Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Category: Nonfiction
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four words: "Youwon't leave me!" After which she began to leap from joy, saying thatsince the negroes were so kind, the whole journey to the ocean would beeasy and quick. This happened in front of the tent and in the presenceof the crowd, so old M'Rua, seeing a jumping Mzimu, began at once toleap as high as he could with his crooked shanks in the conviction thatthrough that act he gave proof of his piety. In emulation of theirsuperior "the ministers" started to leap, and after them the warriors,and later the women and children; in a word, the whole village for sometime was jumping as if all had lost their wits.
This example given by the divinity amused Stas so much that he lay downand roared with laughter. Nevertheless, during the night-time herendered to the pious king and his subjects a real and enduringservice, for when the elephants made depredations upon their bananafield he drove towards them on the King and shot a few rockets amongthe herd. The panic caused by the "fiery snakes" surpassed even hisexpectation. The huge beasts, seized by a frenzy of terror, filled thejungle with a roar and the noise of hoofs, and, escaping blindly,tumbled down and trampled upon one another. The mighty King chasedafter his flying companions with extraordinary alacrity, not sparingblows of his trunk and tusks. After such a night one could be certainthat not an elephant would appear in the banana and doom-palmplantations belonging to the village of old M'Rua.
In the village great joy also reigned, and the negroes passed the wholenight in dancing and drinking beer of millet and palm wine. Kalilearned from them, however, many important things; it appeared thatsome of them had heard of some great water lying east and surrounded bymountains. For Stas this was proof that the lake, of which no mentionwas made in the geography which he had studied, actually existed; also,that going in the direction which they had selected, they would finallyencounter the Wahima people. Inferring from the fact that Mea's andKali's speech differed very little from M'Rua's speech, he came to theconclusion that the name of "Wahima" was in all probability thedesignation of a locality, and that the peoples living on the shores of"Bassa-Narok" belonged to the great Shilluk tribe, which begins on theNile and extends, it is not known how far, to the east.
XVIII
The population of the whole village escorted afar the "Good Mzimu" andtook leave of her with tears, begging vehemently that she would deignto come sometime to M'Rua, and to remember his people. Stas for sometime hesitated whether he should point out to the negroes the ravine inwhich he had hidden the wares and supplies left by Linde, which owingto want of porters he could not take with him, but reflecting that thepossession of such treasures might evoke envy and discord among them,awaken covetousness, and embroil the peace of their lives, he abandonedthis design, and, instead, shot a big buffalo and left its meat for afarewell feast. The sight of such a large amount of "mama" also reallydelighted them.
For the following three days the caravan again proceeded through adesolate country. The days were scorching, but, owing to the highaltitude of the region, the nights were so cold that Stas ordered Meato cover Nell with two shaggy coverlets. They now often crossedmountainous ravines, sometimes barren and rocky, sometimes covered withvegetation so compact that they could force their way through it onlywith the greatest difficulty. At the brinks of these ravines they sawbig apes and sometimes lions and panthers. Stas killed one of them atthe entreaty of Kali, who afterwards dressed himself in its hide inorder that the negroes might at once know that they had to do with aperson of royal blood.
Beyond the ravines, on high table-lands, negro villages again began toappear. Some lay near together, some at the distance of a day or two.All were surrounded by high stockades for protection against lions, andthese were so entwined with creepers that even close at hand theylooked like clumps of a virgin forest. Only from the smoke rising fromthe middle of the village could one perceive that people dwelt there.The caravan was everywhere received more or less as at M'Rua's village;that is, at first with alarm and distrust and afterwards withadmiration, amazement, and esteem. Once only did it happen that thewhole village, at the sight of the elephant, Saba, the horses, and thewhite people, ran away to an adjacent forest, so that there was no oneto converse with. Nevertheless, not a spear was aimed against thetravelers, for negroes, until Mohammedanism fills their souls withcruelties and hatred against infidels, are rather timid and gentle. Soit most frequently happened that Kali ate a "piece" of the local kingand the local king a "piece" of Kali, after which the relations were ofthe most friendly character. To the "Good Mzimu," the negroes furnishedevidence of homage and piety in the shape of chickens, eggs, and honey,extracted from wooden logs suspended from the boughs of great treeswith the aid of palm ropes. The "great master," the ruler of theelephant, thunder, and fiery snakes, aroused mainly fear, which soon,however, changed into gratitude when they became convinced that hisgenerosity equaled his might. Where the villages were closer to oneanother the arrival of the extraordinary travelers was announced fromone village to the other by the beating of drums, for the negroes givenotice of everything with the aid of drumming. It happened also thatthe entire populace would come out to meet them, being well disposed inadvance.
In one village, numbering one thousand heads, the local ruler, who wasfetish-man and king in the same person, consented to show them "thegreat fetish," which was surrounded by such extraordinary venerationand fear that the people did not dare to approach the ebony chapel,covered with a rhinoceros hide, and make offerings any nearer thanfifty paces. The king stated that this fetish not long before fell fromthe moon, that it was white and had a tail. Stas declared that hehimself at the command of the "Good Mzimu" sent it, and in saying thathe did not deviate from the truth, for it appeared that the "greatfetish" was plainly one of the kites, despatched from Mount Linde. Bothchildren were pleased with the thought that other kites in a suitablewind might fly still further. They determined to fly others fromheights in the farther course of time. Stas made and sent out one thatvery same night, which convinced the negroes that the "Good Mzimu" andthe white master also came to earth from the moon, and that they weredivinities who could not be served with sufficient humility.
But more delightful to Stas than these marks of humility and homage wasthe news that Bassa-Narok lay only about thirteen days' distance andthat the denizens of the village in which they stopped at timesreceived from that direction salt in exchange for doom-palm wine. Thelocal king had even heard of Fumba, as the ruler of the people called"Doko." Kali confirmed this by saying that more distant neighbors socalled the Wahimas and Samburus. Less consoling was the news that onthe shores of the great water a war was raging, and to go toBassa-Narok it was necessary to cross immense, wild mountains and steepravines, full of rapacious beasts. But Stas now did not much heedrapacious beasts, and he preferred mountains, though the wildest, tothe low plain country where fever lay in wait for travelers.
In high spirits they started. Beyond that populous village they came toonly one settlement, very wretched and hanging like a nest on the edgeof a chasm. After that the foot-hills began, cut rarely by deepfissures. On the east rose a hazy chain of peaks, which from a distanceappeared entirely black. This was an unknown region to which they werebound, not knowing what might befall them before they reached Fumba'sdomains. In the highlands which they passed trees were not lacking, butwith the exception of dragon-trees and acacias standing alone theystood in clusters, forming small groves. The travelers stopped amidthese clumps for refreshment and rest as well as for the abundant shade.
Amid the trees birds swarmed. Various kinds of pigeons, big birds withbeaks, which Stas called toucans, starlings, turtle-doves, andcountless beautiful "bingales" flitted in the foliage or flew from oneclump to another, singly and in flocks, changing color like therainbow. Some trees appeared from a distance to be covered withmany-colored flowers. Nell was particularly charmed by the sight ofparadisaical fly-catchers and rather large, black birds, with a crimsonlining to the wings, which emitted sounds like a pastoral fife.Charming woodpeckers, rosy on top and bright blue beneath, sped in thesun's luste
r, catching in their flight bees and grasshoppers. On thetreetops resounded the screams of the green parrot, and at times therereached them sounds as though of silvery bells, with which the smallgreen-gray birds hidden under Adansonia leaves greeted one another.
Before sunrise and after sunset flocks of native sparrows flew by, socountless that were it not for their twitter and the rustle of theirlittle wings they would be mistaken for clouds. Stas assumed that itwas their pretty little bills which rang so, while in daytime they werescattered on single clumps.
But other birds flying in little flocks, which gave real concerts,filled both children with the greatest surprise and ecstasy. Everylittle flock consisted of five or six females and one male, withglittering metallic feathers. They