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_ Next morning, at the earliest light of dawn, we rose, performed such
ablutions as circumstances would allow, and generally made ready to
start. I am bound to say that when there was sufficient light to
enable us to see each other's faces I, for one, burst out into a roar
of laughter. Job's fat and comfortable countenance was swollen out to
nearly twice its natural size from mosquito bites, and Leo's condition
was not much better. Indeed, of the three I had come off much the
best, probably owing to the toughness of my dark skin, and to the fact
that a good deal of it was covered by hair, for since we had started
from England I had allowed my naturally luxuriant beard to grow at its
own sweet will. But the other two were, comparatively speaking, clean
shaved, which of course gave the enemy a larger extent of open country
to operate on, though in Mahomed's case the mosquitoes, recognising
the taste of a true believer, would not touch him at any price. How
often, I wonder, during the next week or so did we wish that we were
flavoured like an Arab!
By the time that we had done laughing as heartily as our swollen lips
would allow, it was daylight, and the morning breeze was coming up
from the sea, cutting lanes through the dense marsh mists, and here
and there rolling them before it in great balls of fleecy vapour. So
we set our sail, and having first taken a look at the two dead lions
and the alligator, which we were of course unable to skin, being
destitute of means of curing the pelts, we started, and, sailing
through the lagoon, followed the course of the river on the farther
side. At midday, when the breeze dropped, we were fortunate enough to
find a convenient piece of dry land on which to camp and light a fire,
and here we cooked two wild-ducks and some of the waterbuck's flesh--
not in a very appetising 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 welcome patch of dry land we stopped till the
following dawn, and, as before, spent the night in warfare with the
mosquitoes, but without other troubles. The next day or two passed in
similar fashion, and without noticeable adventures, except that we
shot a specimen of a peculiarly graceful hornless buck, and saw many
varieties of water-lily in full bloom, some of them blue and of
exquisite beauty, though few of the flowers were perfect, owing to the
prevalence of a white water-maggot with a green head that fed upon
them.
It was on the fifth day of our journey, when we had travelled, so far
as we could reckon, about one hundred and thirty-five to a hundred and
forty miles westwards from the coast, that the first event of any real
importance occurred. On that morning the usual wind failed us about
eleven o'clock, and after pulling a little way we were forced to halt,
more or less exhausted, at what appeared to be the junction of our
stream with another of a uniform width of about fifty feet. Some trees
grew 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 few waterfowl 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 them. It was a watery /cul de sac/.
Turning back, we walked some way along 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 Mombasa, on the Zanzibar coast, connecting the Tana River
with the Ozy, in such a way as to enable the shipping coming 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 remote period of the
world's history, and the results of his digging still remained in the
shape of the raised banks that had no doubt once formed towing-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, made, I suppose, by the constant
passage of waterfowl, iguanas, 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 we were, 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 comprehensive curse upon all unbelievers and their
ways of thought 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 managed to row the boat, though with great labour; but after
that the weeds got too thick to allow of it, and we were obliged to
resort to the primitive and most exhausting resource of towing her.
For two hours we laboured, Mahomed, Job, and I, who was supposed to be
strong enough 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 some
hours to rest and enjoy the mosquitoes, but about midnight we went on
again, taking advantage of the comparative cool of the night. At dawn
we rested for three hours, and then started once more, and laboured on
till about ten o'clock, when a thunderstorm, accompanied by a deluge
of rain, overtook us, and we spent the next six hours practically
under water.
I do not know that there is any necessity for me to describe the next
four days of our voyage in detail, further than to say that they were,
on the whole, the most miserable that I ever spent in my life, forming
one monotonous record of heavy labour, heat, misery, and mosquitoes.
All that dreary way we passed through a region of almost endless
swamp, and I can only attribute our escape from fever and death to the
constant doses of quinine and purgatives which we took, and the
unceasing toil which we were forced to undergo. On the third day of
our journey up the canal we had sighted a round hill that loomed dimly
through the vapours of the marsh, and on the evening of the fourth
night, when we 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 my folly in ever having been a party to such a mad
undertaking, 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 crew would be in two or three
months' time from that night. There she would lie, with gaping seams
and half filled with fœtid water, which, when the mist-laden wind
stirred her, would wash backwards and forwards through our mouldering
bones, and that would be the end of her, and of those in her who would
follow after myths and seek out the secrets of Nature.
Already I seemed to hear the water rippling against the desiccated
bones and rattling them together, rolling my skull against Mahomed's,
and his against mine, till at last Mahomed's stood straight up upon
its vertebræ, and glared at me through its empty eyeholes, and cursed
me with its grinning jaws, because I, a dog of a Christian, disturbed
the last sleep of a true believer. I opened my eyes, and shuddered at
the horrid dream, and then shuddered again at something that was not a
dream, for two great eyes were gleaming down at me through the misty
darkness. I struggled up, and in my terror and confusion shrieked, and
shrieked again, 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 my throat, and behind
it other spears gleamed cruelly.
"Peace," said a voice, speaking in Arabic, or rather in some dialect
into which Arabic entered very largely; "who are ye who come hither
swimming on the water? Speak or ye die," and the steel pressed sharply
against my throat, sending a cold chill through me.
"We are travellers, and have come hither by chance," I answered in my
best Arabic, which appeared to be understood, for the man turned his
head, and, addressing a tall form that towered up in the background,
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 men come; if white men come,
slay them not.' Let them be brought to the house of '/She-who-must-be-
obeyed/.' Bring forth the men, and let that which they have with them
be brought forth also."
"Come," said the man, half leading and half dragging me from the boat,
and as he did so I perceived other men doing the same kind office to
my companions.
On the bank were gathered a company of some fifty men. In that light
all I could make out was that they were armed with huge spears, were
very tall, and strongly built, comparatively light in colour, and
nude, save for a leopard skin tied round the middle.
Presently Leo and Job were bundled out and placed beside me.
"What on earth is up?" said Leo, rubbing his eyes.
"Oh, Lord! sir, here's a rum go," ejaculated Job; and just at that
moment a disturbance ensued, and Mahomed came tumbling between us,
followed by a shadowy form with an uplifted spear.
"Allah! Allah!" howled Mahomed, feeling 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-must-
be-obeyed/' about the black one?"
"She said naught; but slay him not. Come hither, my son."
The man advanced, and the tall shadowy form bent forward and whispered
something.
"Yes, yes," said the other, and chuckled in a rather blood-curdling
tone.
"Are the three white men there?" asked the form.
"Yes, they are there."
"Then bring up that which is made ready for them, and let the men take
all that can be brought from the thing which floats."
Hardly had he spoken when men came running up, carrying on their
shoulders neither more nor less than palanquins--four bearers and two
spare men to a palanquin--and in these it was promptly indicated we
were 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 manufactured of cloth woven from grass-fibre, which
stretched and yielded to every motion of the body, and, being bound
top and bottom to the bearing pole, gave a grateful support to the
head and neck.
Scarcely had I settled myself when, accompanying their steps with a
monotonous song, the bearers started at a swinging trot. For half an
hour or so I lay still, reflecting on the very remarkable experiences
that we were going through, and wondering if any of my eminently
respectable fossil friends down at Cambridge would believe me if I
were to be miraculously set at the familiar dinner-table for the
purpose of relating them. I do not want to convey any disrespectful
notion or slight 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 same paths too persistently. I was getting
fossilised myself, but of late my stock of ideas has been very much
enlarged. 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 I must have slept for seven or eight hours, getting the
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 miles an hour. Peeping out
through the mist-like curtains of the litter, which were ingeniously
fixed to the bearing pole, I perceived to my infinite relief that we
had passed out of the region of eternal swamp, and were now travelling
over swelling grassy 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 information upon such points.
Next I glanced at the men who were bearing me. They were of a
magnificent build, few of them being under six feet in height, and
yellowish in colour. Generally their appearance had a good deal in
common with that of the East African Somali, only their hair was not
frizzed up, but hung in thick black locks upon their shoulders. Their
features were aquiline, and in many cases exceedingly handsome, the
teeth being especially regular and beautiful. But notwithstanding
their beauty, it struck me that, on the whole, I had never seen a more
evil-looking set of faces. There was an aspect of cold and sullen
cruelty stamped upon them that revolted me, and which in some cases
was almost uncanny in its intensity.
Another thing that struck me about them was that they never seemed to
smile. Sometimes they sang the monotonous song of which I have spoken,
but when they were not singing they remained almost perfectly silent,
and the light of a laugh never came to brighten 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 ashamed. While I was still wondering another litter came
up alongside of mine. In it--for the curtains were drawn--sat an old
man, clothed in a whitish robe, made apparently from coarse linen,
that hung loosely about him, who, I at once jumped to the conclusion,
was the shadowy figure that had stood on the bank and been addressed
as "Father." He was a wonderful-looking old man, with a snowy beard,
so long that the ends of it hung over 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 impossible to describe on paper.
"Art thou awake, stranger?" he said in a deep and low voice.
"Surely, my father," I answered courteously, feeling certain that I
should do well to conciliate this ancient Mammon of Unrighteousness.
He stroked his beautiful white beard, and smiled faintly.
"From whatever country thou camest," he said, "and by the way it must
be from one where somewhat of our language is known, they teach their
children courtesy there, my stranger son. And now wherefore 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 came to find new things," 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, my very much
respected father--that is, if we can get a little information before
we die."
"Humph!" said the old gentleman, "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-must-be-obeyed/'?" I asked, curiously.
The old man glanced at the bearers, and then answered, with a little
smile that somehow sent my blood to my heart--
"Surely, my stranger 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 may my father wish to convey?"
But the old man only laughed a dreadful laugh, and made no reply.
"What is the name of my father's people?" I asked.
"The name of my people is Amahagger" (the People of the Rocks).
"And if a son might ask, what is the name of my father?"
"My name is Billali."
"And whither go we, my father?"
"That shalt thou see," and at a sign 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 motion of the litter, and went to sleep again. I was
dreadfully tired. When I woke I found that we were passing through a
rocky defile of a lava formation with precipitous sides, in which grew
many beautiful trees and flowering shrubs.
Presently this defile took a turn, and a lovely sight unfolded itself
to my eyes. Before us was a vast cup of green from four to six miles
in extent, in the shape of a Roman amphitheatre. The sides of this
great cup were rocky, and clothed with bush, but the centre was of the
richest meadow land, studded with single trees of magnificent growth,
and watered by meandering brooks. On this rich plain grazed herds of
goats and cattle, but I saw no sheep. At first I could not imagine
what this strange spot could be, but presently it flashed upon me that
it must represent the crater of some long-extinct volcano which had
afterwards been a lake, and was ultimately drained in some unexplained
way. And here I may state that from my subsequent experience of this
and a much larger, 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 puzzled me, however, was, that
although there were people moving about 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 a mile, or perhaps a little less, and
then halted. Seeing the old gentleman, my adopted "father," Billali,
emerge from his litter, I did the same, and so did Leo and Job. The
first thing I saw was our wretched Arab companion, Mahomed, lying
exhausted on the ground. 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 when we started, his condition now was
one of great prostration.
On looking round we discovered that the place where we had halted was
a platform in front of the mouth of a great 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 similar stamp. They were all tall and all
handsome, though they varied in their degree of darkness of skin, some
being 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 them
carried a huge spear.
There were also some women among them, who, instead of the leopard-
skin, wore a tanned hide of a small red buck, something like that of
the oribé, only rather darker in colour. These women were, as a class,
exceedingly good-looking, with large, 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.
Some, but very few of them, wore a yellowish linen garment, such as I
have described as worn by Billali, but this, as we afterwards
discovered, was a mark of rank, rather than an attempt at clothing.
For the rest, their appearance was not quite so terrifying as that of
the men, and they sometimes, though rarely, smiled. As soon as we had
alighted they gathered 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 them, and showed his curling yellow hair, there was
a slight murmur of admiration. Nor did it stop there; for, after
regarding him critically from head to foot, the handsomest of the
young women--one wearing a robe, and with hair of a shade between
brown and chestnut--deliberately advanced to him, and, in a way that
would have been winning had it not been so determined, quietly put her
arm round his neck, bent forward, and kissed him on the lips.
I gave a gasp, expecting to see Leo instantly speared; and Job
ejaculated, "The hussy--well, I never!" As for Leo, he looked slightly
astonished; and then, remarking that we had clearly got into a country
where they followed the customs of the early Christians, deliberately
returned the embrace.
Again I gasped, thinking that something would happen; but, to my
surprise, though some of the young women showed traces of vexation,
the older ones and the men only smiled slightly. 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 almost every other savage race in the world, women among the
Amahagger are not only upon terms of perfect equality with the men,
but are not held to them by any binding ties. Descent is traced only
through the line of the mother, and while individuals are as proud of
a long and superior female ancestry as we are of our families in
Europe, they never pay attention to, or even acknowledge, any man as
their father, even when their male parentage 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 name. When a woman
took a fancy to a man she signified her preference by advancing and
embracing him publicly, in the same way that this handsome and
exceedingly prompt young lady, who was 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 them wearied of it. I am bound,
however, to say that the change of husbands was not nearly so
frequently as might have been expected. Nor did quarrels arise out of
it, at least among the men, who, when their wives deserted them in
favour of a rival, accepted the whole thing much as we accept the
income-tax or our marriage laws, as something not to be disputed, and
as tending to the good of the community, however disagreeable they may
in particular instances prove to the individual.
It is very curious to observe how the customs of mankind on this
matter vary in different countries, making morality an affair of
latitude, and what is right and proper in one place wrong and improper
in another. It must, however, be understood that, since all civilised
nations appear to accept it as an axiom that ceremony is the
touchstone of morality, there is, even according to our canons,
nothing immoral about this Amahagger custom, seeing that the
interchange of the embrace answers to our ceremony of marriage, which,
as we know, justifies most things. _
Read next: CHAPTER VII - USTANE SINGS
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