with the Ozy, in such a way as to enable the shi+pping co down the Tana to cross to the Ozy, and reach the sea by it, and thus avoid the very dangerous bar that blocks the mouth of the Tana The canal before us had evidently been dug out by man at some reging still remained in the shape of the raised banks that had no doubt once for-paths Except here and there, where they had been hollowed out by the water or fallen in, these banks of stiff binding clay were at a uniform distance from each other, and the depth of the stream also appeared to be uniform Current there was little or none, and, as a consequence, the surface of the canal was choked with vegetable growth, intersected by little paths of clear water, uanas, and other vermin Now, as it was evident that we could not proceed up the river, it became equally evident that we must either try the canal or else return to the sea We could not stop where ere, to be baked by the sun and eaten up by the mosquitoes, till we died of fever in that dreary marsh
”Well, I suppose that we must try it,” I said; and the others assented in their various ways--Leo, as though it were the best joke in the world; Job, in respectful disgust; and Mahomed, with an invocation to the Prophet, and a coht and travel
Accordingly, as soon as the sun got low, having little or nothing more to hope for from our friendly wind, we started For the first hour or so we reat labour; but after that the weeds got too thick to allow of it, and ere obliged to resort to the pri her For two hours we laboured, Mahoh to pull against the two of them, on the bank, while Leo sat in the bow of the boat, and brushed away the weeds which collected round the cutwater with Mahomed's sword At dark we halted for soht ent on again, taking advantage of the coht At dae rested for three hours, and then started once more, and laboured on till about ten o'clock, when a thunderstore of rain, overtook us, and we spent the next six hours practically under water
I do not know that there is any necessity for e in detail, further than to say that they were, on the whole, theone monotonous record of heavy labour, heat, h a region of almost endless swamp, and I can only attribute our escape froatives which we took, and the unceasing toil which ere forced to undergo On the third day of our journey up the canal we had sighted a round hill that loo of the fourth night, e camped, this hill seemed to be within five-and-twenty or thirty miles of us We were by now utterly exhausted, and felt as though our blistered hands could not pull the boat a yard farther, and that the best thing that we could do would be to lie down and die in that dreadful wilderness of swamp It was an awful position, and one in which I trust no other white man will ever be placed; and as I threw myself down in the boat to sleep the sleep of utter exhaustion, I bitterly cursed , which could, I saw, only end in our death in this ghastly land I thought, I remember, as I slowly sank into a doze, of what the appearance of the boat and her unhappy creould be in two or threeseams and half filled with ftid water, which, when the mist-laden wind stirred her, would wash backwards and forwards through ourbones, and that would be the end of her, and of those in her ould follow after myths and seek out the secrets of Nature
Already I seeainst the desiccated bones and rattling theainst ht up upon its vertebrae, and glared atjaws, because I, a dog of a Christian, disturbed the last sleep of a true believer I opened my eyes, and shuddered at the horrid drea that was not a dreah the led up, and in ain, so that the others sprang up too, reeling, and drunken with sleep and fear And then all of a sudden there was a flash of cold steel, and a great spear was held against lea in Arabic, or rather in soely; ”who are ye who co on the water? Speak or ye die,” and the steel pressed sharply against h me
”We are travellers, and have come hither by chance,” I answered in my best Arabic, which appeared to be understood, for thea tall forround, said, ”Father, shall we slay?”
”What is the colour of the men?” said a deep voice in answer
”White is their colour”
”Slay not,” was the reply ”Four suns since was the word brought to me from 'She-who-must-be-obeyed,' 'White ht to the house of 'She-who- forth the ht forth also”
”Cothe saathered a coht all I could e spears, were very tall, and strongly built, coht in colour, and nude, save for a leopard skin tied round the middle
Presently Leo and Job were bundled out and placed besidehis eyes
”Oh, Lord! sir, here's a ruo,” ejaculated Job; and just at thatbetween us, followed by a shadowy form with an uplifted spear
”Allah! Allah!” howled Maho that he had little to hope from man, ”protect me! protect me!”
”Father, it is a black one,” said a voice ”What said 'She-who-ht; but slay him not Come hither, my son”
The man advanced, and the tall shadowy for
”Yes, yes,” said the other, and chuckled in a rather blood-curdling tone
”Are the three white men there?” asked the for up that which is made ready for the which floats”
Hardly had he spoken whenon their shoulders neither more nor less than palanquins--four bearers and two spare men to a palanquin--and in these it was promptly indicated ere expected to stow ourselves
”Well!” said Leo, ”it is a blessing to find anybody to carry us after having to carry ourselves so long”
Leo always takes a cheerful view of things
There being no help for it, after seeing the others into theirs I tumbled into my own litter, and very comfortable I found it It appeared to be rass-fibre, which stretched and yielded to everybound top and bottorateful support to the head and neck
Scarcely had I settled , the bearers started at a swinging trot For half an hour or so I lay still, reflecting on the very re if any of e would believe me if I were to be miraculously set at the fa theht when I call those good and learned men fossils, but my experience is that people are apt to fossilise even at a University if they follow the sa fossilised myself, but of late ed Well, I lay and reflected, and wondered what on earth would be the end of it all, till at last I ceased to wonder, and went to sleep
I suppose Ithe first real rest that I had had since the night before the loss of the dhow, for when I woke the sun was high in the heavens We were still journeying on at a pace of about four h the eniously fixed to the bearing pole, I perceived to ion of eternal swarassy plains towards a cup-shaped hill Whether or not it was the same hill that we had seen from the canal I do not know, and have never since been able to discover, for, as we afterwards found out, these people will give little inforlanced at the nificent build, few of theht, and yellowish in colour Generally their appearance had a good deal in common with that of the East African So in thick black locks upon their shoulders Their features were aquiline, and inespecially regular and beautiful But notwithstanding their beauty, it struckset of faces There was an aspect of cold and sullen cruelty stamped upon them that revolted me, and which in some cases was al that struck me about the theof which I have spoken, but when they were not singing they reh never cahten their sombre and evil countenances Of what race could these people be? Their language was a bastard Arabic, and yet they were not Arabs; I was quite sure of that For one thing they were too dark, or rather yellow I could not say why, but I know that their appearance filled me with a sick fear of which I felt ashaside of mine In it--for the curtains were drawn--sat an old man, clothed in a whitish robe,loosely about him, who, I at once juure that had stood on the bank and been addressed as ”Father” He was a wonderful-looking oldover the sides of the litter, and he had a hooked nose, above which flashed out a pair of eyes as keen as a snake's, while his whole countenance was instinct with a look of wise and sardonic humour ier?” he said in a deep and low voice
”Surely,certain that I should do well to conciliate this ancient Mahteousness
He stroked his beautiful white beard, and smiled faintly
”From whatever country thou camest,” he said, ”and by the way it e is known, they teach their children courtesy there, er son And noherefore comest thou unto this land, which scarce an alien foot has pressed from the time that man knoweth? Art thou and those with thee weary of life?”
”We cas,” I answered boldly ”We are tired of the old things; we have come up out of the sea to know that which is unknown We are of a brave race who fear not death, et a little inforentleman, ”that may be true; it is rash to contradict, otherwise I should say that thou wast lying, my son However, I dare to say that 'She-who-must-be-obeyed' will meet thy wishes in the matter”
”Who is 'She-who-lanced at the bearers, and then answered, with a little smile that soer son, thou wilt learn soon enough, if it be her pleasure to see thee at all in the flesh”
”In the flesh?” I answered ”What hed a dreadful laugh, and made no reply
”What is the name of my father's people?” I asked
”The naer” (the People of the Rocks)
”And if a son ht ask, what is the name of o we, n from him his bearers started forward at a run till they reached the litter in which Job was reposing (with one leg hanging over the side) Apparently, however, he could not make much out of Job, for presently I saw his bearers trot forward to Leo's litter
And after that, as nothing fresh occurred, I yielded to the pleasant swaying ain I was dreadfully tired When I woke I found that ere passing through a rocky defile of a lava forrewshrubs
Presently this defile took a turn, and a lovely sight unfolded itself to reen from four to six miles in extent, in the shape of a Roreat cup were rocky, and clothed with bush, but the centre was of the richest rowth, and watered by oats and cattle, but I saw no sheep At first I could not ie spot could be, but presently it flashed upon -extinct volcano which had afterwards been a lake, and was ultimately drained in some unexplained way And here I may state that froer, but otherwise similar spot, which I shall have occasion to describe by-and-by, I have every reason to believe that this conclusion was correct What puzzledabout herding the goats and cattle, I saw no signs of any human habitation Where did they all live? I wondered My curiosity was soon destined to be gratified Turning to the left the string of litters followed the cliffy sides of the crater for a distance of about half athe old gentlee from his litter, I did the sa I saas our wretched Arab coround It appeared that he had not been provided with a litter, but had been forced to run the entire distance, and, as he was already quite worn out e started, his condition noas one of great prostration
On looking round we discovered that the place where we had halted was a platforreat cave, and piled upon this platform were the entire contents of the whale-boat, even down to the oars and sail Round the cave stood groups of the men who had escorted us, and other men of a sih they varied in their degree of darkness of skin, so as dark as Mahomed, and some as yellow as a Chinese They were naked, except for the leopard-skin round the waist, and each of the them, who, instead of the leopard- skin, wore a tanned hide of a s like that of the oribe, only rather darker in colour These woe, dark eyes, well-cut features, and a thick bush of curling hair--not crisped like a negro's--ranging from black to chestnut in hue, with all shades of intermediate colour Soarment, such as I have described as worn by Billali, but this, as we afterwards discovered, was aFor the rest, their appearance was not quite so terrifying as that of the h rarely, sathered round us and examined us with curiosity, but without excitement Leo's tall, athletic form and clear-cut Grecian face, however, evidently excited their attention, and when he politely lifted his hat to theht arding hi wo a robe, and with hair of a shade between brown and chestnut--deliberately advanced to hi had it not been so determined, quietly put her arm round his neck, bent forward, and kissed hi to see Leo instantly speared; and Job ejaculated, ”The hussy--well, I never!” As for Leo, he looked slightly astonished; and then, reot into a country where they followed the customs of the early Christians, deliberately returned the e would happen; but, towomen showed traces of vexation, the older ones and the htly When we came to understand the customs of this extraordinary people the mystery was explained It then appeared that, in direct opposition to the habits of al the Aer are not only upon terms of perfect equality with theties Descent is traced only through the line of theand superior female ancestry as we are of our families in Europe, they never pay attention to, or even acknowledge, any e is perfectly well known There is but one titular male parent of each tribe, or, as they call it, ”Household,” and he is its elected and immediate ruler, with the title of ”Father” For instance, the man Billali was the father of this ”household,” which consisted of about seven thousand individuals all told, and no other man was ever called by that nanified her preference by advancing and e hily pro lady, as called Ustane, had embraced Leo If he kissed her back it was a token that he accepted her, and the arrangement continued until one of thee of husbands was not nearly so frequently as ht have been expected Nor did quarrels arise out of it, at least a the men, hen their wives deserted the e laws, as soood of the coreeable they may in particular instances prove to the individual