Part 4 (1/2)
The fire in the cave was an unusually big one that night, and in a large circle round it were gathered about thirty-five men and tomen, Ustane and the woman to avoid whom Job had played the role of another Scriptural character Thein perfect silence, as was their custoht behind him, in a socket cut in the rock for that purpose Only one or tore the yellowish linen gar on except the leopard's skin about the middle
”What's up now, sir,” said Job, doubtfully ”Bless us and save us, there's that wo that I have given her no encourageive me the creeps, the whole lot of them, and that's a fact Why look, they have asked Maho to hilad it isn't h the wo the wretched Mahomed from his corner, where, overcome by some acute prescience of horror, he had been seated, shi+vering, and calling on Allah He appeared unwilling enough to come, if for no other reason perhaps because it was an unaccustoiven to hireat terror, for his tottering legs would scarcely support his stout, bulky for to the resources of barbariser with a proportionately huge spear, than to the seductions of the lady who led him by the hand, that he consented to come at all
”Well,” I said to the others, ”I don't at all like the look of things, but I suppose we ot your revolvers on? because, if so, you had better see that they are loaded”
”I have, sir,” said Job, tapping his Colt, ”but Mr Leo has only got his hunting knife, though that is big enough, surely”
Feeling that it would not do to hile theweapon was fetched, we advanced boldly, and seated ourselves in a line, with our backs against the side of the cave
As soon as ere seated, an earthenware jar was passed round containing a ferh apt to turn upon the storain--not Indian corn, but a srows upon its stem in clusters, not unlike that which in the southern part of Africa is known by the name of Kafir corn The vase which contained this liquor was very curious, and as itthe Aer I may as well describe it These vases are of a very ancient manufacture, and of all sizes None such can have been made in the country for hundreds, or rather thousands, of years They are found in the rock toive a description in their proper place, and yptians, hom the former inhabitants of this country may have had some connection, they were used to receive the viscera of the dead Leo, however, is of opinion that, as in the case of Etruscan amphorae, they were placed there for the spiritual use of the deceased They arenearly three feet in height, and running from that down to as ly beautiful and graceful, being htly rough On this groundwork are inlaid figures raceful and lifelike than any others that I have seen on antique vases Some of these inlaid pictures represent love-scenes with a childlike simplicity and freedom of manner which would not coive pictures of -scenes For instance, the very vase fro had on one side aofa bull-elephant with spears, while on the reverse was a picture, not quite so well done, of a hunter shooting an arrow at a running antelope, I should say from the look of it either an eland or a koodoo
This is a digression at a criticalfor the occasion, for the occasion itself was very long With the exception of the periodical passing of the vase, and thehappened for the best part of a whole hour nobody spoke a word There we all sat in perfect silence, staring at the glare and glow of the large fire, and at the shadows thrown by the flickering earthenware lamps (which, by the ere not ancient) On the open space between us and the fire lay a large wooden tray, with four short handles to it, exactly like a butcher's tray, only not hollowed out By the side of the tray was a great pair of long-handled iron pincers, and on the other side of the fire was a similar pair Somehow I did not at all like the appearance of this tray and the acco pincers There I sat and stared at them and at the silent circle of the fierce moody faces of the men, and reflected that it was all very awful, and that ere absolutely in the power of this alar people, who, to me at any rate, were all the more formidable because their true character was still very ht theht be worse I feared that they orse, and I was not wrong It was a curious sort of a feast, I reflected, in appearance indeed, an entertain to eat
At last, just as I was beginning to feel as though I were being , a man from the other side of the circle called out in a loud voice-- ”Where is the flesh that we shall eat?”
Thereon everybody in the circle answered in a deep ht arm towards the fire as he spoke-- ”The flesh will cooat without horns, and oat, and we shall slay it,” they answered with one voice, and turning half round they one and all grasped the handles of their spears with the right hand, and then siain
”It is an ox without horns, and ain the spears were grasped, and again let go
Then ca of the hair, that the wo his cheeks and calling him by names of endear forhtened hten us all dreadfully, especially Leo The caressing was so snake-like, and so evidently a part of soh[] I saw Mahomed turn white under his brown skin, sickly white with fear
[] We afterwards learnt that its object was to pretend to the victim that he was the object of love and ads, and cause him to expire in a happy and contented frame of mind--L H H
”Is the meat ready to be cooked?” asked the voice, more rapidly
”It is ready; it is ready”
”Is the pot hot to cook it?” it continued, in a sort of screareat recesses of the cave
”It is hot; it is hot”
”Great heavens!” roared Leo, ”re, 'The people who place pots upon the heads of strangers'”
As he said the words, before we could stir, or even take thepincers, thrust them into the heart of the fire, and the wo Mahoirdle or ht, while the s The twothe fire this way and that upon the rocky floor, lifted froe earthenware pot, heated to a white heat In an instant, alle ling He fought like a fiend, shrieking in the abandon the noose round hi wretches were for the moment unable to accomplish their purpose, which, horrible and incredible as it see toht at the diabolical wo him in her arms The bullet struck her in the back and killed her, and to this day I alad that it did, for, as it afterwards transpired, she had availed herself of the anthropophagous custoe of the slight put upon her by Job She sank down dead, and as she did so, to my terror and dismay, Mahomed, by a superhuh into the air, fell dying upon her corpse The heavy bullet froh the bodies of both, at once striking down theher victim from a death a hundred times more horrible It was an awful and yet a most merciful accident
For a er had never heard the report of a firearm before, and its effects dismayed them But the next a man close to us recovered hie with it at Leo, as the nearest to hi the exas would carry me I would have made for the open air if it had been possible, but there were ht of the forainst the skyline beyond the entrance to the cave Up the cave I went, and after me came the others, and after them thundered the whole crowd of cannibals, mad with fury at the death of the woman With a bound I cleared the prostrate form of Mahomed As I flew over hi close by, strike upon lo his hands--for he was not quite dead--still feeblyAt the top of the cave was a little platforht deep, on which two large laht Whether this platform had been left as a seat, or as a raised point afterwards to be cut ahen it had served its purpose as a standing place from which to carry on the excavations, I do not know--at least, I did not then At any rate, we all three reached it, and, ju on it, prepared to sell our lives as dearly as we could For a few seconds the crowd that was pressing on our heels hung back when they saw us face round upon them Job was on one side of the rock to the left, Leo in the centre, and I to the right Behind us were the la lane of shadows, terh which the quiet forms of our would-beon their spears, for even their fury was silent as a bulldog's The only other thing visible was the red- hot pot still glowing angrily in the glooht in Leo's eyes, and his handsoht hand was his heavy hunting-knife He shi+fted its thong a little up his wrist and then put his ar
”Good-bye, old fellow,” he said, ”ainst those scoundrels; they will finish us in a few minutes, and eat us afterwards, I suppose Good-bye I led you into this I hope you will forgive me Good-bye, Job”
”God's will be done,” I said, setting my teeth, as I prepared for the end At that moment, with an exclamation, Job lifted his revolver and fired, and hit athat Job shot at was perfectly safe
On they came with a rush, and I fired too as fast as I could, and checked them--between us, Job and I, besides the woman, killed or mortally wounded five men with our pistols before they were emptied But we had no time to reload, and they still came on in a way that was al that they did not know but that we could go on firing for ever
A great fellow bounded up upon the platform, and Leo struck hi the knife right through him I did the same by another, but Job rip him by thesecured by a thong fell from Job's hand as he did so, and, by a most happy accident for him, lit upon its handle on the rock, just as the body of the Aer, as undermost, struck upon its point and was transfixed upon it What happened to Job after that I am sure I do not know, but my own impression is that he lay still upon the corpse of his deceased assailant, ”playing 'possum” as the Americans say As for myself, I was soon involved in a desperate encounter with two ruffians, who, luckily for me, had left their spears behind thereat physical pohich Nature has endowed ood stead I had hacked at the head of oneand heavy as a short sword, with such vigour, that the sharp steel had split his skull down to the eyes, and was held so fast by it that as he suddenly fell sideways the knife isted right out ofupon ot an arm round the waist of each, and doe all fell upon the floor of the cave together, rolling over and over They were strong hter which will creep into the hearts of the , and life and death tremble on the turn My ared therip They twisted and writhed like snakes, and clawed and battered aton ht protect me from spear thrusts from above, I slowly crushed the life out of theht of what the ae (who is a member of the Peace Society) and my brother Felloould say if by clairvoyance they could see arew faint, and alle, their breath had failed the, but still I dared not leave therip they would revive The other ruffians probably thought--for ere all three lying in the shadow of the ledge--that ere all dead together, at any rate they did not interfere with our little tragedy
I turnedin the throes of that awful struggle I could see that Leo was off the rock now, for the laht fell full upon hito pull hi Up above theht curls (for Leo is six feet two high), and I saw that he was fighting with a desperate abandony that was at once splendid and hideous to behold He drove his knife through one man--they were so close to and et at hi spears, and they had no knives or sticks The man fell, and then so hiht the end had come But no; with a desperate effort he broke loose from the it high in the air hurled it right at the ht of it swept some five or six of theain, except one, whose skull was smashed, and had once more fastened upon hi, the wolves bore the lion down Once even then he recovered hier with his fist, but it was ainst sodown upon the rock floor, falling as an oak falls, and bearing with hiripped his, and then cleared off his body
”A spear,” cried a voice--”a spear to cut his throat, and a vessel to catch his blood”
I shutwith a spear, andweak, and the two men on me were not yet dead, and a deadly sickness overcame me
Then suddenly there was a disturbance, and involuntarily I opened irl Ustane had thrown herself on Leo's prostrate for her ar her fro on like a bulldog, or rather like a creeper to a tree, and they could not Then they tried to stab hi her, but somehow she shi+elded him, and he was only wounded
At last they lost patience
”Drive the spear through the ether,” said a voice, the sahastly feast, ”so of a verity shall they be wed”
Then I saw the hten hih, and once more I shut my eyes
As I did so I heard the voice of aand echoed down the rocky ways-- ”Cease!”
Then I fainted, and as I did so it flashed throughdown into the last oblivion of death
IX
A LITTLE FOOT
When I openedon a skin athered for that dreadful feast Near me lay Leo, still apparently in a swoon, and over hiirl Ustane, ashi+ng a deep spear wound in his side with cold water preparatory to binding it up with linen Leaning against the wall of the cave behind her was Job, apparently uninjured, but bruised and tre On the other side of the fire, tossed about this way and that, as though they had thrown themselves down to sleep in some moment of absolute exhaustion, were the bodies of those e had killed in our frightful struggle for life I counted them: there were twelve besides the woman, and the corpse of poor Mahomed, who had died by my hand, which, the fire- stained pot at its side, was placed at the end of the irregular line To the left a body ofthe arms of the survivors of the cannibals behind the the with a look of sulky indifference upon their faces which accorded ill with the baffled fury that glea the operations, stood no other than our friend Billali, looking rather tired, but particularly patriarchal with his flowing beard, and as cool and unconcerned as though he were superintending the cutting up of an ox
Presently he turned, and perceiving that I was sitting up advanced to me, and with the utmost courtesy said that he trusted that I felt better I answered that at present I scarcely kne I felt, except that I ached all over
Then he bent down and examined Leo's wound
”It is an evil cut,” he said, ”but the spear has not pierced the entrails He will recover”
”Thanks to thy arrival, my father,” I answered ”In another minute we should all have been beyond the reach of recovery, for those devils of thine would have slain us as they would have slain our servant,” and I pointed towards Mahoround his teeth, and I saw an extraordinary expression of ht up his eyes