Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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compelled to restrain her ardor.
And from that time the work that Stas spoke of began in earnest. Kali,who was ordered to catch as many leaping fish as possible, ceased tocatch them on a line and instead made a high fence of thin bamboo, orrather something in the nature of a trellis, and this sluice he pulledacross the river. In the middle of the trellis was a big openingthrough which the fishes had to swim in order to get into the freewater. In this opening Kali placed a strong net plaited of tough palmropes, and in this manner was assured of a bountiful catch.
He drove fish into the treacherous net with the help of the King, who,led into the water, muddied and stirred it so that not only thosesilvery leapers but all other creatures vanished as far as they couldto an unmuddied depth. On account of this, some damage also occurred,as several times escaping crocodiles overturned the trellis, or attimes the King did this himself; cherishing for crocodiles some sort ofinbred hatred, he pursued them, and when they were in shallow waters heseized them with his trunk, tossed them onto the bank, and trampledupon them furiously. They found also in the nets tortoises, from whichthe young exiles made an excellent broth. Kali dressed the fish anddried them in the sun, while the bladders were taken to Nell, who cutthem open, stretched them upon a board, and changed them into sheets aslarge as the palms of two hands.
She was assisted at this by Stas and Mea, as the work was not at alleasy. The membranes were thicker, indeed, than that of the bladders ofour river fish, but after drying up they became very frail. Stas aftersome time discovered that they ought to be dried in the shade. Attimes, however, he lost patience, and if he did not abandon the designof making kites from the membranes it was because he regarded them aslighter than paper and of better proof against rain.
The dry season of the year was already approaching, but he wasuncertain whether rain did not fall during the summer particularly inthe mountains.
However, he glued kites with paper, of which a large amount was foundamong Linde's effects. The first one, big and light, was let go in awestern wind; it shot up at once very high, and when Stas cut thestring, flew, carried by a powerful current of air, to the Karamojomountain chain. Stas watched its flight with the aid of the field-glassuntil it became as small as a butterfly, a little speck, and untilfinally it dissolved in the pale azure of the sky. The following day helet go others made of fish bladder, which shot up still higher, but onaccount of the transparency of the membranes soon disappeared entirelyfrom view.
Nell worked, however, with extraordinary zeal, and in the end herlittle fingers acquired such skill that neither Stas nor Mea could keepup with her work. She did not lack strength now. The salubrious climateof Mount Linde simply regenerated her. The period during which thefatal third attack could come, had definitely passed. That day Stas hidhimself in a banana thicket and wept from joy. After a fortnight's stayon the mountain he observed that the "Good Mzimu" looked entirelydifferent from what she did below in the jungle. Her cheeks wereplumper, her complexion from yellow and transparent became rosy again,and from under the abundant tufts of hair, merry eyes full of lustergazed upon the world. The boy blessed the cool nights, the translucentspring-water, the flour of dried bananas, and, above all, Linde.
He himself became lean and swarthy, which was evidence that the feverwould not take hold of him, as sufferers from that disease do not tanfrom the sun--and he was growing up and becoming manly. Activity andphysical labor intensified his bravery and strength. The muscles of hishands and limbs became like steel. Indeed, he was already a hardenedAfrican traveler. Hunting daily and shooting only with bullets, hebecame also a matchless shot.
He did not at all fear the wild animals, for he understood that it wasmore dangerous for the shaggy-haired and the spotted hunters of thejungle to meet him than for him to meet them. Once he killed with asingle shot a big rhinoceros, which, aroused from a light nap under anacacia, charged at him unexpectedly. He treated with indifference theaggressive African buffaloes, which at times disperse whole caravans.
Aside from the gluing of kites and other daily engagements, he and Nellalso began the work of converting Kali, Mea, and Nasibu. But it washarder than they expected. The black trio listened most willingly tothe instructions, but received them in their own negro way. When Stastold them of the creation of the world, about paradise and about thesnake, the teaching proceeded fairly well, but when he related how Cainkilled Abel, Kali involuntarily stroked his stomach and asked quitecalmly:
"Did he eat him afterwards?"
The black boy always claimed, indeed, that the Wahimas never atepeople, but evidently memory of that custom still lingered among themas a national tradition.
He likewise could not understand why God did not kill the wicked"Mzimu," and many similar things. His conception of good and evil wastoo African; in consequence of which there once occurred between theteacher and pupil this colloquy:
"Tell me," asked Stas, "what is a wicked deed?"
"If any one takes away Kali's cow," he answered after a briefreflection, "that then is a wicked deed."
"Excellent!" exclaimed Stas, "and what is a good one?"
This time the answer came without any reflection:
"If Kali takes away the cow of somebody else, that is a good deed."
Stas was too young to perceive that similar views of evil and gooddeeds were enunciated in Europe not only by politicians but by wholenations.
Nevertheless, slowly, very slowly, the light dawned in their benightedminds, and that which they could not comprehend with their heads theyunderstood with their warm hearts. After a time they were fitted forthe baptismal rites, which were performed with great solemnity. Thegod-parents gave to each child sixteen yards of white percale and astring of blue beads. Mea, nevertheless, felt somewhat disappointed,for in the simplicity of her soul she thought that after the baptismher skin would at once turn white, and great was her astonishment whenshe observed that she remained as black as before. Nell comforted her,however, with the assurance that now she possessed a white soul.
XV
Stas instructed Kali also how to shoot from a Remington rifle, and thisinstruction proceeded more easily than the teaching of the catechism.After ten days' shooting at a mark and at crocodiles which slept on thesandy river banks, the young negro killed a big antelope cob; afterthat a few ariels and finally a wart-hog. The encounter with thelatter, however, almost resulted in the same kind of accident whichbefell Linde, for the wart-hog, which Kali approached carelessly afterthe shot, started up suddenly and charged at him with tail upraised.Kali, flinging away the rifle, sought refuge in a tree, where he satuntil his cries brought Stas, who, however, found the wild boar alreadydead. Stas did not yet permit the boy to hunt for buffaloes, lions, andrhinoceroses. He himself did not shoot at the elephants which came tothe watering place, because he had promised Nell that he would neverkill one.
When, however, in the morning or during the afternoon hours, from abovehe espied, through the field-glass, herds of zebras, hartbeests,ariels, or springboks grazing in the jungle, he took Kali with him.During these excursions he often questioned the boy about the Wahimaand Samburu nations, with which, desiring to go eastward, to the oceancoast, they necessarily must come in contact.
"Do you know, Kali," he asked a certain day, "that after twenty days onhorseback we could reach your country?"
"Kali does not know where the Wahimas live," the young negro answered,sadly shaking his head.
"But I know that they live in the direction in which the sun rises inthe morning, near some great water."
"Yes! Yes!" exclaimed the boy with amazement and joy; "Basso-Narok!That in our language means, great and black water. The great masterknows everything."
"No, for I do not know how the Wahimas would receive us if we came tothem."
"Kali would command them to fall on their faces before the great masterand before the 'Good Mzimu.'"
"And would they obey?"
"Kali's father wears a leopard's hide--and Kali, too." Stas understoodthis to
mean that Kali's father was a king, and that Kali was hisoldest son and the future ruler of the Wahimas.
So he continued to ask further:
"You told me that white travelers visited you and that the older peopleremember them."
"Yes, and Kali has heard that they had a great deal of percale on theirheads."
"Ah!" thought Stas, "so those were not Europeans, but Arabs, whom thenegroes on account of their lighter complexion and white dress mistookfor white men."
Inasmuch, however, as Kali did not remember them and could not give anymore specific details about them, Stas propounded to him otherquestions.
"Have not the Wahimas killed any of these men dressed in white?"
"No! Neither the Wahimas nor the Samburus can do that."
"Why?"
"For they