Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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said that if their blood should soak into the ground the rainwould cease to fall."
"I am glad to hear that they believe so."
Stas thought for a while, after which he asked:
"Would the Wahimas go with us to the sea, if I promised them a bigquantity of percale, beads, and rifles?"
"Kali goes and the Wahimas also, but the great master would first haveto subdue the Samburus, who are settled on the other side of the water."
"And who lives beyond the Samburus?"
"Beyond the Samburus there are no mountains, and there is a jungle, andin it lions."
With this the conversation ended. Stas more and more frequently thoughtof the great journey towards the east, remembering that Linde had saidthat they might meet coast Arabs trading in ivory, and perhaps amissionary expedition. He knew that such a journey would be a series ofterrible hardships for Nell and full of new dangers, but he realizedthat they could not remain all their lives on Mount Linde and it wasnecessary to start soon on the journey. The time, after the rainyseason, when water covers the pestilential swamps, and is to be foundeverywhere, was the most suitable for the purpose. The heat could notyet be felt on the high table-land; the nights were so cool still thatit was necessary to be well covered. But in the jungle below it wasconsiderably hotter, and he knew well that intense heat would sooncome. The rain now seldom bedewed the earth and the water level in theriver lowered daily. Stas assumed that in summer the river would changeinto one of those "khors," of which he saw many in the Libyan Desert,and that only in the very middle of it would flow a narrow stream ofwater.
Nevertheless, he postponed the departure from day to day. On MountLinde it was so well with all, themselves as well as the animals! Nellnot only was rid of the fever but of anaemia also; Stas' head neverached; Kali's and Mea's skins began to shine like black satin; Nasibulooked like a melon walking on thin legs, and the King, no less thanthe horses and the donkey, grew fat. Stas well knew that they would notuntil the end of the journey find another island like this amidst thejungle sea. And he viewed the future with fear; moreover, they had inthe King great assistance and in case of necessity a defense.
Thus a week more elapsed before they commenced preparations for thejourney. In moments free from packing their effects they did not cease,however, to send out kites with the announcement that they were goingeastward towards some lake, and towards the ocean. They continued tofly them because they were favored by a strong western wind, resemblingat times a hurricane, which seized and carried them to the mountainsand far beyond the mountains. In order to protect Nell from thescorching heat, Stas constructed from pieces of a tent a palanquin inwhich the little maid was to ride on the elephant. The King, after afew trials, became accustomed to this not great burden, as well as tothe fastening of the palanquin on his back with strong palm ropes. Thisload after all was a feather in comparison to others with which it wasintended to burden him and upon the distribution and tying of whichKali and Mea were engaged.
Little Nasibu was commissioned to dry bananas and grind them into flourbetween two flat stones. At the plucking of the heavy bunches of fruithe was assisted by the King, at which work they overfed themselves tosuch an extent that, in the neighborhood of the huts, bananas were soonentirely gone, and they had to go to another plantation lying on theopposite extremity of the table-land. Saba, who had nothing to do, mostfrequently accompanied them on these excursions.
But Nasibu, for his zeal, almost paid with his life, or at least withcaptivity of a singular kind. For it happened that once when he wasplucking bananas above the brink of a steep hanging rock he suddenlybeheld in the rocky gap a hideous face, covered with black hair,blinking at him with its eyes, and displaying white fangs as thoughsmiling. The boy was stupefied from terror at first and then began toscurry away as fast as his legs could carry him. He ran between ten andtwenty paces when a hairy arm wound around him, he was lifted off hisfeet, and the monster, black as night, began to fly with him to theprecipice.
Fortunately the gigantic ape, having seized the boy, could run only ontwo feet, in consequence of which Saba, who was in the vicinity, easilyovertook it and buried his fangs in its back. A horrible fight began,in which the dog, notwithstanding his powerful stature and strength,would surely have had to succumb, for a gorilla vanquishes even a lion.Simians as a rule, however, do not relinquish their quarry even thoughtheir lives and liberty are in danger. The gorilla, being caught frombehind, could not easily reach Saba; nevertheless, having grabbed himby the neck with its left hand it had already raised him, when theground gave a dull sound under heavy steps and the King appeared.
One light thwack with the trunk sufficed to prostrate with a shatteredskull and neck the terrible "forest demon," as the negroes call thegorilla. The King, however, for greater certainty or through inbornfury, pinned the gorilla with his tusks to the ground and afterwardsdid not cease to wreak his vengeance upon it until Stas, disquieted bythe roar and howling, came running up with a rifle and ordered him tostop.
The huge gorilla, with the whites of the eyes rolled up and fangsdisplayed, terrible still, though not alive, lay in a puddle of bloodwhich Saba lapped and which crimsoned the King's tusks. The elephanttrumpeted triumphantly and Nasibu, ashen from terror, related to Staswhat had happened. The latter pondered for a while whether or not tobring Nell and show her this monstrous ape, but abandoned theintention, for suddenly he was seized by fear. Of course, Nell oftenstrolled alone over the island. So something similar might befall her.
It appeared, therefore, that Mount Linde was not so safe a shelter asit seemed in the first instance.
Stas returned to the hut and related the incident to Nell, while shelistened with curiosity and fear, opening wide her eyes and repeatingevery little while:
"You see what would have happened without the King."
"True! With such a nurse one need not fear about a child. So then,until we leave, do not move a step without him."
"When shall we leave?"
"The supplies are ready; the packs distributed; so it is necessary onlyto load the animals and we can start even to-morrow."
"To our papas!"
"If God permits," Stas answered gravely.
XVI
Nevertheless, they did not start until several days after thisconversation. The departure, after a short prayer in which they warmlycommended themselves to God, took place at daybreak, six o'clock in themorning. Stas rode at the head, on horseback, preceded by Saba. Afterhim the King ambled gravely, moving his ears and bearing on hispowerful back a canvas palanquin and in the palanquin Nell with Mea;they were followed by Linde's horses one after another, tied togetherwith a long palm rope and carrying numerous packs; and the processionclosed with little Nasibu on the donkey, as fat as himself.
On account of the early hour, the heat was not at first oppressive,though the day was clear and from beyond the Karamojo Mountains the sunrolled magnificently, not shaded by a cloudlet. But an eastern breezemollified the intense heat of its rays. At moments there rose quite astrong wind, under whose breath the grass lay low and the whole junglebecame wavy like the sea. After the copious rains all vegetation grewso exuberantly that, in lower places especially, not only the horseswere hidden in the grass, but even the King; so that above the wavinggreen surface could be seen only the white palanquin, which movedforward like a launch on a lake. After an hour's journey, on a dry, nothigh elevation, they chanced upon gigantic thistles having stems asthick as the trunk of a tree and flowers the size of a man's head. Onthe sides of some mountains which from a distance appeared barren theysaw furze-bushes about twenty-six feet high. Other plants which inEurope belong to the smallest varieties assumed here proportionscorresponding to the thistles and furze-bushes; and gigantic, isolatedtrees rose above the jungle, looking like churches. Particularlyprominent were fig-trees, called "daro," whose weeping boughs, touchingthe ground and changing into new trunks, covered immense spaces, sothat each tree formed as it were a separate grove.
This regi
on, from a distance, seemed like one forest; nearer, however,it appeared that the great trees grew a dozen or even some score pacesapart. In the northern direction very few of them could be seen and theregion assumed the character of a mountainous steppe, covered with aneven jungle over which rose only umbrella-like acacias. The grass therewas more greenish, shorter, and evidently better for pasturage, forNell from the King's back and Stas from heights on which he rode, sawfar greater herds of antelopes than up to that time they had metelsewhere. The animals sometimes grazed alone and at times mingledtogether; gnus, cobs, ariels, antelope-cows, hartbeests, springboks,and great kudus. Zebras and giraffes also were not lacking. The herds,at the sight of the caravan, stopped feeding, raised their heads, andpricking their ears, gazed at the white palanquin with extraordinaryamazement, after which in a moment they scampered away, and having runbetween ten